Volume 1 - CH 2

Kamiyama-san sat down in her seat and faced the paper bag toward Arai, then let out a shaky voice from inside the bag.

“Ah… ah… that… story…? I’m… not good at talking with people…”

“Don’t worry, Kamiyama-san. I’m not good at talking either, but it is fun to talk together. We’re in the same class now, so why don’t we all talk together? Right?”

“So… so… so…”

Kamiyama-san refuses while waving her long, slender hands in front of her body, and Arai continues to solicit with a smile on her face.

She is wearing a paper bag over her head, her whole body is wet and moist, and she has caught the attention of the whole class during homeroom earlier, and even as I watch her, the color of the paper bag on her head is getting darker and darker. The sweat from her face was soaking into the paper bag.

There are many drops of water on the floor around me.

No matter how serious and caring Arai is, it’s going to take a lot of effort to bring this Kamiyama-san into the circle.

Besides…

I glanced towards the group of girls that Arai had pointed out earlier.

There are a few girls with intense expressions on their faces, watching our movements. All of them are looking at me with tight smiles… or rather, they are trying to push down the anxiety they had inside, and I couldn’t tell whether they were smiling or looking worried.

I’ve never seen such a complicated expression on a… girl’s face.

I think it would be better to give up the invitations to her and go back to them.

With this in mind, I listened to the conversation between Kamiyama-san and Arai that is going on in front of me. I was curious to know how they would end up together.

“It’s okay if you can’t talk to me,” she said.

“But… I’m really… not good at talking…”

“It is okay, let’s go.”

I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.

“Oh… Kamiyama-san. The ribbon on your uniform is untied. I’ll fix it for you.”

I looked at Kamiyama-san’s neck, and sure enough, there was a ribbon hanging loosely from her neck.

It must have come undone when she waved her hands in the air. Sweat was dripping from the ends of the ribbon.

Arai reached towards Kamiyama-san’s collar and picked up the wet ribbon, and with a bright smile on her face, she was busy tying the ribbon for her.

I was watching their interaction idly with one hand sagging in front of the desk while pretending to play with my phone, and I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard what Arai said after that.

Arai opened her mouth to Kamiyama-san and said in one breath

“Okay? Kamiyama-san. Uniforms, you know, have to be worn properly like this, right? We will be wearing these uniforms for the next three years as high school students, right? If we’re high school students, we have to wear our uniforms like high school students. Because we are high school students. And if you don’t, it’s disrespectful to the uniform. Oh yeah, do you feed the uniform every day? And you have to go for a walk at least twice a day, morning and night… This uniform of mine…”

Wait a minute… What was that?

Do you feed your uniform? A walk? What the h**l is this chairwoman talking about?

I turned my face toward Arai in surprise, and her face, which had been facing Kamiyama-san, suddenly turned toward me, and our eyes met exactly.

“What is it? Um… Kominato-kun, it was…… wasn’t it? Is something wrong?”

Suddenly she spoke to me, and I answered him in a confused manner.

“Oh… well… I just had a feeling that you were talking about something strange. I think you were talking about something weird like food and uniforms haha… I must be imagining things.”

I said, and Arai said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, it’s not your imagination, Kominato-kun. What kind of food do you feed your uniform, Kominato-kun? That’s right, Kominato-kun, if you like, why don’t you join us over there and talk about school uniforms with the others?”

That was pretty hard.

“Oh… well… my uniform, maybe, it’s the type that doesn’t eat food. …”

I managed to reply, and after hearing my puzzling words, Arai looked as if she had realized something, and then opened her mouth with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face.

“Oh, no. I didn’t mean that you were feeding food to your uniform. It’s about what material to use for repairing frayed threads. I’m sorry for the confusing way I said it.”

Arai said this and smacked himself on the head.

Oh, so that’s what this is about. I replied to Arai with a relieved smile.

“Oh, I’m glad. You were saying something strange about dinner and a walk and so on. I know, right? It’s strange to walk your uniform, isn’t it?

“We take it for a walk, right?”

What?

A funny silence falls between us.

In front of me is Arai, who is smiling at me.

Kamiyama-san hears our conversation and gets upset.

In the distance, the girls are looking at us with even more worried expressions.

What does it mean this time…?

As I was looking for words with my mouth wide open, Arai broke the silence.

“Oh, let’s talk about walking our school uniforms, Kominato-kun and Kamiyama-san. See, they’re all waiting for us over there, right?”

