The Odd One Out

Chapter 6.1 - Different Atmosphere

Some things happened during our last days on the cruise ship. Karuizawa and Hirata 'broke up', to the surprise of most students. However, I knew their relationship was fake. They had finally decided to end it.

Currently, we had just come back from the cruise ship, I was in my room and, as promised, I let Kushida search my room.

"You're really paranoid, Kushida. I already told you I deleted the video. There's no trace of it."

The moment we came back from the cruise ship, Kushida came into my room and searched through my computer, looked in every drawer, in every corner of my room, even in the bathroom for recorders and similar devices to see if there was a trace of her video. She even searched through my clothes. After she couldn't find anything, she gave up searching and sat on my bed.

As for the recorder I used on the cruise ship, I put it in a small white lockable box I had previously bought before we boarded the cruise ship and let Arisu keep it safe. In the moment, Arisu somehow thought I was proposing to her, but I obviously was not.

I told her that I would take back the box when the time comes. In other words, the recorder wasn't in my room, and I indeed had no trace of the video I took of Kushida. No trace in my room, at least.

"Say, Ayanokouji..."

"Hm?"

"You said I could rant my problems to you?"

"That's what I said."

"Can I do that right now?"

"Of course, I'll listen to you."

"Are you not recording right now?"

"Didn't you just search my room?"

"Leave your phone on the table."

"If that's what it takes to reassure you," I said as I took out my phone from my pocket and put it on the table.

I was sitting on my chair and she was sitting on my bed. She laid down and stared at the ceiling. I turned my back to her and faced the computer on my desk.

It is said that when speaking what's on their mind, one feels most comfortable when there's nobody in their field of vision. I made sure to stay out of Kushida's field of vision.

She started going on and on about her problems and told me all about her opinions about her classmates.

A good thirty-minutes had passed before she stopped, took a deep breath and changed back to her usual personality

"Ayanokouji. I feel really good, you know, like a huge weight was removed off my shoulders. I suppose I should thank you for listening to me. I feel like you don't judge me at all no matter what I say, so I can say everything that comes to my mind. Maybe... I can trust you... after all," she hesitantly said that last part.

"I'm glad I could help you. I think you should get going now, it's past curfew already. Feel free to come back anytime."

"You're right. Bye bye, Ayanokouji!" she said goodbye with her usual tone.

After I checked that nobody was outside the door, Kushida left my room.

********

It was the end of August. After our so-called vacation on the cruise ship had come to an end, our actual summer vacation also came to an end.

I didn't do much during summer vacation. Understandably, I received no invitations from my classmates to hang out, as expected. I met up with Hiyori in the library a couple of times and we talked about books as usual.