oregairu-vtc4

Chapter t4. The Person With a Real Request Arrives Late
Having checked the life and behaviour of a certain Hayato Hayama I’ve noticed one thing. Generally Iroha Isshiki’s concerns turned out true. She said that the rumors could change the Hayama’s immediate environment, and change they did. Everyone constantly blabbered about those rumors in every class and in the corridor, to no end. Hayama and Yukinoshita were standing out, truly they were. They both could take pride in that. I’ve also noticed that even during the breaks my classmates kept sending looks at Hayama and MIrua, and even at Yuigahama. Right now I was hearing the conversation held by the girls behind my seat.
“Wonder how much of that is true?”
“Me too. Maybe they are going out after all.”
“I’ve asked one girl from Class E and she said no way.”
“Yeah she wouldn’t bug them ‘bout that. What a kind girl.”
They didn’t say anything concrete, mentioned neither Hayama himself or anyone he was supposed to go out with, but it was still clear for me. These rumors had no grounds, not to mention any roots or stalks. But they did give fruits in their own way. That’s why those rumors were so fun to  discuss. Seventeen year old girls liked to chat, even loved to, and talking about celebrities was the best of them all. The girls whose names I didn’t even know meanwhile continued their conversation.
“Huh. Never thought that Yukinoshita would fall for a pretty face.”
“Totally. I mean, they don’t even know each other, so they only go for looks, right?”
“But then Hayama-kun is in for a pretty face too?”
“Isn’t he?”
They girls laughed. Though they conversed quietly, so that Hayama and his friends wouldn’t hear.
It all was getting on my nerves. Hate it, honestly.
It’s like some kind of an unpleasant sound, akin to insects buzzing or clock ticking in the middle of a night. You can’t help but click your tongue in irritation. Even me, an entirely unrelated person, was irritated. People who the rumors were about probably were too. All the crap people tell each other, as if it’s a bad joke, was all just their guesses, assumptions and fantasies mixed with jealousy. Very few of them did have any evil intents. If you try to debunk those rumors earnestly, they’ll just tell you to not take it all too seriously.
I knew all this not because I simply imagined these things. I realized this because I  knew these girls. All this time Hayato Hayama and Yukino Yukinoshita had been living in a world where they received a lot of attention and expectations from those around them, and also a dose of envy and disappointment along with those. The institution made for watching over the teenagers we call school was truly a prison. Popular people are shoved under the spotlight while others start watching over them without even being asked to, from a position of good will and curiosity. And sometimes the crowd punishes them. It’s like a never-ending Stanford prison experiment. No one ever asked all these people to interfere, and yet they still did it out of sense of duty. And in the middle of this crowd, all this time, was Yui Yuigahama.
The nameless security guards behind my back meanwhile were still talking. But then a new sound was added, a sound of something hard hitting the desk. The voices fell silent. I looked at the source of the hitting. It was Miura: she crossed her legs and was drumming her nails on the desk. Her face was turned to Yuigahama, but her eyes were directed at me. Her appearance was only overpowering if you looked at her face but her scary look would get to me even from the side. Scary. Three times scarier than usual. It wasn’t me she stared at, but I still turned away. Hayama, who was sitting across her, made a strained smile. They both probably didn’t hear the girls’ conversation, but the atmosphere in the class said it all anyway. One could feel their intentions or interest without listening to anything. Miura had just used the same way of communication to tell them she wasn’t pleased, at all.  The girls apparently found it difficult to stay in the class, so they both rose up from their seats and passed me on their way to the exit. Moving the rumors committee to the toilet, probably.
“Damn, that was scary! Did she hear us or something?”
“Dunno. Wonder what she’s thinking about all this? She’s Yuigahama-san’s friend and all.”
“Yeah, don’t want it to turn into a battlefield.”
“And you say that with a smile. Cool.”
I lied on the desk, pretending not to hear them talk. Otherwise I would’ve stare at Miura’s clique again. Ripples that started on the pond’s surface would disappear eventually. But, then again, there also was that butterfly effect theory. And so I endured through this break while listening to the cold wind hitting the window.
x x x
The wind was still strong even after the classes had ended. It was the strong wind coming to us from Kanto plains. The wet air mass coming from the sea was being stopped by the mountain ridge starting in Ou region, so all we got was this dry wind. And this dry cold wind was knocking at the glass of the classroom’s window at the corridor side. But inside-- inside was warm and moist. And the main source of this was steam coming from the teapot’s nose.
“And what are you doing here again?” I asked Isshiki, who was holding a paper cup with both hands. Hearing my question she put in on the desk. Then Icchiki straightened her collar, smoothed her skirt and combed her forelocks.
