Volume 1 - CH 1.3

Love Story

Translated by 64990022

Part 3

The next morning, Hamure-san made her way to her seat.

“Morning. About the reply…”

“G-good morning!” she jolted , her body suddenly tense. “S-So!? As you are, Korohashi-kun, you have the answer already?!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “What’s with that tone? A reaction vlog? And this is no place to talk about that.”

To admit, I was also nervous. But with this little joke, I relaxed a little. 

“R-right… yes, not here…”

“Yeah, so, after school, can I have your time?” 

I spared a glance at Urabe’s seat. Somehow, I don’t want her to see this. Awkward, embarrassing, and she would probably read my thoughts like a book. 

But my worries were unwanted; Urabe didn’t even look this way.

“–Heh, Eri, don’t you look tired?”

[TN: Urabe Eri.]

“Really? I thought the concealer was enough. It’s that obvious?”

“If you look. What’s up, sleep deprived?”

She grunted, “Was up playing games.”

Still engrossed in conversation with those glitzy girls… Well, what else would she be doing?

I turn away from her. She could do whatever she likes, not that I’m concerned.

Besides, everything was normal this morning when we walked to school, nothing of me being confessed.

Hamure-san’s voice pulled me back. “Hmm, after school… yeah, I’m free! Where to?”

“Rooftop. There usually aren’t any people around once past lunch.”

Strange enough, this highschool allowed access to the rooftop. Perhaps it was to make up for the cramped school grounds. Plus, the rooftop boasts a beautiful view of the Setouchi Sea and Mukaishima on the other side. The school must have considered this as an appealing point and decided to go with it. 

“O-okay…” She nodded stutteringly. “So I’ll get my reply then…”

“Yeah.”

She dropped dead on her chair— only to panic again.

“Wha… I’m on duty today!?”

I followed her gaze and saw the name “Hamure” on the bottom right corner of the blackboard.

“It seems like that.”

She stood up. “Oh no… I completely forgot!”

“Get to the staff room quick, you could still make it now.”

With a nod, she dropped her bag on the table and scurried off.

She stopped at the door. “Korohashi-kun, later!”

“Later. And don’t trip on your way.”

She disappeared behind the corner. I smiled wryly when she was gone. 

She really was careless… Won’t she get tired from the morning like this…

Then, her carelessly dropped bag lost its balance and fell.

“Oof” 

I reached out and caught it mid-air. That said, something managed to pop out of the side pocket and tumble on the floor.

A notepad.

It was small, palm-sized, the kind that sold everywhere. But the cover was written in her hand writing:

Request Note.

Uhh, a note for communication between family members? Maybe I could put it back, but that would require rummaging through her bag.

“I’ll give this to her later…” I muttered as I shoved it into my pocket.

**

I waited for Hamure-san alone on the rooftop. She had apologized in advance that she might be late due to class duty errands. 

That was just fine by me, there were thoughts that needed sorting.

I leaned on the fence, sweeping my eyes over the scene–.

Onomichi was sunny again today, the town was small and compact as ever, and the Seto Inland sea reflected the evening sun. Tanking in the salty breeze, I sighed.

I had planned to reject her.

Today, I am going to turn down her request to be her boyfriend.

I was certainly happy when she confessed. I also think of her affectionately. Even now, a part of me felt that I should go out with her. Or if I were to ask someone for advice, surely, anyone would recommend dating her.

However, when standing in this position, it was much more complicated.

For context, I have no experience dating. If I said ok, then this would be my first, and I want that person to be someone whom I really liked.

It might sound silly, but this is where I stand. I am sorry for Hamure-san, but I couldn’t go out with her just because she was cute; that just felt wrong.

“Hmm…” I sighed.

Turning down someone sure is hard.

Well, this was my first time, but it was quite painful when you can’t reciprocate someone’s feelings. Imagining her disappointed expression made my heart ache like it was being jabbed by needles.

As I curled my lips in guilt, I noticed something in my blazer’s pocket. “Hn?”

Palm-sized, with the texture of paper, small cold rings…

“Oh, almost forgot…”

Hamure-san’s “Request Note.”

Before I could think better of it, before any thought could cross my mind–

I involuntarily flipped the note open.

