MachinedLinguist

Chapter 9   After finishing off the last of a late-night snack, I wrapped up a brief review of today's lesson that I did on my desk, and stretched out on the spot. Suddenly, my phone rang, so I picked it up. I wonder who it was? When I took a look at the screen, I saw it was a message from Tasuku.   "Sorry I wasn't able to go home with everyone today." "Don't worry about it." "Well, good night then."   "...Fuu. Good night, huh."   As if to answer back to my words, a stamp of a cat bearing a good night's message was sent. And with that, I turned off the screen as well and placed it back on the desk.   ――― I'm worn out by a lot of things today...   I rubbed my eyebrows, closed my eyelids, and reflected back on today's events. Both Takagaki and Ayane had shaken my heart. One was because of what my recent friend had said, and the other was because of what my best friend did. I was quite smar

Chapter 8   The setting sun began to descend, the crimson sky changing color to a deep purple. As I sat on an old wooden bench on the schoolyard looking at it, the words Takagaki said echoed in my head for some reason.   ――― You're overlooking something important.   Coupled with Takagaki's expression at the end, the more I thought about it, the more my thoughts get stuck on a dead end. Something, some thing, somebody [1] ...I tried changing the pronunciation, but I still couldn't understand. If it was something that Takagaki noticed just after a few days, I wonder if the others around me did as well. Maybe my two best friends, too...?   "Hello, hello?" "Wooaaahh?!" "Oh, you finally noticed me~?"   I was suddenly tapped on the shoulder, and a stupid reaction came out as I heard a voice call out to me from behind. When I turned my head furiously, I felt something struck my cheek. And then, there was pain.   "

Chapter 7   "...Wait, maybe I was the reason why it kept failing." "As far I can tell, you weren't even able to achieve anything."   I boasted about my past, but I wasn't even able to do anything. I confidently told Takagaki, and all I got from her was that I was incompetent.   "I thought you did all the right things because you sounded too proud about it." "Ugh...sorry." "Well, I know what middle school students are only capable of."   Takagaki looked at me with the same expression as yesterday. From the moment she breathed out a full sigh, she seemed like that tired office lady she was earlier in the morning. How fitting.   "What's with that strange expression?" "I-it's nothing," "...I'll pretend I don't know what you're thinking."   It seemed Takagaki was able to see through my thoughts, maybe because she had a strangely sharp intuition. P

Chapter 6   At the time, I was the kind of kid who would immediately act on his thoughts without any deliberation. That's why I went around in circles and never made any friends. And so, when I found the two I was looking for, I was so moved that I shed tears, and when I shook hands with them afterwards, I cried even more because I was just so happy. Of course, the pair went into a panic after seeing that spectacle in front of them, and the teacher even arrived after hearing about the commotion.   Having skipped the process of getting to know them first, I used my break time to have conversations with them in order to find out what kind of people were they.   What was their favorite food, favorite sport, favorite class...   I asked them a lot of mundane questions, taking notes so I wouldn't forget each one as they responded. They looked at me as if I was some kind of strange guy. After that, I appealed to the both of them with the same interests, and we grad

Chapter 5   Feeling embarrassed after being scolded by Sensei, I was allowed to share a textbook with the glasses-wearing girl sitting next to me. After that, each class proceeded smoothly, and soon it was lunch break. Everyone moved their desks and ate lunch with the group they got along with. As usual, I took the bread I would have for lunch to Tasuku's desk. Tasuku had already laid out a lunch box that his mother should have prepared for him.   "Excuse me." "Yeah. Been waiting."   As soon as I took a seat, Tasuku unfolded the cloth wrap from his lunch box and opened the lid. Inside was a piece of umeboshi on top of white rice, fried chicken, lettuce, as well as the standard menu of rolled omelet, and meat-filled bell peppers asserting its presence.   "Woah~, it looks delicious no matter how you look at it. Bell peppers as well, huh." "I could give you these bell peppers." "Which means you don’t like it. Eat i