Touko-san’s Worry

Second period’s Net Literacy lecture has finally concluded. I always appreciate this particular lecturer since they make a habit of letting us out five minutes early. Dropping a quick “See ya!” to Ishida sitting right next to me, I dash out of the classroom. Ishida flashes a highly dissatisfied expression, but he’ll have to forgive me—I have a crucial priority today. I’ve explicitly promised to share lunch alongside Touko-san.

When I arrive at the campus cafeteria, it isn’t very crowded yet since the official second-period block hasn’t fully wrapped up across campus. I manage to secure a round table by the window, otherwise known as a “couple’s reserved table.” Before long, the chime signaling the formal end of the morning lectures echoes, and a massive wave of students floods into the cafeteria. Within the crowd, I quickly spot Touko-san’s figure.

Man, Touko-san genuinely stands out completely. No matter where she is, I can pick her out instantly.

The exact fraction of a second she turns her gaze toward my quadrant, I raise my right hand. She breaks into a light jog to close the distance.

(Seeing a girl actively break into a jog just to reach you is such a brilliant feeling. It radiates that perfect aura of campus romance.)

While I am sitting there grinning like an absolute idiot to myself, Touko-san approaches, looking thoroughly bewildered. “What is the matter, Yuu-kun? Did something wonderful happen?”

Uh oh. Was my expression genuinely that transparently gleeful?

Frantically trying to cover my tracks, I stand up hastily. “Ah, no, it’s nothing at all. More importantly, let us go secure our food.” Leaving a book on the table to firmly mark our seats, the two of us head toward the counter to grab our meals. I opt for a fried chicken rice bowl, while Touko-san selects an omelet rice. Touko-san manages to make it back to our table a few paces ahead of me.

“Let’s eat!”

“…Let’s eat.”

Though the words slip from her lips, Touko-san makes absolutely no move to actually touch her omelet rice. Instead, she merely pokes at the ketchup with her spoon, letting out a tiny, heavy sigh.

“Is something wrong? You look completely drained of vitality.”

At my query, Touko-san lifts her head, her features clouded with a dark expression.

“The truth is, I’ve been harboring a bit of a worry…”

Touko-san is harboring a worry?

As her boyfriend, there is absolutely no way I can just let that slide.

“A worry? What exactly is it?”

Yet, Touko-san continues to do nothing but absentmindedly prod her omelet rice. It’s painfully clear that she has absolutely no desire to put the matter into words.

(Did someone drag up that whole Christmas party incident to hassle her again? Or does it involve that trouble-making younger sister of hers?)

Lately, the contingent of idiots trying to bother her over the Christmas party drama has dropped to zero, but it’s entirely possible a rare stray fool is still spouting nonsense. If a disaster has occurred, I desperately want to find a way to resolve it for her.

“Touko-san, I know it must be incredibly difficult to speak about, but bottling it up entirely on your own isn’t going to help. Won’t you please share it with me, at the very least?”

Touko-san peers up at me through her eyelashes. She is clearly still agonizing over whether she should speak up.

I double down with absolute sincerity.

“I am your boyfriend, after all. I swear to you I will do everything in my power to help.”

Faced with my resolve, she finally begins to open her mouth.

“To be honest, I’m not entirely certain how far I have any right to stick my nose into someone else’s private business… but…”

I find myself unconsciously leaning heavily forward across the table.

“It concerns Kazumi’s boyfriend.”

“Kazumi-san’s boyfriend?!”

My voice rises loudly before I can stop it. Hearing that Kazumi-san actually possessed a boyfriend was an absolute first for me. In the first place, that woman completely lacked a single shred of an aura that suggested she was dating anyone.

“So Kazumi-san actually has a boyfriend. I never would have guessed.”

Granted, while Kazumi-san possesses a distinctly tomboyish streak, she is an undeniable, slender beauty. It wouldn’t be bizarre at all for her to have a boyfriend or two… but the mental image simply refused to click.

“The reason she completely lacks the aura of someone in a relationship is likely because the two of them rarely ever see each other. It seems the guy is constantly caught up in his own busy schedule… he basically only summons Kazumi whenever it happens to be convenient for him.”

That absolute powerhouse Kazumi-san allows herself to be unilaterally summoned at a guy’s convenience? I could never imagine her type putting up with such a thoroughly one-sided, convenient relationship.

“What sort of person is her boyfriend anyway? Is he an actual working adult?”