My head was at max capacity with the confession, I had no time to consider privacy nor discretion.

There, in Hamure-san’s drooping, absent-minded scrawl, were short sentences in bullet points. 

-I Requested big sis to buy me pinot.

-I Requested Saike to give me a spoiler commentary on Karekoy.

-I Requested the teacher to forgive me for my late submission.

“What…”

Apparently, this was a note where Hamure-san wrote down her daily requests to those around her. Perhaps this “big sis” was her sister. Sakie, our classmate. Karekoy was a popular manga that could now be read digitally.

So this was what “Request Book” is…?

But, why would she bother to keep such a record? As some sort of memento? 

As the page progressed, I started to see my own name.

-I Requested the teacher to change my seat to next to Korohashi-kun.

-I Requested Korohashi-kun to have lunch together.

-I Requested that Korohashi-kun wants to go on a date with me.

“Eh?”

Requested teacher? Seat change? That was rarely possible, or so I thought…how?

My heart started to beat nervously.

Somehow, this didn’t feel like a normal memmo, rather, a record of something critical.

An unsettling feeling ooze from the pages, but I only turn the pages faster.

“–!” I gulped.

The next page was crammed with letters. Tiny characters fitted the lines, like ants swarming a candy bar, like writings in cult rituals.

My eyes caught the keywords–

–Ordnance–safety–troops–escape–sect–no witnesses–reject–leader.

I rubbed my eyes, feeling the disquiet with my skin. For a moment I convinced myself this was a poem or something. 

But this was no work of poetry, not the result of creativity. The writing was driven and desperate, as if something was boiling inside her when she wrote this. It smelled of searing urgency.

Something was going on.

My interest in the note doubled.

The almost-black page, there was something more to Hamure Hiyori. There was something irresistible and alluring about it, and I couldn’t help but keep reading.

“Ah!!”

Startled by the voice, I looked up.

Learn more

Hamure-san was standing at the rooftop entrance, her eyes wide and fixed at the notepad in my hand.

“M-my ‘Request Note’!”

Crap! She saw!

The realization of what I had done finally took in.

What to do? Apologize? Or was there any excuse I could use…?!

She took a quick breath and walked toward me, her expression taunt.

And then, with a strangely clear voice– as if she was speaking right next to me, said,

“G-give it back…”

Yeah, I should give it to her

The memo, to her…

“Here…”

I walked to her and bowed in remorse before returning the notepad.

What were I even doing, taking a peek like that? 

“Sorry. You dropped it, I meant to return it but didn’t get the chance to.”

“O-oh, okay…” She briskly took the note and held it tight at her chest. “Thank you for picking it up… Have you looked—what have you seen?”

She eyed me anxiously.

“A variety of requests. That’s it, the latter half’s kinda incomprehensible.”

“Oh.”

She dropped her gaze and fell into a trance, with a perplexed face and constant muttering. 

I wondered what it was about.

“I… see…Keeping secrets is unfaithful… yes!”

She looked up–at me.

And with the same resolution she had yesterday, when she confessed me,

“See, Korohashi-kun! Actually… I am hiding something…”

“Hiding something?”

“Yes… you see–”

“–My Request is absolute.”

[TN: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes!”]

“Huh?”

Her request is… absolute?

I don’t understand… What’s happening?

“W-when I was little! I tried many things!” Seeing my dubious expression or not, she hurried on. “My parents, they are quite strict, and won’t listen to what I ask for that much… Then I found out that if I cleared a ‘certain condition,’ they would definitely listen to me…”

“‘Certain condition’?”

“Yes… Ah! I’m afraid that’s the most I can tell you! But while I do that, everyone will definitely follow my Request… Not just my family, classmates, strangers… and if they understand the meaning, foreigners too…”

“Ehh…”

“I’ve used it all this time, to ask people around me for help… I do feel guilty about it… so I record my Requests in this notepad as a reminder…”

“I, see…”

“So, we are on the same page…?”

Yeah, now I know…

Hamure-san knew how to make people do absolutely everything she requested.

She sometimes uses it to manipulate people at will…

I see… I see…

–Hamure-san is a wacko who can’t tell the difference between wild fantasies and reality.

There was no such thing as a condition for an absolute request.

