Chapter 44: Volume 2 - CH 2.8

“So, what do I do now?”

As each and every one of them started to practise individually, I was left alone with nothing to do. The attentive Yuzu went to help others with their individual practice, yet I had no one I was particularly close enough to do so.

Nevertheless, it would be a waste of time to do nothing.

“…Should I go check the props then?”

Helping out behind the scenes was also my job. With this in mind, I opened the door at the back of the stage and walked into a narrow passage. In the aisle, there was a jumble of props, props and costumes.

“This place is a mess,” I mindlessly sighed.

In a sense, this passage was directly under the stage. It was said to have existed as a place so actors who had left the stage from stage left1could pass through here and quickly change clothes, then appear from the stage right. However, the place had become too convenient that all things were placed here like a storeroom.

“Yamato,” I suddenly heard my name called from behind me as I frowned at the dustiness of this passage.

I turned around and saw Hina.

“Hina, what’s the matter?”

“I need to talk to you a bit regarding Kotani-san.”

Oh, about that.

I didn’t tell her the details of the situation, so she must have come to ask a lot of questions.

“I’m sorry to ask you to do this.”

“It’s okay. Not a problem, but… this is kinda delicate, right?”

Hina looked as if she was unsure of how far she could proceed.

“Well, yes. I thought it might be easier for her to talk to someone who isn’t really involved in the matter.”

“If that’s the case, indeed I might be the right person. Kotani-san always shows her face at the basketball club, so we’re somehow acquainted. Maybe I can say we’re not too close, yet not that distant.”

Their sense of distance was just ideal for Kotani to easily talk; I might’ve hit the jackpot.

“I’m not going to go into detail about it, but… Please be by her side as she vents her feelings.”

“Okay, I got it.”

Despite all the trouble she was put through, Hina seemed to be happy.

“…You look to be in a good mood?”

When I curiously asked her about it, she simply nodded her head.

“Hm, it’s just that I never used to think that Yamato would rely on me for anything to do with personal relationships.”

I certainly never thought I’d be asking that shy Hina to do something like this.

“Well, you’re a lot more reliable than I am now.”

I shrugged my shoulders and replied, and Hina peered into my face in amusement.

“Ahaha. I can see how the current Yamato is very attached to Nanamine and doesn’t care about anyone else, right?”

“Wait a minute. That makes me sound like a guy who only has Yuzu in his eyes.”

“Eh, am I mistaken?”

“No!”

Ugh, well, as long as we were pretending to be a couple, it was a good thing to be misunderstood that way by others, but it was never my intention to be seen as a Ba-couple2.

“Really? Then, what’s this?” Hina asked as she showed me her smartphone display.

When I looked at the photo, there I was, having my ear cleaned by Yuzu.

“WHOA?! Why do you have that?!”

“Um, when I got in contact with Kotani-san, we talked and she sent me this over the course of our conversation.”

“From Kotani-san, you said…? For what reason would she go all the way to send you that?”

Indeed, this photo was sent by Yuzu to her friends in that Riaju group, but why also send it to Hina?

“Who knows? When I told her I knew Yamato, she said she’d show me something interesting and gave me this photo.”

Oooh… Darn it, Kotani, are you warning her?

She probably suspected that Hina and I had a relationship. And then she sent a photo of me flirting with Yuzu to warn Hina so that she wouldn’t make a move on me.

What a thoughtful friend!

“So, I’m going to ask you one more time, Yamato is completely devoted to Nanamine-san right now, right?”

“Well, that’s…” I clammed quite obviously.

This was useless, whatever I say now would not sound convincing in the slightest.

“And the reason you’re meddling in other people’s affairs like this is for the sake of Nanamine-san, isn’t it?”

“…”

“Oh, bullseye! What a surprise, it turns out when Yamato is in love, he’d turn like this. It’s a bit unexpected, yet somehow predictably so.”

Hina seemed to enjoy talking about it, taking advantage of the fact that I didn’t deny her. For a moment, I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t really dating Yuzu, but my reason managed to resist it.

“Gosh… you’ve got quite the eloquent tongue.”

“Thanks to Yamato, yeah. As a token of gratitude, shall I listen to you bragging about your lover? As I can see it, you have particularly no one to whom you can boast how cute your girlfriend is, shall I lend my ears?” Hina replied in a good mood to my reproachful words.

Grr, she got carried away.

“That’s right, it’s not always I can do this, so you better listen. First of all, Yuzu’s great social skill is what makes her wonderful. Should I say, she’s fuss-free?”

When I really started to ramble, Hina grinned and nodded.

“Ho-ho~”

“And she’s good at talking, she doesn’t need to go under rehabilitation using phone calls for being too nervous to talk face-to-face.”

“…Huh?” Hina tilted her head slightly as if she was pondering something.

Paying her no heed, I continued boasting about my dear Yuzu, “And then, she also doesn’t suddenly start training in ventriloquism for the reason that it might be easier to talk through a plushie instead.”

“Hey, that’s my dark history, isn’t it?”

“What are you talking about? I’m just talking about what I love about my beloved Yuzu. As I thought, a girl who can talk to you normally is wonderful. Compared to a girl who would bring a huge teddy bear to school and talk to others using that as a proxy—”

“S-stoppp! Don’t remind me of that dark past!” Hina writhed in agony with her head in her hands.

By the way, my bragging totally had nothing to do and not even a little bit related to Hina but coincidentally, Hina had an extremely mind-blowing dark history of her struggle to overcome her shyness that resulted in her upgrading from a mere shy girl to a fairy-tale-level ventriloquist!

“Hey, hey, weren’t you in to listen to my bragging? I still have a lot of cloying sweet stories that can make you vomit sugar.”

“Where in that is bragging?! There was a lethal dose of poison embedded in those sugars!” Hina stumbled, her face red, and clutched onto the wall.

“Ugh… Once I recall these memories, they will drag me down for a while. Yamato is such a tease! You used to be much gentler before!” The good mood she had been in earlier was gone, and she stared at me with tears in her eyes.

“Heh. Speak to yourself. You used to be a lot more quiet and good-natured.”

We stared at each other lightly and then both let out a sigh at the inanity of it all.

“For better or worse, we’ve both changed.”

“I’m beginning to think there’s more bad than good here.”

I shrugged my shoulders at the giggling Hina.

“A-ha-ha. Then I’ll do my best to make sure there are more good points. You can leave the matter with Kotani-san with me.” She straightened her back and assured me that she would take the task.

“Yeah, I’m counting on you.”

On the one hand, I felt reliant on her, but on the other hand, I felt a tad sad. I suppose this was because I had just come to the realisation that she didn’t need me anymore.

“Oh, and one more thing—”

Before I finished speaking, Hina cut in, “I know. I’ll delete the photo and I’ve told Kotani-san not to tell anyone about me and Yamato. I don’t want to spread the word and make people look at us strangely.”

“…Yeah.”

The way we could get our intentions understood without words like this was indeed formed from all the times we had spent together—but, this nostalgic heart-to-heart communication highlighted the depth of the gulf that now separated us.

Because we both could also tell that there were things here that were missing that could not be filled.

“Well, I’d better get back. I have to go to the practice too.”

“All right. Thanks for taking the time to do this.”

As I watched Hina turn on her heel and walk out of the passage, I thought: “Time has really gone by, hasn’t it?”

Once again, I felt the weight of a year passing by. Now that everything was over, just what were the loose ends that we needed to tie up?

As for what those might be, I was still left uncertain.