After I Picked up a Notebook Filled With Intense Emotions, the Girls Started Acting Strange

The moment she saw me, the blonde girl—Orihara Yukina—opened and closed her mouth in shock.

Then her face turned bright red, and she came straight toward me.

She was wearing the school tracksuit today instead of her usual loose uniform. Even so, she’d rolled up her pant legs halfway. She’s still trying to look stylish, I guess.

Even in a tracksuit, she somehow managed to look good.

And what she had been doing was… well, obvious at a glance.

With her eyes wide and bloodshot, she marched right up to me, glared, and spoke.

“Hey.”

“Y-yes.”

“You better not tell anyone what you just saw, okay?”

“Y-Yes…”

“I mean it! If you tell anyone, I won’t forgive you.”

“Yes…”

“A-And! I was just here to pick up something I forgot, and Shindou-kun asked me to grab his too! That’s all! I definitely wasn’t sniffing anything, okay!?”

“Yes.”

“Got it!?”

“…Yes.”

So she totally gave herself away. She had been sniffing it.

Her face red as a tomato, the gal girl blurted that out and rushed out of the classroom.

She came at me with so much energy that all I could do was keep saying yes.

Her intensity was one thing, but what flashed through my mind was a line from that notebook:

─I can’t live without his scent. If I don’t smell it regularly, I start to lose my mind. That’s why I secretly collect his things, and it gives me ecstasy.

“……”

So she does act just like what’s written in the notebook.

Was she feeling ecstasy, too?

Well, I guess? Smelling someone she likes isn’t that weird. It’s not exactly a deep obsession, right?

…Yeah, maybe it’s still kind of bad.

Well, nevermind.

That makes three of them now.

All three girls are after Shindou. And all three are the ones who lost their ethics notebooks. That can’t just be a coincidence.

Now the question is. Which one of them owns the notebook I have?

Failure means death.

Seriously.

A classmate dying would be the worst.

…Guess I should apologize to Shindou, just in case. Rest in peace.

◆

Alright. There’s a proper order to everything.

When I decided to find out who the notebook’s owner was, the first person I tried to get information from was Sena-san.

Why? Because, in this situation, she’s the most likely one. Her name fits the initial “S,” and it also matches what was written about someone who secretly had feelings from afar.

The owner of the notebook is probably very sensitive, so I need to be careful not to upset her.

Then came after-school time, my only real chance.

Normally, Sena-san is always with Shindou, so there’s hardly any moment when she’s alone.

But after school, Shindou goes to club activities. Since Sena-san doesn’t belong to any club, they have to split up for a while.

That’s the perfect time to talk to her.

…Or at least it would’ve been, if I hadn’t gotten unlucky. Yamada-kun, next to me, suddenly started talking, and by the time I was done, she was gone from the classroom.

I panicked and ran straight to the entrance, but she wasn’t there. I quietly checked the shoe lockers, and her loafers were still inside. So she hadn’t gone home yet.

Maybe she’s at the gym? It’s possible she went there to watch Shindou practice basketball.

Holding onto that small hope, I headed toward the gym. Then.

“…! …uh…”

I heard something that sounded like a faint cry from somewhere far away.

I was curious, so I followed the sound.

“…sniff… hic…”

The closer I got, the clearer it became.

And when I finally found the source. It was coming from an empty classroom. A girl was crying inside.

I was worried, so I quietly peeked through the door.

In the orange light of the setting sun, I saw Sena-san’s shoulders trembling as she cried.

Finding the person I’d been searching for like this, and in this situation, left me completely unsure what to do.

Looking around carefully, I noticed what had happened.

The lunchbox she’d offered to Shindou earlier, the one he’d refused, was spilled all over the floor.

And now, she was picking up the scattered fried chicken pieces one by one, still crying, and putting them back into the container.

“Sena-san.”

“—!”

I couldn’t just stand there anymore, so I stepped inside and spoke to her.

She was startled and looked up at me with wide eyes.

“…Shiomi-kun.”

“I’ll help you.”

“…”

Without waiting for her answer, I crouched down and started gathering the fried chicken from the floor, placing each piece into the big container she was holding.

When we finished cleaning up, the two of us sat by the window, leaning against the wall.

“…Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

After a short silence, she finally thanked me weakly, and I gave a simple reply.

“…”

Only the ticking of the clock filled the quiet space between us.

…This is awkward.

Maybe she felt it too, because after a moment, she finally started talking.

“Arata, he pushed past me, and it fell.”

“…Shindou did?”

“Yeah. It’s awful, right? I made it for him.”

She tried to smile, but tears were still streaming down her cheeks.

If it’s true that Shindou caused this, it’s hard to forgive.

And if he just left her like this… that’s even worse.

“I fried two kilos of chicken this morning because he said he liked it.”

That’s heavy. In every sense of the word. Not just emotionally, my stomach feels heavy just looking at it.

I wanted to make a joke, but she seemed serious, so I held it in.

“But he told me, ‘It’s too much. Just looking at it makes me feel sick.’”

Well, I kind of get it. That’s a lot of oil. Ugh.

“Isn’t that awful!? I worked so hard on it, and he said my feelings were too heavy…”

“W-Well… I don’t think he meant it that way exactly…”

“So I got mad. I worked so hard, and I just wanted him to eat before club practice to build some energy… but then this happened.”

“……”

There’s really no easy way to respond to that.

Throwing it on the floor wasn’t right, but forcing someone to eat that much wasn’t either.

If he ate all that before practice, he’d probably throw up.

A tear rolled down from the corner of her eye and soaked into the wooden floor.

Then, she smiled the next second.

“─Then I’ll just keep making it until he doesn’t think it’s gross anymore… Until the only thing he can think about is my fried chicken. So good he won’t be able to stop eating it.”

“…Wha—”

A weird sound came out of me. S-Scary, that’s actually scary…!

How did it turn into that…?

She sounded like she was talking about some kind of addictive snack. I swear, she’s planning to make it literally addictive. Is she always like this?

Her teary smile sent a chill down my spine. Still, I forced myself to speak.

“M-Maybe you shouldn’t do that…”

“…?”

Wait.

That’s not it. You don’t get it. Please, understand this part!

“What’s wrong with that?”

“T-that…”

“Hey, tell me?”