If such a thing even existed, the one who discovered such a method wouldn’t be a random highschool girl from this countryside, but by the world’s top research institute, university, hospital, or billionaire company.

In other words, Hamure-san was a wacko who believed in wild fantasies. That was a close call. If I had found out after I had inadvertently given her the ok to her confession, that could have been disastrous…

“Hn?” She stared at me. “You don’t believe me?”

“No, no, I completely get it. Each person sees reality differently. I’m sure that’s your reality, Hamure-san.”

“You don’t…” She pouted. “Fine. See for yourself.”

She turned to face me.

“Korohashi-kun, dance.”

“‘Kay, got it.”

Dance, huh…

There was hardly any choreography that I knew. That left me with… the half gymnastic dance I was forced to remember in the middle school cultural festival—.

“Thank you… that was a.. strange dance, but it’s cute as it is. Next, a musical please.”

“Ok”

Musical… the one I know was the famous one from Shiki Theater. I’ll go with that–.

It came out unexpectedly loud, loud enough to echo across the school yard.

[TN: TA KU NA MA TA TA!!]

Hamure-san guffawed. “Ahaha! That’s pretty good! Korohashi-kun… I never knew you have talent. Then, lastly… An impersonation of a famous person please.”

“W-wait! Oi, wait, really!”

[TN: Not sure whose impersonation this is either.]

“You’re pretty good at this too! I thought you wouldn’t be good, turns out you’re better than I thought…” she wiped… tears from her eyes. “So, Korohashi-kun.”

She smiled amiably and cocked her head.

“Now that you have experienced my ‘Request,’ how was it? Will you trust me now?”

“Eh?”

That was when I realized the absurdity of my actions for the first time.

“I-it’s real?!”

Dance, musical, impersonation, nothing I would have done on a normal basis, things that I only do when absolutely necessary. But apparently, I gave it my all without any hesitation just because she “Requested” me.

Nothing could describe my shock.

It was embarrassing, but the shock was far greater.

I really was—at her will.

“This isn’t real, right..? But I…”

Now that I think about it, it was like this.

When she came for a talk, I went on with the suggestion without any doubts. When she asked for a date, I accepted her invitation without a moment’s delay.

And when I included this ‘Request’ of hers into the picture, everything now makes sense.

“Something like that exists? This is not some supernatural manga, you know…”

“Come on–, you still don’t believe me?! You’re saying you dance, sing and did the impersonation by your own will?”

“No, that’s impossible…”

Then, there’s no choice but to accept it, 

–Hamure-san’s Request is indeed absolute.

“Hm? But that means…” Realization set in.

Considering her ability, that was a logical choice… Considering how powerful she was, it was only natural, yet…

“The confession yesterday… you could have used Request and get an absolute yes…”

If she could take someone’s will as easily as that, then she could have made me say yes.

Yet.

“I wouldn’t do that!” she said as if pleading for her innocence. “I don’t want to distort the feelings of the one I like. How could I be happy like that?! That’s why I didn’t use Request yesterday!”

I believed her. 

Why? Because I planned to turn her down.

Then, I realized how mistaken I was.

I had thought she was a simple-minded girl, timid and weak-willed, that she had lived her live leisurely without any care. That was still true.

But… that was not all to her.

She had strong self-discipline when the situation demanded. She could be strong willed and ready to make hard choices—

“S-so… Let me say it again!” 

Her face crumpled as if she was about to cry.

At the top of her lungs, she “Requested” me.

“I like you! Please go out with meeee!”

“Ahaha” I couldn’t hold back the laughter.

After all this time, I think I finally understand a bit.

About the love of this girl called Hamure Hiyori. A girl who was stronger than she looked–.

Then I noticed another thing.

Her hands balled into fists, biting her lips, two dams of tears ready to burst any moment.

She looked so anxious and defenseless that she might break from the slightest touch.

I found myself wanting to know more about her, to be close to her, to experience her emotions, her joys, her anger, her sorrows, her happiness, together with her…

Then, it was probably time to revise my judgment.

I don’t like thinking twice on a decision,, but for once, I might just as well step out of the box.

“Yeah, got it.” I nodded for her to see. “Let’s go out. Please take care of me–”

A drop of tears rolled down her cheek.