At least, I don’t think they are waiting to talk about walking in uniform. …

Arai was quick to say so, pulling Kamiyama-san’s hand and trying to get her to get up from her seat as if urging her.

Perhaps startled by the sudden grab, Kamiyama-san stood up on the spot with a jerk.

Perhaps she stood up too forcefully, and her chair fell towards me as a reaction. My hand, which was sagging across the desk, was hit by the chair that Kamiyama-san had knocked over.

“Ouch…”

It wasn’t that painful, but I couldn’t help but let out my voice. I guess my voice reached her because she turned around with a tremendous force and let out a funny voice from inside the paper bag, with a high and low intonation, turning inside out and back.

“Gosh…! I’m sorry!”

She bowed repeatedly to me.

Wearing the paper bag, Kamiyama-san, who looked to be nearly two meters tall, bent at a rapid pace, the strong wind pressure ruffling my bangs.

My cheeks are drenched with sweat from the hem of the paper bag.

I hastily replied.

“Oh, no, it’s not that big of a deal.”

Before I could finish, Kamiyama-san emitted another loud voice from inside the paper bag.

“You have to go to the infirmary right now!”

Kamiyama-san shouted and reached out her long arm to grab me by the collar. She was so fast that I was lifted before I had time to resist. In an instant, I was on Kamiyama-san’s shoulders. Of course, her shoulders were drenched with sweat.

The class, which had been lively until a moment ago, suddenly quieted down, and all eyes in the class were focused on me and Kamiyama-san. Kamiyama-san, with me on her shoulders, kicked down the classroom door and ran out into the corridor.

I yell out in a panic, “Wait a minute, Kamiyama-san! My hand is fine!”

I shouted as I struggled to hold on to Kamiyama-san’s sweat-soaked shoulders, but it seemed she couldn’t hear me.

I was carried by a girl wearing a paper bag, moving at lightning speed down the corridor of the high school I had just entered today.

Caught by her soaked shoulder, I struggled to keep myself from being shaken off.

From behind me, I could hear Arai’s voice saying, “Let’s talk about walking in uniform again next time!” I hope I was imagining things.

Kamiyama-san runs as fast as she can.

“Hey, Kamiyama-san!”

“It’s dangerous to talk…! Please be quiet for a minute!

A high school girl wearing a sweat-soaked paper bag, Samidare Kamiyama-san, runs as fast as she can down the hallway carrying me.

Her path is damp and still, like the trail of a giant aquatic creature. A kappa, I thought.

No, this is not the time to think about that.

I called out to Kamiyama-san who was running carrying me.

“Hey, Kamiyama-san! That… hand is okay!”

“But… you have to make sure… that you get the proper treatment!”

Kamiyama-san’s paper bag is already sweaty. Whenever Kamiyama-san speaks, the paper bag around her mouth sticks to her lips, making it very difficult for her to speak. Why doesn’t she just take the paper bag off?

“Um… Kamiyama-san? Why don’t you take off that paper bag? It’s hard to talk, isn’t it?”

“…!”

Kamiyama-san tightened up her paper bag and shouted, “I can’t take this off! I’m too embarrassed!”

Is it me, or is it my imagination that I feel more embarrassed when she is the one wearing a paper bag?

Kamiyama-san is speeding up even faster. It is a spectacular sight to see all the students passing us with their mouths open.

I guess I’ll just have to hold out until we get to the infirmary…….

I cling to Kamiyama-san’s shoulders and arms desperately so that I would not be shaken off, but her body was moistened with sweat and it was very difficult to hold on to her.

After a while.

“Kamiyama-san… Kamiyama-san…”

“…”

No matter how much I spoke to her, she did not respond.

Kamiyama-san was constantly looking around, breathing heavily and shaking the paper bag from side to side. I, on her shoulder, was swaying up and down along with her heavy breathing. What kind of attraction is this?

The next thing I knew, we were at the back of the gymnasium. After being dragged around the school building in search of the infirmary, we somehow ended up here.

“…I’m lost…”

Kamiyama-san whispered to herself.

I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible so as not to irritate the troubled Kamiyama-san.

“Oh… you know. I don’t think my hand hurts anymore, so please put me down. I’m really fine now.

“Oh… Okay…”

After saying this, she dropped me to the ground with a lift.

As she lowered me to the ground, I looked up at her. She was huge in front of me. I’m not a very tall guy, but I guess she’s at least a head taller than me.

I guess she has a rather thin figure. Her waist and ankles are thin, and she has two melon-like b*****s clinging to the front of her body.