“I need to talk to you today,” she said with a serious tone. But due to her “fixing” her collar I could see her collarbone, her disturbing of the skirt led to unneeded attention, and her newly-combed forelosks accentuated the innocent expression nin her eyes. So no, she didn’t look serious to me at all. She managed to distract me for a moment, but my spirit is strong, so I turned away from Isshiki with a nagging feeling in my chest.
“I’m not helping the student council anymore.”
“I see...” Isshiki said, slightly miffed. Was it me or did certain someone click her tongue? I was just me, right, Irohasu?  Suddenly Yukinoshita who watched our exchange, coughed.
“You didn’t plan to make us work for the student council on your way here, now did you?” she asked, smiling. But I felt unspoken pressure in her smile. Her words were so simple yet I felt chills running down my spine. Isshiki instantly corrected herself.
“Of course, I was kidding! I’m working properly!”
“So what did you want?” Yukinoshita asked and sighed looking at Isshiki’s behaviour. The latter put her finger on the chin and started speaking, as in thinking aloud.
“Recently the girls started to make passes at Hayama-senpai more often.”
“What do you mean by ‘making passes’?”
“Well, confess to him, basically. Or maybe just to show off or check stuff,” Isshiki replied to Yuigahama in a neutral tone. ответила Иссики Юигахаме нейтральным тоном. I remembered things I’ve seen yesterday. But of course I wouldn’t be able to tell that to Yukinoshita and Yuigahama конечно, Юкиносите и Юигахаме я это рассказать не смогу, since their thoughts were very far away from now.
“What do you mean check?” Yukinoshita asked.
“And how can you show off?..” Yuigahama added. They both looked at Isshiki with doubt. After coughing and straightening up Isshiki turned to me together with the chair. Making short but heated exhale she looked at me, her eyes shimmering.
“Senpai… do you… have a girlfriend?” She asked with a trembling voice and pink cheeks. Isshiki’s unexpectedly thin white hand underneath the unbuttoned sleeve was gripping the collar ribbon. Thanks to the folds on the fabric I could see the movement beneath her blouse. Her moist eyes were fluttering gently. Due to this unexpected sight my heart started beating faster; I swallowed some air to calm it down.
“N-no...” I clumsily uttered. The clubroom fell silent.  I was quiet; so were Yukinoshita and Yuigahama. In this silence Isshiki finally showed her true smile.
“Something like that.”
“And w-what’s the difference? Hey, Hikki?”
Well… can’t say you managed to show herself. Yeah… Oh come on, who am I kidding! She did it excellently! Bravo, Isshiki!
“Hikki?..” Yuigahama called me and I turned to the voice.
“And why are you quiet?” Yukinoshita asked with a wide smile. Stop that, your smile scares me.
“Well, ummm… I understand Hayama’s situation now, ahem, yeah, perfectly understand.”
So the girls check out if the rumors are true and, if they’re lucky enough, confess to him. And even if they don’t they still get closer to Hayama. Somehow reminds me of a bonus disk with an additional character route. And probably nothing else. Anyway, this is one of the consequences of those damn rumors.
“So what did you want to talk?” I asked. Isshiki made a pompous snort.
“I want to get ahead of the competition.”
“Hmm...” I dispassionately muttered, my amazement and and surprised increasing one and a half times over.
She’s quite stubborn if she hadn’t given up yet, that girl. Isshiki thought I wasa expecting some elaboration, so she started speaking again.
“This whole situation is a good opportunity for me. Usually everyone just confesses and that’s it, right? Besides, Hayama-senpai is probably tired of all those confessions. So I’ll really stand out among them and will be a cheese in a mousetrap-- err, I mean music to the ears.”
Nah, it’s too late to correct yourself. And music to the ears? You’re that music to the ears? Well, Isshiki does have that attractiveness of a young maiden, but… That’s not the point. I don’t really care about anything between her and Hayama, so I didn’t bother listening to the end. I simply checked if the others did. Hm, turned out they did, with very serious faces.
“A cheese...”
“A mousetrap...”
After parroting her, Yukinoshita and Yuigahama looked at Isshiki with earnest expressions. Their behaviour was overly serious for some reason. I even felt chills for a moment. Danger in the air, I feel it. But Isshiki didn’t notice their looks-- she was looking at the window. Probably and the boys playing soccer in the schoolyard.
“So I thought that maybe we could go out somewhere, relax and all.”
One side of Isshiki’s face was illuminated by the sun rays. Her image was somewhat worried, yeat gentle. She said it with her usual tone, playfully, but I thought she did care about Hayama after all. Nice scheme, really. I think any guy’s heart would skip a beat if you show this side of yours to them.
“Not a bad idea,” I said smiling; Isshiki’s face lit up.
“Yeah! I just don’t know where to go.”
“I think you can think something out yourself.”
You’ve got the wrong people to ask that, I’m telling you. Yuigahama may have some opportunities to obtain such information from her friends, but neither me nor Yukinoshita had any idea about where to go out and relax. After hearing me out Isshiki pouted:
“I’ve already tried everything I knew. That’s why I need new ideas.”
