First Day Of Ski Trip, At The Lodge: The Grand Party Of Day 2

“Yuu, Yuu, wake up. It’s already time to gather.”

Ishida spoke as he shook my body. But as for me…

“I don’t want to go…”

I no longer possessed the physical strength—or rather, the mental fortitude—to crawl out from under the quilt.

“What are you talking about? Aside from being players, we have an explicit obligation to keep track of the count for the Tag and Survivor counts, remember?”

Back in our club, we referred to the game of tag using the English term “Tag.” From there, the players who were still running away were dubbed “Survivors.” (Apparently, the IT person is normally called “It,” but we figured that sounded a bit too confusing for our purposes.) The IT people wore a red headband around their heads and red armbands on both arms. In contrast, the Survivors wore yellow headbands and yellow armbands. These accessories were designed so that flipping them inside out revealed the red side, making it instantly clear who was a zombie and who was a survivor. To ensure that no one stayed hidden so well that they actually became a missing person, a designated group of about ten headcount checkers was tasked with verifying the numbers. Ishida and I were assigned to keep track of the count while actively playing the game ourselves.

“Listen, I’m going to get genuinely angry with you. Get up right now!”

Ishida ruthlessly yanked my quilt away. Left with absolutely no choice, I dragged myself out of bed sluggishly and pulled on my ski wear.

“Seriously, man… you didn’t even eat any breakfast.”

Well, of course I didn’t. If I went down to the dining hall, there was a high probability I would run straight into Touko-senpai. Given the current disaster, I had absolutely no idea what face to pull if I met her.

“Skipping breakfast is going to make today incredibly brutal. At least force this down.”

With that, Ishida tossed a pack of CalorieMate over to me. I caught it and used the bottled tea resting beside the bed to wash it down into my stomach. To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t taste a single thing. Honestly, I’m completely checked out of life right now.

“Haaah… I just want to die…”

“What on earth happened last night anyway?” Ishida finally pressed me. After that whole mess, I had crawled straight back to our room and buried myself under the blankets. While I had been highly intoxicated, the absolute worst part was that my memory remained entirely intact.

“The truth is…”

Meticulously, syllable by syllable, I recounted the events of last night inside Touko-senpai’s room to Ishida.

“A-Are you… are you serious?!” Even Ishida could only stare at me with his eyes wide with shock.

“I desperately wish it was nothing but a nightmare.” I tossed the empty CalorieMate wrapper into the trash bin.

“B-But it was a complete misunderstanding, right? Did you explain the situation to Touko-senpai properly?”

“The situation was far past the point where a convenient excuse like that would work. In a scenario like that, I don’t think she would have listened to anything I had to say…”

“…”

Even Ishida fell into a heavy silence. I sat on the edge of the bed in my ski wear, feeling precisely like I was having an out-of-body experience.

“W-Well, regardless, let’s just focus on fulfilling our duties for today. After that, you can find another opportunity to properly explain the context to Touko-senpai. Once some time passes, she’ll surely cool her head and listen to you!” Ishida offered, intentionally using a bright, cheerful tone. But that forced cheerfulness only felt like an extra weight pressing down on my chest.

Every single member gathered at the entrance of the ski slopes. Nakazaki-san bellowed at the top of his lungs to address the crowd.

“Alright, everyone! We will now be launching our club’s traditional ski training camp event: ‘Zombie Tag’! The rules are remarkably simple—the Survivors just have to run away from the zombies. However, unlike regular tag, being touched by a zombie doesn’t mean you switch places. The number of zombies will keep multiplying rapidly, just like a real zombie outbreak. For the record, we will be starting with two initial zombies: myself and our vice-president, Yamahara.”

I quietly scanned our surroundings. Touko-san… was standing all the way at the far edge of the crowd. She appeared to be deliberately keeping her distance from me. Haaah… another heavy sigh slipped from my lips. Will I ever be able to clear up this misunderstanding? No, but the reality of what physically happened remains an absolute fact. In the first place, will I even get a single chance to speak with Touko-san again?

Just then, I caught a sudden gaze coming from the opposite side. Turning my head toward it… I saw Honoka. However, the exact instant our eyes met, her face flushed bright red, and she hastily averted her gaze as if trying to hide her face.

…Come to think of it, I did something terrible to her as well. The realization hit me anew. No matter how flashy of a gyaru she might look on the outside, having a guy suddenly force himself onto her like that must have been a massive shock. To top it all off, it happened because he completely mistook her for her older sister…

…I need to find a proper opportunity to apologize to Honoka later too… I reflected on how incredibly selfish I had been, focusing entirely on my own misery.

While these thoughts were spinning loops in my head, Nakazaki-san’s explanation continued.

“Everyone, please double-check the colors of your headbands and armbands right now. Ensure that the yellow side is facing outward. That is your proof of being a Survivor. The moment you are tagged and become a zombie, flip your headband and armband inside out so that the red side is showing!”

