Chapter 6
Early in the morning, the moment I opened my eyes, I knew.
‘I feel like crap.’
My body felt stiff and sore, as though someone had beaten me black and blue while I slept. My mind felt just as heavy, as if a stone had been tied to it and I’d been thrown into a lake.
It seemed the exhaustion of the past few days, and the lack of sleep that came with it, had left me in this state.
“I’m sooo sleeeepy.”
I absentmindedly chewed the last piece of bread. Unfortunately, the drowsiness washing over me made it hard to taste. The more I chewed, the drier my mouth got.
It felt like I was getting the short end of the stick. I hated that, so――
Munch, munch.
Gulp.
I chewed the food in my mouth haphazardly and swallowed it.
“…I’m thirsty. I shouldn’t have eaten that.”
My mouth still felt dry. Irritated by that, I crumpled the bread bag in my hand, compressing it into a ball.
“Sigh.”
I usually bring a carton of orange juice. If I eat bread without anything to drink, my mouth gets dry, and I end up thirsty like this.
So I always drink something now and then to wash the bread down.
But I hadn’t done that today. Still half asleep, I’d forgotten to grab something from the fridge.
I’d never made a mistake like this before.
Mm. I guess I really am too sleep-deprived.
“This won’t do. I need to close my eyes for a bit.”
If I kept going like this, I might nod off during class. I wanted to avoid that at all costs.
Falling asleep with everyone watching? It’d feel like I was showing everyone what a pathetic person I was. I’d be mortified.
It’d be better to take a nap here, even if it wasn’t comfortable.
For some reason, people never came up to this rooftop, so what I was worried about probably wouldn’t happen.
“Heh.”
I closed my eyes. Maybe because my vision was cut off, my other senses seemed sharper, letting me feel the world around me through my skin.
The warm sunlight caressed my body. A breeze from somewhere swept away the heat clinging to me.
I could hear the noisy sounds of the schoolyard, too. Maybe because of the distance, they were muffled, giving them a pleasant, white-noise-like quality.
It was the perfect atmosphere for a nap.
And from beyond my consciousness, drowsi――ness came rolling in like a wave―――
.
.
.
.
.
“?”
What on earth was going on?
While I was taking a quick nap, I sensed someone nearby and immediately opened my eyes. If there was some weirdo around, I needed to be ready to react.
But who would’ve thought that when I opened my eyes, I’d find Arai looking at me?
He was staring at me with a stiff expression. He was pretty close, too, so I could see his face clearly.
Arai. Was he sensitive to heat? His face was redder than usual. Maybe it stood out because he was normally so pale. His flush was quite noticeable.
Anyway,
“……Mm.”
I wondered if I was seeing things, so I blinked repeatedly. But even then, Arai’s figure remained.
Which meant the Arai in front of me wasn’t an illusion. He was real.
Hmm. There was no point in worrying about it by myself. Maybe I should just ask the person involved. That’d be easier and faster.
“Arai.”
As I said his name, I looked at him expectantly, silently asking him to explain.
“Ah. W-well.”
Arai, who’d been frozen at my call, reacted. Though his reaction was a little strange.
He flinched, then made an uneasy face. Was something bothering him? Maybe he was sleep-deprived like me?
Or was he actually sick?
I wasn’t sure. So I decided to wait and see what Arai would say.
“――I’m sorry!”
As I waited quietly for an explanation, Arai suddenly bent at the waist. I stared at him in surprise.
‘……Déjà vu?’
Arai bowed neatly at a ninety-degree angle. Seeing him like that brought back yesterday’s memory. Arai had done the same thing yesterday, too.
“W-wait a second, Arai-kun?”
Startled, I waved my hands just like yesterday. I wasn’t the sort of person who got a kick out of feeling superior while a classmate apologized to me. I was just flustered, like I am now.
The odds were low, but what if someone else showed up on the rooftop?
…Ugh. I hated the thought of it. It’d be the worst.
Getting a classmate to bow to me at a ninety-degree angle. It’d be embarrassing enough, but depending on how it looked, strange rumors might start going around.
It was obvious that this wasn’t a normal scene.
So I didn’t know what was going on, but I wanted him to hurry up and raise his head.
