That day, something unexpected happened. To be fair, there was actually something unexpected happening in my life every other day as of late. Well, compared to other people’s lives it was still relatively ordinary, but I have to admit that it was a nice change of pace. 

To be exact, that didn’t happen during the lunch break, but when I was preparing myself to leave the classroom. For that reason, I hadn’t thought that something sudden was going to happen. Usually, I’d just head out from the classroom, change my shoes by the shoe racks, and soon after leaving the building, I would meet with that peculiar girl and accompany her to the intersection – usually exchanging no more than three sentences, but the fact she had been keeping me company was enough. 

I was in the middle of packing my books into my bag when I suddenly felt something grabbing my shoulder. Startled, I instinctively looked over to learn the cause of it – what I saw then was a face familiar to me. There was a wide grin on his face that honestly intimidated me – it was just as if he was about to carry out a punishment on me. I wasn’t sure what would be his reason for that, though... but then I called to mind that recently I’d been leaving the school together with that girl. I had somehow forgotten about the fact that I still hadn’t told him that, and for some reason I’d grown not to worry about the people around us when I was with her. 

“Yo!” 

He spoke up in a manner that didn’t seem angered whatsoever. In fact, he sounded just as always, only the current time didn’t match. 

“...hey?” I responded him with visible confusion. 

His hand let go of my shoulder as he backed down about one step away. Then, he proceeded to explain the reason for his sudden appearance. 

“Takao, I need to ask you a favor.” 

Ah, I already knew this scenario. A friend that hasn't talked to you for a few years suddenly calls you and starts speaking as if nothing has ever happened – as it soon turns out, they only want to use you in some way. Just kidding, Yamaguchi actually bothered to talk to me every now and then, so at the end of the day I considered him my friend. That didn’t change the fact that the last time he had approached me when we were about to leave the classroom was a few months ago – I could completely understand that though, since he had to hurry for his club activities. 

“What?” I asked him somewhat disinterestedly. 

“Do you have some time to spare now?” 

His question meant that what he was about to ask me for was probably going to take some time. That said, I’d always had a lot of free time after school so I didn’t really mind if it came to that. Whether I was going to agree depended more on the actual contents of his request. 

“Uhh... I guess.” 

“Perfect. Come with me then.” 

Having told me that, he turned around and walked towards the classroom exit. It seemed that he wasn’t going to tell me the details, which left me with two options – I could either be assertive and refuse to follow him unless he told me the details, or just ignore that and see what he had prepared for me. 

Being the kind of person I was, I chose the latter and followed him. While we were walking down the hallway, I made a few attempts to get him to talk but he didn’t seem to give me a clear response. 

“Er... so what do you want from me?” 

“You’ll see!” 

And so, I gave up and tagged along after him. Not knowing where he was leading me to, we made it to the shoe racks where we changed our shoes, and after pushing the front entrance open, left the building. When he suddenly turned left, I already knew what was going on. He was leading me to the club building, which meant that our destination was his club... art club, was it? 

What did he want from me in the art club? I couldn’t draw or paint or anything like that... did they do anything else in that club? I was somewhat curious, so I followed him politely. 

That was when, having reached the crowded doorstep of the club building, I was reminded of a certain thing. Recently, I had been meeting with that girl soon after the classes ended – usually it was me who waited for her, but this time, I wasn’t going to be waiting for her there. I was wondering; would she ignore that and walk off as she had always been before everything between us happened, or would she perhaps actually wait for me there? I didn’t know how long whatever Yamaguchi was going to make me do was going to take, so she might end up waiting for way too long in such case. Fortunately, I had a way of contacting her. All I had to do was send her a message, but walking down the crowded hallway of the dated building with Yamaguchi leading me, I felt somewhat intimidated. That said, I was sure that I wouldn’t have a chance to do that anymore once we finally reached his clubroom, so I nervously took out the phone from my pocket, opened the messaging app and used my fingers to quickly type a message: 

“Sorry. We won’t be meeting today.” 

I didn’t check the message for any typos due to my nervousness and touched the “Send” button without hesitation. Having done that, I shoved it into my pocket back so in case Yamaguchi turned over to me, he wouldn’t notice that I had ever pulled it out.  

Before long, we reached the door with “Art Club” written on an old, wooden sign hanging above it. Yamaguchi proceeded to use one of his hand to slide it open and went through it. Still confused, I followed him inside. 

“Welcome! Welcome!” 

Just after I had managed to set only one of my feet inside the room, I had been attacked by a sudden shout. It caused me to instinctively halt my movements, and all I could discern was that it seemed to be coming from a girl. Before I even had a chance to look at its source, someone was already firmly grabbing my shoulders. I didn’t know how they managed to do that without me noticing, but that person was actually standing right in front of me. 

