“Ow?!”
“Hey, you okay?”
I jammed my finger during a basketball game in PE — fumbled a teammate’s pass.
“Yuito, you’ve been zoning out all morning — what’s going on?”
“Yeah, completely somewhere else.”
“Did you pick something weird up off the floor and eat it?”
“It’s nothing, leave it.”
I waved my swelling finger at Kenji, Shou, and Kaito. I couldn’t exactly say I got confessed to by Kano.
“That reaction means something happened.”
“Don’t hold out on us, that’s cold.”
“Yeah, just spill it, get it off your chest.”
They started crowding me.
“I’m hitting the nurse’s office — story for later.”
I escaped the impending interrogation. Honestly I had no will to keep playing — I’d skip in the nurse’s office until the bell. On my way there I bumped into a familiar face.
“Oh, Yuito-kun. Hurt yourself?”
“Jammed a finger in basketball. What about you, Suzuno?”
“Burned my finger on a pan in cooking class.”
She showed me her right index — slightly red and swollen, nothing serious.
“Bad day for both of us, huh.”
“Yeah — I’ve always been clumsy, you know that.”
Clumsy really did suit Suzuno. The opposite of put-together Kano. We went in.
“Nurse isn’t here.”
“Yeah, must be out for something.”
The infirmary teacher was absent. I pulled tape and hydrocolloid bandages from the shelf.
“No telling when she’ll be back — let’s just patch ourselves up.”
“Yeah. Yuito-kun, can you tape it yourself? Or do you want me to?”
”…I’ll do it myself.”
I’d hesitated — but went with my own hands. Felt bad to Kano otherwise. Plus, Suzuno’s clumsy — faster to do it myself than have her try.
“1-1 has cooking class today, huh. What are you making?”
“Gratin in my group. Burned my finger making the white sauce.”
“You always do something during cooking.”
“Yeah, near-burns, finger burns — disaster. If it had been Sis, this definitely wouldn’t have happened.”
Suzuno placed a hydrocolloid on her finger as she said it. Where I have an inferiority complex about my brother, Suzuno idolizes her sister.
That’s a difference between us and them. Same-age twins versus a two-year sister gap probably explains a lot.
(For the record, the reason I don’t call him Ayato is I don’t want to think of him as a same-age peer. Calling him big bro lets me justify being below him.)
“Speaking of Sis — she was super cheery when she got home yesterday. Do you know why, Yuito-kun?”
“N-no, no idea.”
It was almost certainly about confessing to me, but I played dumb. If Suzuno found out, it would reach my brother almost guaranteed. Cannot.
“Hmm. I hadn’t seen Sis that happy in a long time, I’m dying to know — she wouldn’t tell me.”
“Kano-san probably has things she doesn’t share with you. Anyway, shouldn’t you head back? You’re in the middle of cooking, right?”
I redirected. Too much talking and I could slip.
“Right, I have to go back.”
“Hey — don’t run, it’s dangerous.”
Sure enough, Suzuno tripped on the doorsill. (I caught her from behind right before she fell.)
“Yuito-kun, thanks. Okay, this time I’m really going.”
She left. Alone in the room, my mood crashed. I’d grabbed her from behind, full-body, and she’d shown absolutely no embarrassment.
“Yeah — she really doesn’t see me as a guy…”
If it had been my brother she’d have gone scarlet. If I gathered the courage to confess like Kano did, would Suzuno start seeing me as a man?
I stood there thinking that until the end-of-class bell.