Golden Time:Volume3 Chapter2

Status: Incomplete

24% completed (estimated)

   

Golden Time 3: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tada Banri was checking his timing.

College first period, in the corner of the lobby.

While hiding himself stealthily by a column, he watched the students coming and going, mixing together, looking for the moment to jump out.

If you looked at him closely, he’d seem an ordinary guy, not very strange. And yet, with a ghost right next to him (mine!), sticking with him in the very same pose; if people had the least ability to see spirits, they'd see me, but it seems that such situations only exist in stories.

Banri, his back still stuck to the column, slowly stuck out his face, drawing it back at once. Concealing the pounding in his chest, he wondered if he could make his face more like Tom's in Mission Impossible, but unfortunately he could not. He was Japanese.

Some meters in front of the table, a few of the Omaken upperclassmen were seated. Linda was there too. There, in the club's territory, they were chattering away as always.

At first, Linda wasn't there. So Banri tried to get closer to the table, but noticing that Linda was coming from another direction saying "Good Morning!" and such, he had hidden here in a panic. And that's how it came to be like this.

He couldn't get any closer for now, but to make his retreat from here, getting close to that table was something he had to do, and Banri had become unable to move.

Still unaware of Banri being present in that way, Linda sat on the shallow bench, having fun chatting with the other guys about this and that.

Banri has been acting like this ever since the morning he ran away as soon as he saw Linda's face. He won't go near the places where the second-years are. If he happens to notice anybody that looks like Linda, he runs away instantly. Linda, nevertheless, sends him a text once every day. Did you come to school today? That kind of thing. But without answering, Banri continued to sneak away and hide.

Since the drinking party, he hadn't even shown his face to the Omaken upperclassmen. There were scheduled practices he hadn't gone to, and at present because of that something was going to happen, so of course it could not stay like this indefinitely.

"...Ahh... What to do..."

That was the truth! Looking up at Banri's face talking to himself, I told him. What will you do, Tada Banri?

Making a face like that, so miserably running from place to place. How long do you plan on going on like this!? Be firm! Be earnest!

Live life boldly!

---Of course, my voice doesn't even reach you.

"..."

Banri took a long breath and came out from behind the column. To look at him, he seemed a young soldier lost alone in enemy territory, seen dimly amongst the other students coming and going in the early afternoon.

I took a breath in the same way. Already tired of following along, even in Banri's hide and seek, I craned my neck to look over towards the table. At the table, or rather, at Linda.

Seated lightly with her hand stuffed in her pants pocket still, Linda was raising her voice in laughter at the joke of some guy he didn't know. From the pocket where her hand was still, a cell-phone strap protruded. Holding tightly to the cell-phone in her pocket, she was probably keeping on her wait for a reply from Banri. Linda was that kind of person.

That, Banri did not know.

He didn't know how pretty Linda's long hair was, nor how fast a runner she was, nor her sweet singing voice, nor how she was always wondering whether to get a piercing, nor even her pride at how her abs were about to break into a six-pack. And however gentle or cute she was, she was a splendidly willful person too... Banri knew nothing about Linda.

And so, not knowing how much Linda was worried about Banri, or how much she was restraining her emotions and not saying much in her text messages, even not knowing such things, she probably needed him.

It was intolerable.

To this body that understood Linda, Banri's attitude was unbearable.

If only I could step out, separate myself from Banri and snuggle up to Linda's side. Many a time, it was as if such thoughts were stirred up in me. If only I could hold wrap these hands around Linda's shoulders. If only I could caress her head, say "All's well!" and stick my nose into her hair like a puppy of the same litter. ...And yet, even just being able to sit next to her would be good enough. I want to be by her side.

Banri still hadn't moved. Hiding behind the column, hanging his head, he was troubled, looking as if he were about to cry. And so in the end, I continued in my presence at Banri's side.

Not moving from my, from Banri's side, was simply because of fear. If I were to separate myself from Banri's side, I have a feeling that really would be "the end." That Tada Banri's existence would be completely forgotten was scary. I'm scared that who I am, who I lived with, that all would be lost completely. And I'm scared of disappearing altogether.

For that reason, if I were to stop keeping an eye over Banri, a point of view would disappear from this world. Either way, I disappear. ...Perhaps.

Of course, I'm dead. I've known that. That's long over. I certainly understand that. Though I comprehended that, though I had already given up, yet still, to choose to step in out another direction from his own body was terrifying. There was an instinctive, primordial fear there, one he could not understand himself.

Unable to overcome that fear, the cowardly dead me had no choice but to continue hiding with Banri. ...For such as I, perhaps, may not have the right to say that I "cling tightly" to Banri.