Kamiyama-san’s uniform was dripping with sweat, and just like in the classroom earlier, the tone of the ground beneath her feet was dyed darker than before.

I, too, was soaked through most of my uniform from being held by Kamiyama-san.

I spoke to the hesitant Kamiyama-san, still in my sweaty uniform.

“Hey, Kamiyama-san. Let’s go back to class. There’s no point in staying here forever.”

“…”

Kamiyama-san didn’t speak, but instead nervously shook the paper bag.

The paper bag was already soaked with sweat and looked like a paper mask. Furthermore, the paper bag had begun to melt in some places due to Kamiyama-san’s sweat, and some parts of it were sticking to the contours of her face, making her look like she could be in a horror movie in her current state.

However, I wonder if she can breathe with the paper bag stuck to her face like this.

As I was thinking about this, Kamiyama-san started shaking slightly. She was holding her mouth and seemed to be in some kind of pain.

I thought she might not be able to breathe.

When I reached out to take her paper bag, she suddenly turned her back on me. Then, she suddenly ripped open the paper bag with both hands, which was sweaty and soggy with sweat.

Her wet black hair was revealed. Her sweat-soaked black hair glistened in the spring sunlight.

In front of my stunned eyes,  Kamiyama-san pulled out a plastic bag from the pocket of her skirt and took out a new brown paper bag folded neatly from inside with great speed. Then, she unfolded the plain brown paper bag and put it on her head with a flowing motion, and with a familiar hand, she shredded a part of the bag into a round shape and made two holes at the eye part.

“…Hoo… I almost died…”

Kamiyama-san is relieved as she puts the new paper bag on her head.

I asked a question to Kamiyama-san who was relieved to put on a new paper bag.

“Kamiyama-san… do you always carry a spare paper bag…?”

“…Yes… I sweat easily when I get nervous… so it gets ruined easily like this. ……”

Kamiyama-san answers shyly and shakyly. I ask one more question to Kamiyama-san, who twists her body in embarrassment.

“Do you have to wear that?”

“Yes, I have to wear it!”

Kamiyama-san answered firmly this time. I couldn’t say anything more in response to her brazen reply.

A warm spring breeze passed between us.

Kamiyama-san couldn’t breathe.

The sound of the door opening rattled through the quiet classroom, and the eyes of the entire homeroom class were drawn to the entrance of the classroom.

There I was, soaked to the skin, and there were others soaked even more so than me, sweating so much that I wondered if they had been hit by a waterfall. I was stunned.

I explained the situation to the homeroom teacher, who looked stunned.

“I’m sorry, I was taken to the infirmary. I didn’t know where it was and I was late.

It seemed that Kamiyama-san felt she had to say something as well, and a voice came from behind me.

“I was at the infirmary, The infirmary!”

Silence. Everyone in class, even the homeroom teacher, just looks at us without saying a word.

I think this might be the first time I’ve heard a “shh” sound, and head for my seat.

Seeing me walking away, the teacher resumes the homeroom as if nothing had happened. I wondered if not only Kamiyama-san, but also I myself have been identified as a troublesome student.

I was involved in a terrible disaster from the very first day at school.

Kamiyama-san sat down in front of me, walking with her right hand and right foot out at the same time. Of course, there are sweat marks left after she walks.

At the podium, the homeroom teacher is explaining the school. I look in front of me, and I see Kamiyama-san, who has come back with me, starting to shake slightly. I looked closely and saw that the paper bag on her head was soaking wet again. I thought she had replaced it with a spare one earlier, but what happened?

I tried to guess the reason, but the answer was immediately obvious.

Probably, she got nervous because of all the stares from the class earlier and started sweating again.

If that was the case, why didn’t she just replace the paper bag with a spare one as soon as possible?

However, Kamiyama-san did not move at all. Concerned, I asked a question in a low voice to Kamiyama-san’s back.

“Kamiyama-san, aren’t you going to change the paper bag? Aren’t you in pain?”

In response to my voice, she shook her head, or rather, her neck and the wet paper bag. My face was again covered with her sweat. And after that, she shook the paper bag sideways this time. I wondered what was wrong. I decided to ask the question again.

“Kamiyama-san… you can’t change the paper bag?”

This time, Kamiyama-san shakes the paper bag vertically. I continue to ask questions.

“Then…… you don’t have any spare?”

Kamiyama-san shakes the paper bag horizontally. She says she has a spare.

Then why doesn’t she change it? If she doesn’t, she’s going to die.

I wondered…… why couldn’t she change the paper bag even though she had a spare one, and I soon came up with an answer.

