With the flood of notifications appearing before my eyes alongside the quest’s completion, I decided I would look through them properly later in my room.
For now, I looked at the completed welcome sign for the new students.
...
A sign the four of us had made together.
The lettering was somewhat clumsy and crooked,
but there was definitely something like a sense of accomplishment left between those strokes.
"Aah! It’s finally over!"
"Yeah, though it got delayed thanks to a certain idiot."
"Who are you calling an idiot, Okazaki?!"
Sunohara shouted, looking embarrassed by Okazaki’s indifferent statement of fact.
"Sigh... I was supposed to be keeping an eye on you, but I ended up helping too."
Fujibayashi put a hand to her forehead and shook her head as if she had a headache.
"Still... thank you for helping us."
She had called herself our supervisor,
but Fujibayashi had been making the sign with us from beginning to end.
When I bowed sincerely to her,
Fujibayashi shyly looked away.
"Don’t get the wrong idea."
Fujibayashi folded her arms.
"I only did it because I didn’t think you’d finish today if I didn’t help."
"..."
At that, Sunohara and Okazaki looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
I laughed a little too.
Fujibayashi kept denying it,
but anyone could see she was a good person.
Her face red, Fujibayashi said she would go report to the teacher and ran toward the main building.
"Then let’s clean up until the class rep gets back."
At Okazaki’s words, we all started cleaning up together.
...
Once we had finished cleaning and left the school,
the sky had already turned the red of the sunset.
Perhaps all the other students had already gone home; the four of us slowly made our way down the quiet hill road.
Okazaki and Sunohara kept chatting away,
while Fujibayashi silently stared ahead, lost in whatever she was thinking.
I walked while slowly taking in the cherry blossoms.
...
When we reached the fork at the end of the hill road,
Fujibayashi, who had been leading the way, turned around and spoke.
"I’m not sure whether I should be thanking you or not, but..."
"I’ll say thanks for now, so be grateful."
Fujibayashi looked at me briefly, then spoke to the other two.
"I’m Fujibayashi Kyo.
You already know that, Morita, but
we’ll be in the same class for the next year, so don’t give me too much trouble."
"Fujibayashi..."
Okazaki muttered, then spoke as though something had come to him.
"I’m pretty sure there was another Fujibayashi in the class next door."
"That’s my twin younger sister."
Twins.
Did that mean there was another person with the same lively personality and presence?
[It is a prejudice to think all twins are the same.]
Ah.
That had been a rather rude thought.
"You were thinking something weird, weren’t you?"
"..."
Feeling strangely guilty, I shifted my gaze away slightly.
As though she had known it, Fujibayashi sighed and continued.
"You’ll confuse me with my sister, so call me Kyo."
"See you."
After that brief introduction, she waved, coolly turned around, and left.
"We got to know a strange girl."
Sunohara said that,
but honestly, he was not one to talk.
"She’s probably thinking the same thing about you."
It seemed Okazaki and I were thinking the same thing.
"Hey, Morita, are your injuries feeling a little better now?"
"Yes. Thanks to you, they’re much better."
"No... I didn’t do anything, though."
Sunohara shook his head as if his head hurt.
Okazaki merely shrugged, as though he was used to it by now.
Was it because I had raised my Stamina to 7?
My injuries were healing faster than I had expected.
I suddenly became curious.
Is there any kind of recovery skill?
[You can learn one in a world with magic or abilities.]
[Or obtain one through gacha at a low probability.]
Then it’s impossible here.
[Would you like to change worlds?]
No, no. You’re always trying to send me away at the drop of a hat.
I really could not let my guard down.
[In this world, you must obtain one through specific actions or achievements.]
What sort of things do I need to do?
[Overcoming injuries,]
[repeated training,]
[or actions taken to protect someone can allow you to obtain one.]
So you’re telling me to pay for it with my body.
[Would you like guidance on recommended locations and actions for the purpose of obtaining a skill?]
No. My head hurts.
I barely managed to dismiss the translucent system window floating before me and decided to look into it in detail later.
"Well... um, thanks! For worrying about me."
Okazaki shuddered as if he had gotten goosebumps.
"Are you a tsundere? And a guy, too."
"I’m not!"
Why did they have to make such a fuss over a simple thank-you?
I usually avoided noisy places,
but for some reason, this kind of noise
didn’t bother me right now.
"What should we do now?"
Having calmed down a little, Sunohara looked around and asked.
"I don’t know. There’s nothing in particular to do, so let’s wander around in front of the station."
"Sounds good."
"What about you, Morita?"
"Me..."
Was it all right for me to go with them too?
We had only known one another for a little over a day.
And yet, an oddly large number of things had happened.
I had helped them,
and been helped by them,
and caused trouble for them too.
Even so.
Was it really okay for me to be with them?
[Going out with friends is normal behavior.]
Normal... Right. They were friends.
[Considering that you seem to have forgotten the friend registration we confirmed just moments ago, it appears your intelligence is definitely not functioning properly.]
I ignored that remark.
As I blankly stared at the system window for a moment,
Okazaki casually put a hand on my shoulder and spoke.
"What’s this? Don’t tell me you weren’t planning on coming?"
