5 05
◎Introverted and gloomy male high school student◎
05
When Kawakami Wakai was in elementary school, there was a girl in her class who gave the teachers a lot of headaches.
The adults say that the child seems to have some minor developmental delays. That's why his test scores are always a pitiful few points or in the teens, and he's terrible at drawing, playing the recorder, and sports. He does talk to his classmates, but he often wrings his hands, as if he doesn't know what he wants to say.
Although this girl could be considered a "special case" in the class, she was always quiet during class. When she failed a test, it wasn't the other students who were scolded by her parents. Nobody seemed to care. In fact, many kind children would help her with things like tying her untied shoelaces, rebuttoning her buttons, and wiping the food off her mouth when she ate lunch.
Until fifth grade, in science class, the teacher asked the group to complete an assignment.
Ruoyi happened to be in the same group as that girl.
Children's evil is often the purest. When she can't do anything and even if we force her to do some simple tasks, she'll make a mess of it, everyone gets a little unhappy.
Finally, on the last weekend before the group project was presented, the group leader didn't call the girl.
When Ruoyi asked everyone why one person was missing, she heard that sentence—
"That thing, it's practically the same whether it exists or not, isn't it?"
"..."
Eleven-year-old Kawakami Wakana didn't quite understand.
That child didn't really help much during the group project, and sometimes even caused trouble, but was that really what she wanted?
She didn't understand...
In the end, when it came time for the official presentation, the girl simply stood aside as always, like a stagnant pool of water, listening to the other classmates introduce the hand-drawn posters that everyone had made together.
The next class was physical education, but the teacher suddenly started playing volleyball with the girls.
Kawakami Wakana wasn't averse to sports to begin with, and physical education was the only subject where she consistently scored a perfect 5, so she was naturally interested in volleyball. But that day, what impressed her even more than the feel of the volleyball was what her physical education teacher said:
"There are 7 billion people in the world, and even if any one of them is missing, the earth will still keep turning. But a volleyball court is different. If any of the six people are missing, it won't work."
"Even if someone's skills are inferior to their teammates, or they can't even touch the ball, it doesn't mean they're useless."
"No one should be 'unneeded'."
Come to think of it, it seems like it started around that time. Everyone began to genuinely care about the child…
When she slightly opened her eyes, stung by the sunlight streaming through the window, Kawakami Wakana had no idea why she was dreaming of that scene at this moment.
It was only a little past six in the morning, but once she woke up, she seemed unable to fall back asleep. After lying in bed for a while, she still wasn't sleepy, so she got out of bed to change and wash up.
While brushing her teeth, looking at her reflection in the mirror where her hair had grown considerably, Ruoyi suddenly recalled the bandaged man from yesterday.
He said that, compared to her, she was the one who looked like she was about to disappear.
"..."
"Maybe I was right," Ruoyi thought to herself, spitting out the foam from her toothpaste.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have fled in panic after hearing those words.
Can……
What exactly is the other party trying to express?
Since her parents weren't up yet, and she had nothing else to do, Ruoyi decided to prepare breakfast for the family and a lunchbox for her mother to take to work. While frying the eggs, she glanced at her phone and saw the good news from Hinata Natsumi.
The school won the competition and was able to represent Miyagi Prefecture at the Tohoku region conference.
Hinata Natsumi said that although she had celebrated with the girls from the club who participated in the competition yesterday, and had a good meal with her family after returning home, her brother decided to order a pizza for lunch today so that everyone could eat together, since it was paid for by their parents, and asked Ruoyi if she wanted to come.
Kawakami Wakana was about to reply "I'm not going" immediately. But after typing all the words, she inexplicably deleted them all and sent an excited cat emoji instead.
[Yay! I haven't had pizza in ages!]
noon.
"It was a really close call! Time was running out, the score was tied, and it looked like they were about to score another point! Luckily, I caught the ball in time—"
At the dining table, Hinata Natsumi was talking non-stop. Although her mouth was constantly moving, she was talking more than eating.
"Have mercy—your brother listened to you all night yesterday!" Hinata Shoyo exaggeratedly rubbed his ears.
"elder brother--"
Kawakami Wakana listened to the siblings' antics while working on the cheese on her pizza. She couldn't help but chuckle softly when Hinata Natsu tried to pull her brother's ear.
Immediately, he and Hinata Shoyo locked eyes.
"If you're not convinced," Hinata Natsu seemed oblivious to the little commotion, and proudly put her hands on her hips, "you can have a match with me, brother! You know, when it comes to quick attacks and setters, no one in the club can beat me!"
