Fortunately, I was able to make it without Daiki throwing me off. It wasn't long after he said he would throw me off either. If we had walked any longer, I would have tumbled down the hill more than once from exhaustion. I was exhausted.
As I reached the top of the slope, I saw the tree I'd seen from afar. It was larger than I expected, and despite its imposing size, it had a smooth, pleasant profile. It seemed as if I touched its bark, it would feel more smooth than rough.
Behind the tree were the rest of my friends, Naomi and Kichiro.
"Guys! Riku's alive!" Daiki exclaimed, after coming out from behind the tree next to me, still leaning on him.
"...Yes, what a joy." Naomi said with an unusually cold tone, as if she didn't care what she had just been told.
"…Yeah, welcome back, I guess." Kichiro was in the same mood as Naomi, well, he was in the same mood as always.
"…" Daiki was surprised by such a warm welcome.
"…hehe." For my part, I found Naomi's attempt at a serious face amusing. I guess she realized I was staring at her while I laughed.
"And what are you looking at?!" he demanded. The moment he said that, Kichiro raised his voice again. "W-well, you do have a good face, yes." He was laughing at him too.
"Why are you all laughing?"
"Just so you know, I'm not doing anything!" Daiki raised his arm, clarifying this in a slightly mocking tone. "Ah—" Though, without realizing it, he raised the arm he was supporting me with.
Luckily, I didn't fall. In fact, I was able to stand up on my own, just like usual. "...I could see myself rolling..."
"...With how flat the top of this hill is, I doubt it," Kichiro said.
"Don't ignore me and tell me what's wrong with my face!" Naomi exclaimed as she grabbed Kichiro by the shoulder.
"In the end, all that talk about you not being able to walk was because you were in low spirits, Riku?"
"And where do you get that from?"
"I know how you laughed when you saw Naomi's face."
"What's wrong with me…?! Ah, look, I don't care anymore. ...Fuck it…"
Naomi and Kichimo were both sitting on the picnic blanket. It wasn't really a picnic blanket, it was just a regular blanket Amaya had taken from her closet to use. "What a girl..."
And to top it all off, we don't even have a basket. Everyone has brought whatever they want in Tupperware containers, which they carry in a backpack. Each one with their own backpack, of course.
"...Mh, now that I think about it, what about Amaya?" I asked Naomi.
"Ah… that…" He replied, a little nervously. Not only that, but now everyone was looking at me. The atmosphere became tense.
"…"
"…"
"...Now I'm the one with the funny face or something?!" I tried to hide my concern with a funny comment, but it felt weird to have everyone looking at me like that.
'What have you-?'
Without giving me time to reflect, I felt two hands quickly grab my shoulders, followed by a somewhat mocking and disrespectful voice.
"You always have a funny face!!"
"Iihh!!" I screamed in fright, lunging forward out of reflex. The only thing I can feel after the shock is how I bump into a leg specifically positioned in front of my feet to bite into the ground.
And now, everything is black. I can hear everyone's laughter in the background. It makes me angry, but not ashamed. Yes, they're laughing, but I know they're not laughing at me, that's why-
" What a loser!"
"That's what you get for laughing in my face, hehe."
"This was better than your face, Naomi."
"Um, Daiki, don't you think that was a bit unnecessary? Just scaring him is enough… Although it wasn't bad either…"
"If I told you the truth, I'd pay to repeat it!"
'I figured Daiki would have tripped me, although I didn't expect Amaya to do it, to be honest...'
I got up from the ground and wiped my face a little. It wasn't like I was covered in mud, but there were some very light smudges of dirt on my clothes.
"I-I've told you many times not to scare me like that! Especially you, Amaya!"
" Just because it's just once, you'll forgive me."
"…"
"Yeah, right? Please??" I can't stand her when she's sucking up to me.
"…Just this once." I sighed. I guess I can't take it both ways. "Scare me like that again and I won't talk to you for a month."
"As if I cared if you talked to me!"
" That's it! And if it comes to that, he can even talk to me!"
"If I can't do it in your dreams, don't think I'll do it in person."
I got up from the floor to sit on the tablecloth. Daiki and Amaya, after teasing each other, did the same.
"Now seriously, Riku. Where were you?" Naomi was the first to speak seriously. This was more like him. Besides, when he gets serious, he has a neutral face. Maybe even cold. Not like before, of course…
"Apparently, he was lying somewhere a little far from here. I didn't ask you halfway there, but I do want to know what you were doing there, apart from being depressed, of course."
"And who says he was depressed? I've never agreed with you on that. Did he even have a long face?"
"Well, no, but you got sick as soon as you got up, and now that you're here and we're all here, you're feeling better. I imagine you would have gotten up very quickly."
"Those things happen to you because you don't eat."
"I don't want a little brat like you to tell me that."
