“What is love?”

A soft voice right by my side took me out of my reading. It was an interesting book about two girls traveling through a harsh devastated world. But somehow, that question that came out of nowhere managed to break through my concentration and made look at where it came from.

The classroom was covered in the dim orange light of the time before the sunset. The only other person in the room was the girl sitting right next to me. It was an empty classroom with only two girls inside, long past the school hours.

The girl with light chestnut bob hair had her head leaned on the back of her hands in a thoughtful position while she was looking at the window next to my seat, or at least that was where her eyes were aiming for, because there wasn't anything particular there for her to look at.

I kept my eyes on her for a few seconds, but since she didn't speak again and the question felt weirdly out of character for her to ask, I decided to keep on reading my book.

Right when I put my eyes on the first word, her voice broke the silence of the room again.

“Hey Eriko, what is love?”

This time the question was thrown right at me, there was no doubt about it. Even if her expression looks like she is lost in her thoughts, I'm able to feel her gaze on me. I guess I should try to answer her.

I put the most serious face I was able to, looked deep into her eyes, and gave her my answer.

“B-Baby dont hurt me…?”

“Huh?”

“Eh…?”

“What are you talking about?!”

“Isn't this all about that famous song?!”

“Huh...?!”

“Eh!?”

She had a magnanimous clueless expression on her face since my answer had been completely off the mark. We stood there, silent, looking at each other's eyes. There was a weird tension in the air as no one spoke, until Sotoka let out a sound.

“Fu...”

“Haha…”

“Fufufu~”

“Hahaha~”

We started laughing. Sotoka was grabbing her belly as she laughed as loud as she could. On the other hand, I was covering my embarrassed face with my forearm and slamming the desk with the hand I had left.

I couldn't look at her since my face was on the desk, but I know her so well that I was able to tell that tears were flowing from her eyes as she laughed louder every minute that passed.

“Come on Eriko! You are so silly. Fufufu~”

She said while wiping the tears from her eyes. She had such a big bright smile that I almost forgot the weird question that she asked me.

“Sorry, haha~ But what was that question about?”

“Oh, don't worry about that. Fufu~ Let's get home, it's really late.”

She said while looking outside through the window at my back. It was almost time for sunset.

“Shouldn't we start looking for a club instead of spending so much time in the classroom after school?”

I asked while grabbing my bag. She was already waiting for me at the classroom's door.

“I don't know, Eriko. You won't be able to read that much if we do that…”

We started walking through the wood corridor, heading to the stair leading to the first floor of the school.

The corridor’s windows headed to where the sun rises, while the classroom’s to where the sun sets, so it was a little bit darker than the classroom where we were just a few seconds ago.

“That might be true… But isn't this boring for you?”

“Do you think so? I never get bored when I’m with you, Eriko. Fufu~”

She said while bumping her shoulder with mine.

“Should we buy ice cream on our way home?”

“Isn't it a little bit late for that?”

“Do you think so?”

I really want some ice cream.