At that moment, I was startled and intimidated – that person being a girl certainly didn’t help. If it wasn’t enough, on her panting face pure lust was depicted. Her short hair and glasses were of the same, red color. I was too overwrought with current situation to think about anything else, but she didn’t seem to be necessarily hostile. It was just as if I was an extraterrestrial being, and she was a supernatural enthusiast seeing something like that for the first time. 

“Huh...?” 

Utterly confused, I managed only to let out a short and quiet sound. The girl before me finally let go and backed down a little, giving me a chance to look around the room. It looked probably like any other room in that dated building – embracing it were floor and walls made of wood, there were a few tables with various stuff laid out on them scattered around. 

What made that room stand out from others were mainly canvases with mostly doodles drawn on them that had been set aside. In the center of the room was a thing that, if I am being honest, worried me a little. There was a large easel set down, and behind it... a pair of chairs. 

As for people, aside from Yamaguchi and that girl, there was one more person sitting by one of those tables, who seemed completely unconcerned by the current situation as he kept fiddling with his phone... and a girl visibly younger than me that actually entered after us, who appeared pretty much unnoticed. In total, there were two girls and three boys, including me, in that room. 

“Brought him, as promised.” 

“Uoooh!” that weird girl let out a fascinated sound. 

“So... what?” 

To be honest, the current situation made me a little bit anxious. Not only was I surrounded by people I didn’t know, but also it seemed that I’d been scammed by the only one I knew. It was only to be expected, though. 

“Come, come!” 

The girl proceeded to literally grab my hand and lead me to one of the chairs behind the canvas... I already knew well what was going on, but she was quite insensitive, I’d say. 

“She wanted me to bring a guy, so I brought you. Sorry!” 

As the girl sat me down on the chair and began fiddling with me as if she were a hairdresser, Yamaguchi proceeded to explain the current situation, but I could guess that much… thank you for using me, my friend. I assure you that I won’t do you a favor anymore, no matter what it is. 

“Not any guy! A handsome guy!” 

“H-huh?!” 

The girl suddenly exclaimed as she finished placing me on the chair, to which I let my bewilderment out loud. There were just too many things wrong with that: Yamaguchi thinking of me as handsome, and that girl calling me that as if it was only natural. Me, handsome? Maybe I was tall, but that was all that was going for me if it came to appearances. 

That said, what was the other chair for? The girl already started painting something on the canvas, yet it was still empty. 

“Uh... so what are you going to do?” 

Awkwardly, I made an attempt to ask that girl a question. I already knew the answer to that, which was probably that she was going to make a portrait of me, but I asked just to make sure. 

“I’m using you for my painting. Didn’t he tell you that?” she answered me calmly as she kept doodling on the canvas with her eyes switching between it and me. You bet he didn’t – but if he had told me, would I have accepted it? Well... if he offered me a kind of recompense, then perhaps? 

“Er... so how long is it going to take?” 

“I don’t know. One or two hours, maybe.” 

Two hours of sitting motionless in a hot room like that… maybe I did not have anything more interesting to do either way, but that didn’t mean that I was alright with suffering like that. That being said, I quite wasn’t able to find a way out of it. I don’t think anything would happen if I just walked out, but I just couldn’t, even though they were clearly taking advantage of my helplessness. Why had I been chosen as the proper person to serve as a model in the first place... didn’t Yamaguchi know anyone more suited? 

“...” I heaved a somewhat loud sigh. Yamaguchi was standing in the corner of the room, earnestly looking at the scene of the girl painting. While I couldn’t see what the boy from earlier was doing, the other girl was sitting at the table and doodling something on a sheet of paper using a pencil. 

My stare mechanically found its way outside the window, where pretty much nothing could be seen besides the forest. Disappointed by that, I looked back into the room. Nobody saying anything made the mood somewhat awkward, but it might have been only me feeling like that. That made me unable to utter a single word – not only was I going to suffer from the heat without being able to move, but I would also be impacted by the constant awkwardness. Nice. 

It made me wonder, had it always been like that in this club? It seemed like everyone was doing their own things, only Yamaguchi was doing something else by staring at the girl with red hair... did he find it that interesting? Either way, if every member of this club was in this room, it seemed to be in quite a grave situation. From what I could notice, the only person not in senior class was that unnoticeable girl, which was going to bring her a difficult task next year to recruit enough members to keep the club going. I thought that the art club was usually one of the largest culture clubs, so that was surprising. Maybe there was another one in this school? 

Suddenly, I heard a harsh sound of chair drawing back from behind. Instinctively, forgetting that I was being painted, I turned my head over to look at it. 