“I-I’m sorry, Takamine. …For watching you sleep.”
“Huh?”
“Watching you sleep” was a rather provocative phrase to hear from Arai.
What on earth was he talking about?
Maybe it was the lingering drowsiness. His words still didn’t make sense to me, so I stared at the crown of Arai’s head and mulled them over.
Then, while I was doing that,
“Ah.
The drowsiness that had lingered scattered and disappeared, and only then did my thoughts reach the words Arai had said.
“………Ah.”
I understood.
Arai.
He’d seen me sleeping.
＊＊＊
My face burned. I hurriedly fanned myself with my hand to cool down, but it didn’t help much.
“I’m sorry…….”
Arai had been bowing his head and apologizing over and over for a while now.
Honestly, I wasn’t very happy with his behavior. I couldn’t help finding it galling.
Watching someone else sleep was quite rude, wasn’t it?
If we were friends, I might have been able to make allowances for it somehow. But we weren’t. We were complete strangers.
So what Arai had done was a complete breach of manners.
Even if Arai was destined to become my employer Kaede’s lover someday, it wasn’t something I could simply overlook.
I wanted to look him in the eye and give him a piece of my mind.
Those were my true feelings, for now.
“It’s okay, Arai. You don’t have to worry about it.”
What I said was different from how I really felt. Even though I felt embarrassed and uncomfortable, I told him I forgave him.
It couldn’t be helped.
As I’ve said time and again, Arai is just as indispensable to my plan as Kaede.
In a way, my life is practically in Arai’s hands. And in this situation, I was going to make a choice that might ruin my relationship with him?
That was absolutely out of the question.
Sadly, as long as I wanted to return to my original world, Arai would always have the upper hand over me.
“So what brings you here, Arai?”
I changed the subject to break the awkward silence. I’d already decided to forgive him, anyway.
I wanted to stop staring at the crown of Arai’s head. I’d been looking at it so long I could practically tell which way the hair there spiraled.
“Ah. Well,”
Only then did Arai lift his head. Looking awkward, he scratched his cheek.
I found that frustrating, so I prompted him with a faint, almost-smile. Fortunately, it seemed to work; Arai began to move his lips.
“Yuki said she wanted to thank you for what you did yesterday……”
“Thank me?”
“…Yeah. She said she wanted to see you.”
I understood what he meant. It seemed Yuki had asked Arai to arrange a meeting with me. And Arai seemed to have been trying to grant his little sister’s wish.
…She wanted to see me.
Yuki. We’d only met for a short time, but had she liked me that much already?
Maybe it was because I liked children, but that made me a little happy.
“…Hey, don’t get the wrong idea. I don’t have any ulterior motives. My little sister really did say she wanted to see you. I’m just passing along her message.”
“O-okay.”
As I mulled it over, Arai suddenly added that. He sure was long-winded. He lowered his gaze after he finished speaking, looking a little dejected.
Anyway, what exactly did he think I’d get the wrong idea about? And what other motives?
…Hmm. I wasn’t sure.
At least it seemed certain that Yuki wanted to see me.
‘This might be an opportunity.’
Normally, I should’ve turned down the offer. No matter how tempted I was, I wasn’t in a position to accept.
With work as a maid waiting for me as soon as classes ended, how could I say yes? I couldn’t be in two places at once. So until now, I’d had no choice but to turn down every offer.
But this was different. The one inviting me was Arai—in other words, Kaede’s love interest.
I had to take advantage of this.
“You don’t have to feel pressured. It’s okay to turn me down―――”
“Sure. When would be good? I’d prefer a weekend, if possible.”
“Huh?”
“Hm?”
What was with that expression?
He was the one who’d invited me, yet when I said yes, he looked completely flustered. Had he actually wanted me to turn him down? If so, that was too bad.
I had no intention of letting this opportunity slip away.
“Are you really sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Was this really worth confirming twice?
“I do have one condition, though.”
“A condition?”
Arai asked with a stiff expression. To put him at ease, I decided to answer his question right away.
“I’ll meet up with someone I know. Is that okay?”
Smiling sweetly so he’d find it hard to refuse――.