Chapter 9

Monday morning came again this week.

Er… Maybe using「again」was a bit strange. Since last Monday was a public holiday, I was really pampered by that days hospitality.

Ahh, I don’t wanna get up…

But even if I keep thinking like that, the time will continue without stopping. The current of the flowing river would constantly flow no matter what. Ah, that poem is not by Saigyo, or Sesshū Tōyō… err, it’s Kamo no Chōmei. 1. This minute and this second won’t ever come back again.

What I wanted to say is, if I let my happiness of lying on the mattress go now, I won’t be able to taste「Happiness of lying on the bed on 25 September 2017, Monday morning」ever again.

In conclusion, I’m sleepy.

After getting used to multiple alarms on my smartphone, I can even turn them off now without looking at the screen. I need to check the screen to confirm my waking up deadline just in case, though.

But recently, it has become unnecessary.

Maharun♪：Senpai, happy morning!

I never told Kouhai-chan my house address, so I believe that this is just a coincidence. Yet, the time when Kouhai-chan send me a LINE message in the morning is really just right on my deadline time.

I never saw someone use「Happy morning」expression, though. Oh well. Let’s wake up now…

＊　＊　＊

After the weekend was over, Monday finally came.

Senpai who I hadn’t seen for a day had disheveled hair as usual. I wonder if this person didn’t have the habit of fixing his hair every day.

「Good morning, senpai」

「Oh. You don’t use『Happy morning』here, eh.」

「What, so you read my message after all. You can just reply to my LINE, you know.」

「I told you already, it’s bothersome.」

「Yes, yes.」

On weekday mornings, I can’t help but to send him a wake-up LINE as a wake-up call every day at a fixed time, but senpai doesn’t really reply to my messages. Maybe it was because he first told me that it was 「troublesome」?

After all, he was the type of person who took responsibility for what he said.

Now then.

What kind of talk will I have with senpai today?

＃　＃　＃

After securing her usual position today as well, Kouhai-chan starts to speak.

「Okay, I already decided. This is『today’s question』. Senpai, what is your hobby?」

Hobby? Hobby, huh…

At something like pupil’s record that were submitted to the school, there would always be a section to write 「hobbies/special skills」, but I always took many hours to fill that section every time.

My reasons were somewhat complex, but the biggest one was because most of my hobbies were the least interesting ones to write on those sections.

「As I thought, maybe it’s reading?」

「That’s boring. Please tell me another more interesting hobby」

Like how Kouhai-chan’s ill-willed response was, I also felt that the hobby that would be too hard to write is「reading」. If I was just reading mystery, or science fiction, or even light novels and other particular genres, it could be a material for conversations, but unfortunately, I’m an omnivorous. 「I will read anything if it is interesting」type of reader.

My next hobby after excluding「reading」should be this, but after all, this would be hard to write in the pupil’s record.

「Then, gaming. Video games.」

「That’s too lackadaisical.」

「Nowadays I would be a squid and endlessly killing the salmons.」

「What kind of game is that?」

「It’s a Nintendo popular shooting game, you don’t know it?.」

「Haa…」

Be it a joke or not, it’s hard to say that「My hobby is playing video games!」in a public place. It’s not that I would be hesitant to say that itself, but I couldn’t afford being frowned upon because of that.

「By the way, senpai, do you know about the original Nintendo?」

「They used to be a Hanafuda card company, right? I know, I know. 2」

「Please at least let me finish my words…」

I suddenly came up with something I remembered after talking with Kouhai-chan.

「Ah, I also like to watch quiz programs on the television.」

「Senpai knows a lot of meaningless trivia like just now, after all. I could see how you will make a smug face in front of your parents after answering faster than the player in the television.」

「How did you know? And don’t say it’s meaningless!」

「Bull’s eye…? Well, I could somewhat imagine it.」

「Eh, am I really that much of the character who keep showing off their knowledge?」

「Rather than that, I think it’s more like you hate to lose to someone.」

The moment she said this sentence, I felt like the mist in my mind was cleared somehow.

What did she say just now?

With a thump, I felt like I agreed with her input, like I gave my assent to that label.

Assent?

「…Senpai?」

「Ah, sorry. I’m just surprised.」

「Surprised?」

「Maybe it’s more like I reached an understanding? Anyway, I certainly hate losing.」

When I said it myself, I realized.

If other people told me that I myself hate losing, and I just accepted it obediently, what part of me is it that「hates losing」then?

「……Maybe I hate losing, I’m not sure…」

「Yes, yes.」

Anyway.

The things that I could write on the pupil’s record increased by one.

「I hate losing, and I will fire up my tenacity no matter what」, or something like that.

＊　＊　＊

「Then, what is Kouhai-chan’s hobby? That’s my『today’s question』」

I actually have a lot of various hobbies, but since this is「today’s question」, I have no choice but to answer this, right.

「It’s human observation」

I think all of the hobbies in this world have the element of the「human observation」in one way or another.

Even this hobby is one of my roots in my opinion.

「Human observation? Monitoring? 3 」

「That’s a television show, though.」

「Is it different?」

Maybe.

「I think it’s different. Actually, I have never seen that show before, I don’t know.」

「Oi, oi…」

Senpai made a face that expressed that he couldn’t understand me at all.

「Rather than their appearance, I think I’m more interested in observing their internal feelings. I want to know what other people think and feel when they face the same situations like me」

Senpai blinked his eyes several times, with an expression as if he understood, yet still didn’t understand.

「So you are observing me? A guinea pig? The subject of an experiment?」

「What kind of experiment is it?」

「Experiment and observation on what will happen if a girl very actively approaches a gloomy high school boy?」

So he realized that I very actively approached him. As expected from senpai.

「I think you’re mostly not wrong.」

「Oi.」

「But, senpai, you don’t really hate it that much, right? If you really hate it, you should be running away somewhere from me now anyway.」

「It’s because you’ve been stalking me from the beginning.」

「Past is past, now is now. Alsoーー」

Also.

「I don’t think that senpai is a gloomy person, though? Rather, I think you are a very interesting person.」

One more push.

After saying this much, if i say it now naturally, I could gloss over it later on, right?

「I like you, senpai.」

The things I knew about my senpai⑨

It seems like he dislikes losing, regardless of his appearance.