After a Heartbreak, My Bitter Childhood Friend is now Sweet Like Sugar - Chapter 4.4

Chapter 4.4 – Uneasiness after Incident

A few days later.

“Hey, hey, this one. That omelet looks delicious. Can I have some? Can I? Mmm, Kokocchi is a real angel! You’re the best! God! Itadakimasu!”

Kasugai said in a normal high-pitch tone and reached for Kokoa’s lunchbox with her chopsticks. She threw an omelet into her mouth and enjoyed it.

“Mmm, it’s delicious. Kokocchi, this tastes like a gentle mom’s cooking. Can I call you mom? Is it okay? … Kokocchi?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, that’s fine. Huh? Wait… I don’t want to be called mom…! What are you talking about? Please stop!”

For a moment, she almost agreed, but as if she understood the meaning of the words, she hurriedly denied it.

“I mean, you’ve been a little fuzzy for a while. Are you feeling okay?”

“What? … No, no! It’s nothing special!”

She tried to keep her composure, but she couldn’t hide her agitation.

The scene from gym class, when Kokoa was harassed by some girls in volleyball, popped into my mind. I also remembered what Kasugai told me afterward.

“Are you sure nothing is going on?”

“It’s nothing. It’s just that I was up late last night and couldn’t think straight. It was Yū’s fault that I was so absorbed in the game.”

“Game? … Don’t tell me you bought that game just to beat me? I would have lent it to you if you told me.”

“It wouldn’t be a surprise then! I wanted to surprise you by suddenly becoming strong.”

“Ah!”

Her cheeks turned red.

“A-anyway, I’m completely fine.”

I hope that’s the case…

“Hey. I have a favour to ask.”

It was Kazama who asked.

“I can’t take it anymore. Can you guys please share a bit from your lunch with me?”

It was lunchtime, but Kazama hadn’t eaten anything since a while ago.

“What’s wrong with you? Are you on a diet or something?”

“I don’t have money to buy lunch.”

“Why?”

“Yesterday, I found a kid who got mugged at the game center. I gave him all the money I had in my wallet to show off.”

“Wait! Why were you trying to show off? Why didn’t you think before giving him all the money?”

“I know, but you shouldn’t go into details when you’re trying to get to the top.”

“I’d hate to be the head of an organization that doesn’t think about the details.”

“Shusuke, you’re so annoying. I’ll start making lunches for you tomorrow, just like Kokocchi is doing for Yucchi.”

“Huh? But Kasugai, you buy your lunch from the departmental store, right?”

“Yes, my cooking is terrible. I want to get better, but I don’t want to taste it myself. I thought it would be good if there’s someone who can taste it for me.”

“You’re going to use me as a guinea pig?”

Indeed, her writing was terrible, and I had a hunch that those who had bad handwriting also are bad at cooking. Guess I wasn’t wrong.

However, even during such a pleasant conversation, Kokoa was still a bit absent-minded.

… Is she all right?

After school, I got a text from Kokoa.

She said she had some errands, so she wanted me to go home first.

|| “What errands?”

|| “It’s a secret… No big deal, so please don’t pry into it.”

|| “I’m curious.”

|| “Yū, you’re too persistent. I told you it’s not a big deal. I won’t be replying anymore!”

Hmm, too suspicious…

I was worried about her since lunchtime, so I decided to drop by her classroom, but she was nowhere to be found.

If I were to trust her story, she said she had some work, so I’m sure she’s somewhere in the school.

I’m kind of worried about her. I’ll look around for a bit.

Understanding After Thinking

At the back of the club building, there was a room labelled as “Light Music Club.”

The club’s name was written on it, but it wasn’t an official club, just an empty room. I wondered if the school had approved it in the past.

There were no more applicants for the club, and it was no longer able to maintain its identity as one, so on paper, it had been discontinued and turned into a mere hangout.

Up until a few months ago, two students used to gather here and play without permission, but one of them died in a traffic accident, and the other one left the club soon after that.

The first one was Senpai, and the other was me.

As I wandered around the school looking for Kokoa, I stumbled upon this place that I hadn’t felt like approaching for a long time.

I didn’t want to enter this room since that day.

She shouldn’t be in a place like this, though.

In the mailbox beside the club room, I found a duplicate key made by Senpai, who used to be a member of this club. When I checked inside the mailbox, I found that it was still there like.

I took the key and opened the door to the club room. I stepped inside the cold room. Naturally, there was no one inside. The air was a little dusty, probably because no one had been in the room for a while.

In the center of the room was a desk where she used to sit and played the guitar for fun, left in the same condition as it was back then.

The guitar, still untidy, seemed to be waiting for her to come back. Like a scene from a movie, unable to move on to the next one. It is as if time has stopped in this place.

“Have you ever heard of the ‘color bath effect’ or the ‘cocktail party effect’? Humans have a natural tendency to collect information that we want to see. Even though we are bombarded with all sorts of information, we desperately search for what we want to see and interpret it the way we want to. It’s called a filter. It’s similar to preconceptions. I think this is called the labelling effect.”

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“I’m actually a negative person. It’s the truth. If I’m not careful, I can easily get screwed. I know about myself, so I try to collect as much positive information as possible, even about my name, Reiko Aida. It’s not a bad name, though, but you know, ‘Rei’ means ‘zero’ in short. Oh, please don’t laugh. I’m the type of person who is sensitive about these things.”

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“Zero is cool? Well, I don’t think so. So, I’m going to try to move forward as much as possible, and I’m going to try to keep my vision as clear as possible so that I can look forward… Huh? What are you trying to say? I have to clean this room now!”

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“It’s not good to look into your eyes when you’re down. First of all, you need to correct your perceptions. The illness starts with the mind, and a dirty room is a dirty mind. When you’re feeling down, you need to clean your room. It’s not good to let it be the same as before.”

Suddenly, I remembered what she said a long time ago.

She once said the same thing as Kokoa.

“Haha… why am I smiling?”

I don’t know what’s so funny, but I found myself smiling naturally.

That’s right. Now that I’ve come all this way…

I picked up her guitar, which she had left out, and packed it in the case.

Someday, this room might be used by some club. It would be bad to leave the room in a mess, and they might get angry with Senpai for doing so.

One by one, I put the clutter back in its original place.

It was like the movie that had been stopped finally moved on to the next scene.

Somehow, that’s how I felt.