Episode 22 – Iida Sora’s Past

After Saara Ayado aka Ayato moved far away, I entered the local elementary school.
I remember feeling like my house suddenly became bigger, even though only one kindergartener no longer came to my house.

Class sizes were large and I made only a few friends.
When the school year changed, classes changed and I was separated from my friends.
I would make new friends and then change classes again. This was repeated until graduation.
I think it was normal ……. I made friends, studied, played, and graduated.

When I entered junior high school, I went to a different school from the friends I had become friends with as if we were aiming for the same thing.
When you change schools, you meet fewer and fewer people.
I had to start all over again in junior high school.

My grades were good, but my athletics were not so good.
Even so, I was never a gloomy person, and I was reasonably cheerful at school.

That’s right.
I was normal.
I was an ordinary student anywhere, and that was me, Iida Sora, in the sixth grade.

Every school has its own group of delinquents, and even the school’s teachers have their hands full with them.
But perhaps it is not these groups that are the real nuisance.

I knew from class conversations that a group of girls were playing around, but they did not have a bad reputation among the teachers.
No one screwed up enough to cause anything untoward to happen within sight of the faculty.
I had no idea what exactly the girls were doing either.

That probably wasn’t a good thing.

“Please stay in the classroom after school.”

In the fall of my third year of junior high school.
The letter was in my desk at the end of lunch break.
I joined a random soccer group on the playground, and when I went to take out my class textbook, I found it inside.

An envelope, a heart sticker, and a note inside.
As soon as I received it, I knew immediately that it was a love letter.
I had never received anything like that before, so I was excited.

(Finally, a girlfriend for me? !)

I remained in the classroom after school thinking such a foolish thing.

It was just me who was on duty today.
I was the one who was supposed to lock up the classroom.

–This is a good chance to wait!
Could it be that the person who put the letter in my mailbox is in the same class as me?

With this thought in mind, I waited in the empty classroom.

It had been about ten minutes since anyone had been there.
I touched my phone, put it in my pocket, wandered around, sat in my chair, and scratched my head, feeling restless.
I tried to recall the face of each girl in my class, or the faces of the girls in other classes with whom I didn’t interact much.

Twenty minutes passed.
I opened my textbook and reviewed my studies.
Should I wait a little longer or should I leave now …… or if I leave now and get replaced, I’ll get this chance …….

Thirty minutes.
As expected, I was already becoming more irritated than fond.
As I crossed my arms and groaned, my eyes met those of the strict teacher, the head of the yearbook, who was passing by the …… class.

“Iida, isn’t it? What’s wrong?”
“Ah, no, it’s …….”
“What are you doing skipping club activities, it’s going to affect your homeroom teacher’s evaluation.”

I felt like I was guessing, but at the same time I thought it might have helped.
I thought it was not a good idea to wait any longer, so I locked the door to the class.
I took the love letter out of my pocket outside the classroom, put it away again, and headed home.
In the end, it was an uneventful day.

-The odd thing happened the next day.

When I walked into class, there were a bunch of people looking at me strangely.
When I turned to look at them, they looked away and were giggling about something.
I touched my hair to see if I had a sleeping habit, and looked at my shirt and collar, but there was nothing wrong.

Tilting my head, I talk to my usual friend.

“Good morning.”
“Ah, …….”
“What’s up?”

I received a brusque response and tried to ask what was going on, but was brushed off.
The other friends took the form of almost ignoring me.

Homeroom comes and the homeroom teacher arrives.
The homeroom teacher does not notice the discomfort at all.
The day ended without me knowing what was going on.

It was just a coincidence, just for today.
Maybe that’s what I wanted to think.
The atmosphere of the class remained the same the next day, and the day after that, and all the way to …….
Even the obviously flirtatious ones were grinning at me.
……What, did I do something wrong?

One day, the friend who greeted me first thing in the morning on the first day of my discomfort called me on the way out of school.
What he silently showed me was a group chat.

“…… this is it.”

There, a woman, the class leader, was showing off a love letter she had put in my desk.
Below that, I was being photographed with a smartphone camera from another school building, and a tree with the words, “I’m waiting for your false confession, Iida kun!”

“I’m grinning and it’s funny.”
“I took a video of him twitching now – gross!”
“I’m starting to get annoyed, too cocky to wait for a girl, aren’t you?”

The photos that appear over and over again clearly show what I’ve been waiting for with the time of posting and the tilt of the sunlight.

“Hey …… what the hell is this ……?”

I despaired.
I was the target of a false confession.

“This is the committee member who seems to be on the …… chat section, but I don’t see her name.”

What is troubling is that the girl is a class committee member, is not flashy in appearance, and has excellent grades.
Even if she is unskilled on the inside, she can study as hard as she wants.
Teachers who are about to take an entrance examination consider this aspect to be the same as the inside of the student.

There is no appeal. First of all, she’s going to spread it by showing this miserable figure to the teachers?
The teachers will see me like this and spread the word.
Moreover, the culprit may not be confirmed.
I don’t want…. that. ……!

“I was shown it recently too, it’s not safe for them to know what we talked about.”

The friend in front of me said.

“If they find out, I’ll be the target for sure. Starting tomorrow, don’t talk to me.”
“…… …… Okay, thanks.”
“No hard feelings.”

I can’t begrudge my friend for telling me this, even though I’m grateful to him.
I can’t, but …… now I have no one on my side.

The majority of the class knew who I was, and that I had been deceived.

My first thought upon learning of this

(I don’t want to stand out …… from anyone or anything, I don’t want to be noticed by anyone or anything ……)

I grew my bangs longer.
I don’t go out anymore.
I have changed my clothes to less conspicuous colors.
I also got a hat in a subdued color so that I would be less visible.

In the latter half of junior high school, I did not play with anyone, but quietly attended classes and studied.

I wanted to get away from my hometown.
But for my parents, the deal was that I would only go as far as a short train ride away.
Looking back, I think they must have noticed something.
Even so, my mother never pursued me to ask about it.

The current high school, Kirika Gakuen High School, is quite far away by train.
I wanted to reset myself to a state where I knew no one.

However.

“…… I’m Iida Sora….. Pleased to meet you.”

In the end, I couldn’t forget the atmosphere of that class and spent the year with my …… bangs down, looking inconspicuous.

Being inconspicuous was easy once I got used to it.
No one expects anything from you. Nothing goes wrong.
So I thought that nothing had to change.

–Until I met Ayado Saara again.