After a Heartbreak, My Bitter Childhood Friend is now Sweet Like Sugar - V1 Chapter 0.5 Part 1
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- V1 Chapter 0.5 Part 1
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Chapter 0.5 part 1: Senpai, My Love
I was in junior high school when I first met her.
At that time, I didn’t fit in with the people around me any more than I do now, and I was drunk with myself being alone. That’s what adolescents tend to be like.
I was kind of shy about hanging out in groups and having a sense of friendship, and I was somewhat condescending – I was a jerk. Well, I’m not so sure if I am a good guy now.
Anyway, being such a negative person, I often left the classroom during lunch break to find a place where I could feel at ease and alone. When I was alone, someone might be cautious and talk to me or invite me to something. I wanted to avoid that.
As much as possible.
I tried to find a place where I wouldn’t be seen by my classmates.
One day, I opened the door to the rooftop, which was supposed to be off-limits.
What I heard was a song.
A beautiful song that soothed me from deep within my heart.
In the middle of the rooftop, stepping lightly as if dancing, the owner of the voice, a short-haired female student, continued to sing without noticing any sign of anyone else entering the rooftop. It was a nostalgic and famous Japanese song that was popular when I was in elementary school.
Eventually, she stopped singing.
The owner of the voice stretched out with a satisfied smile on her face, then finally noticed my presence and… froze.
“Are you listening to me, by any chance?”
“Ah… Well… Yes.”
Apparently, it was something I shouldn’t have been listening to.
“…………”
The schoolgirl’s face turned red like a boiled octopus.
“Kyaaaaaahhh! I’m so embarrassed! Seriously? Did you really listen to that? Hey, seriously? Seriously?”
“Shall I forget…?”
“No, you can’t do that!”
“Let’s see… I’ll remember that.”
“Forget it!”
What am I supposed to do?
She was a quarrelsome schoolgirl in spite of her beautiful voice.
That was my earliest impression.
“Well, I thought no one would come here. So, what brings you here?”
“I was looking for a place where there were no people. I like to be by myself.”
“Hmm, you don’t have any friends?”
“It’s not that I don’t have friends, I just don’t make any. Anyway Senpai, may I ask what brings you here?”
“Oh, what makes you think I’m a senior?”
“From the year pin. I’m a second-year student and you’re a third-year student.”
At this junior high school, the year pin is attached to the collar of the uniform.
“Oh, I see. Well, I’ve been practicing my singing here.”
“Singing practice?”
“Yeah. I wanted to start a band.”
“You want to start a band? Does this mean you’re not in a band?”
“No, not at all. I only thought about it yesterday.”
“So you practice here on the roof?”
“I think it’s just the right amount of feel. I thought that if I sang on the rooftop, I could practice better because there would be no one around.”
“You were embarrassed when someone actually showed up.”
“I wasn’t expecting anyone to actually show up! You’d be embarrassed if you were in my place.”
Yeah, I would be embarrassed if someone saw me singing.
“But you can’t just start practicing. You don’t even know if you’ll actually do it, do you?”
“They say, When you think of something, that’s the best day to do it. I’ve always lived by the slogan, Do It Now And Not Later. When you feel like doing something, that’s the time to do it, and you have to do it. If it doesn’t suit you, you can stop. Don’t waste your time hesitating or worrying about it.”
“You live like a wild boar.”
“Haha, I like that. I like it. It’s very positive and it feels like a compliment.”
I didn’t mean it as a compliment.
But I think by that time I was already fascinated by the Senpai who replied like this.
She was cheerful and straightforward, as the sun, and I began to think that it would be fun if I could live like her.
I began to think that she could be a guidepost for me, who had been spending my days rebelling against my class, thinking only of not fitting in, and not even knowing where I wanted to go.
I found myself visiting the rooftop every day during lunch break.
With Senpai’s song playing in the background, I would lie down and read a book.
…