“Could you not move your head?” 

The instant I had done that, the girl with red hair scolded me. I knew well that I wasn’t supposed to move in the slightest while being painted – it was quite strange that she allowed me to turn my head slightly to look at the windows. 

“Sorry.” 

Either way, the person who had made the sound earlier appeared in my sight. It seemed to be that boy who was fiddling with his phone earlier – he made his way to the door and left the room while saying “Toilet”. I would have expected him to stay quiet to be honest, so he seemed to be bothered at least that much. With that, I was left in the room with the girl behind the canvas, Yamaguchi, and the other girl that probably had less presence than me. Honestly, even leaving school with Lumiya was less awkward. 

With nobody saying anything, a few minutes had passed. I started to feel uncomfortable – I wouldn’t mind getting up from this chair for as short as a minute. 

There was nothing happening until the door had been slid again, and the boy that left earlier came back. I looked at his figure with a corner of my eye as much as I could without turning my head, but then he, having returned my gaze, stopped in the middle of that room and said nonchalantly: 

“Ah... aren’t you that person?” 

That person? I definitely was the least remarkable person in that school, so his words left me utterly confused. 

“What?” 

“You were with that weird girl.” 

At that instant, I froze. He didn’t seem to be saying that in a hostile manner – if anything, it was rather indifferent. It shouldn’t be surprising that someone had seen me with her – we weren’t particularly hiding... but nevertheless, those words hit me harder than they should have, making my throat cluttered up and my stare wandering around to avoid any living object while not appearing suspicious. 

“Huh...?” 

His calling her weird wasn’t surprising as well – I called her that many times myself, yet that infuriated me a little. More importantly, what was I supposed to do? Try and talk my way out of it, or admit it straight? If he was the only person in that room, I wouldn’t mind telling him the truth... no, I wouldn’t mind telling it to everyone, as long as Yamaguchi wasn’t there... 

That was when I looked forward, and the place I had seen him standing still at just a few minutes ago was empty. If that wasn’t enough, I didn’t hear any screaming like “What? You? Girl? Who?” as it was typical for him... It could mean only one thing, he left sneakily – whether it was to the toilet or someplace else didn’t matter. Even though the atmosphere in the room still appeared awkward to me, I could bring myself to admit. 

“Ah... yes.” 

“Are you her brother or something?” 

To be honest, if I were her brother and heard someone calling her weird, I wouldn’t have just brushed it off as I had done now. Either way, that was one strange suggestion... why would I? Were my appearances perhaps similar to her? We were both remarkably tall, but that didn’t mean anything, right? 

“No, why?” 

When I looked over to him, his face appeared nonchalant as before. He didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives, just weak curiosity. 

“She hardly exchanges a word with anyone, so I was just wondering if you were somehow close to her.” 

Having said that, he walked down the room heading for his seat, finally leaving my sight altogether. Anyhow, it seemed that he knew about that girl’s existence, and was interested in her even if only moderately. Who wouldn’t, though? 

“Are you perhaps in one class with her?” 

“Yes.” 

Maybe he could tell me more about her then, for example about how her studies went and so, I thought. The girl with red hair didn’t appear to be even slightly interested, but she also didn’t mind me talking, so I continued: 

“Then, what is she like in class?” 

“You don’t know too, huh?” 

He nonchalantly responded to my question with a question which agitated me a little, but he continued before I could do anything about it: 

“Not that I care about that, but she’s doing amazingly well, on tests and so.” 

If he was telling the truth, that was certainly surprising... she appeared more like a delinquent who was just barely over a passing degree. Regardless, the fact she wasn’t falling behind with her studies made me glad – at least I didn’t need to worry about her in that matter. 

“The thing is, she’s so bashful when she’s asked by the teacher that she can barely respond.” 

Ah... that was to be expected. I’d seen that side of her as well, after all. Not that it mattered that much as long as she was doing great on the exams, though. 

“I see...” 

“Sorry for asking that, but how did you manage to get close to her? Have you known each other before she transferred here?” 

The voice coming from behind me seemed not necessarily interested in that topic – all I could feel was a tiny bit of curiosity that was nothing short of typical. That being said, I didn’t feel like telling him the entire truth – not only was it too awkward, but first and foremost, I wanted to keep it to myself. 

“Not really. Uhh, we kinda stumbled across each other and... yeah, it’s like that.” 

The response that left my mouth turned out awkward and might have possibly given him the wrong idea. Focused on our conversation, I’d also forgotten that we weren’t the only people in that room... but the two girls besides us didn’t seem to care, so we kept going. 

“I see... By the way, do you know if there is something wrong with the eye she has an eyepatch on? She never takes it off.” 

