Chapter 20: Naruto & Yasaka II
It was the next day, after school. I was studying with Yasaka at the local library. This was a custom that we went through every time it approached exam time.
"Ah, dammit, I don't understand this, look at it for a second."
"Hm? Ahh, this one… well, you just use this formula here like this… see?"
"I see… so you do it like this. I got it. Thanks, Yasaka. What about this one?"
"Hm? Which one?"
"Here, this one… this one where you have to prove this ugly looking formula…"
Math was my weak point, so for a while I've been getting Yasaka to help me out with math. You're probably supposed to differentiate here or something, but… I leaned forwards to allow Yasaka easier access to my notes and our faces became close, so close my nose almost touched hers. When I did that, Yasaka started saying something like "wah, wah…"
"Uh, something wrong?"
"N-Nothing… um, this one? Uhh, uhh… "
"Why are you so worked up…? Hey, your face is red, are you feeling okay?"
"I-I'm fine! Ugh… you idiot, Naruto!"
What's up with her? Did I make her angry? And like this, we continued to study, sometimes talking back and forth and making conversation. For me, this type of studying was much more agreeable than going to cram school and jamming in knowledge. That's why I made progress every time I studied with Yasaka.
"Alrighty, let's stop here for today."
While I stretched, Yasaka gave me a smile. "Yeah. You worked hard today, Naruto."
"Haha, I guess. At this rate, I'm going to ace the exams."
"And like that, soon you'll start neglecting your work. If you don't continue doing this every day, it'll all go to waste, alright?"
"Yeah yeah, I got it." Picking up my bag, I headed towards the library exit with Yasaka. Reaching the exit, we saw a sunset spread out before us. I've seen this same scene a countless number of times, but I'm still not tired of it. It was a scene that was filled with the satisfaction of a full day's work.
On our way home, we happened to meet an unexpected acquaintance at the junction by the side of my house.
"Ah, good afternoon!"
"Oh?" Facing the person who had sent me that greeting, I raised a hand in recognition. It was Naruko's friend I had met a few days ago, Amesaka Akeno.
"Naruto, Someone you know?"
"Hm? Yeah. Umm… " I started to introduce Akeno to a surprised Yasaka, but Akeno beat me to the punch.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Himejima Akeno."
"Huh? Ah, it's a pleasure." Facing the cheerful pretty girl, Yasaka seemed nervous as she also introduced herself. "Um, I'm Uzumaki Yasaka. Nice to meet you, Himejima-san."
After the introductions were over, Akeno sent me a suggestive smile. "Ahaha, thanks for the other day."
"Eh, ahh… " Strangely finding myself at a loss for words, I gave a vague response.
The other day, when Akeno had come over, I at first looked at her through cruel eyes. But, getting to know her proved to be a happy occurrence, one of the only bright spots in that gloomy day.
"Well, please excuse me then," she said, expressing her intention to leave.
"Ah, is your house around here? "
"No, you can actually see my house over there, in that direction."
"Ah, I see."
"Yup! Well then, I hope we'll see each other later… oh right, there's something I wanted to talk to you about. The truth is, I got some samples from the first magazine featuring both me and Naruko. Naruko should have them too, so please take a look at them later!"
Hm, so she also was a model…
"That's pretty amazing. I'll be sure to take a look."
"Hehe, the truth is, it's a special summer edition of the magazine, so we're wearing swimsuits, so it's a bit embarrassing."
"Huh… swimsuits?"
"Yeah. Ah, but but, I'm not as stylish as Naruko, so don't get your hopes up, alright?"
I'll look forward to it. Much more than my own sister in a swimsuit, at the very least.
"Oh, shoot, if I'm late Naruko's going to get angry. Well, see you later!" With an angelic smile and her parting words, Akeno left.
"Yeah. See you later." I raised a hand to send her off.
Yasaka stood blankly, staring at us strangely. Finally, placing a hand on her chest, she let out a sigh. "That girl… she's really pretty… like an actress or something."
"Mmm. She's certainly a beauty."
There was no other way to put it. Incidentally, Yasaka's evaluation of Naruko boiled down to "super cool and cute." Both of her assessments were pretty intuitive, but I think the different nuances to these descriptions expressed well the differences between Akeno and Naruko.
