Chapter 2: Lost Property

It’s been two weeks since I started school. Abe and I have started calling each other by our first names, and we are getting along well as classmates. He doesn’t seem to be giving me any bad or good impressions, and I’m having a peaceful time. That’s great. Under the influence of my grandmother, I made a habit to write a diary before going to bed, but the contents of that diary are getting thinner and thinner every day. The day may soon come when I seriously have nothing left to write and my diary will be stained with just “Today was a wonderful day” with nothing else to write about. It seems that I was right to hide my face and live a simple life. Incidentally, I don’t really participate during gym class either, and my performance is more or less average.

Today was another wonderful, uneventful day at school. Yuki has club activities, so most days of the week, I travel alone. Well, we used to travel from school together, because I was in a club temporarily too, but I heard that once you join a club, you only have one day off a week, so I guess me travelling alone to home will be the norm from now on.

　I was walking leisurely out of the school when I spotted a female student at the back of the field, looking for something. I wanted to carry on, but I could hear my grandfather’s words in my head.

(“Be as kind as you can, because kindness will always come back to you.”)

　This is what my grandfather always had taught me. This is what he said when he talked to me, on his deathbed. It’s true that kindness has always come back to me. But after I entered Junior High School, it came back to me in a negative way. Even so, I think it’s almost some kind of curse that I have to be kind to others.

　Seeing how this was starting to become rude and disrespectful towards my grandfather, I went to the girl who was probably still looking for something.

“Are you looking for something? Can I help you?”

“Wha……?”

　Well, it’s normal to be surprised. If I was looking for something in the back of a fairly large field, and I was suddenly called out… It’d be strange not to be surprised. What’s more, the person who I was talking to was a girl with messy hair and glasses who appears to be bad at interacting with people. I took off the mask, because it made me look suspicious.

The girl who was looking at me with a surprised expression, seems to be a student of the same grade, judging from the color of her ribbon.

“I’m Shota Ishikawa, a freshman. Nice to meet you. By the way, what are you looking for?”

“Oh, well, I’m looking for a hairpin … It’s the kind with a moon-shaped decoration …”

“Alright”

　Secret technique! The secret technique! If you would rather have been alone, you wouldn’t have told me what you were looking for, and I guess that means I can help. It’s a hairpin, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find it… unless it’s covered in sand or something.

“I’m not sure what to do. I’ll be fine on my own Ishikawa-kun.”

“I was free anyways and you look like you’re in the same grade, so you don’t need to use honorifics. I’ll do the same.”

“Eh, ah, yeah.”

Secret technique! Change the topic! I’ve already decided to help, if she is giving me a bad reason not to help her, then there is no need to stop.

“Do you remember when you dropped it?”

“I think it was when we were doing the bars in gym class…”

(Oh, I’m looking at the wrong place, but I guess I’m near the bars.)

“Well, I’ll do my best to find it!”

“Ishikawa-kun.”

“Yes?”

“Thank you”

No, no, no. I’m just helping out, so don’t worry about it.

　About 10 minutes later, a sport team walks into the field. Is that the … soccer team? … Something tells me there are a lot of good-looking guys in the soccer club. For now, I’m going to go ask permission to look for something at the edge of the field. Once the coach arrives, we’ll leave.

“Excuse me. I’m looking for something on field, is that okay?”

　I call out to a big guy, probably a senior.

“Yeah? You’re looking for something? Hmm, okay, but watch out for the ball.”

“Yes, thank you.”

　Well, I’m sure he’ll pay attention to steer the ball away from me, so I’ll be fine.

“He gave us permission to continue searching.”

“What a relief… Thank you”

“It’s no big deal.”

　So we searched for about an hour and a half. I couldn’t find it at all. When I glanced at it, the girl looked like she was about to cry. Hmmm, should I widen the search area a little more, since I’ve been searching for an hour and a half without result?

　I wondered what someone would do if they picked up a hairpin on the ground. I think it’s unlikely that someone would take a dropped hairpin home. If I were to pick it up, I would put it in a place where I could easily see it, but I would not be surprised if it was thrown around randomly too. In that case, where would I throw it? Well, if I picked up ……, I would probably throw it to the edge. So, should I look outside the field?

“Watch out!”

In response to the voice, I looked behind. The ball was flying towards the girl next to me, who was still searching for her missing hairpin. I’m not sure what to make of this. Well, I’m glad I made it in time. I catch the ball and kick it back to where it came from.

“Oh, thank you.”

“Yeah, are you okay?

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“It’s dangerous here. Why don’t we look outside the field? Maybe someone picked it up and threw it there.”

“Sure, …….”

　After about ten minutes of searching outside the field, I found something that looked like it.

“Hey? ……. what is this?

“Oh, that’s it! That is my hairpin!”

“I’m glad you found it.”

“Yeah! Thank you so much!”

(Yeah, it’s over. Let’s go home.)

“I’m going home.”

“Eh?”

　I left the place with a short run. It’s okay to be nice to people, but I don’t want my relationships to expand because of it. It’s hard to be betrayed by such people. So this is goodbye.

　The rest of the day was uneventful, except for a little more content in my diary.

　The next day, I was eating lunch with Yuki as usual. Then, with a rattle, the front door of the classroom opened. If it was just that, there would be nothing to worry about, but it was obvious that the classroom was buzzing. I wondered if something had happened.