The crowd dissolved into a loud chatter as everyone double-checked their accessories. Ugh, seeing everyone looking so incredibly excited only made my own mood feel a hundred times darker.

“The game will officially conclude at 4:00 PM. Anyone who manages to survive until the absolute end will receive a luxury prize alongside their dinner! Give it your best and run for your lives, everyone! By the way, rather than running around aimlessly, finding a clever hiding spot might prove to be a far more effective strategy. Historically, half of our winners have been girls who found a brilliant place to hide!”

Cheers and shouts erupted from various pockets of the crowd in response.

“One final point of caution: for anyone planning to head toward the forest trail course on the western edge of the mountain, please exercise extreme caution. That forest trail doesn’t just connect to the adjacent resort; it also intersects with a mountaineering route utilized by workers on the mountain. If you wander off into that area, you could easily end up in a full-blown wilderness rescue scenario, so pay close attention to your surroundings!” Nakazaki-san hammered home his final warning.

“Alright, we are officially starting the countdown! We zombies will be starting thirty minutes from now, so use that time to run as far away as you possibly can! Here we go—three, two, one, zero!”

Accompanied by a loud wave of cheers, everyone dashed forward simultaneously. The vast majority headed straight for the ski lifts first. I lined up for the lift queue alongside Ishida. The exact moment we did, Mina-san and Manami-san swooped right into our space.

“Ooh, ooh! Tell us, how did things go last night?” Mina-san blurted out the absolute second she saw my face.

“…Go how?” I countered, desperately trying to mask my internal panic.

“Don’t play dumb with us! We’re talking about Touko, obviously. We were just wondering if things went smoothly after we left~”

As if things could have possibly gone smoothly, you idiots! I was screaming at the top of my lungs on the inside.

“I mean, when the two of us dropped by the room last night, Touko had already buried herself under the covers and was fast asleep. And this morning, she looked incredibly displeased—or rather, her face completely lacked a single shred of vitality…” Mina-san noted, with Manami-san quickly picking up where she left off.

“Exactly. We were just thinking that her reaction was a bit bizarre for someone who just shared her very first intimate night. Her eyes looked quite swollen, even.”

“So we were debating which scenario it was: either things went completely down the drain, or the two of you successfully crossed that line and she’s just basking in the lingering afterglow.”

Touko-san looked like that this morning? Though, how on earth could anyone look at a description like that and find a single element that suggested things “went smoothly”?

“It went completely down the drain,” I managed to squeeze out a single response.

“Ehhh, why on earth~?! After we went through all the trouble of setting up the absolute perfect stage for you,” Mina-san groaned.

“What exactly went wrong?” Manami-san pressed.

“What went wrong… basically every single thing possible…”

“Hold on, what is that supposed to mean? Give us the details!”

Please, just give me a break… Standing in for me as I completely lacked the energy to speak, Ishida took over the explanation.

“Last night, when Yuu headed to Touko-senpai’s room, Touko-senpai had actually gone to the baths, and her sister Honoka-chan was waiting inside instead. Because the room was pitch black, Yuu mistook her for Touko-senpai and made a move on her, right when Touko-senpai walked back into the room…”

“Ehhh, no way! Serious?!”

“For real?!”

A massive portion of the blame lies squarely on your shoulders to begin with! A sudden flash of sharp anger darted through my mind, but I quickly suppressed it. It was pointless to blame others. Everything happened because of my own utter lack of virtue. Completely drained of any willpower to argue further, I merely gave a slow, quiet nod.

“S-So, don’t tell me… things actually went… all the way with Honoka-chan?”

Ishida hastily shot down that theory. “No, no, absolutely not. But it seems Touko-senpai walked right into the middle of the scene… and she flatly commanded them both to get out…”

Hearing the scenario explicitly spelled out by someone else made the absolute gravity of the situation sink in completely. Is it truly over between Touko-san and me? Is a recovery completely impossible at this point?

“Well, I suppose it’s only natural for Touko to be absolutely furious. No wonder she pulled that exact expression this morning,” Mina-san remarked, which triggered a sharp spark of irritation inside me.

“Even if you were heavily intoxicated, Isshiki-kun, that’s quite a blunder. You absolutely have to verify who your partner is first,” Manami-san added.

Hearing you two say that only makes me feel like I’m being kicked while I’m down!

“Though, I suppose a fraction of the responsibility does lie with us too. We’ll at least throw in a word of support for you later. We’ll make sure to tell her, ‘We explicitly told him that Touko was the only one in the room, and commanded him to make a move right then!’” Mina-san offered.

It felt incredibly frustrating, but I had absolutely no choice but to mutter, “Please do.”

Ah, seriously… could someone please just rewind time for me!