At the Omaken table, just then, Kaga Kouko came into sight. Banri noticed, and his body went stiff.

Linda waved to her, calling "Ko-ko-chan," and made her sit next to her.

"Eh? Err, Tada-kun didn't come? But he said a little bit ago, 'I'll see you at the upperclassman's place.'"

"No, he hasn't come."

"Is that so? That's odd. I'll try calling him."

Kaga Kouko pulled out her cell-phone, with an elegant movement pulling back her hair to expose her ear.

Ma ma ma ma --- From Banri's back pocket started vibrating and jauntily playing a forgotten ringtone, at quite a volume.

Kaga Kouko lifted her surprised face, and looked over to the column where Banri and I were hiding.

Panicked, Banri tried to stop the melody, dropping the cell-phone in his impatience. Failing to pick it up, a private ring tone that, after saying only a few days ago "Gaga's good," Kouko had set in Banri's cell-phone, continued to play.

Po po po.

Pressing the button with his thumb, the melody finally stopped.

Holding his breath, Banri, his body ramrod straight, tried to become one with the pillar.

"..."

Kaga Kouko's white face. Her wide eyes. Forlornly looking into space, she closed her cell-phone as it was and put it in her bag.

"It didn't connect?"

At Linda's query, she answered "no" with a pretty smile.

"Sort of. It went to the answering machine."

I watched.

Everybody, each and every one--- had a poker face.

* * *

The moment he opened the door,

"It isn't very tidy, though."

Telling himself that he musn't show his bit of nervousness, Banri, casual to the max, in an ordinary way, entered into the next room. Kouko followed behind him.

"Pardon the intrusion. Are you locking the door?"

"Ah, as it was... ah, sorry, of course it's locked."

Ye-s. Click. The dull sound of a lock setting. The sudden feeling of being behind closed doors. Banri, awkwardly stepped forward, both right hand and right foot together.

"It's been since that day, hasn't it? I've come to Tada-kun's place."

Kouko took off her high-heeled sandals with a smile, "err", looking around the narrow entryway.

"Wh, what's up...?"

"Do you happen to have slippers? Because I'm wearing sandals, I didn't wear stockings, so I'm barefoot."

Drat. That's right. Slippers.

Slapping himself once on the forehead, Banri thought regretfully. He'd thought his preparations were perfect, but he'd had a blind spot.

It would have been a good thing if back when he'd just arrived in the capital, in the short while his mother was there for him, he'd accepted slippers from her. He'd said, "I don't wear them, and even if I had space they're a bother" and gave them back to her. Though his mother Mieko had told him, "If friends come over, what will they wear?" Banri had replied flatly, "Friends refined enough to wear slippers don't come over. Humans like those who come up to my room, all of them are guys that would probably pad around casually in their bare, sweaty feet." There's no use crying over spilt milk. Such were his thoughts.

"I have no excuse... Now, in this room, there is nothing like unto slippers..."

Somehow, he'd even done it a little literary in style.

"Oh. What can I do? Still, they're not done up, and going barefoot might be a little embarrassing..."

"I, I would never mind, though... oh yeah, instead..."

Banri dashed into his room, selected the nearest new socks from an unlabeled, semi-transparent box there, grabbed a pair,

"If it's okay with you, here's this..."

Like something offered to the gods, he handed them over to Kouko. Even with such a problem, Kouko received them, looking happy, her lovely face smiling broadly.

"Thank you. This is my second time borrowing your socks, you know."

"Is... that so?"

"Yes it is! Have you forgotten?"

Was she saying he'd forgotten the past? Was she saying he already had his hands full with the present?

There there, for now for now, come in come in, Banri invited Kouko to enter. He pleaded that his room wouldn't smell, nor his feet. That he wouldn't have a stomach-ache. While praying to the heavens for this and that, on his face was a smile. With all his might, right now, Banri wanted to bring about the most casual atmosphere possible.

Because, she suddenly said it. "Today, would it be all right if we go to your place?" or something like that. "Why not just take it easy, the two of us?"

Told something like that, suddenly, at the end of first period, Banri frankly returned immediately to his place.

Not saying anything to anybody, not giving a clue to Mitsuo nor even to Two Dimensions, ditching class, he dashed home temporarily, and desperately cleaned his room of the smells that go with unkempt males.