“Could it be that the reason why she can’t change it is that she’s too embarrassed to show her face in front of the class……?”

Boom! This time, Kamiyama-san shook her head tremendously.

Shyness has come this far. No really, something like this… is awesome.

No, no! This is not the time to be impressed!

Neither the homeroom teacher nor the classmates will look at us.

Kamiyama-san, who was shaking a little earlier, has already stopped moving. The shade of her neck, visible through the hem of her paper bag, has turned bright red.

I hurriedly searched my bag for something to replace the paper bag. There, among the pens, pencils, and school brochures, I found a large paper bag. It was the paper bag that had wrapped this bag when I bought it. I had been planning to dispose of it later, but in the end, I had left it in this bag because of the trouble.

I took out a paper bag one size bigger than the one Kamiyama-san was wearing from my bag and unfolded it wide. But how should I give it to her? When I looked at Kamiyama-san once more, her neck had gone from red to white.

No, she’s going to die.

My body moved before I could think.

I put my paper bag on top of Kamiyama-san’s wet paper bag and shouted so that the dying Kamiyama-san could hear me.

“Kamiyama-san! Now! Get your hand inside and rip it open!”

“…!”

Kamiyama-san stuck her hands into the larger paper bag I had put on her, and ripped the brown paper bag she had been wearing off her face.

“Haa… thank you so much!”

Kamiyama-san turned to me and lowered the paper bag with the logo of the bag shop printed on it with a bow. Then, with a familiar hand, she cleverly cut a hole through the eye part and looked forward as if relieved.

I don’t mind thanking you,

Kamiyama-san… but again, everyone is looking at you…

I’m sure that after this, she will sweat just as much as before when she realizes it. The paper bag she’s wearing now will melt too……

I looked through my bag again to see if there was at least one more paper bag in it, but there wasn’t anymore.

Teacher, if you don’t finish homeroom soon, people will die.

I muttered to myself.

Kamiyama-san wants to thank you.

“Okay, that’s it for homeroom. Tomorrow is the first day of class, so please don’t forget anything.

The bell rang with the homeroom teacher’s words.

Everyone in class is leaving the classroom one by one, talking with their new friends they have made today.

I’m going home too…… I’m tired today……

I think to myself, grab my bag and stand up. I was about to leave the classroom when I took a few steps toward the door. Suddenly, my ankle is grabbed by something sticky.

“Whoa!”

I let out a cry of surprise at the suddenness of the situation.

I hurriedly looked at my feet and saw Kamiyama-san kneeling on the floor of the classroom, soaking wet in her school uniform, on her knees, holding my ankles tightly with both hands.

I tried to shake her off, but I couldn’t move my legs at all, as if I was stuck to the ground. She was holding me tightly with tremendous force.

“Um… Kamiyama-san…? Why are you holding on to me…?”

Kamiyama-san is on her knees and mumbles in a strange voice.

“…Thank you for saving my life earlier… Thank you and… and…”

Kamiyama-san froze as she said, “and…”

Everyone in class is glancing at me. The guy who makes girls get down on their knees on the first day of school. That’s me.

Oh, how did this happen?…….

“Kamiyama-san, lift up your head. You don’t have to thank me!”

“…let me thank you somehow! I’ll do anything!”

Kamiyama-san’s exclamation of “I’ll do anything!” suddenly shuts down the class, which had been noisy until then.

It is not surprising for a boy of his age to imagine something bad when a girl says she’ll do anything for him. They are at that age.

If only they weren’t sweaty spirits in paper bags…

My legs are still firmly gripped by Kamiyama-san, and I can’t move them as if they were glued to the floor.

I’ll think of something and get her to release me. Otherwise, my life will be in danger.

Thinking this, I said to Kamiyama-san, who was holding my ankles in a kneeling posture.

“Oh… I see… Well then, next time you can buy me a juice or something on the way home from school…”

Just as I answered her, she let go of my ankle grip and stood up in an instant. Then, she put her long arms around my torso and lifted me lightly as if she were picking up a stuffed animal, and started running.

“Juice! Let’s go get some juice!”

“Hey, Kamiyama-san! Wait! Wait!”

“Juice! We need to get some juice!”

With that, Kamiyama-san, soaked to the skin, carries me on her shoulders and starts running. She ran through the hallway, grabbed her shoes from the shoebox, and ran as fast as she could across the schoolyard. The students at the end of the school day looked at me and Kamiyama-san as if we were aliens, but they soon disappeared far behind us.

I, Namito Kominato, am fifteen years old.

