CH 2.3

The Begging Of My Daily Life (Part 3)

In the first class of the new school year, half of the time is spent on the teacher’s self-introduction. The rest of the time was mostly spent explaining on how to proceed with the class and how to assign homework. I barely wrote anything down in the notebook I had been using since the first year.

To my right, Hinagata was crunching away in her notebook, earnestly writing down what the teacher had said.

The guy on my left was a boy from the soccer team, and he had been asleep ever since he bailed lightly when we changed seats.

“Ryuy…   Tonomura-Kun, aren’t you writing?”

“Nahh, I think I’m good.”

I could tell that Sugiuchi was moving his pen because his seat forced him to pay attention to the teacher.

“Do you call me by my last name in class?”

“What?”

“No, I don’t mind either way, but when it’s just the two of us, I’ll call you by your first name.”

“Tonomura-kun, do you call me by my last name?”

“That’s been the case for a while…”

Hinagata’s lips puckered up in a sulk.

“When I was in elementary school, I used to call you ‘Shi-chan’. When I entered junior high school, I started calling you ‘Hinagata.'”

“I don’t like it.”

Is it weird calling you by your last name?

I mean how can you remember when or what it was.

“It’s kind of embarrassing to call you Shi-chan. You’re in junior high.”

When I was in elementary school, that was the way we were called, so I didn’t resist.

Many of the boys and girls around me called me by my first name, too.

But when I entered junior high, the number of people who didn’t call me by my first name increased, so I just kind of went along with it.

“It’s fine, even if it’s Hinagata. Hinagata has a cool ring to it.”

“I’m not sure what the boys mean by cool.”

I saw her fiddling with her phone under her desk. As soon as I did, my phone seemed to receive something and vibrated.

I was receiving a message from SNS.

…The sender was Hinagata next to my bench.

No, don’t bother messaging me. Say it with your mouth.

The Hinagata, who was in sulking mode, was even meaner, saying, “Even if you ask me to show you, I won’t.”

What is this…

When I looked at the message, I saw a stamp of a bear gone berserk with the words “Furious.”

“There’s nothing to be mad about. Why are you angry?”

“Ryunosuke …Tonomura-kun will be with me.”

She’s serious.

In the classroom, she was determined to call me by my first name.

“—with you?”

“All the other girls…..They call you by your last name.”

“That’s true. I’m not really close to them.”

She’ll teach me how to make me less distant towards people.

I don’t know much about it, though.

At the very least, it was uncomfortable for me to call my classmates by their first names or call them by their friendly nicknames.

“I’m the only one who’s always been close…with Tonomura-kun.”

“Oh, is that what you mean?”

I think I may have solved the mystery.

“What’s that about?”

Oh my God, you’re totally mad at me, aren’t you?

“The point is, don’t treat you like any other girls. You want to be treated specially, right?”

Hinagata stared at me with a look of surprise.

She looked at me as if to say that she had finally found the answer she was looking for.

“Yes ….Yes…!!”

She nodded vigorously, though with a faint whisper.

“Look, Hinagata. It’s the kind of thing you do when you’re in a special relationship, and if you don’t, people will think you’re crazy for calling them by their first name.”

It could be a problem for the both of us. The damage to me isn’t significant, but Hinagata has a guy she likes, and if that guy gets a funny misunderstanding, it’ll complicate things.

“…My childhood friend is special.”

“I mean more than that.”

“There is nothing more special than a childhood friendship.”

Ahh, come to think of it……

“Well …I don’t like it.”

Sugiuchi told me that his childhood friends were split up when he went to high school.

I think it’s reasonable to think that if a man and a woman are childhood friends, they would be the subject of a lot of speculation about whether they like each other or are in love.

I’m sure there are many of them all over the country, but not all of them still go to the same school as my childhood friend.

If you put it that way, it’s definitely special.

I’ve been in different classes with Hinagata since middle school.

But I’ve sometimes wondered about the atmosphere of Hinagata’s class, and when I was done with my club activities and she was still practicing in the gym, I’d sometimes pay attention to her.

I wondered who she was getting along with, what she was doing during her lunch break, what her grades were, and so on.

If it was any other girl, I wouldn’t have cared at all, but it was different for Hinagata.

“I think it’s okay if you call me Shiori.”

“You are recommending that I can call you that?”

“Yes. Hinagata is not recommended. Tonomura-kun, you can only call me by my first name.”

“Gradually, gradually.”

“Yes.”

She looked cheerful. She seemed to have imagined something.

Her sluggish mood lifted and she finally turned up.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“Stuff like that, I’m okay without it”

“?”

“Don’t you do that to someone you like?”

“Wha?!”

Don’t give me that “I’m shocked!” look.

“Wh-wha, Why?”

“Boys are not really used to focusing on the superficial things, you know that thing common in girls.”

That’s exactly what I was saying.

Exactly what she was trying to get me to do before. Something like ‘We’re close, so let’s call each other by first names.’

“I don’t think it matters what we call each other with, if we’re really close, that is.”

“Ehh…!!!”

Her mouth partly gaped in shock as she pressed her chest

But well, her b***s haven’t grown much since elementary school, has it?

“I don’t think the way we call each other determines whether we’re close or not.”

“Uuaaa.” 

“I think the flow of conversation and, well, you know, the amount of time we’ve spent together, it’s easy to change what you call each other.”

“Auu”

Don’t make any weird moaning noises.

Maybe this is just the old-fashioned way of thinking, but that’s what I think.

“You’re being too loud in the back.”

I shrugged my head and used the student in front of me as a shield to escape the teacher’s gaze.

I sneakily told Hinagata. “It’s fine for me. But be careful, okay?”

“Yup…”

Hinagata seemed to be knocked down in response to my objection, and she was half-crying with her cheeks on the desk.

Was she that shocked? I’m sorry about that.

“What should I do, Ryunosuke?”

She’s not calling me Tonomura-kun anymore.

“You don’t like it, do you….?”

“That was just a generalization. I’d feel uncomfortable too if I wasn’t with Hinagata.”

“So it’s fine if it’s with me?”

“Yeah. Well, yeah. We’ve known each other a long time.”

“Does that mean I’m special?”

“If you put it that way, I guess so.”

Hinagata smiled as she rested her chin on her crossed arms on the desk.

“Fufufufu~”

“What are you laughing at?”

“After all, Ryunosuke really is kind.”

“Is that so?”

When I nodded my head, Hinagata gently smiled at me again.