The Case of My Unknown Childhood Friend Who Became My Girlfriend Without Me Even Knowing It - Chapter 1 - Unknown Childhood Friend

Chapter 1 – Unknown Childhood Friend

The name Sakatoki Aya did not ring a bell.

I first heard the name a little after I entered high school.

One of my classmates asked me about someone by that name.

“What kind of person is Sakatoki-san?”

I never understood the question at all.

I seriously tilted my head and wondered who that person was, but the person who asked the question turned to me and said, “Again, you’re acting like a tsundere.”

The response also did not make sense.

I laughed at the moment and fooled myself into thinking he was confusing me with someone else, but…

From that day onwards, I often heard her name.

It was always the boys who asked.

What do you and Sakatoki-san usually talk about?

How long have you known Sakatoki-san?

What do you call Sakatoki-san?

Repeated questions about this Sakatoki person.

I was finally scared.

It’s impossible not to be horrified by these persistent questions about people you’ve never met and don’t even know who they are.

One day, about three days after I first heard her name.

I asked the opposite question.

“Who is Sakatoki Aya?”

When I said that to one of my classmates…

He laughed and said, “Pfft.”

And so did all the people around us.

“What are you talking about?” he said with a laugh.

Soon the laughter was contagious, and all the classmates were laughing and giggling happily.

As if he was stating the obvious…

He said to me,

“What are you talking about? She’s your childhood friend, isn’t she?”

◇

I never had a great yearning for a childhood friend.

I don’t know if it’s because of that or not, but I don’t have anyone I can call a childhood friend.

I can’t really call them childhood friends, because I have some childhood acquaintances, but none of them have stayed in touch with me to this day…

One of the reasons may be that my parents relocated and I don’t have any hometowns.

Still, I didn’t have much need to stick to one person, so maybe I wasn’t attached to childhood friends…

In other words,

Popularity.

Ever since primary school, I have always been popular with girls.

I, Enjou Kanata, have always been popular with girls, and I take pride in that.

Maybe it’s because of my face, I’m not narcissistic or anything, but I’m aware of it.

Every Valentine’s Day I get a lot of chocolate from the girls in my year group.

At my junior high school graduation ceremony, a group of junior girls from a fan club that had formed on its own fainted from grief.

It is more insulting to say that I’m not popular when things like these have happened.

That’s why I’m definitely popular.

It’s just that I’ve never had a girlfriend.

It’s not that I’m a misogynist or anything, it’s just that I didn’t like any of the girls.

I know it’s an audacious obsession, but I want my first girlfriend to be someone I fall in love with.

With such expectations, I started living on my own in high school and began a new life in a new place.

Why would I have a childhood friend like that?

And where I live now, I’m not even local, I’ve only recently moved to the countryside.

There’s no way I would have a childhood friend in a place like this.

I must be mistaken for someone else.

I’ve been in high school for almost a month now .

Before the first major holiday, I walked the streets alone after school, trying to find places to play around here…

It was heartwarming.

And the breeze was cool..

As if to wipe away the fatigue caused by the daily unintelligible questions about the person Aya Sakatoki.

Here, I was passing through the shopping street in the center of Ensaka, heading towards the sea.

Soon, the bustle of people faded away and I could faintly smell the scent of the tide.

I could see the sea.

The place, which used to be a prosperous port with a lot of ferry traffic, was now a lonely place with only a few fishermen.

I came up there and sat on the breakwater and looked towards the sea.

Only the slightly higher sound of the waves echoed erratically.

This is a nice place, it really is.

In the city where I previously lived in, it was convenient and there were lots of shops, so I was never bored.

But there were so many people that I couldn’t tell who was who.

It was kind of cramped.

I didn’t move because of that, but as it turned out, it was the right decision to apply to a rural school.

Fuuh~. I hope I have a good meeting here.

Sakatoki… Who the hell is she?

Maybe she’s an urban legend from this town?

If so, it seems a little persistent, even for a prank…

Reflecting on the mysterious events of the past few days, the wind eventually got stronger  and I tried to leave.

As I stood up, someone sat down next to me.

“……”

The girl sat down silently.

She was a petite girl in a white dress with a straw hat.

I couldn’t see her face, but from her height and atmosphere, I’d say she was the same age or a little younger.

With that in mind, I continued what I was doing.

At that moment, a girl said, “Ah.”

The straw hat danced in the wind.

It gently flew toward the sea, and then plopped down.

It continued to ride the waves and drifted offshore.

However, the girl just looked at that situation.

Well, it’s windy today.

With these thoughts in mind, I turned around again and went back towards the shopping street.

◇

“Today I’d like to introduce you to a new student.”

In the morning homeroom.

The class became a little noisy when our male homeroom teacher said that.

A new student in the countryside.

A man or a woman? What kind of person is coming?

I didn’t know, of course.

But the people around me seemed to already know the new student, or had heard about them through rumors.

“I’m looking forward to it,” I could hear them say.

I could imagine that it was a girl, seeing the boys were so excited.

Soon, the classroom door rattled.

A little petite girl came in from there.

A fair-skinned beauty with semi-long shiny black hair and large sharp eyes.

Do I know her from somewhere? No. Maybe it’s that girl with the straw hat yesterday?

She was in front of the podium as I tried to figure out the nature of my deja vu to a new student I was supposed to be meeting for the first time.

“My name is Sakatoki Aya. I look forward to get along with you all from now on.”

Hearing her introduce herself woke me from my morning slumber.

Sakatoki Aya.

She said she was Sakatoki Aya.

The name of the new student whom I shouldn’t have known.

I knew it somehow.

And every one of my classmates knew her name.

“Then, Sakatoki, take the empty seat in the back.”

The teacher urged her to sit down next to me, which, by chance or necessity, was vacant…

I looked at her, as a matter of course.

People have been asking me a lot of questions about her.

I look at her figure seriously, wondering if I know her.

But I still don’t recognize her.

The name Sakatoki Aya is not in my past memory, and I have no recollection of it.

I wondered what this all meant.

I thought maybe they knew she was transferring for some reason and they were just making fun of me, a non-local who didn’t know about the situation…

Eventually, I turned to look forward, and that’s when she looked at me and smiled.

Like poison…

With her relaxed, neat face, which still has the appearance of a child, she said…

“Long time no see, Kanata-kun.”