ideas while sitting diagonally across from Nagato. Nagato kept glancing my way, but I was busy operating my chopsticks in a mechanical fashion to carry nourishment to my brain cells.
Once I finished lunch I was about to ask for tea when I remembered that Asahina wasn’t here, leaving me dejected but undeterred from my brainstorming. This was the moment of truth. I couldn’t let this hard-earned hint go to waste. Focus on the key, the key. Key, key…
I must have spent two hours in deep thought.
I was growing disgusted with my lack of brains as I began muttering to myself.
“I have no idea.”
Besides, “key” is a really ambiguous term. I really doubt she’s referring to the kind of key that’s used on locks. She probably means key as in “keyword” or “key person,” but that leaves a lot of area to cover. I wish she’d offered the option to choose from some extra hints regarding what I was looking for. Was it an item or was it a spoken line or was it something you could carry around? I tried to channel what Nagato had been thinking as she wrote on the bookmark, but I could only recall the sight of her reading some complicated book or delivering another helpful but tedious explanation, the Nagato we knew and loved.
I suddenly had an urge to look diagonally across the table, and found that Nagato wasn’t moving, as though she had fallen asleep. And it seemed as though she was still on the same page in her book, though that might have just been my imagination. However, as if to prove that she wasn’t taking an afternoon nap, Nagato’s cheeks flushed in response to my absentminded staring. This version of the literary club member Nagato appeared to be extremely shy or unaccustomed to other people looking at her.
It was rather refreshing to see a familiar-looking girl react in an unfamiliar way. I deliberately continued to observe her.
“…”
Her eyes were focused on the text in the book, but it was obvious that she wasn’t taking in a single word. Nagato’s mouth wasslightly open as she breathed without making a sound and the subtle rise and fall of her chest was becoming more pronounced. Her slender cheeks were growing redder by the minute. To be honest, I found this Nagato to be fairly—no, incredibly—cute. For a moment I was almost tempted to just join the literary club and enjoy a world without Haruhi.
But not yet. It was too early for me to give up. I took the bookmark from my pocket and held it tightly while doing my best to avoid bending it. The fact that this piece of paper had been slipped into this world meant that the Nagato with the Santa hat still had business with me. I felt the same way. I hadn’t gotten a chance to try some of Haruhi’s hot pot yet, and I had never had enough time to burn the image of Asahina in a Santa outfit into my eyelids. We’d been busy decorating the clubroom so my game with Koizumi had been cut off at the best part. I probably would have won if we’d kept going, so I’d be missing out on a hundred yen the way things stood.
A westering sun was shining through the window as we approached the time when the sun became a giant orange ball on its way to hide behind the school building.
I was getting tired of sitting still, and I wasn’t going to be able to squeeze any more beneficial output from my head. I stood up and reached for my bag.
“I’m going home for the day.”
“I see.”
Nagato shut the hardcover she was reading or not reading and slipped it into her book bag as she stood up. Had she been waiting for me to say something?
With bag in hand, I turned to the figure that appeared ready to stay frozen in place until I took the first step.
“Say, Nagato.”
“What?”
“You live by yourself, right?”
“… Yes.”
She was probably wondering how I knew that.
I was going to ask about her family when I noticed her subtly downcast eyelashes. I recalled the room that barely had any furniture. My first visit had been seven months ago
Once I finished lunch I was about to ask for tea when I remembered that Asahina wasn’t here, leaving me dejected but undeterred from my brainstorming. This was the moment of truth. I couldn’t let this hard-earned hint go to waste. Focus on the key, the key. Key, key…
I must have spent two hours in deep thought.
I was growing disgusted with my lack of brains as I began muttering to myself.
“I have no idea.”
Besides, “key” is a really ambiguous term. I really doubt she’s referring to the kind of key that’s used on locks. She probably means key as in “keyword” or “key person,” but that leaves a lot of area to cover. I wish she’d offered the option to choose from some extra hints regarding what I was looking for. Was it an item or was it a spoken line or was it something you could carry around? I tried to channel what Nagato had been thinking as she wrote on the bookmark, but I could only recall the sight of her reading some complicated book or delivering another helpful but tedious explanation, the Nagato we knew and loved.
I suddenly had an urge to look diagonally across the table, and found that Nagato wasn’t moving, as though she had fallen asleep. And it seemed as though she was still on the same page in her book, though that might have just been my imagination. However, as if to prove that she wasn’t taking an afternoon nap, Nagato’s cheeks flushed in response to my absentminded staring. This version of the literary club member Nagato appeared to be extremely shy or unaccustomed to other people looking at her.
It was rather refreshing to see a familiar-looking girl react in an unfamiliar way. I deliberately continued to observe her.
“…”
Her eyes were focused on the text in the book, but it was obvious that she wasn’t taking in a single word. Nagato’s mouth wasslightly open as she breathed without making a sound and the subtle rise and fall of her chest was becoming more pronounced. Her slender cheeks were growing redder by the minute. To be honest, I found this Nagato to be fairly—no, incredibly—cute. For a moment I was almost tempted to just join the literary club and enjoy a world without Haruhi.
But not yet. It was too early for me to give up. I took the bookmark from my pocket and held it tightly while doing my best to avoid bending it. The fact that this piece of paper had been slipped into this world meant that the Nagato with the Santa hat still had business with me. I felt the same way. I hadn’t gotten a chance to try some of Haruhi’s hot pot yet, and I had never had enough time to burn the image of Asahina in a Santa outfit into my eyelids. We’d been busy decorating the clubroom so my game with Koizumi had been cut off at the best part. I probably would have won if we’d kept going, so I’d be missing out on a hundred yen the way things stood.
A westering sun was shining through the window as we approached the time when the sun became a giant orange ball on its way to hide behind the school building.
I was getting tired of sitting still, and I wasn’t going to be able to squeeze any more beneficial output from my head. I stood up and reached for my bag.
“I’m going home for the day.”
“I see.”
Nagato shut the hardcover she was reading or not reading and slipped it into her book bag as she stood up. Had she been waiting for me to say something?
With bag in hand, I turned to the figure that appeared ready to stay frozen in place until I took the first step.
“Say, Nagato.”
“What?”
“You live by yourself, right?”
“… Yes.”
She was probably wondering how I knew that.
I was going to ask about her family when I noticed her subtly downcast eyelashes. I recalled the room that barely had any furniture. My first visit had been seven months ago
Similar Books
