Ayano apologetically accepted it. Then she exclaimed “Ah!” as if just remembering something. “I know! Not to repay you or anything…but did you have lunch before you came here? I’m about to start making it, but I could whip up something for you, too.”
It was just a little past noon, actually. Ayano’s home cooking…? The concept immediately grabbed my attention. But where I would’ve raised my hand and said “Absolutely!” any other time, I held back for now. The curry I ate during another stop on the way here was still weighing heavily on my stomach. That was only ninety minutes ago, and even I thought it was a little soon to be eating again.
Ayano still needed a reply, though. Resigning myself to my decision, I opened my mouth in order to politely decline.
“…Oh, it’s fine. I actually ate before I came here, so…”
Before I could finish the thought, a loud grumble all but drowned out my voice. It was from my stomach, of course. I tried to laugh it off, saying “Uhhmm…” in an extremely awkward fashion, but it was already too late. Ayano had heard it loud and clear. I could tell because she was staring right at my midsection.
“Um,” she said, “there’s no need to be polite or anything! I don’t eat that much, anyway.”
Ahh…This is so embarrassing. Why did my stomach have to growl right after I’d told her I already ate? Now I probably look like someone who eats and eats but always stays hungry.
And I actually was hungry, a little.
…Okay, actually a lot hungry. Great. Now what? If she’s offering, it’s all right to say yes, isn’t it? No! No, no, no, I can’t. There’s no way I could let myself eat this many times in a…
“Well, I guess I’ll take you up on that after all, then. Hee-hee…”
Just today. I’ll allow it just this one time today.
Going through the afternoon hungry would probably affect my work efficiency or something anyway.
As I gave in to the voices in my head, Ayano, apparently finding all this amusing, snickered a little.
“I’ll try to make a bigger helping for you, okay?”
God, she’s a good person. Especially compared to me. I’m a hopeless case. I lowered my blushing head and just gave an awkward “Thanks” in reply.
“I’ll start cooking now, but before that, let me show you…”
Ayano pointed to a corner of the room. There I found a folding table with a somewhat outdated computer, scanner, and drawing tablet.
“I think that’s everything you need. I’m sorry; Dad set all that up for you, so I don’t really know what’s what. Do you know how to use it?”
As far as I could tell, it was nothing too far beyond my comprehension. I had my phone on me anyway, so I could check online if I ran into any issues.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” I said as I nodded and stood up, cake in hand. “Lemme see what we’ve got here.”
“Okay! I’ll bring your food up once it’s ready.”
Ayano turned to leave the room but stopped, her voice going a tad lower.
“Oh, one more thing. I wanna warn you about my siblings. They, uh…Let’s just say they’ve got a few issues. I don’t think you’ll be able to say hello or talk directly with them.”
The sudden conversational mood shift confused me for a moment.
“Oh? Um, okay. That’s fine by me, but by ‘issues’…Do you mean they’re sick or something?”
I was too far away from her to gauge her expression, but from the tone of her voice, something about this seemed to be making Ayano nervous.
“Well, like, if you run into them in the house somewhere…” Ayano paused, choosing her words carefully. “And if anything kind of weird happens to you, try not to let it bother you too much.”
The roundabout way she put it threw me. What did “kind of weird” mean? And what if it did bother me when…whenever whatever happened? I wasn’t sure what to think about this, but if she was being that evasive about it, it probably wasn’t anything I should poke into too much. Probably.
Everybody’s got one or two things they don’t like talking much about, I guess. Even I do. Better avoid prying about it just to satisfy my curiosity.
“…Uh, sure thing. I’ll try not to, so don’t worry about me.”
This time, I could easily spot the relief on Ayano’s face.
“Y-you sure? Well, great…Um, I’m sorry I’m bringing up all this weird stuff out of the blue. I’ll deliver your food once it’s ready.”
With that, she turned back toward me, gave a quick bow, and left the room.