“Well, he qualifies as an adult, I suppose, but he doesn’t actually possess a steady job.”

“So he’s a freelancer?”

“Something like that. Though, he explicitly refers to himself as an ‘entertainer.’”

“An entertainer?” I blurt out, completely struck blank.

Touko-san frantically adds a wave of clarifying details to cushion the blow.

“When I say entertainer, I don’t mean someone who actually appears on television or anything of the sort. He merely stands on tiny local stages for comedy acts once in a blue moon, and handles some minor activities on the internet. Apparently, he boasts to her that he is a ‘multi-talented creator’—claiming that while comedy is his core focus, he also operates as a model and a musician.”

…What on earth is that nonsense? Is he a literal idiot? Does this guy honestly believe he’s aiming to become the next massive multi-hyphenate star?

“I find it a bit difficult to believe that Kazumi-san would ever fall for a guy like that, honestly.” My true thoughts slip out automatically.

Touko-san pulls a thoroughly troubled expression.

“It seems he hit on her back during their high school days. Kazumi attended an all-girls school, so I suppose she simply ended up falling for his tricks before she knew any better.”

“Even so, with a guy like that, she should just break things off immediately.”

“The problem is that the man is remarkably clever… or rather, he possesses a magnificent knack for playing the helpless, dependent victim. He ruthlessly neglects her on a regular basis, yet the absolute second Kazumi attempts to firmly initiate a breakup, he collapses into tears, begging, ‘I desperately need you, Kazumi!’ Kazumi is deeply sentimental at her core, so the moment he throws a tantrum like that, she simply can’t bring herself to walk away. That’s precisely how they’ve dragged this relationship out indefinitely.”

It’s true that Kazumi-san possesses a remarkably compassionate nature; she is exactly the type who cannot leave someone in distress behind. But even so, to think that logic applied to her choice in a boyfriend…

(Don’t tell me both Touko-san and Kazumi-san share some bizarre underlying magnet that actively attracts completely pathetic, useless men?)

I find myself staring blankly across at Touko-san. To be perfectly honest, the exact sequence of events that led Touko-san to date a shallow, flashy playboy like Kamokura has remained an absolute, unresolved mystery in my mind.

“Furthermore, when Kazumi enrolled in university, she leased an apartment over in the Nakano area, but that place has effectively been converted into her boyfriend’s private room…”

“An apartment in Nakano? I thought Kazumi-san was strictly commuting all the way from her family home in Chiba?”

I’ve shared countless group outings with Touko-san and Kazumi-san. Our meetings always take place right around our hometown neighborhood. Even when traveling to and from the university campus, I’ve run into her commuting multiple times.

“She is. It seems Kazumi’s parents haven’t explicitly voiced any complaints yet, but regardless, with the monthly rent and utility fees actively piling up, they are bound to find the situation highly suspicious before long.”

Well, of course they would. If their daughter spends the vast majority of her time living at the family home, any parent would find the apartment expenses completely bizarre.

But her next words carry a hundred times more shock.

“On top of that, it seems Kazumi frequently hands over cash advances to her boyfriend whenever he asks. I have absolutely no idea if he ever returns a single coin to her.”

“What on earth is wrong with that guy?! He is an absolute textbook example of a parasite piece-of-garbage!” My voice sharpens with raw irritation. Even though it has absolutely nothing to do with me, the sheer audacity of the man makes my blood turn completely hot.

“Lately, it seems the boyfriend has aggressively resumed begging her for money… I’ve explicitly told Kazumi, ‘You need to break things off with him immediately,’ but…”

She trails off, her words catching in her throat.

Kazumi-san’s submissive behavior is entirely uncharacteristic of her, but then again, Touko-san’s hesitant demeanor is completely unlike her usual self as well.

“Let me go have a word with Kazumi-san directly—”

The moment the words begin to form, Touko-san cuts me off with absolute urgency.

“Do not dare do that. That apartment and relationship represent the single absolute boundary Kazumi refuses to let anyone touch. That’s why, Yuu-kun, I need you to completely act as if you never heard a single word of this discussion. When the time comes to address it, I will be the one to speak to her.”

Faced with the desperate intensity of Touko-san’s expression, I have absolutely no choice but to hold my tongue. However, long after our lunch came to an end, the unsettling reality surrounding Kazumi-san’s situation refused to leave my mind.