A Case in Which My House Is a Gathering Place for Girls - Chapter 38: About a Girl Named Hanazono Kanna

After teaming up with Sasazuki to shut Asakura out of the kitchen and ensure a safe and peaceful dinner, it was already past 20 o’clock by the time we finally settled down.

“In the end, Kanna didn’t come. Do you think she’s busy with work?”

Asakura murmured while sipping her post-dinner tea. Just as she said, Kanna was unusually absent. Even on days when she had to leave school early or take a break due to work, she almost always stopped by.

“The cause is that article and the comments. Plus, all the other stuff on SNS. It’s reasonable to assume Hanazono saw them too.”

“Yeah… I guess even Kanna would feel down after seeing that.”

“It’s kind of her own doing, or maybe just an old bad habit… She thinks too fast and doesn’t explain enough. That’s not good.”

The situation was more serious than I had expected, but I couldn’t help but give a wry smile at my childhood friend who hadn’t changed since we were kids. Maybe it was inappropriate at a time like this, but this was just like Kanna.

“Hey, Itsuki. Has Kanna been like that since she was a child?”

“It depends on what you mean by saying that, but yeah, Kanna has always been like that.”

She would use unnecessarily complex four-character idioms, anticipate other people’s thoughts so quickly that it unsettled them, and absorb knowledge like a dry sponge. People used to call her a prodigy because of that.

“Wow… Hanazono was really so amazing.”

Sasazuki sipped her tea and reached for a snack. Despite her small frame, she had a hearty appetite, yet still managed to maintain a smart figure with curves in all the right places. I nodded at her simple reaction and continued speaking.

“Being called a prodigy sounds nice, but that’s from an adult’s perspective. To other kids, she was just some weird and a different person.”

I don’t know what Kanna is thinking. The things she says are too complicated. In the countryside, where there were far fewer children compared to the city, standing out didn’t bring praise—it made her an outcast.

“That’s why I was the only one who could call her a friend. Well, I think that hasn’t changed since I came here.”

“Do you mean that Itsuki had a conversation with Kanna since then?”

“What’s the matter with that?”

“That’s what it means to be dark under the lighthouse. I mean, there were so many things that I completely forgot that Itsuki was a special student.”

Asakura gave a wry smile, and Sasazuki nodded in agreement. Even though they thought it was impressive, it didn’t really sink in for me. I had just grown used to it.

“I just haven’t heard exactly what kind of daily life Kanna has spent over the past decade since she moved in.”

I had many opportunities. But I didn’t do that because I saw her looking happy now, and I thought somewhere in my heart that the past didn’t matter.

“If you’re curious, why don’t you ask her yourself?”

“Yes, there are some things you can’t tell unless you talk about them. Come on, let’s make a call.”

“…Yeah.”

The two of them urged me to move to the veranda and then call Kanna. Unlike when we talked in line late at night, the moon is invisible tonight because of the thick clouds.

“Hello? It’s unusual for Jinpei-kun to call. Did you happen to feel lonely and want to hear my voice?”

Right from the start, Kanna talks lightly in an unusually cheerful voice, but I’m not so stupid that I don’t realize that she’s doing well in the sky. Because in the past… I went through the same thing more than a decade ago.

“…Are you all right, Kanna?”

I just asked my childhood friend, who was acting brave.

“Jinpei-kun really sees right through me. You knew all along?”

Kanna says so in such a weak voice that she sounded like she was about to cry. As Sasazuki guessed, Kanna had seen the comments on the article and knew she was being criticized online.

“I’ve read the feature article too. You did it at the very last minute.”

“Ahaha… I never thought this would happen. The Internet is really scary.”

“Well, most of the comments were highly praising you. As expected of my brilliant childhood friend.”

I feel sorry for myself. I thought I had grown up a little, but in a moment like this, I still didn’t know what the right words were to say to her.