The sounds of her footsteps as she tromped downstairs gradually faded, then disappeared entirely.
“Kind of weird,” huh…? Something about the way she’d put that bothered me. No matter what kind of illness they were suffering from, why would it make “weird” things happen to me?
Like, what—are they going to vanish or fly around the room or turn into monsters the moment I lay eyes on them…?
“Hah. Yeah right.”
I grinned a little at the sheer lunacy of my imagination. Then, realizing I was alone again, I relaxed in my seat and took a deep breath.
I didn’t notice it much while we were talking, but being in a room with only one other person always had a tendency to make me nervous.
Actually, how many people my age did I feel totally comfortable chatting with, really? I could only think of one person.
I lay down and stared up at the ceiling. In a moment, I found myself closing my eyes and thinking about that someone.
Her black hair, her anger-laden eyes, her small lips, her almost too-thin body, her kind of short stature, her eternally dissatisfied attitude, her even more eternally foul mouth, her occasional smile…
…It’s strange. All I had to do was close my eyes, and I could recall all this stuff about her, down to the last detail.
I’m really stupid, aren’t I? I didn’t need to borrow a photo from Mr. Tateyama at all. Just closing my eyes was enough to show me an image far more vibrant than any picture could provide.
As I thought about this, I was gripped by the insatiable urge to say her name.
…Nobody’s here. If I kept my voice down, I bet it’d be fine. I took a breath, brought the image back to my mind, and brought the name to my…
Knock, knock, knock.
“Ta—aaahhhh! Yes? Yes!! What’s up?!”
The unexpected knock on the door twisted me out of my resting state, causing me some back pain as it did. Boy, was that a surprise! I was just about to do something really embarrassing. Sitting back up, I nervously prepared for whoever had knocked to enter.
Ayano, maybe? Well, that couldn’t be. No way she could cook a meal that fast.
“Pardon me.”
But it was Ayano, excusing herself back into the room. She had nothing with her, so lunch appeared to be out of the question for now as she walked up and sat down on the other side of the table. It may’ve been my imagination, but her face seemed softer than it was when she left.
“Hey. What’s up?” I asked. “Something going on?”
Ayano shook her head. “No, nothing too important. I just wanted to talk a little.”
“Um…Well, sure, but…”
I wanted to talk about what the holdup was with lunch, but I resisted, not wanting to look too pushy.
“Was there something you needed to discuss, or…?”
“Yeah. Um, not discuss, exactly, but…Well, there’s something I want to ask you point-blank.”
Ayano paused and stared right into my eyes, as if silently warning me that dishonest replies would not be tolerated. I tensed up under her withering gaze, mentally preparing myself to answer whatever request she had. She was interrupting lunch for this, after all. What could it be?
My stiff posture made Ayano stare at me again, quizzical. Then she spoke.
“…Um, were you thinking about something dirty just now?”
It felt like a body blow right to my unguarded chest. My heart thudded with dread.<
br />
“D-d-dirty? What kinda question is that, Ayano?!”
I mean, I…I was thinking about her a little, yes. But nothing dirty! I’m being prosecuted for a crime I didn’t commit!
…In another moment, though, I regained my composure. Ayano isn’t some kind of magician. It’s not like she can read my mind. “Just now” must have referred to before she knocked on the door. Maybe while we were chatting…?
“What’re you acting so nervous about…? I’m starting to get suspicious! You were thinking dirty thoughts about me back when we were talking, weren’t you?!”
Ayano’s eyes were glued to mine. So she was talking about our chat. Eesh. And here I was freaking out over the idea of her reading my mind from the first floor. Well, that’s good, at least…
Wait! No, it’s not! What’s she mean, was I thinking dirty thoughts? Me? About her?! I had no intention whatsoever of that! The accusation was enough to make me spring into action to defend myself.
“You, you’ve totally got the wrong idea! I mean, Ayano, what’s going on with you?! What did I do to make you even think that for a moment?!”
