Bocchi no Honkai

One-shot

"Ryou-senpai...," she keeps muttering that name. 

Recently, I've grown to hate hearing her name. The tighter I embrace her, the noisier her mouth calls her name. Even though it's been only me who has comforted her, she never calls my name aside from inviting me to do it every time our practice ends.

As if asking for a silent revenge, I keep thinking another girl. A girl I've been admiring from the very first time we met. The blond ponytail she has and her jumbo-sized bowties keep appearing in my mind while I let my own existence serve only to comfort the girl before me. 

In this distorted relationship that we have, we just seek escapism from each other's bodies and comfort. Wishing that everything, including the time we've spent together, never happened.

*

Everything was started on a certain rainy night. I was left alone at home. Parents were away to grandpa's home. They had some business to take care of. Of course, Futari was brought along. 

Well, I didn't complain at all. It was not like  a new thing for me either. 

Being alone again after getting trapped in a tight schedule of Kessoku Band's was a blessing for me. It'd been a while since Kessokku Band had its rising popularity. Being forced to meet fans who were growing by the day, the growing number of viewers on our music videos, invitations to have performance outside STARRY, and brainstorming session in every practice had eventually worn us out. Nijika-chan and her sister then decided to give us a little break for the members so that we could come back in better shape.  

Under that condition and my internal family's situation, I lost myself in covering some songs in recent trend. I was aware that what I was doing didn't have much differences than my usual routines, but it felt really nice to play some pieces that were not our (my) songs. Even more, in my private, dark, and narrow closet. All alone.    

Ah, really. Being alone for the first time for a while was really a bliss.

Until I got the text from someone I knew. She asked if I was home. I replied it immediately and got the following reply in a blink. She said, "I'm in front of your door."

Her text got me in panic. I jumped out of my closet and ran like crazy. "She must've been waiting for me for a while!" my mind had me to run faster.   

I opened the door while apologizing for not noticing it sooner. 

I found her face. The girl who had bright red hair as bright as her facial expression all the time. However, that night, only her hair stayed the same--even though it was heavily drenched. Ever since I mustered all of my courage to face her that day, never I found her in this condition. The bright, cheerful, and lovely Kita-chan was not there. 

It was the gloomy Kita Ikuyo. Drenched by the downpour in a sorrowful face. Her face was pale as if she'd just met a kuchisake-onna down the street.

"Gotoh-san," she mentioned my name. "Would you like to listen to me?" 

I couldn't refuse (of course). So I let her in. I offered her a bath, towel, and some clothes for her to change. I prepared a pot of tea and cups for both of us.  

I might have changed to be a better person in dealing others, but that situation still got me in panic. "Ah, eh, uh," I kept repeating those words like before meeting the girls when facing this Kita-chan. Well, it was not like those words had already completely disappeared from my recent dialogues with others, though. It was just... they were more frequent that night.

"Thanks for the bath." Kita-chan climbed upstairs to my room after finishing her bath. I lost count of how many times she got in my room as she naturally opened my door and sat in front of me in the white dress I wore when she and Nijika-chan were hanging out in my home for the first time.