"Huh? Seriously?"
Sunohara joined in, his eyes widening.
"Wasn’t it obvious you were coming with us?"
For some reason, those words stayed with me.
The thought that they had accepted someone as troublesome as me as their friend
made my heart loosen a little.
"Yes. I’ll come with you."
At my answer, Sunohara threw both arms into the air as if he had been waiting for it.
"Oh, yeah! Let’s go! Maybe we can find some cute girls!"
"Sunohara, if you come on to girls with that face, it won’t end with a trip to the police station."
"What’s that supposed to mean?!"
Leaving the indignant Sunohara behind,
we hurried toward the station.
The streets were stretched long beneath the fading sunset.
Then Okazaki, walking beside me, suddenly looked my way and spoke.
"Come to think of it, you said you came from Tokyo, right?"
"...Yes."
What was he trying to talk about?
Okazaki thought for a moment before opening his mouth.
"I heard people from Tokyo are kind of cold, but you’re different from what I expected."
"..."
I had no idea what to say.
To begin with, I was Korean, not from Tokyo.
Even while living here, I was already worried that the things I did naturally might be considered rude here because of the subtle cultural differences between Korea and Japan.
When my silence dragged on, Okazaki asked with a puzzled expression.
"Why aren’t you saying anything?"
"I don’t really know people from Tokyo either."
While countless excuses argued noisily in my head, his sudden question made me blurt out exactly what I was thinking.
"..."
Okazaki stared at me as though dumbfounded.
Even I thought it was a strange answer.
Just as the awkward atmosphere was beginning to grow uncomfortable, someone cut in.
"Huh, that’s kind of a strange answer. More importantly, are there lots of pretty older girls in Tokyo?"
At Sunohara’s tactless question—which might, perhaps, have helped me—Okazaki scolded him with an exasperated look.
"Idiot, he just said he doesn’t know."
Perhaps thanks to the back-and-forth with Sunohara, the heavy mood seemed to lift a little.
"Well... I wasn’t trying to pry."
Okazaki scratched the back of his head, looking slightly embarrassed, and continued.
"Me too, and that clueless idiot over there, we’ve got our own circumstances."
The strange consideration in his words pierced my heart.
Had he noticed that there were things I could not talk about, and was he saying that on purpose?
Gratitude and guilt crossed within me.
"Clueless? That’s too harsh!"
Whether Sunohara shouted beside us or not, Okazaki lightly ignored him and said,
"I’ve got things I can’t tell other people too."
"So you don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to."
Even if I made a slip of the tongue,
even if they found out I was hiding something.
Could it be all right here?
Complex emotions rose up, and for no reason, my eyes
began to feel hot.
"Hey, why are you spacing out again?"
My blurred vision slowly came back into focus.
When I came to my senses, Okazaki was looking at me with a puzzled expression.
"...It’s nothing."
"Is that so?"
Okazaki did not ask any more questions.
For some reason, I was grateful for that.
He did not pry,
did not try to find a reason,
he was simply there beside me.
Perhaps the rest I had searched so desperately for on my way here from reality
was not sitting alone and blankly resting without a single worry.
Maybe it was being in relationships like this,
laughing with someone over trivial things,
and sometimes finding comfort in wordless silence.
Maybe that was what the rest I truly wanted had meant.
[Suho has gained a partial understanding of his feelings toward himself.]
[Achievement completed: [What I Wanted]]
[Reward granted.]
[The seal on your Mental Strength has been slightly loosened.]
[Mental Strength: 1 > 2]
[Mental Strength grows when you understand and accept yourself.]
"Ah..."
"Hey, what’s wrong?"
Sunohara abruptly leaned his head in and spoke to me.
"Don’t tell me you’re about to cry?"
I could not get any words out and only shook my head.
"Or are you hungry?"
I only shook my head again.
"Then you really were touched!"
"...Please be quiet."
With a voice that had grown a little choked, I barely managed to force out those words.
"Oh? You’re not denying it, so I guess I was right?"
"Sunohara."
Okazaki called to him in a voice mixed with a sigh,
then grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from me.
"H-Hey, Okazaki, what’s gotten into you?"
Sunohara was pulled away by the sudden restraint, and I lowered my head slightly to thank Okazaki.
"Hey, Sunohara."
"What is it, Okazaki?"
"You’re buying dinner today."
"What?! Why?!"
"You’re the reason Morita got hurt."
For some reason, watching that from behind made me want to laugh.
In the end, Sunohara went ahead while grumbling and acting indignant.
Behind him, Okazaki tipped his head back, signaling for me to follow.
My Mental Strength had risen to 2, but I did not feel any great change.
The same thoughts, anxieties, and stress were all still there.
Still, I thought that perhaps I had finally taken one step toward getting even a little better.
...
After arriving in my room, I sat on the edge of the bed and blankly stared at the ceiling.
For the first time since coming to this world, I had spent time with friends.
While we hung out, I had not worried about what I should say or how I should accommodate them.
Sunohara simply caused trouble, Okazaki cracked down on him, and I helped clean up from the sidelines when needed.
It was an ordinary time with friends.
It was fun.
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