Translator: mii
Editor: Ryunakama
Wednesday should be the middle day of the week, but this week is special, because this Monday was a holiday. After this day ends, it will finally become the middle day of the week.
Being a student is hard.
「Good morning.」
「Ahh, morning.」
「Sun Sun Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat…」
「Why do you suddenly say out loud the days of the week, senpai? Also, there"s not enough Monday there.」
「It"s this week"s.」
「Ah, but since it is a public holiday, isn"t it be better to call it Sun Hol Tue Wed?」
「Well, well. Still better than Mon Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Fri anyway.」
「What is that?」
Oh my. You don"t know?
When I"m about to explain it to her, I realized. I only know the phrase, not the details.
「It seems like during the war, there was a song like this to make people work everyday.」1
「At that time, this country was a black company, huh. Or is it black country?」2
「It"s not funny, so stop it.」
I feel like her words are kind of cruel.
「Hey, don"t you think that i it will be nice to have something like Sun Sun Sun Sun Sun Sat Sun once in a while?」
「Senpai, doesn"t that happen on summer or winter vacation already?」
「You"re right…」
Thinking about that, it was like a long holiday period.
「Senpai, you would hole up in home, right?」
Guh…
I couldn"t deny it.
「Eh, senpai?」
Kouhai-chan makes a devilish smile, and approaches me.
「Close close close」
「Isn"t it okay, you won"t get skinnier being close to me anywayー」
「Isn"t our dialogue for the opposite gender?」
She ignored my retort.
I"ll drag you outside next winter holiday, senpai!
It was just inside my mind, but I swore it to myself.
The train arrived, and we got into our usual position.
What kind of conversation should we have today?
「Fuu. Can I ask you a question first today?」
Oh? How rare. Or maybe, it has been a while.
How long has it been since senpai asked me something first? Is it around two weeks?
Senpai has been more actively engaged in our conversations, but the question itself mostly came from me first.
「Yes.」
「Then, my『today"s question』. What is your favourite animal?」
Since he asked that, I have no choice but to answer him with this. Since the promise is to answer honestly, it can"t be helped.
「It"s human.」
「Human? Do you mean the h.o.m.o sapiens?」
「Yes.」
「It"s not just for a specific individual?」
What are you asking now, senpai?
「Well, of course I love my family, but it"s not about that. I like them as a subject.」
「Haa…」
「This is already a matter of fact, but humans have similar thinking circuits with me, right? Since they are creatures that act using their logic it is interesting to observe them.」
「Ah, as I thought, that"s the reason, huh?」
「Yes. It"s interesting when I think about what will happen if it was me, or about other people"s perspective and environment.」
「Even if you explained that to me, I honestly don"t get it.」
Since senpai doesn"t have human observation as a hobby, it"s only natural that he doesn"t understand.
「How about animals that you can have as pets?」
「Nn, I wonder.」
「Oh, no immediate reply?」
「Isn"t senpai"s『today"s question』effect already expired by now?」
「Uwahhh…」
「I"m joking. Please don"t worry.」
But I am also being honest that the answer couldn"t come out immediately.
「I don"t really like those kind of pet animals.」
「I thought that girls have that kind of image where they will run towards the animals while screaming『Kyaaー☆ Cute!!!』or something like that immediately.」
「What kind of stereotype is that? I won"t even touch the dogs and cats in the first place.」
「You won"t be able to mix with the girls then. What will you do?」
「I"ll say I"m allergic.」
「I see. But it is such a shame, they are so cute.」
「Are they really that cute?」
「Yeah, cute.」
The moment I hear senpai say『cute』, my heart skips a beat, and I feel bitter.
「I think I am cuter than cats, though.」
That"s why, this is my revenge.
「You are really…！」
Since senpai"s face also becomes red, everything is good.
Stop giving me surprise attacks already!
「Nn, in the first place, maybe I"m afraid of things that are too hard to predict.」
Kouhai-chan returned our conversation back as if nothing had happened.
「What do you mean?」
「Humans are mostly intelligent, so we can mostly predict how they will act, right?」
Well, she"s right. There"s no way someone will suddenly take off their clothes on the train, do a headstand, and move across other people from the first railway to the eighth railway.
「And then, if they are predictable, they won"t be able to harm another person, especially me myself, right?」
「How about a random attacker then?」
「Those ones are very rare. On the other hand, pets can easily go rampant, right? If they want to bite, they will bite, right? Won"t it make someone injured? I think that"s what I don"t want to happen.」
「Did you ever get bitten? Maybe your way of petting them was bad?」
So it seems like she knows how to interact with people, but not with animals.
「Just say I will after interacting with them. Anyway, I don"t like whatever is unpredictable.」
「Fuuun.」
Next time, let"s make her try petting them. Their furs really feels nice to touch, it will be a waste if she doesn"t experience that.
「Then. I"ll return senpai"s『today"s question』as mine. Senpai, what kind of animals do you like?」
Well, it ends up like that, eh.
「I guess it is cats. I pet them every morning too.」
「Is it senpai"s neighbour"s?」
「Yep.」
When I stroke the area around its throat, it will squint its eyes and purrs as if feeling really good. So cute.
「Isn"t it boring with just that? Please tell me other ones.」
「Other ones? You really ask for the unreasonable.」
Other ones, huh.
「When I went to Australia, I held a koala.」
「If it is a koala, I might even think it is cute on the contrary.」
She needs to break that illusion.
「Koala"s always live in the trees, right?」
「They are eucalyptus trees. It is actually poison.」
「That, that. And then, their nails are really well-developed. It"ll dig into my arms.」
It really hurts.
「Uwahh… It becomes not cute all the sudden. They are still animals after all.」
「Yeah. Even if they are cute, they are still a beast.」
For some reason, I want to eat chocolates.
「Senpai, trick or treat.」
「Now!?」
「Since we are talking about Koala"s, I suddenly want to eat Koala"s March. 3 Senpai can give it to me when we reach the station, so please buy it for me.」
「You are really…」
「Which one does senpai prefer, giving a chocolate or being pranked?」
「Won"t you get fat? You ate breakfast, right?」
「You shouldn"t say those kinds of things to a girl.」
It should be okay. I haven"t eaten any sweets too recently.
「Right…」
「Then, thank you senpai♪」
「…At least give me half of it…」
「Can we divide the pack?」
「I don"t think we can.」
While eating the sweets from the hexagonal box senpai was currently holding, we walked all the way to the school. I was happy that we could keep our walking pace while looking at the scenery here and there. There"s no other students from our high school who walks this route anyway.
「Then, see you.」
When the school is visible, senpai increases his walking speed as usual. Rather than quickening his steps, it might be senpai"s usual walking pace. Since I didn"t try to match mine with his, our distance naturally began to expand.
That is the back door. From there, we will enter the schoolyard.
We can see this gate from the cla.s.sroom window of our school building. Senpai told me that he doesn"t really want to enter the school together with me every morning, since he wouldn"t know what would happen if some of his friends saw him.
Senpai who couldn"t avoid taking the same train with me wouldn"t yield to me about this matter.
Because of that, we would have a natural distance when we reached this area, before entering the school. This was some kind of unwritten rule between senpai and me.
Maybe the distance between me and senpai who was walking ahead still hasn"t got filled with me. I suddenly had that kind of thought when I look at his back.
The things I knew about my senpai㉕
As I thought, it seems like he likes cats.
月月火水木金金, refers to this song: ↩ “Black company” means a company that overwork their employees without enough salary. ↩ A snack. The package has a koala picture in it. ↩