He took all the accumulated garbage bags down to the first floor garbage station (a most wonderful thing in this world, those 24-hour garbage stations), cleaned things, stuffed the dirty laundry for now all out of sight in the clothes washer, and stored all the not quite dry clothing and underwear into boxes in the closet and under the bed. The things he didn't want Kouko looking at, but were too valuable or precious to throw away, he stuffed into a box that had held stuff sent from home. A few "sexy things," which if they were noticed wouldn't be too worrisome, he dared to place in places easy to understand. This way, saying "I don't have anything hidden, do I? Men are all like this. I am entirely open." he would bring about the mood.

And then, the demon spray of Fabreze. The fury of Toilet Quickle. The thunder of Quickle Wiper.

And then--- good. To the bed.

He didn't have such plans, but just in case, the bed.

To make it, or not to make it.

A dirty towel spread out on the pillow, he'd picked it off and tossed it out. The sheets, safe. Miraculously safe. Since he'd moved into this room, he frankly hadn't cleaned it even once, and yet by chance the day before yesterday, he'd felt like taking care of his laundry... no, just kidding. Promising himself to do it, he did his laundry. Having the towel-blanket to be washed also, he did his laundry.

Kouko was probably going to come into his room at some point, and he was worried that if for some reason or other she were to ask if she could use the bed. So she wouldn't think at that moment "Wow, this guy's bed's filthy! There's no way I'd sleep here!" he straightened it up ahead of time.

And then, if he wrapped each pillow up in towel-blankets, then look here, this isn't a bed, is it? It's a sofa, right? So let's sit down! Here, side by side. Right? Right!?

...Saying such things, looking forward to things going well, what shopping was needed, he did.

At the convenience store, one of the Muji stores. For the first time in his life, he was buying things in silver packages. Because he was an idiot, he was seriously worrying where to put all fifteen of them, because he was an idiot, he tried to arrange them here and there. And then, because he was an idiot, in the end, not knowing what he should do, he hid four apiece in his three closets, and against his will, he stuffed one in his wallet. He believed that like this, casually, would be just right... eh... no, wait...!?

Was it strange...?

Was he going to say in that moment, "Hold on!" and walk cheerfully, his seedy butt exposed, to the closet, to his wallet or wherever? Was he going to go to get it, like an idiot, even in such places as those? Eh...? What sort of face was he making? Did he say, "Wait a moment~"? ...No way, no way! No way something like that! More like this... that's right, if he put the wallet closer to the bed, within casual reach...

"Hey, Tada-ku~n"

"What!?"

Without realizing it, with a look akin to horrible domestic violence, he'd whirled on her.

In the kitchen, Kouko had stopped moving as if in shock. Her standing figure somehow seemed like Mickey Mouse, owing to the white socks on her feet.

"Wow, sorry... what, what? What, what happened?"

"Th, though I thought I heard you ask if I could make some coffee..."

"Oh, yes yes! Or rather, because I do things like that, you just sit down! Take it easy, OK?"

By the sink, already set out, he had a pair of clean cups and some instant coffee sent from home. When he'd last gone back home, he'd arranged little things like this.

In order to finish up with them, Banri had, pretending innocence, returned a second time during the middle of third period. Eh? Me? Wasn't I there the whole time? You left the lecture. I wasn't there? I must've been in the bathroom! Acting like that.

The reason for him sneaking around like that was a matter of male sensitivities.

Anyway, saying "I desperately need to clean my room," he didn't want the truth to be known. Not by Kouko, not by anybody. He didn't want to be misunderstood. Whether he was full of anticipation of something erotic, or was simply desperate, if he seemed like that, forgive him. ...Of course, he wasn't going to speak of what wasn't happening. What wasn't happening, was of course nothing. He wished that someday such things would happen. Even if nothing happened, so that he wouldn't worry, he prepared. But, that that case was even thought of was wholly unexpected.

The cleaning of the apartment, for the first time, thoroughly, was so Kouko would get a good impression of it. Because he didn't want her to think it dirty. Because even if it was snug, he wanted her to enjoy her time there.

He didn't want to be captured by such pure devotion, by her saying such things as "I want to do it now! Desperately! Tada Banri!"

...He didn't, really.

And so, leaving casually after fourth period, he'd met up with Kouko. Shaken together by the train, they returned once more to this room.

Already, the orange light from the setting sun shone through the two windows to the northwest, lighting the floor. Pouring mineral water into the T-Fal electric kettle, he flipped the switch. He would normally use tap water, of course.

"Well then, it seems I've casually accepted your offer."

"Just like that!"

Kouko grinning with socks on and facing towards the bed disguised as a sofa--- made him think, and suddenly change direction. To the corner of the kitchen.

Looking at it, Banri jumped up, startled. He swallowed a yelp from having overlooked something dangerous.