I paused for a moment to think about how to answer the question. I had no reason to be there. I hadn't chosen to be there in the first place, had I? Even if there is a reason, I'll never know. There's no point in lying about something like that.
"Honestly, I don't know what I was doing there, and I don't remember anything about today either. The last thing I remember was when Daiki woke me up. Now that I think about it, why did you tell me where everyone was if I supposedly already knew?" I looked at Daiki, a little puzzled, after thinking about what he had said before.
"Huh? What about me?"
"Yeah, man. Just now, when we were coming back here, you told me that Naomi, Kichiro, and Amaya were here, as if I didn't know."
"…I think falling hurt your head a little."
"I said what you told me before!"
"No way. We've been fooling around the whole way."
"… Then I can't understand why I was there."
"Maybe you just wanted some peace, but it was taking you so long to come back that I was worried," Amaya clarified.
Since I couldn't reach an agreement with Daiki, I decided to ignore the issue. I didn't want to waste my time here on such nonsense.
"Don't worry. You'll remember," Naomi said.
"Yes. It's not a big deal either. If I don't remember, it's because it's not relevant."
"Thinking like that is not the best…"
"Why?" Kichiro offered his opinion, and I couldn't understand why he thought that way. Even though he doesn't talk much, he's very smart. Maybe he's too ignorant of his studies, but that doesn't mean he's stupid.
"One can forget important things. Just because you forget something doesn't mean it's not important, it's just that you haven't given it enough importance."
"…Riku, he kind of humiliated you there." After his explanation, Amaya intervened, with a comment meant to make fun of me a little.
"You always forget everything, so don't tell me that!"
"Ahhh? And when have I forgotten something important?"
"Um, my birthday, for example."
"But you always say you don't want to celebrate it and that you don't like it!"
"That doesn't mean it's not important!"
"Okay, calm down both of you… Daiki is going to be jealous of you, Riku." With a slightly cheeky smile, Kichiro stared at Daiki.
"And why are you messing with me now?!"
My sister decided to play along with Kichiro, showing an expression similar to his.
"Mhh, okay. Then, let's relax a little, Riku."
After saying that, she came up to me and hugged me, lowering my head to the level of her chest.
"H-hey. Stop. You're humiliating me…"
'How embarrassing…' My face reddened slightly, taking on a faint pink hue.
"Is that better, Kichiro?" As he stroked my hair with one hand and wrapped his other arm around my body, he spoke to Kichiro.
To check if everything was okay, he looked at Daiki's reaction.
He was on the ground, on all fours. He had fallen, defeated. He clenched his fist lightly, and hitting the ground with a stern expression, a manly tear running down his cheek.
"Oh, God… Why wasn't it me?"
Naomi approached him, patting him on the back, supporting him with a soft tone, but an equally serious expression.
"Don't worry, man, another one will come to us."
"Us?! Just so you know, I'm the only one who can get her!"
"Yeah, I know that. I was just talking in general terms… Oh, why do you have to ruin my act? I was doing so well…"
"Being the pieces that you are, I doubt anyone will come close to you…"
At the interruption and criticism of someone in particular, they both turned to look at him and exclaimed at the same time, "We don't want a little brat like you telling us that!"
Kichiro sighed, letting a chuckle escape into the air, ignoring the guys in front of him, and responded to my sister, giving her a thumbs up.
"You can stay like this as long as you want."
As he finished that sentence, two beings prostrated themselves behind him. Before he could react, Kichiro was attacked by the beasts to whom his back was turned.
"…!"
"Daiki! Get some branches and a lighter! We have to sacrifice this little brat so we can get a hottie from heaven!"
"Yes! Today we're going to eat like never before!"
"Let me go! Y-you know I don't like you doing this! You're going to throw me off!"
"That's why I'm doing it! Now suffer for our sakes, you damn incel!"
"Huh? Ah… Ahhhh!"
Naomi, holding Kichiro high in the sky with both arms, began to spin him rapidly. Kichiro's scream became more and more intermittent the faster he spun, as if he were screaming with a fan in his mouth.
"Great! Isn't it, Riku?" With a sarcastic, almost laughing tone, my sister fixed her gaze on my eyes.
"S-shut up. Just let me go…"
"No." She gave a short laugh.
It was a strange scene. We were all weirdos in the first place, I guess that's why we all hung out.
Daiki dancing and cheering for Naomi in a silly way. Naomi spinning Kichiro as high as possible. Kichiro suffering in her hands, getting dizzier and dizzier. Amaya next to me, hugging me and stroking my hair. Each one was unique.
Alone, what was I doing there?
He wasn't doing anything, he was just lying back, receiving affection, but was he contributing anything to the group?
I behaved more or less normally; I was the only normal one among them. Too normal. But at the same time, I was also a little weird; I had my own thing going on. I was too weird for the rest.
Still, I didn't want to close my eyes. Maybe that was the reason I wanted to go away and be alone for a while. If so, I'm very foolish. Just being here is enough.