Chapter Thirty-Six

The next day was the same, but today Kotoko looked a tad paler and she walked a tad slower. What was my mother doing by letting her come to school like that? Even Yuuko had noticed and said something about it at the beginning of class.

"Aihara looks like a ghost walking around." She commented and pursed her lips.

"Oh?"

"She must be stupidly overworking herself. If she's not cut out for college, she shouldn't waste her time." She said with a certain sharpness.

"Maybe so." I said, resting my chin in my palm and waiting for the lecture to start. In marched our professor who began right away. I took my notes and answered questions, but still this lingered on my mind. I couldn't help feeling as though school was not the reason for this.

I did my best to sweep away the thoughts and the class ended. Yuuko went on ahead of me as I packed my things into my bag.

The classroom door flew open and banged against the wall. Many peoples' attention was drawn to the explosion.

"Is Naoki Irie here?" One of the two girls standing in the doorway said. The professor stared at them in bewilderment and gestured over to me.

The way they trooped to my desk was ridiculous looking at best. With faces scrunched up in anger and seeming like they wanted to pick a fight with me, they were moronic.

"Naoki Irie… There's something you need to be told!" The shorter one said with her arms crossed. The other nodded her head and followed suit in crossing her arms.

"Who are you?" I asked.

They gasped, "We went to high school together!" The taller, linky girl said, "You're supposed to be some genius, but you don't remember who we are?"

"I try not to remember things that aren't important." I said. The two were furious. It hit me. Their actions, the way they spoke, and reacted to things… it was fairly reminiscent of Class F. These were Kotoko's two idiot friends.

"Oh, I know. You two were both in Class F," I searched for their names, "Jinko and Satomi?" I said.

"No, the reverse. I'm Satomi." The tall one said.

"And I'm Jinko."

All while they were trying to get me to remember them, what I wanted to know was why they were here. I didn't have the time for this. I needed to get to my next class before I started running late.

"Why are you here?"

"Oh!" I seemed to have brought them back down their original train of thought, "It's about Kotoko."

"You really are terrible, you know that?" Jinko whined, "She's devastated because of you." She frowned at me.

"What about me?" I said, finally realizing that I could learn why she'd been so sickly.

"You think we don't know!" Satomi said, "You're living with Matsumoto Yuuko. And poor Kotoko followed you and saw it with her own eyes. She waited for three hours. You know she's in love with you, but you started living with someone else secretly!"

She would have followed me home on a night I was tutoring Ayako… I thought. And she'd gotten the wrong idea, and now I was going to have to fix it somehow or she was only going to keep walking around as though her brain had been fried.

"How could you be so deceitful? Just be upfront and tell Kotoko how you really feel about her so she can move on. If you are a man, tell her directly."

What I found funny about them telling me this was that all they had were insinuations. They didn't really know what they thought they did, and I could only imagine the heart attack Kotoko would have had if I told her how I really felt so frankly. But, no. That wasn't happening.

I smirked, "So, I should tell her directly?" They seemed petrified for a moment.

"But, please choose your words very carefully." Satomi smiled nervously.

"Just don't make her suffer anymore. We're not asking you to fall out of love with Matsumoto, but if there's no chance for Kotoko… just help her get over you."

"That was all we needed to say. Bye." They skittered away from me and out the door, but I was halted. It was my fault, then.

Instead of heading for my next class, I decided to head out to find her and set the record straight.

The complication with that was that I couldn't find her anywhere. She wasn't in her department or in mine or even at the tennis court or library. After searching everywhere, I concluded that she must've gone home where she should have been anyway.

Halfway through my classes for the day, I learned from the general gossip of those around me that she'd fainted from exhaustion in her first class and had gone home. This was taking more of a toll on her than I'd ever known.

I waited at the entrance for her at the beginning of the day. I'd have preferred to tell her yesterday, but to have gone to the house to see her would have been unbearable with the way my mother acted. Also, I didn't want it to seem too obvious.

Expecting to see Kotoko barely dragging herself along the walkway, I was surprised to find her with a spring in her step. She seemed happy, to be honest. I didn't take the time to wonder about this sudden change of attitude and caught her attention.

"Kotoko," I called to her as she approached. Her eyes fell as soon as she saw me and her spring was put to rest, "Do you have a minute?"

She nodded. I began my walk to class and she followed.

"How…" She began awkwardly, "How is your new place?"

"It's great."

"How about your meals?"

"I eat at Teppan, so I'm fine," I said, "Actually, I was wondering how things are at home." Kotoko was quiet.

"Your mother still wants to know where you live. She's upset you haven't told her. Maybe if you did, it would put her mind at ease. She is only worried about you." She said in a dull voice.

I found the opportunity, "I won't. I'm too busy to be having her dropping in on me all the time. Between, school, work, and tutoring Yuuko's sister, I don't have the time for her."

Kotoko ripped her eyes off the ground and stared at me point-blank. Her mouth hung open.

"You're tutoring Matsumoto's sister?" She squeaked.

"Have been every other day for over a week." I said. Kotoko's face brightened considerably and she finally smiled at me.

You mean you're not living with… someone else?"

"I moved out to be alone. Why would I live with someone else?" Her smile widened and I could almost feel her buzzing with renewed hope. She was so simple. A grin played at me as well.

"Bye. I have to get to class." I said.

"See you later!" She said, bursting at the seams with energy. At least I knew she wouldn't be passing out again today.