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen it too.” 

Speaking of which, I hadn’t ever seen her taking it off – moreover, she was often making a peculiar gesture of covering it with her hand. She may have told me that she believed it was sealing some dangerous power, but what was the real reason remained a mystery. I might have told him about that, but I’d decided against it, since it was likely to make him laugh. 

For some reason, talking about that girl behind her back made me feel not only awkward, but also blameworthy. I simply thought that she had a reason for her inscrutability, and her gradual unveiling before me was something I was supposed to keep to myself. Even according to her pretense, she thought of everyone around her as despicable, and I... very possible that only I, was someone she deemed trustworthy, even if a little bit. I didn’t know what she’d been through that made her act in such way, but I had to cope with that. I’d somehow managed to so far, after all, maybe that was what made me somewhat special? 

People just were like that – when they saw a person shrouded in an air of mystery, they wanted to uncover it. I wasn’t an exception from that. What was her real personality? How she acted upon entering the premises of her own room? What was under that eyepatch? What happened to her before she transferred? 

What she was actually feeling inside, was that façade of hers really comfortable for her? 

Did I get along with her only to learn an answer to those questions? Why did I even decide to put up with her? 

My definite answer would be... why not? Learning more about her was only a bonus – while revealing one’s real feelings was an inherent part of being friends, I wouldn’t have really minded it if she somehow managed to keep them effectively locked away from me. It still felt out of place calling her my friend, though... Maybe since I’d never had many of them, my definition was off? 

Time continued to pass as I sat on the hardly comfortable chair, with that girl in front of me making a portrait of me... or at least I thought so, because I wasn’t able to see what she was doodling on her canvas, the only things that indicated so were her glancing at me every now and then and a grin on her face. 

How much time had already passed? Maybe an hour, or so. Was anyone going to compensate me for it? That would be bold of me to hope for it. Yamaguchi hadn’t come back yet, which most likely meant that he actually went home... that bastard. He wasn’t my friend anymore. 

I was just kidding, but that didn’t change the fact that it was truly a contemptible move from him. While I could imagine him doing that out of his own will, maybe the truth was that the girl with red hair had bribed him in some way? She seemed like the type to do so, after all. 

Without anyone saying anything, I kept mindlessly staring at the wall. My uneasiness wore off already, so it would have been comfortable enough if it wasn’t for the fact that the heat squeezed out the remains of water from my body. 

“...” 

It wasn’t quiet there. The walls were apparently so thin that I could hear almost everything happening behind them – noises of loud conversations were paired with some music playing. 

“Complete!” 

Suddenly, a loud exclamation coming from the girl with red hair caused me to literally jump up and almost fall from the chair. Those words filled me primarily with ease though, because they meant that I was finally free to leave. With that, I raised from the chair and walked up to see what was painted on the canvas. I felt like an old man when I was moving my legs because they were completely still for the last one and a half hours. 

“What do you think?” 

I somehow had a hunch that it would turn out like that – the picture she had drawn was actually an anime illustration... but it didn’t necessarily resemble me. The eyes were huge, hair glittering and a shiny smile appeared on its face. No way that I looked like that. 

Was she skilled? I don’t think that she would make a great painter, but a manga artist, why not? 

“Excellent.” 

Having said that, I turned and walked away. I didn’t care about the people I was leaving behind; all I knew that I wasn’t going to visit them ever again. I had already reached the doorstep and was in the middle of sliding the door shut, yet nobody was coming after me – that probably meant that I was really free to go. 

After I sealed away the door with a thud, I proceeded walking down the hallway with wooden floor and walls toward the staircase. There were a few people around – compared to the main building at about the same time, it wasn’t lifeless in the slightest. 

When I reached the staircase with my bag hung on my shoulder, I pulled out my phone from the pocket out of pure curiosity. While I didn’t expect any kind of response from that girl, I wanted to check just in case. With that, I fiddled around with the screen for a little and opened the messaging app. Like I expected, there wasn’t a reply from her, just “Seen” written below my message. 

Having shoved it into my pocket again, I strolled off down the stairs. Soon after, upon changing my shoes, I left the building. I was immediately embraced by the sweltering heat, which made me want to reach home as soon as possible. 

That was when I came out from behind the main building and the bicycle parking reached my eyes. There wasn’t a sight of the blonde girl there... why did I even think about that? Anyhow, I took the bike from the stand and hopped onto it, soon riding off from the school premises. 

I promised myself that I wouldn’t listen to Yamaguchi ever again. It also made me reconsider whether I really wanted to join a club in high school... if it was supposed to be like that, I’d rather go home right away and do nothing as I had always been doing.