This was the first time in my life that I left school alone with a girl.

Five minutes later. By the time Kamiyama-san found a vending machine and stopped, my school uniform was soaked with her sweat, but it didn’t matter anymore.

Come to think of it, I didn’t even put on my shoes, but that doesn’t matter anymore either…….

I looked up at the sky as Kamiyama-san looked for her wallet in her bag. The spring sky was a refreshing blue.

Kamiyama-san has made a friend.

It was a pleasant spring afternoon with warm sunshine.

I had just finished the entrance ceremony of my high school and was sitting on a park bench in my fresh and wet blazer, drinking a can of juice. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom in the quiet, empty park. The still-new slide shines in the gentle spring sunlight. A warm spring breeze caresses my cheeks, and the fluttering petals of the cherry blossoms are beautiful to the eye, but I feel uncomfortable because my wet uniform is sticking to my body.

I look next to me and see a high school girl sitting there, wearing the same brand-new uniform as me, but soaked more than me, and with a paper bag on her head.

–From the outside, do we look like… lovers?

Such a question popped into my mind for a moment. But I can assure you that it is not true. I can say that for sure.

Then, how do we look to others?

The answer is this.

We don’t look like a couple. We look like a bunch of perverts.

The proof is in the fact that when we entered the park with juice in our hands, the elementary school kids playing in the park ran away like spiders.

Next to me, Kamiyama-san, a woman over 180 centimeters tall with a paper bag on her head, is drinking her juice.

I should thank her for the juice.

I thought to myself and called out to Kamiyama-san, who had just finished her orange juice in one gulp.

“Kamiyama-san… ah… thanks for buying me a glass of juice.”

“…Do doodle doodle doodle!”

Kamiyama-san replied in a funny voice with a high and low inflection, turning over and back to the front.

Kamiyama-san jiggled with the can she had just finished drinking with her hand.

She seemed embarrassed that I thanked her, and her sweat dripped down from the paper bag.

Seeing this, I say hurriedly,

“You don’t have to be so nervous! Here, I bought you a juice, so let’s not owe each other anything, okay? Please …”

Hearing this, Kamiyama-san slowly turned her head toward me. Her bright eyes caught mine, peering through a hole in the paper bag. Her eyes were wide open and pitch black.

Could it be? Maybe, she has a pretty face…?

While I was thinking about this, Kamiyama-san began to speak again in a strange voice.

“…Umm… I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you today…”

“Well… I’m extremely shy and I’m not very good at talking to… people and I’m not very good at it… I get very nervous… when I don’t know… how to handle… with people…”

I give her a calm reply.

“Don’t worry about it. Well, yeah… there’s is a lot going… a lot of things… maybe… ”

“So you were like that today because you were nervous…?”

I’m not sure what to expect.

I’ll pretend I didn’t see that the can I was playing with both hands earlier has somehow turned into a lump of aluminum, the size of a ping-pong ball. I want to get it. No, I saw nothing.

If Kamiyama-san continues to be exposed to this kind of tension, my life might be in danger.

Thinking this, I spoke to

Kamiyama-san in as gentle a tone as possible.

“Kamiyama-san, this may not happen tomorrow.”

Kamiyama-san turned the paper bag toward me and asked, “Why? I tried to sound cheerful.

“Because we already know each other, don’t we? From tomorrow, you’ll go to a school with people you know. So it will be fine.”

I hope this makes you a little less nervous. For the rest of my school life. Most of all, for my own school life.

Kamiyama-san looked at me in surprise for a moment, then said shyly.

“Um… does that mean… you’ll be my friend..?”

I reply to her

“Oh no- I mean yes… well… friend, I guess. A friend…”

I don’t know what a friend is. Well… it doesn’t matter.

When Kamiyama-san finished listening to my words, she squeezed her skirt with both hands and said.

“Thank you… I made a friend for the first time…”

Her Sweat dripped down from her skirt as if she was wringing out a wet rag.

Kamiyama-san broke off and said shyly, “I am such a shy person.”

“I’m like this… but I’m looking forward to working with you from now on, Kominato-kun.”

Kamiyama-san thanked me happily and then reached out her hand for a handshake.

I don’t care if we are friends or not. As long as we can have a peaceful school life, that’s all that matters.

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you too. Kamiyama-san.”

I squeezed Kamiyama-san’s hand back.

My hand is soaked with sweat, and I think to myself.

Do not be nervous just now or my hand will turn into an aluminum ball.

I, Namito Kominato, am fifteen years old.

I have a friend, a girl for the time in my life.