Chapter 2 — Coming of age, a ceremony needed for emanc.i.p.ation. Part 7
I remained silent and ignored her. A couple of seconds later, she spoke up again.
"I"m Shiina Tsukasa. You can call me Tsukchan."
"Got it, Tsuka.s.san," I answered in a monotonous voice and shook her hand.
"Hey, hey, is this the trope where the cla.s.s representative takes the new transfer student on a tour around the school?"
Strangely pleased with her conjecture, she enthusiastically shook my hand.
"That"s wrong on at least two fronts."
As soon as I felt her grip loosen, I swiftly slipped my hand out of hers.
She then stared at my now free hand, her already round eyes becoming even rounder.
Unmoving, she let out a small sigh.
No matter how I looked at her, she was the most troublesome kind of person to deal with. Just seeing her visage made me want to look away.
"Would you look at that! You have already become friends with each other."
As if trying to liven up the mood, the teacher spoke with an ill-fitted bright tone.
"Yeah, at this rate, we"ll be besties by tomorrow."
And Tsukasa joined the bandwagon. I just continued staring at them silently, my face completely expressionless.
Their laughter slowly faded, ultimately stopping altogether. Then she spoke up again with a smile, unaffected by my att.i.tude.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Tsukagi Saki."
"That"s a really beautiful name."
"It doesn"t suit me."
"It does, and very much so at that."
For just an instant, a lonely expression flit across her face. An expression that was full of emotion, as if she was looking at a distant star which she would never be able to reach and touch.
"Is it alright if I call you Sacchan?"
But as if by some sort of magic, she immediately concealed it with a smile.
"Rejected."
"Urgh, you really are way too stubborn," she grumbled lowly through a faint smile as her fingertips started toying with her curly hair.
I remained silent, keeping my eyes fixed on her.
The teacher then interrupted us with a wry smile, trying to smooth over the conversation.
"Well now, Tsukagi is a bit…special. It"s already pretty amazing that you"ve been able to hold a conversation with her for this long."
That was a really modest description, although it was only partly true.
"So, she"s more of a "Mysterious Girl" type of person, I see," she commented with an intrigued tone. The way she spoke could easily be interpreted as rude, but maybe due to the friendly aura she gave off, it usually wasn"t taken as such.
I really couldn"t stand her.
"If you"ll excuse me now."
I turned around and was about to leave when---
"Ah." She grabbed ahold of my hair.
I turned around and peered into her eyes. Her cheeks had turned beet red.
"I just wanted to say that I"ll be looking forward to being with you from tomorrow and…"
"Can you take your hand off?"
"You have really nice hair. It"s silky and feels similar to the touch of an expensive dress."
Her fingers started playing with my hair, just like they had been doing with her own hair a moment ago.
"Your hand, please," I repeated.
Finally, she let go of my hair, and I walked away.
"She has a cool att.i.tude and is so pretty… Hahh, it feels a bit unfair."
By the time I had exited the room, I could barely hear her.
A ray of sunlight leaked through the gaps in the clouds and hit me right in the face, causing me to knit my brows slightly and turn my head away.
Then, I looked at my watch and noticed that there was still quite a bit of time left for lunch break to end.
I walked all the way to the end of the hallway, looking for a dim place that did not stand out too much, and rested my chin on the handrail there.
Over on the sports field, students were happily playing soccer or volleyball.
I started staring at them absentmindedly, but they didn"t catch even the least bit of my attention.
All I could see was that they were playing sports, nothing more.
"Shiro," I called out, but he didn"t appear.
It was still daytime, and he was already like this.
He had been acting like this ever since the day he killed Silent Steps.
I understood that he was fighting against the forest. The wolves would definitely not overlook the murder of a fellow wolf.
But everyday when school is over, he would appear from out of nowhere, acting as if nothing had happened.
He probably didn"t want me to notice.
This place was fairly safe for now. I didn"t need to fear for my life, and I wouldn"t also be attacked by any of the wolves.
But that was it.
As long as I stayed here, I was going to be completely alone.
There were still three hours, sixteen minutes, and forty eight seconds left till school ended.
And I"d be by myself for all that time, waiting for the wolf to come back.
Waiting for the silver wolf to come back, exuding the stench of fresh blood.
"…Idiot," I murmured to myself and furiously kicked the wall.