C22 – DAISUKI ◇ Hiria – Impatient MTL Reader

There was an incident.

Just before the summer vacation, I suddenly lost contact with Nekura-kun.

Suddenly, he stopped replying to my e-mails that I used to send him.

The last thing we exchanged was a story about natto aliens.

That day, I went out with my junior high school friends and bought some expensive natto on the way home. I ate it and it was so delicious that I sent him a text message at night, and he had some free time, so we had a short exchange.

I wrote that natto aliens would cry ‘Natto~u!　Natto~u!’ and he suggested ‘Nebanebe’ for the sound, to which I responded with ‘Nebanebafunbabba’. That was the last time.

At first, I thought he had fallen asleep, so I went to bed too. It wasn’t an email that required much of a response.

However, when the first day of school approached and I sent another message to meet at the second library, there was no reply.\

[Nebanebafunbabba]

I stared at the last email I sent. Looking at it this way, it’s too silly and too flippant. I wanted to smack myself and ask what was so fun about it. I wonder if he was having trouble answering. However, the more silly it is, the sadder it is to be ignored.

But I don’t want to think that he hates me for this, and I don’t think he’s that kind of person.

I wondered if something had happened to him. At a time like this, if you don’t know who the other person is, all you can do is worry.

I panicked at home and went to school by myself, so I couldn’t even do a proper job as one of the few class council members at the roll call for the opening ceremony.

When I was absent-minded, Sakura-kun had already done everything, so I was once again the pompous one who didn’t do any work.

After the ceremony, I sat dazed at my desk for a while, but then I went to the second library.

No one was there. Even though I knew there was no sign of anyone, I called out quietly, ‘Nekura-kun’. Calling him made me even sadder.

I don’t have any friends at school that I can talk to in this situation.

I walked out the door. I was getting impatient, and I was walking too fast.

At any rate, I wanted to eliminate the possibility that something unfortunate had happened. With that in mind, I went to the staff room and asked Masuda- sensei if any second or third-year students were absent. He said that everyone was in good health and that no one, in particular, was absent.

This meant that he was still coming to school as usual.

It wasn’t because of any unavoidable circumstances, accident, or illness that I couldn’t contact him. This reassured me, but at the same time, it made me wonder why then.

I ruminated on the last exchange over and over again.

No matter how many times I thought about it, it was stupid and silly, and it made me feel ashamed that I was seriously ruminating about it.

When I returned to the classroom, Sakura-kun had just finished greeting the girls and was walking out quickly, along with his bag.

I suddenly remembered the summer vacation. That’s right. I had told him that I had a crush.

Just as he was about to pass by, I grabbed his sleeve and pulled him to the window.

“Sa, Sakura-kun!”

“Uwa, what’s wrong, Saionji-san?”

He replied, but his expression and voice were firmer than when I encountered him outside.

Somehow, I felt that the other person didn’t feel as close to me as I thought, and I felt timid, but since I had spoken to him, I whispered the rest of my words.

“I’ve lost contact with the person I like.”

“Etto…What do you mean?”

“I can’t go into details, but …..his phone is out of reach, or rather, he’s not responding to my messages.”

Sakura-kun thought for a while and then said as if he had an idea.

” I wonder if he went overseas. Maybe he forgot to contact you…”

“O, overseas?”

“Yeah, something came up at work or something…”

“He’s a high schooler!”

“Eh? High schooler means… those high school students?”

It seems that in Sakura-kun’s mind, the person I like is an adult. I mean, I feel like I could contact him even if he was overseas.

When I was dazed with a distant look, feeling conflicted about something trivial, Sakura-kun turned his head and said.

” Don’t worry. If you try contacting again after a while, …it might get through.”

If it’s a normal acquaintance, there are many ways to get in touch with them: school, class, phone number, home, messaging apps, social networking sites, and so on. With Nekura-kun, I only exchanged my e-mail address. I couldn’t be bothered to explain how fragile my relationship with him was.

If it were me, I’d think, ‘Well, it can’t be helped, maybe they don’t get along that well ’.

“If this is the case…”

The tears came up so fast that I couldn’t continue speaking.

It might look like Sakura-kun made me cry. The thought of having to stop crying made me calm down.

When I said, “Sorry, it’s okay.”, Sakura-kun didn’t say anything, but looked a little troubled and didn’t move.

I took a deep breath, thanked him, rubbed my eyes, and went back to the classroom.

About what I thought earlier.

If this is the case, I should have told him how I felt.

That’s right. It’s not too late even now.

I’ll leave a message.

No one seemed to be coming to the second library as usual. On the surface, it seemed that the library committee members used it occasionally, but in reality, no one ever came to the library, and it was too moldy and full of stuff to be used for couples’ secret meetings. Even if there was something in there, no one but Nekura-kun would see it.

A note would be too small to be noticed, so I decided to make a larger message.

That’s when I got an idea. I rushed home to carry out my idea.

I decided to bake cookies. I had received yakisoba bread and rice balls from Nekura-kun, but I hadn’t returned any of them.

Fortunately, I have an alphabet mold at home.

I stamped out “DAISUKI” and baked it. (TN: Daisuki literally means ‘love you lots’ . But here it is used to say ‘I love you’ And it is spelled in English.)

It was a little popular among my friends when I was in junior high school.

It was a game where we would spell out our nicknames or something like ‘NINJIN’, ‘OKOME’, ‘TO BE CONTINUED’ or other jokes.

It’s been a long time since I’ve done this, so I wasn’t sure if I could do it right, but once I tried, I was able to remember how to do it and I was able to make it right.

After baking them, I put each letter in a small transparent bag and took them to school. Before going to the classroom, I went to the second library and entered the area behind the bookshelves.

I didn’t feel comfortable placing them directly on the floor, so I laid out colored drawing paper and tried to place the cookie pouches impatiently.

They were surprisingly small when I lined them up, and I was worried that he wouldn’t notice.

When I thought of the idea, I thought it would make a cute confession, and it seemed like a great idea. But I probably should have just written it in big letters on a piece of drawing paper with a sign pen.

No, I’ve already baked it, so let’s go with that.

After reviewing it a few times, I left the room.

After school, I overheard a leak that Masuda-sensei was looking for a class representative, and I rushed to the second library to escape. Making Sakura-kun into a sacrifice. Sorry.

And thus, the messages I had laid out there were gone.

Someone’s been here. It must have been Nekura-kun during recess.

That thought made my face hot.

I wonder if he noticed my confession.

What should I do, I’ve said it.

I wonder what he thought.

All sorts of thoughts rushed through my mind, making my heart pound.

For a while, I was strangely buoyant, but the more the day went by, the calmer I became.

There was still no response from Nekura-kun.

Masuda-sensei was as hard on the people as ever, and the class committee members, in particular, were a total scapegoat. There were several times when I saw that Sakura-kun had been caught and felt a sense of danger, so I ran away and managed to get to the second library, but he was still not there. It would be unfair to Sakura-kun to run away every time.

After a while, I felt sad to go to the second library just to make sure there was no response, so I went there less often.

I was still unable to see Nekura-kun.

TN: That was indeed a cute confession… Let’s see how it was received by the other party… 😉