Twenty-Five Cranes
When Shintaro returns to his dorm, it isn't Kano that welcomes him, but Ayano.
"A-Ah, hello!" she stands up from Kano's bed. "Kano just left to get some food. Did you see him in the hallway?"
"No," Shintaro answers. No to the question, no to elaboration. Ayano falls back onto the bed and sits with her hands in her lap, watching Shintaro put his phone on his desk.
"Um," Ayano begins. "Kano said you went to the hospital… Are you okay?"
"I'm okay." Shintaro sits at his computer chair, and suddenly he does feel okay, he feels at home again. "I had to visit Mom."
"O-Oh." Ayano picks at her fingernails, and Shintaro realizes they're chipped and unevenly pale and not as perfect as he thought. "I-I hope she gets well soon…"
Shintaro nods. Hope won't get anyone anywhere, though, he thinks, but doesn't voice it. Suddenly, Ayano is standing in front of him, holding out a plain white paper crane that she conjured up from goodness-knows-where.
"I know the 1000 paper cranes is just a silly legend," she says. "But it made me feel better when my aunt died. I wasn't too close to her, but Mom was, and it sort of affects you, you know? So I started origami to distract myself…"
"My mom isn't dead yet," Shintaro says blandly.
"I-I know!" Ayano fidgets with the fringes of her scarf. "I know, but if you want to make a wish for your mom to get better or- or something-"
Shintaro gingerly accepts the crane, muttering his thanks. The specially smooth origami paper between his fingers reminds him of the crane already in his drawer – the one Ayano gave him when Kano dragged him to Room 107. But he files the memory in a back drawer, opting to focus on and do more important things, like asking Ayano what she's doing in his dorm room.
"Kano invited me over," she answers, with a tone so innocent that Shintaro almost thinks he imagined it. Ayano's hair is reasonably neat, tucked into her red fringe scarf, but her white dress isn't exactly wrinkle-free. Shintaro isn't sure what to make of Kano's 'invitation'.
"… Do I want to know why he invited you to our room?" he asks. Ayano tilts her head at him, and if that's genuine confusion on her face, Shintaro thinks he might just leave the room there and then. Possibly fly to a remote island and isolate himself forever.
"We're planning a party for Kido," Ayano eventually answers, her smile blindingly wide. "If we discussed it in Kido's and my room, she might walk in suddenly… We want it to be a surprise."
"Right," Shintaro exhales. "What's the occasion?"
"Do you need a special reason to celebrate?" Ayano keeps smiling. "That's why it'll be a surprise! Are you free next Sunday?"
"No work or play on Sabbath day," Shintaro answers before thinking. He realizes it when Ayano giggles, and he smacks his palm to his face, feeling his cheeks flush with embarrassment.
It goes in sync with the first of eight knocks on the door, and Kano enters with a packet of cookies.
"Welcome back, Kano!" Ayano greets him. "Shintaro's verbally RSVP-ed, and he's on the guest list!"
Shintaro opens his mouth to argue that he didn't agree to anything, but Kano steps back with exaggerated surprise. "Shintaro? Agreed to a party?" Kano lets the packet of cookies drop to the floor as he runs up to Ayano and shakes her by the shoulders. "How did you do it? Tell me your secrets!"
"I-Is it- really th-that h-hard-" Ayano tries to ask, but being jerked back and forth and her laughter disrupts her speech. Shintaro grabs the closest thing within reach – the plain white paper crane – and with as much force as he can muster, aims it at Kano's head, hoping the pointy ends will do some damage.
It grazes Ayano's forehead instead, and Kano, in an unforgiving tone Shintaro has never heard from the freshman before, orders him to sit on his knees and apologize every few minutes. Until Ayano leaves almost an hour later, Shintaro has to watch them plan their festivities while his knees burn for a crime they never committed.