Chapter 13: Toro Mitsu, Santori
Toro felt woozy as she stood in front of her shoe locker. She worked too hard during the volleyball game today. Her instinct told her there were two boys around, so she made a tired sigh and then just let gravity took over.
"Are you okay?" A boy said as he held her shoulders and preventing her from falling over.
"You look pale, quick, drink this," another boy said, lending her a plastic water bottle.
Making him put the bottle to my mouth would be too much for this flimsy boy, Toro thought, so she took the bottle and drank from it. Some water spilled, but this was purely because she was tired.
"Get a chair or something," the boy holding her shoulder said.
The bottle boy looked around but there's nothing. Then all three of them heard the sound of someone running. Toro turned around it was one of the boys from her class, Santori. To all three students' surprise, Santori jumped to the spot behind Toro, and landed on his knees and hands. Due to shock the shoulder-holding boy released Toro and she landed on top of Santori's back.
It was stiff and still, a human chair better than the thousands she had experienced. "You're rock hard," Toro said.
"By practice," Santori said.
Absolutely stoic, Toro thought. Toro adjusted her position, which usually softened chair-boys, but Santori remained hard.
"Can you both call the school nurse?" Toro asked. In a flash the two boys left. "You know what, Santori, I've never had a human chair this comfortable."
"Thanks"
Toro giggled. "Maybe we're fated to be together. Santoro Mitsu."
There was a hint of delight in Santori's voice. "And Mitsu means three! Wonderful. Truly befitting a person and her fated chair."
"Fated chair? My first name and a version of your last name and you're thinking about fated chair? Wait, do you name your chairs?"
"All of them. My computer chair is named Amiat. My kitchen stool, Oydi. My ottoman, Thalatha."
"The toilet bowl?"
"Tiga."
"...I didn't know this side of you, Santori. Is your first name Sutsuru? Isu? Koshikake?"
"None of those."
Silence. "Aren't you going to tell me what your first name actually is?" Toro asked.
"No need to know it," Santori said.
"Ooh, aloof. I like that."
"There's the school nurse," Santori said. Toro looked at the school hallway and saw the nurse walking alongside the two boys.
"How can you tell? You're facing the school entrance."
"A good human chair knows what's around the person who's sitting."
"Alright, that's too much for me," Toro said and stood up.
[break]
Tadano blinked. Wait, NO! Tadano thought. I'm just told my girlfriend about a male friend's fetish? What am I doing? Tadano started sweating. It's been quite some time since there's new pages to his black history, and that sensation of a million cold slugs rubbing against every patch of his skin was familiarly unnerving.
As if adding to his horror, Komi started writing on a separate notebook. She didn't even look at him when she showed the page: Do you like being a chair?
"No," Tadano said at once. My thing is that I want to be stepped on.
Komi sighed in relief. "That's good, because I don't like putting my weight on people."
Tadano did his best to hide his disappointment. "Can I tell you what I like?"
Komi blinked, then nodded.
"I like it when people whisper into my ear. Unless it's Najimi." Tadano then turned his head, as if begging Komi to whisper into his ear.
Komi got the message, stood up and whispered into Tadano's ear: "Kogoen did this to Onemine's brothers..."
Author's note: Every names that Santori mentioned is the word 'three' in different languages. Toro's guesses to Santori's first name are all synonyms for 'chair' in Japanese. My brain explodes in delight when I realised Toro's first name, "Mitsu", can also means 'three objects'. Love it when names and puns work themselves out.