Sleeping Beauty, Following Her. Part 3
“Am I just being petty?”
“What’s with the sudden change of subject?”
The next day at lunch break.
I was with Shizuku again.
“The person I’m seeing, my girlfriend, that is—”
“Why did you even bother rephrasing that?”
“Well, she…”
“Ugh. You just want to say it, don’t you?”
Shizuku sank her teeth into her melon bread with a cold stare.
She really does eat her meals looking bored. It doesn’t look tasty at all, and she probably genuinely thinks so.
That part, she doesn’t resemble Shigure-san at all.
That person eats everything with a smile, looking like she’s enjoying it.
“Yesterday, you see. I happened to run into that person meeting up with a friend.”
“A friend? A woman?”
“Yes. And a beauty, at that.”
Resting her chin on her elbow, she sighed once.
“It’s not like she’s cheating or anything, but it still leaves me feeling a bit uneasy.”
“Oh.”
“So I followed them and barged in.”
“Oh, is that so…”
Her reaction was lukewarm.
Wasn’t that a pretty impactful story just now?
I know it’s me saying it, but isn’t it full of things to pick apart??
“Hey Shizuku, show a bit more interest. At least pretend you are.”
“Can’t be bothered.”
“We said we’d get along as fellow loners, didn’t we?”
“Don’t you have any other friends?”
“Of course I do. But she’s serious and a good girl, so I don’t want to worry her.”
“And it’s fine with me…”
“Because Shizuku, you wouldn’t worry about me anyway, would you?”
At my words, Shizuku’s eyes widened.
She hesitated for a moment, her gaze darting about as if deciding whether to dodge it or admit it, before finally giving an ambiguous nod. “Well…”
Did she think I hadn’t noticed?
It wasn’t about my clumsy attempts being annoying, or us only having met a few days ago.
I think Shizuku is simply the type of person who isn’t interested in others.
Otherwise, she couldn’t have decided to transfer schools at this time of year so readily. She couldn’t have remained so calm in that lonely classroom.
Even if it was for a dream or a goal.
Probably, she has her own world inside her, and very few people can enter it.
Why do I know that?
It’s obvious.
Because she’s like me.
That’s why I felt something different from the affection and comfort I felt towards Shigure-san, or the respect and friendship I felt towards Hiname. It was more like empathy or solidarity.
So.
We probably won’t become best friends, but we might make decent friends.
“Also, simply put, she’s a current idol, so she’s incredibly busy. Not just her, but my other friends too.”
“Come to think of it, you were an idol, weren’t you?”
“What do you mean, ‘come to think of it’? Every time you look at this face, you should be thinking, ‘She’s way too cute, she has to be a former idol.’”
“You, I can’t tell if your self-esteem is high or low.”
“I don’t really know myself.”
The reason I can’t always be confident about this love is because Shigure-san is an adult. Or perhaps because I’m a child.
“You should stop.”
Shizuku said in a flat voice.
“What?”
“So, you should stop. That kind of romance.”
She continued, still looking down, twisting the tips of her stretched-out toes together.
“She’s a working adult, so she’s quite a bit older, right? And it’s a woman. There’s no way something like that could work out.”
“…You really say that.”
“Whatever.”
Shizuku exhaled sharply.
“I don’t care about you or anything. But—”
“Mind your own business?”
“It’s not that.”
“So you’re jealous then?”
“Huh?”
“Scary.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“Because the person Shizuku likes is older too, right?”
“Huh⁉︎”
Her smooth cheek flushed bright red.
Bingo. I knew it, but now I was certain.
“Yomi Runa.”
Shizuku’s throat made a slight gurgling sound.
I took a business card from my uniform skirt and showed it to Shizuku.
“This is the person who was meeting my girlfriend. I heard it directly. Apparently, she’s an old acquaintance of Shizuku’s and now works as a teacher at a cram school.”
I peered at Shizuku’s face.
The slightly upturned corners of her eyes trembled, fluttering.
“The reason you went all the way to Tokyo… could it be because of this person?”
“No!”
The unexpectedly loud shout made a junior walking past flinch and glance our way. Oh dear.
Waving with a smile, I said it was nothing, and they fled, flushed scarlet.
“It’s not her! Don’t jump to conclusions!”
“I get it, I’m sorry.”
After calming her down, Shizuku, her face still crimson, rattled off at breakneck speed.
“I-I’m moving for the art college entrance exams, and I’m attending prep school for that too. It’s not like Sensei has anything to do with it, I just happened to choose a prep school where she was teaching, I didn’t follow her here. And anyway, it’s purely admiration, not some vulgar feelings like liking her or wanting to date her, what’s with that look?”
“You call her ‘Sensei’.”
“So what?”
“Nothing.”
“Got a problem with that?”
“No.”
She must genuinely be serious about getting into art college.
But I suspect that throughout all the decisions leading up to this point, her feelings for Yomi-san played a part.
Probably the reason for her defiance towards Shigure-san too.
But right now, more than that—
“What kind of person is Yomi-san?”
“Huh?”
“You know her, don’t you? Tell me. I want to know about her.”
She might be a rival.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Why should I?”
“I’ll buy you a coffee at Starbucks.”
“…………If you’re that curious, why not talk to her yourself?”
“Eh?”
Well, I did get her business card, but I hesitated at the thought of suddenly barging into her office. Shizuku then held her smartphone screen towards me.
The screen displayed the following:
Kaimei Art School──Visits and one-day trial enrolments accepted at any time.