"You're right, aren't you, Meow-chan?"
"..."
Hinata Shoyo did not immediately respond to his sister's invitation, but remained silent for a while before suddenly saying:
"Xia, let's not talk about the competition today."
Hinata Natsumi: ?
“After all,” Shoyo explained, “Wakai-chan lost the chance to be selected as a member to participate in the tournament because of her injury…”
"...!"
Hinata Natsu then seemed to wake up from a dream.
After that, Wakana didn't quite hear what Hinata Natsu said. She only vaguely heard that she seemed to be apologizing and comforting her, saying that she could still participate in the winter tournament and the four-school league. Moreover, the advisor and the club president are still unsure whether the Tohoku tournament should reselect its participants.
"I'm fine." Ruoyi said with a smile, and then brought up the final exam questions with Hinata Natsu.
"By the way, Xia-chan, did you answer the question about the monkey in the social section? And that modern Chinese passage, the one about 'a strange light shining in the fish's eyes'—"
"I didn't get any points at all—" Hinata Natsu immediately deflated.
"Not yet," Ruoyi quickly added with a wry smile. "I'm almost there, I'll have to go to school for extra classes during the summer vacation."
"Waaaaah, we're all in the same boat!"
After finishing her pizza and chatting with the Hyuga family for a while, Wakana returned home. But for some reason, even though she smiled and waved goodbye as usual, she felt like she was fleeing.
They're all people who care about me a lot...
Ruoyi shook her head, picked up her phone, and went into her photo album.
The first photo shows her summer English homework, and this page is quite challenging.
Oh, right! She just taught the Russian how to write a few Chinese characters a few days ago, and she was just about to send him her English homework to ask him about it!
Just as Ruoyi was about to long-press the image and click share, she saw a question asking her to fill in the word translation.
disappear.
“It’s like you’re about to disappear in the next second…” She remembered the bandage spirit’s words once again.
"How strange." Ruoyi muttered softly, first sending over the English homework, and then asking:
By the way, do you know what it means when someone of the opposite sex suddenly tells you they feel like you're about to disappear?
The other party replied with a question mark.
【What kind of opposite sex?】
Kawakami Wakana thought for a moment: [There was just one guy, about my age, dressed in all black, his face wrapped in bandages like he was cosplaying a mummy.]
"...?"
Upon seeing this, Fyodor fell silent.
If the description of the kitten is correct, there is only one person dressed in black with bandages on their face, looking like they are cosplaying a mummy.
The kid he met in Yokohama during the Dragon Head War, Osamu Dazai.
Fyodor: "..."
During this time, he helped the kitten with several English questions and was now basically convinced that the child might indeed be a high school student. However, if Dazai had intervened, it wouldn't be so surprising that they couldn't find any information about an ordinary high school student.
And this Dazai is now actually meeting with the kitten...
Fyodor always felt that this was not a coincidence.
However, what he cares about more now is what Dazai said.
It's as if it's about to disappear in the next second...
Dazai's evaluation, the car accident that Koneko admitted to a while ago, Koneko's hobby is volleyball...
When all of this was put together, he seemed to have found the answer.
"I see." Fyodor chuckled softly.
He wondered why this unremovable app had appeared on his phone, and what Dazai was planning. He could only find the answer by continuing to talk to the kitten.
Now, his "introverted and gloomy high school boy persona" is about to come into play.
After all, it's already "dark," so adding a "mentally unstable" setting doesn't seem strange.
You could even say that they share a lot in common.
A few minutes later.
Just as Kawakami Wakana was about to put her phone back in her bag, thinking the Lucia wouldn't reply, a message notification suddenly popped up.
It was sent by the Lucia.
But after she opened it, she almost dropped her phone.
On the screen appeared a wrist wrapped in gauze, and on the table in the background, besides books with Russian writing on them, there was a yellow utility knife. Although it wasn't very clear, there seemed to be faint traces of red ketchup on the utility knife blade.
"...!!"
[Russian: Actually, I just got back from the hospital's emergency room. My mom is still outside crying her eyes out, and my dad is also sneezing, looking very guilty.]
[Russian: This is probably what they mean by 'it feels like I'm about to disappear'.]
[Author's Note]
Ask a question!
Do you think this guy just deliberately wrapped a bandage around his neck, smeared some ketchup on a utility knife, and that was it, or did he actually do it and then bandaged himself? (laughing and crying)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
