Blossoms of The Forgotten Day Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Read chapter 7 of Blossoms of The Forgotten Day by Simply No One on NovelPedia.

The next morning I arrived at school on time. Haruki noticed immediately. She turned around in her seat as I walked in, studied my face the way she always did when she was deciding whether to say something, and then said it anyway. "You look different." "I look the same." "You do not. You look like you slept." "I did sleep." "Properly. Like an actual human being." She tilted her head. "What happened to you yesterday?" "Nothing. I stayed home." She looked at me for another second, then turned back to the front without pushing it. That was the thing about Haruki. She always knew exactly when she had reached the edge of what I would give her, and she never tried to go past it. She just filed it away and waited. Asahi slid into the seat beside me a minute later, dropped his bag, and said without any preamble, "You missed Shoyo trying to answer a question about photosynthesis yesterday. He said plants eat sunlight through their mouths." "Plants do not have mouths." "That was the teacher's exact response." I almost smiled. It came and went before anyone could see it but I felt it, the small involuntary pull at the corner of my mouth, and it surprised me enough that I turned to the window so I could be sure it was gone before I faced the room again. Mr. Shouto came in and the lesson started. History this time. Something about the Meiji period. I wrote what was on the board and let the words pass through me without landing. Haruka came in two minutes after the bell, slightly out of breath, her scarf still half on. She mouthed sorry to Mr. Shouto, who waved her to her seat without stopping his sentence. She sat, unwound the scarf, and pulled out her notebook in one continuous motion. Then she glanced over and caught me looking. I moved my eyes back to the board. The morning passed the way mornings do when you are not paying attention to them. Classes, bells, the shuffle between rooms. At lunch Asahi produced a convenience store sandwich from his bag and held it up like it was something to be proud of. Haruki told him it was sad. He said nutrition does not care about dignity. Haruka laughed at that. A real one, not polite, the kind that catches you off guard. She covered her mouth with the back of her hand after, the way people do when they laugh louder than they meant to. I watched the sakura trees through the roof fence and ate my tofu sandwich and did not think about anything in particular. That was what I told myself. After school, Asahi had practice and Haruki had a team meeting that she complained about loudly for three minutes before going anyway. The corridor emptied fast, the way it always did on cold days when everyone wanted to get home before the temperature dropped further. I was repacking my bag at my desk when I heard the chair beside me scrape. Haruka sat down, sideways, her elbow on the desk and her chin in her hand. "Clearing again tomorrow?" she asked. "If you want." "I found a better section for the chorus. I want to try it with the guitar before I commit to it." "Okay." She stayed sitting there even after I finished packing. I stood, put my bag over one shoulder, and looked at her. "Are you not going home?" "I will walk with you for a bit. My way is the same as yours until the bridge." We left the building side by side. Outside, the cold settled over us immediately, clean and direct. The sky was starting to go orange at the edges, the sun already low. Our footsteps sounded different on the path, hers lighter and quicker, mine slower, and somehow in the empty after-school quiet they fell into the same rhythm without either of us adjusting. We walked without talking for a while. The river ran alongside the road, low and steady. A few pigeons moved out of our way on the path and then moved back. "Can I ask you something?" she said. "You can ask." "That is not the same as saying yes." "I know." She made a small sound that was not quite a laugh. "Fine. When you play, and you are really in it, what does it feel like?" I t