sweat.

.

     at the start of another day, hajime goes to put on his shoes. he cannot find them. he stays calm and thinks that he simply didn't take them off at the usual spot. he looks around, checking under his bed, around the door, bathroom, closet, anything, but they were nowhere to be found. he dearly missed his white and red striped shoes, but he tried to use his legit detective skills to find out where they are.
    hajime stood there for a moment, trying to think precisely of where he took his shoes off the previous night, which he clearly remembers taking off at the usual spot. them, hajime knows for sure that he took them off correctly because he embarrassingly slipped last night. luckily, no one saw. he came to the conclusion that someone had stolen his precious shoes.
     " but who would invade my living space to steal shoes? " he muttered to himself. this was quite a puzzling question, and building on the thief theory, it'd had to be someone on the island, obviously. he didn't want to accuse anyone of stealing his shoes, he'd sound dumb and start an unnecessary argument. hajime decided that asking if anyone had seen his shoes was the best approach. he sighed and exited his room, going into the hot outdoors.
     before asking the others, he checked around his door. nothing. hajime sighed and set out to knock on the others doors to ask. it wasn't the most efficient way, but it'd work. he went around on the bare earth, knocking on his classmates' doors asking them if they'd seen his shoes. most of them gave him a strange look and said no. hajime's socks were brown from dirt and disgusting, and he felt like giving up and just letting the person have his shoes, until he came upon komeeda's door.
     hajime opened his door, knowing komeeda wouldn't mind, and what he saw wasn't disturbing, per say, just... strange. he found his shoes, but they were on komeeda's hands. his sleeves looked like hajime's pant legs, and he was bent over, making his feet hands touch the floor. komeeda looked at his now open doorway awkwardly. hajime felt sweat start to form on his face, beads dripping down like tears.
    " komeeda. what. are you even doing now ? " hajime asks, his bangs already damp from his sweat.
   " uh..hajime.. this isn't what it looks like. " komeeda says, still bent over.
   " really ? because it looks like you're wearing my shoes oN YOUR HANDS. why is this ? " hajime wipes his forehead and continues " did you really. sneak into my cottage. in the middle of the night. so you could do thIS ? " komeeda nodded slowly and got up, keeping the shoes on his feet.
   " could I possIBLY have my shoes back ? " hajime asked.
   " hm. finee. " komeeda slid the shoes off his hands and dropped them in front of hajime. he put the shoes on, cringing at the feeling of his disgusting socks. he turned out, and silently walked out, leaving komeeda in his arm pants.