“It wasn’t anything like that! You men are all just a pack of wolves, aren’t you?!”
What was she saying?
Her words were nearly incoherent, but this Ayano was now practically in my face, abruptly taking on a much more angered tone. Ugh. What’s gotten into her? She seemed so kind and polite up to now. Talk about multiple personality disorder.
But…like, how should I respond? It’s not like denying it all would make her believe me at this point…Ah, screw it. Let’s just ask.
“Umm…So, so what could I do to make you forgive me?”
“What could you do…?”
The question subdued Ayano into silence. She thought for a moment.
“Well, just promise me you won’t look at me and think dirty thoughts again. I’ll forgive you then.”
“Look, really, I didn’t do anything like—”
“Just promise me!!”
Ayano gave the table a whack.
Ahh! Let’s just put it all on the table! I shut my eyes and half shouted:
“Ugghh, all right! I’ll never think dirty thoughts about you again! I promise!”
Oof. What am I even saying now?
“Okay. That’s a promise, all right?”
Ayano beamed at me. After that intimidating outburst, it was a bit hard to take much cheer from her smile. She stood up in triumph. “All right, well, sorry to bother you,” she said, humming to herself as she left the room.
It was the first time in my life, I think, when someone said “Sorry to bother you” and I wanted to reply, “Yeah, I hope you are.”
Once the door closed, silence reigned. I was left to myself once again.
What was all that just now? It was such a shock, I just sat there in a daze for a few moments. Ayano…I’d thought she was this nice, graceful girl. I had no idea there was that side to her, too. It definitely hadn’t been some kind of joke. Maybe she was dealing with some really terrible stress? She did act like her siblings made things kind of rough for her. Maybe that was the cause?
I stared at the wall for a while, pondering her bizarre behavior, when another knock came to the door.
“Hyah…!”
I shot to my feet, surprised once more. Getting scared out of my wits twice in the same day over knocking…What is even happening to me today? It’s Ayano again, isn’t it? It’s got to be…!
“Pardon me.”
It was Ayano.
She gave me a blank look, noticing how frozen I was, face tightened in anticipation of whatever was coming.
“Um, is something up?”
“No, nothing, really. Ha-ha!”
I tried to force a grin. It didn’t work out too well. Which Ayano was I dealing with here? How could she be all smiles around me after what just happened a moment ago?
“No? …Okay. Um, sorry to make you wait so long for lunch. There wasn’t much in the refrigerator, so I ran out to grab a few things…”
Then she lifted up the tray at her feet and effortlessly carried it to the table. The moment she set it down, the smell of something sweet and sour wafted into my nostrils.
“I tried going for a Chinese-style rice bowl, but hopefully it’ll suit your palate…”
“Oh, sure thing. It’s definitely gonna—I can promise you that!”
My stiffened face loosened, erupting into a full-force grin. No point letting this go cold. I immediately picked up my chopsticks and put my hands together.
“Thanks for making this for—”
…Hang on a second.
The sudden realization made me stop. Ayano peered into my face, a worried look on her own.
“Is something the matter, Haruka? Were you, um, not a fan of this?”
“Oh, no, no, this is great. I just, uhh…”
I knew exactly what was bothering me. But it wouldn’t do me any good to keep mum about it. I decided to ask the question.
“You said you just went out to pick up some ingredients, Ayano?”
“I did, yes,” she replied, the suspicion in her voice telling me she didn’t understand the meaning behind the question. Which was her right. But that meant something about the timeline today wasn’t matching up with reality. Because if it did, Ayano wouldn’t have ever accused me of being some sort of sex-crazed maniac.
Going out to buy food, doing the actual cooking, then running upstairs to yell at me…Doing all that in such a short time couldn’t be too easy to pull off.
“…Oh, wait a minute. I actually have the receipt here.”