"...mpf..."

Calm down. He calmed himself down. Grabbing the kitchen counter with his trembling hand, he propped up his body.

He'd realized, now, that he'd made a terrible mistake.

On top of a stool in the corner of the kitchen, there were some hazardous materials left sitting in a cardboard box.

He should have tried to hide it on top of the cupboard, ...oh yeah. At the time he was trying to hide it, he'd gotten a text, distracting him and making him forget completely.

Kouko, without noticing the intense aura Banri was emitting, grabbed hold of the box, set it at her feet with a grunt, and sat quietly on the stool. ...It's okay. There's nothing to be worried about. Nothing's happened. He hadn't been exposed.

"Oh, pardon me for acting out of turn. The box, is it OK if I put it here?"

"...Y, yes..."

"What's in there? It seemed rather heavy though..."

"...Veg... vegetables... and things..."

"From Shizuoka? Oh, maybe, something made back at your home?"

"...Mph, mmphh..."

"Eh? What?"

Without being aware of Banri's heart begging her "Stop it... to cut it out... to stop pretending... even physically... even subjectively...," Kouko smiled, in good spirits. In her current mood, as awkward as she was, she might easily say things like "Can I look? Oh!"

For the time being, there was no way he could keep her away from this kind of hazardous materials.

Quickly pouring the coffee, he set it on the low table in the center of the room. And then, saying "Let's sit over here!", he suggested the cushions on the floor. Little by little, biding his time, he didn't suppose it was time yet to invite her "Don't your feet hurt? Won't you sit on the 'sofa'?" but the time would come. There was no use in hurrying now.

Banri quietly dropped the dark brown powder into the cups, waiting for the water in the pot to boil.

"You've really fixed up this room, haven't you?"

Looking over the small room from the stool, Kouko spoke as if in admiration.

"What's more, somehow it smells nice..."

Here and there in all the disorder of the room, he'd set out some powerful air freshener, working even better than Black Rose.

For now, Banri felt relieved.

He didn't think this cramped, one-room apartment was a suitable place for a perfect woman to live in, but it didn't seem unpleasant to stay here.

So, Kouko was perfect. Today she was perfect too. The lines of her body precisely outlined, the soft material of her one piece dress a pink pattern tending towards red. However it was constructed, it was made to resemble a traditional kimono in the chest area, and showed off her cleavage quite deeply. When he saw her in the morning, it had caught his gaze before he knew it, and to hide the fact he'd said "Th, those clothes really suit you!", at which Kouko had said with a smile, "It's a Fürstenberg!" set one hand on her hip and struck a poze as of a standing model, showing off for him. He had no idea what it was, but anyway, Banri felt he really liked it. He loved it, that Fasutenbaagu. It was a really good thing.

Wound through her long, dark brown hair she wore a white katyusha. On her wrist was set a rather large bracelet... not a bangle. Her bag, too, was white. Her entire body wearing a summer fragrance, Kouko seemed to sparkle.

She was like that now, too. She was radiant, glowing as a beautiful woman.

"Co... coffee's ready!"

Unintentionally, his voice had turned into something upside down.

Kouko, still seated on the stool, said "Wow, thanks" and reached out her hand. "No, not so", said Banri, withholding the cup.

"Do-don't you want to sit over there!?"

Jerking his chin over towards the low table,

"I'm fine here. Somehow it feels really comfortable, it suits me! This stool."

"Really...!?"

Banri, smiling, kept a poker face. Told like that, he couldn't refuse, and handed the cup over to her. He gotten to where he'd wanted to throw it away! This stool. While he was practically trembling, for the moment he sat himself at the table as he had intended. This wasn't working out very well.

Realizing that the sound of his long sigh echoed strangely, he grabbed the television remote in a panic. They were running the evening news, and while Kouko swung her feet,

"Wouldn't it have been better if you'd bought some munchies?"

She was talking as if she were completely relaxed.

"Mu... munchies...!?"

"One of those limited time, look, what was it you said? You said it when you left."

"Like potato chips!?"

"Yes yes! That, that kind of thing..."

"Like chile flavor!?"

"That was it! Wow, incredible! How is it you always know what I'm thinking!?"

That's not true! It's because I told you what I saw when I went shopping at the convenience store not long ago! And because while I was at it, I saw a bunch of new products that had been piled up there!

"...Hahaha! How is it that... thinking about one's beloved, of course you'd understand... how is it..."

"Enough of that! Well well, I don't know you either, do I? Yes, that's it! It got it! Among those vegetables, is there any spinach!? How about it, does that hit the spot!?"

<~~24% Completed~~>

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