The unsettled feeling stayed through the rest of Arashiyama, and we moved to tonight’s hotel. The rooms were split by gender, so I obviously wasn’t going to be with Reona or Riona.
After dinner I was in the large bath. Walking all day meant the heat was sinking deep into my muscles — good.
“Hey, did you hear? Maeda from basketball confessed to Tsurugi the elder at Arashiyama and got rejected.”
“Wait, that guy got rejected?”
A pair of guys at the washing station were having that conversation, and the comfortable bath atmosphere went sideways.
“She’s always been a fortress. Confirmed, apparently.”
“Hey — that guy who’s always with the Tsurugi sisters? Isn’t he in the way?”
“Right? They’re harder to talk to with him around.”
Apparently that was the read I was generating. The looks were one thing — hearing this out loud was worse. The two guys didn’t realize I was in the tub.
I’d asked Reona and Riona once whether I was a bother and gotten a firm no, but if my mere existence was making them harder to approach for everyone else — then I was the problem.
The afternoon’s confession plus this hit me hard, and I — quietly — got dressed and left the hotel.
Leaving the hotel without permission was not allowed, but a loner like me vanishing was probably going to register on nobody. I’d be back by roll call.
“This area is all couples.”
The Kamogawa riverside, where I’d ended up walking, had couples sitting at evenly spaced intervals. Apparently a spot.
I’d been walking aimlessly along the river and got tired, so I sat down too.
“The sound of a river is — settling.”
I just stared at the moving water. Healing. Sometime later I sensed someone behind me.
“What—!?”
I turned around. Reona and Riona. How. I’d left without telling anyone, and they had pinpointed me. Tracking-device-tier accuracy.
“Ryouya-kun, found you, we were looking.”
“You vanished, we were worried.”
I’d half-expected accusations, but they were openly concerned. They sandwiched me from both sides.
“Why did you bolt without telling us?”
“If you have something on your mind, Nee-chan and I want to hear it.”
“I’m just — we live in different worlds, you and I.”
Since the rescue, we’d been together constantly, but otherwise I would never have spoken a word to them. Mob Character B me and popular Reona-and-Riona were that different.
“That’s what you’re worried about? You don’t need to be.”
“Trivial, from our angle.”
“But because of me, you guys are missing out on opportunities.”
If I was a brake on their lives, distancing myself was the answer. The least I — having loner-disqualified-fallen for them — could do.
“Opportunities that I’d lose by being with Ryouya-kun are opportunities I don’t want.”
“Don’t even count those as opportunities.”
They said it without hesitation. They meant it.
“So if you’re thinking of distancing yourself out of concern for our happiness, please — don’t.”
“If you did that, not even Ryouya would be forgiven.”
The eyes that said that contained a blackhole-tier darkness. In manga terms, the highlights had gone out.
“All right — that’s resolved. Back to the hotel.”
“Before they notice we’re out.”
“Oh — roll call.”
We stood and walked back toward the hotel. I was already feeling lighter than when I’d snuck out. I am simple.
”…So how did you find me?”
“Maiden’s secret.”
“If Ryouya-kun becomes Ryouka-chan again, we might tell.”
The dodge was clear. I dropped it. Not asking further was the right call, I suspected.