She pulled it out of a pocket in her cardigan and handed it to me. It listed assorted seafood ingredients, vegetables, and things like ground beef and curry powder that were presumably meant for dinner later. The time printed on it matched up perfectly with the moment Ayano left the room the first time.
My eyes fell back on the table.
This rice bowl…It definitely wasn’t some kind of ready-made thing she’d tossed in the microwave. The ingredients were all a bunch of different sizes. It even had some pumpkin. In other words, this was authentic home cooking, and considering all the stuff she put in, it must have taken time to prepare. Perhaps this was a batch she’d whipped up beforehand, but judging by the receipt, I didn’t think so. But she really was here a moment ago. She really did tear me a new one. I didn’t hallucinate it.
The more I thought about it, the weirder it seemed.
“Hey, can I ask you one more question, Ayano?”
I could tell I was starting to exasperate my host a little, but she nodded, smile still clear on her face.
“Listen, do you have…like, a twin sister or something?”
I nervously chuckled a bit as I asked it. I knew I was asking a completely ridiculous question.
Ayano froze up a little, perhaps trying to figure out what it meant. I couldn’t blame her. If someone asked me out of the blue about a secret twin, I’d do the same thing.
But after a moment, Ayano blurted out “Huh?!” and opened her eyes wide, apparently realizing something important. “D-do you mean someone came in here while I was cooking, maybe? What did she say to you?!”
She brought her head close to mine, pressing me in a different way than she did during her “dirty thoughts” diatribe. This time, she looked more like she was in a panic. I instantly leaned back a little in response, but since she’d asked, I decided to tell her everything.
How she’d gotten the idea into her head that I was leering at her funny. How I’d been forced to promise I would never do it again. And finally, how she’d left the room in a totally serene mood.
I began to feel like I was doing something bad, because her face reddened more and more as I gave her the story. When I finished, she stood up without a word and headed for the door. I assumed she had someone else she wanted to see right then, but I had one more request for her.
“Um, don’t get too mad at her,
all right?”
“If I can hold it back,” she replied softly as she left.
I still couldn’t get over how much of a surprise it was.
So the “kind of weird” thing she’d been talking about was a twin sister, huh? Well, that cleared up the confusion, at least. Ayano was a nice girl after all.
…Now, then.
I settled back down in front of my now-cold Chinese rice bowl.
“Here we go!”
Just as I was about to dig in, I heard a scream downstairs. Guess Ayano couldn’t hold it back.
As I enjoyed the not-too-soft, not-too-hard rice, I wondered why the shout had come from a boy instead of a girl.
LOST DAYS · 4
“Man, am I lucky…”
It was one in the morning. Nearly the entire neighborhood was asleep. The moment I got back from the convenience store, I opened up my plastic bag and grinned from ear to ear. It contained assorted snacks and beverages, as well as two small-ish cups of custard pudding. “Small-ish” makes it sound like this was low-quality stuff, but with convenience-store pudding, small-ish means high quality. Why two, though? Simple: They had a little sweepstakes drawing thing at the counter, and I won a free cup.
I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I pretty much never win raffles or things like that, but maybe some kind of newfound power was making itself known within my brain. Good job, me.
It really felt great, winning such an awesome prize after doing only about a thousand yen’s worth of shopping. How did convenience stores make any money, doing stuff like this? The thought concerned me a little, but I wasn’t about to give my prize back, so instead I whispered “Thanks” to the clerk out of appreciation.
We had two days left until the school festival, and my little game-dev sleepover was rapidly coming to a head. In fact, since I was just about done with the coloring work for Bear-Rilla and the rest of my zoo, all I had left to do was draw up a few more backgrounds. The “climax” part mainly involved Mr. Tateyama, who had been pulling all-nighters the whole time. Listening to the late-night moaning from his computer desk always made me feel at fault, somehow, but I couldn’t really help him with his programming work.
Over the Dimension Page 5
