About ten days after I checked in, I finally got discharged. Now I was about to head back to school for the first time in a while, and even though I hadn’t been gone a full two weeks, it felt like ages.
“Hope the classes haven’t gotten too out of control…”
My school, Amaki High, is a decent prep school, which means the pace of classes is fast — so this was the single biggest source of my anxiety.
My grades are already below the class average to begin with. Missing close to two weeks on top of that is not a great situation. Worst case, I’m staring down a failing-grade spiral.
I’m thinking all that on the walk to school when I notice a familiar pair stepping out of a nearby café. They’ve each got a plastic cup of something in hand — probably grabbed a coffee on the way.
“Oh — Ryouya-kun! Morning!”
“Ryouya. Morning.”
“Morning, Tsurugi-san.”
The instant I said that, both of them visibly frowned.
“I literally told you you can just use mine and Riona’s first names.”
“Ryouya, I demand a do-over of that greeting.”
“Sorry, sorry. Reona, Riona — good morning. Satisfied now?”
“Mm. I forgive you.”
“Nee-chan and I are now satisfied.”
That was Reona and Riona, in that order. Ever since the day they first showed up at the hospital, they’ve come to visit every single day, so by now we’re on pretty familiar terms.
That’s also why Reona calls me “Ryouya-kun” and Riona just calls me “Ryouya.” They both asked me to drop the honorifics with them too, but it still feels strange, and frankly a little embarrassing.
If I’m honest, calling a girl by her first name — and dropping the honorific on top of that — feels like a big leap to me. But they asked so insistently I couldn’t refuse.
“Hey, though, I’m pretty sure I’ve never run into you two on the walk to school in the morning. What’s the occasion today?”
“Ah — we were craving the new Stellabucks drink, so Riona and I made a detour.”
“That’s why we’re still around at this hour.”
I see. Unlike me — I always cut my arrival time as fine as possible — Reona and Riona normally leave with plenty of margin. That’d explain why I’d never bumped into them on the morning walk.
“That’s right, today’s your first day back, isn’t it? Welcome out of the hospital.”
“Thanks. I’ve been depressed all morning thinking about everything I have to catch up on.”
“You missed a lot of class material, for sure.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. The finals in July are giving me nightmares already.”
The three of us had stopped to chat when I suddenly remembered my homeroom teacher had told me to come to the staff room before class. If we kept chatting much longer I was going to be late.
”…Anyway, homeroom teacher wants me — I’ll head on ahead.”
I told that to Reona and Riona, ready to peel off. Honestly I would’ve liked to keep walking with them, but a Mob Character B like me showing up at school alongside the two school-caste top-tier main characters would be a disaster.
“Got it. We’d better hurry too, then.”
“Let’s go.”
Apparently Reona and Riona had every intention of walking with me. Realizing my earlier line had been too oblique, I tried again.
“Walking in together’ll just give the rest of the school weird ideas, right? Better if we go in separately.”
“Even if people misunderstand, we’re fine.”
“It doesn’t bother us. Or — Ryouya, you don’t want to…?”
“N-no, that’s not it, but—”
“Then there’s no problem, is there?”
I’d given it my best, lost completely, and now I had no choice but to nod. The three of us started toward school together — and the volume of looks I was getting from every direction was unbearable.
In contrast, Reona and Riona walked along utterly unbothered. Fair enough; two girls this beautiful are probably used to being stared at.
“Are you happy to be back at school, Ryouya?”
“Hmm, not really. Class material’s way ahead of me, so mostly I’m just depressed. Plus, you know — loner, no one’s been waiting around worrying about me.”
If Reona or Riona had been gone a whole week and showed back up, everyone would mob them with a hero’s welcome. For me, the most I could expect was a vague “Oh, you were out?”
“That’ll be fine — Riona and I can take care of supporting you.”
“No, no, I’m good on that front, thanks.”
If Reona or Riona — two people I’d had zero prior contact with — suddenly started hovering around me at school or in class, the negative attention would be catastrophic. As I was thinking that, I noticed something off about the two of them.
“‘Good on that front,’ meaning… wait, are you saying you want some other girl to take care of you?”
“That’s not really something I can accept.”
“Wh-why are you suddenly talking about other girls? I don’t even have any same-gender friends in class. There is no way in hell I have a ‘close girl’ anywhere.”
Under that vaguely smothering pressure I couldn’t quite name, I blurted out the truth — and the moment I did, the ominous aura around both of them lifted in a single clean instant.
“Oh, that’s right. Until recently, Ryouya-kun’s contacts list didn’t have anyone in it but family. There wouldn’t be a girl, would there.”
“True. Ryouya’s a loner, so there was no need to worry.”
”…Could you ladies please stop dealing critical hits to my mental in the most casual possible way?”
Hearing it out loud forces me to confront reality, and it leaves me feeling profoundly hollow. Chatting like that as we walked, we eventually made it to school.