“Oh.”
You move really fast, girl! Maybe you are from TOKIO after all. I’m pleasantly surprised. Yuigahama put her finger on the chin and tilted her head.
“So you want to know a relaxing place where one can forget their troubles or something like that, right?”
“Put it simply, yeah, something like that,” Isshiki nodded. Yukinoshita took a sigh.
“Why not, then?” she said like an older sister. Isshiki smiled too, since during such moments Yukinoshita became more open.
“Thank you very much! Senpai, what do you think?”
“Just the right person to ask.”
I didn’t have a single idea. Maybe Destinyland was an option to consider, but on second thought the person who was rejected there wouldn’t return back. Even though I don’t know Hayama, but he would pretend to have fun wherever he’re dragged to. As to how he actually feels, I didn’t know. While I thought about it Yuigahama moved closer, together with her chair.
“Hikki, you have any ideas? Just for a reference, you know...”
“I’m not Hayama,” I said. Yukinoshita smiled:
“Indeed. Different as night and day.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Yeah.”
Even though Yukinoshita was laughing at me, I wasn’t angry, because it’s a fact.  I think my personal stats were decent but incomparable to Hayama. Maybe our key difference was that small fries constantly think highly of themselves. No really, I’m a small fry, can’t get any smaller… But girls do like them too! I should think positive!
Yukinoshita coughed, turned away from me and continued:
“But if you’re his antipode, your opinion would still be valuable. If we take an antipode of your opinion we may end up with something useful.”
“That’s not certain.”
Strange logic. Kinda reminds me of Papa Bakabon. I wanted to argue further, but Yukinoshita and Yuigahama were looking at me expectantly. Don’t stare at me with such serious faces, or I’ll say something strange...
“I’ll think about it,” I managed to utter just to let those stares off me. I heard a sigh, a cross between satisfaction and disappointment.
“Think properly about it, then,” Isshiki said with a happy smile. That’s easy for you to say! I barely think about myself, how can I also think about you? I’d like to ask this question. Oh well, I’ll give it a thought.
Anyway, Isshiki’s attitude towards Hayama had also changed because of the rumors. Hayama’s immediate surroundings continued to change. Well, what about other concerned parties? Yuigahama was in the same class with me, so I more or less understood her. Fortunately she had understanding Miura and Ebina-san, so no problem here. But as for the other person, I didn’t know.
“By the way, Yukinoshita, did anything change because of the rumors?”
“Me? Well, people rarely approach my classroom, so…”
Right, Yukinoshita’s Class J of International Affairs was located at the end of the corridor, with 90% of it being girls. So the atmosphere in her class was different, and most students try not to disturb them. Maybe that’s why Yukinoshita had it better than Hayama. Though I don’t think that was enough to shield her from the rumors completely. Yukinoshita took a deep sigh.
“Some of them do talk behind my back, but this is how it always was,. So I can’t say if anything changed.”
“Ah, I totally understand that! People constantly talk about those who stand out too much!”
No, Isshiki, that’s not your case… Yukinoshita nodded to her and muttered:
“It’s just not so malicious as it was before.”
That “before” of hers clinged to me. The past I don’t know about. Or the past she doesn’t talk about. The past that’s linked to him. But do I have the right to ask her about it?  I think me, being a bystander, really couldn’t do that. Do I have a right to ask about things she doesn’t talk about?  I meekly tried to ask but at this moment someone knocked at the door two or three times. Everyone looked at the door and the opportunity was lost. The door opened without invitation.
“You free?” she asked, her voice angry and irritated. The girl looked inside the room, and her golden locks swayed in strange manner. It was Yumiko Miura standing at the doorframe.
“Yumiko? What happened?” Yuigahama asked.
“Need to talk.”
“Oh. Then come in,” Yuigahama replied. Miura nodded and entered the room while throwing a suspicious glare at Isshiki.
“Well, I got some stuff unfinished at the student council, so I gotta go,” Isshiki immediately took the hint and left.
“Bye-bye!” She said and closed the door. Yuigahama looked at it, then offered a chair to Miura. She sat across the desk.
“So what do you want to talk?”
“Yeah… well… What was it?..” Miura carefully uttered word after word, uneasily turning aside. Then she made a deep sigh and looked straight at Yukinoshita with a sharp stare full of hostility. She immediately asked:
“Is there anything between you and Hayato?”
Judging by her tone and look she came to talk about the rumors. Those irresponsible rumors weren’t just limited to our classroom-- the whole school knew about them. Back when Isshiki came with this question on the club’s very firts work day after the vacation, I should have understood she wouldn’t be the only one to check the rumors. Yumiko Miura was closer than anybody to Hayato Hayama. And she wouldn’t let those rumors slide.