"Naruto, you sure were staring closely at that girl's face."
"Eh? Really? Seriously?"
"Geez, Naruto… If you don't cut it out, I'm going to tell Kushina oba-chan that you were looking at a girl with pervy eyes."
"D-don't do that!"
What does she mean pervy eyes?! I never put such an obscene thing into how I was looking at her! Absolutely not! But I didn't say any of this. Because if I started making excuses here, soon I would be lying through my teeth. Instead, I tried to dodge the issue by answering jokingly.
"Hm, well if I had to stare at someone, I would rather stare at a cute girl."
"I guess that's true… hmm… I should try my best too… "
Crap, I forgot. Whenever I said something like that to Yasaka, she would get really sad and start seriously meditating on her own shortcomings. Dammit, now I feel guilty. But I had a perfect countermeasure to this.
"No, I mean… Yasaka? I think you're fine just the way you are."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Instead of trying to do strange things beyond your ability, just try to be yourself."
"R-Really? You… think so?" While looking downwards, Yasaka stole a glance every once in a while at my face. Giving my consent, I gave my opinion clearly.
"Yeah, I think that's for the better. It's best if you don't change."
"Is it really alright… if I don't change…? You… like me that way?"
Although this would definitely not happen, if Yasaka became like Naruko, I would be outrageously bothered by it. It might be too late, but withdrawing my previous remarks, I tried to comfort her somewhat desperately.
"Yeah, I do. I really like you this way, even more than that other girl just now."
It wasn't the most eloquent of praises, and for some reason I couldn't come up with anything less stale, but I'll praise her with these words anyways. It doesn't really matter, so I'll praise her to high heaven.
And then—
"Thanks… that makes me happy…" Her expression widened into a smile, and I stroked my chest in relief. It seemed like Yasaka's behavior would never change. But…
𖦹𖦹𖦹
It was morning in the classroom. It was the break right after the first period. Drawing near to Yasaka's seat, I called out to her, not having spoken to her yet that day. It was a bit strange, but this morning Yasaka was late, and didn't show up to our usual meeting spot.
"Hey. What happened this morning? Did you oversleep?"
"Eh? Y-Yeah… I did. Sorry, I kept you waiting… "
"You don't have to apologize. You never make me apologize when I'm late."
"Y-Yeah… " Yasaka nodded, but maybe she was still apologetic or something, since she kept her head cast downwards.
I felt slightly uncomfortable seeing her in this strange mood, but pushed it to the back of my mind. Thinking back, I guess that Yasaka was acting like that all through class too, but I had missed breakfast that morning, so I was too busy thinking about how hungry I was to really pay her any mind.
It was after school on the same day. In an unusual turn of events, today it was me who called out to Yasaka. It was almost a perfect recreation of the scene that morning. "Yasaka, let's go home together."
"Umm… uhh… " Yasaka put a hand to her forehead as if she had a headache, and looked at me through upturned eyes. "Sorry… I have something I need to do. I can't go home with you today… "
"Ah, I-I see…" I was surprised at how disappointed I felt at this point. I just didn't want to admit that to Yasaka, so I continued in the most cheerful voice I could muster. "Ah, fine fine. Don't worry about it. We can take a day off from studying together. I don't want to keep imposing on you anyways. Sometimes it's nice to study by yourself."
"I'm really sorry…"
"I said it's fine. I just wouldn't feel right about forcing you to study with me every single day anyways."
This is probably the first time this kind of conversation has ever happened. Usually, I would just say whatever I wanted to her. How unusual.
As I predicted, when I went home, I couldn't get any studying done. It would be best if tomorrow things could go back to normal, and I could get helped by Yasaka again. I was perfectly carefree as these thoughts passed through my head.
The next day–
"Sorry, Naruto… I can't today either."
W-What?! Feeling shaken by her announcement, I replied with my voice in disarray. "W-Why?" She wasn't waiting for me at our usual meeting spot this morning either… what exactly was going on?
"It's just that… I have plans…"
Yasaka was terrible at lying. But this time, it was difficult for me to gauge whether she was lying or not. One reason for this was that Yasaka was hanging her head sadly, so I couldn't really see her face. Another reason was that I could honestly feel how bad she felt for doing this. So, even if she was lying about having plans, I couldn't really hold it against her.
"Alright. I guess there's no helping it if you have plans." Leaving without raising a fuss, I headed towards the exit of the classroom.
I sighed. After all, I felt that Yasaka had definitely been acting a bit strangely… but also, to be frank, my traditional study session with Yasaka was not just to help me get better grades, but also served to be a precious time when I could rejuvenate my tired spirit. Especially ever since I was forced to give Naruko those life counseling sessions, spending my free time with Yasaka in that carefree way has become all the more important. As soon as that was taken away from me, even though it's only been two days, I could already feel my spirit becoming heavy. Then, Sun appeared and spoke to me in a teasing tone of voice.
"What's wrong Naruto, is she avoiding you?"
"Huh? What are you…"
It wasn't like he was saying something outrageous, so I couldn't do anything but fire back a stupid response. So, what happened? Did he see my little exchange with Yasaka back there?
"I mean, Naruto, you've realized it yourself right? Lately, Yasaka-san has been plainly avoiding you."
"Yasaka's been avoiding me?" I hadn't even considered that possibility. I guess my understanding of the situation was pretty dim. "Why do you think that?"
"Come on, no matter how you look at it, that's what's happening, isn't it? Just now even, you two looked like a bickering couple or something."
Normally, I would immediately ignore such a crazy remark… but honestly, it is true that Yasaka's been acting strange lately. Frowning, I fell into silence.
Yasaka… was avoiding me? That should be impossible, but thinking back on the recent conversations we've had, it definitely fits the situation. Certainly, these past two days, she's been trying to avoid eye contact with me. Also, even when we talked, her voice sounded weak, like it had no energy. It seemed like she was trying to act normally though, so I didn't bring any of this up with her. But now she's refusing to study with me, to walk home with me, because she "has plans." At the very least, to a casual observer, it certainly might look like she's trying to avoid me.
Well, what if it was true? Let's suppose that she really was avoiding me. I can't imagine why she would. Did I do something to her? I don't think I've done anything wrong… also, generally, it was pretty easy to tell when Yasaka got angry, with the way she would pout and blurt it out. She was definitely not the kind of person to avoid someone without even telling them why. I seriously have no idea. I really don't know what to do here.
"Does it seriously look that way?" I had left the classroom with Sun, and I asked him that. If she really was avoiding me, I would want to know why and why she was doing this without even telling me.
"Yeah, Naruto, you know, I might know what's going on."
"What?"
"Yasaka-san probably got a boyfriend, didn't she?"
"Huh?" My face probably held the same kind of grimace I gave when I was forced to give Naruko life counseling. "Why do you think that?"
"I mean, just think about it, Naruto. If you got a girlfriend, wouldn't you also try to distance yourself a bit from Yasaka-san? But it's hard to just tell her 'Oh, I got a girlfriend, so from today we can't go home together and we can't study together.' And lately, Yasaka-san has been telling you that she has plans so she can't go with you. The facts fit, don't they?"
That doesn't make it true. I immediately rejected Sun's outrageous claim. I couldn't imagine Yasaka being able to get a boyfriend, just like I couldn't imagine that Naruko had gotten one…
"Well, I have club activities, so I'll see you later, Naruto. Don't get too depressed over it. Hahaha."
"Shut up!"
After completely ruining my mood, Sun patted me on the shoulder as if trying to cheer me up, and darted off briskly. That monkey bastard. As I glared fiercely at his retreating back, I continued to think. About how it was utterly unthinkable that Yasaka could have gotten a boyfriend. Although… well… even if she didn't have one now, I could see her having one in the distant future. Even though I don't really want to think about it. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, we would probably continue to spend our days the same way we've spent them up until now. But I might be being a bit optimistic to think that this would still be true five years, or ten years later. It was impossible to completely stop people from changing. For me, and for Yasaka, and of course even for Naruko, every year we grew a year older, and soon we would graduate. There are plenty of things that would change, whether I like it or not.
I tried to imagine it. For example, if in the future… if I got a girlfriend… would I avoid Yasaka? Definitely not! Well, at least that's what I thought now.