Chapter 57

Translator: mii

Editor: Ryuunakama

Day 57

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Sunday.

Kouhai-chan called me out in the morning today, so we were currently on the train.

It feels strange to stand in the same position in the usual vacant train, but the train is going in a different direction from our usual route.

Eventually, we sat side by side on the bench.

「Hey.」

Uu. I still feel somewhat sleepy. As I thought, I should be sleeping until noon on the weekends.

「What is it, senpai?」

Kouhai-chan who is sitting on my left side turns her head towards me. Her long hair sways, wafting a dreamy aroma.

「Where are we going?」

「What are we?」

「Where do we come from?」1

「…From our own houses.」

「I didn’t ask for that kind of Gauguin-like things, though.」

For some reason, my question turns into a name of drawings that will come up in a high school quiz. Still, that title is philosophical. Just by asking that to ourselves, the dawn will break.

Anyway, this makes me remember about the data collecting for the drawing Kouhai-chan will present at the cultural festival. Seriously, where are we really going?

「『Today’s question』. Where will we go now?」

「Somwhere close to sea.」

「It’s autumn right now, you know? No, it’s even entering winter, okay?」

If we are going to swim in the sea, I will die from a heart attack.

「No, no. I didn’t bring my swimswit anyway. Or maybe, senpai, do you want to see me in a swimsuit?」

「Guhh…」

If I said I don’t want to, it would be a lie.

「Well, let’s leave that aside for now.」

Hey. Don’t toy with people.

「It’s close to the sea, senpai. Close.」

「We are going to eat sushi.」

「Even though the travelling expenses will be expensive, we can eat it later.」

「We will go fishing.」

「No way, it’s cold.」

I don’t want to do that. I didn’t bring any cold protection after all.

「Then, what?」

「Really, senpai is really bad at guessing. It’s an aquarium.」

Ah, there was that facility, huh.

「You’re collecting data there?」

「Yes.」

Nn, is there any aquarium in the direction we’re going?

「It should be far, right?」

「If I’m not wrong, it will take a little more than a hour.」

Since I am currently sitting and the train is vacant, I should be able to concentrate now.

「Hey, can I read books?」

She heaves a sigh.

「…Sure.」

＊　＊　＊

Since senpai is reading, I open my smartphone and play with it for a while, but I quickly became bored.

Somehow, it feels somewhat rare being able to sit next to senpai, since we are usually facing each other. I wonder if senpai is being conscious of it.

It will be boring if we just arrive without any incident, so let’s do a little mischief to him.

I lock my smartphone screen, close my eyes while still holding it in my hand, and relax my body.

It will be unnatural if I just do it immediately, so I wait for around three minutes.

I place my temple on senpai’s shoulder, leaning on him.

This should be「the girl who fall asleep during the date」, right? It’s still morning, though.

「Oi.」

When I opened my eyes just a tiny little bit, I could see the book pages that senpai was currently holding.

He is still reading, eh. He sure really like books.

「Oi, wake up.」

If I react, then my michief will fail.

「…Eh, is she really sleeping? Seriously?」

I can hear senpai’s speaking to himself.

「Nn.」

I hear a patan noise. Did he close his book?

And then, at the next moment.

I feel like there is a slight movement of senpai’s shoulder which I was leaning on, and there is a fluffy sensation on my head, gentle.

It seems like senpai stretched his right hand and gently patted my head.

「As I thought, her hair is really soft…」

What are you doing?

And also, what are you saying?

If I complain to him, he will find out that I was feigning sleeping, so of course I didn’t voice them out.

I continued to pretend to be sleeping, praying that senpai wouldn’t realize how hot my ears had became.

＊　＊　＊

「We finally arrived.」

「It is really far.」

We arrived in front of the entrance gate of the aquarium.

There is a big whale model there, and a family is taking pictures in front of it.

「Well then.『Today’s question』. What am I looking for here?」

「Isn’t that just a quiz?」

「It’s not just a quiz.」

Do you remember?

We talked about this when we first started talking.

「Ha? Eh? What do you mean?」

「This is a memory quiz.」

「Memory? Long ago… Is it something about what happened two months ago?」

「By the way, today is the 57th day.」

「57, huh. Isn’t it a prime number?」

Eh?

5+7 is 12. Since 12 is a multiple of 3, it is really divisible by 3.

「『There is a prime number of 57. It has the characteristic of having divisors of 3 and 19.』, right?」

「I don’t understand what you’re talking about, senpai.」

「It sounds like what a great mathematician used to say. Was he called Grothen-something-san?」2

＃　＃　＃

「Hee. Anyway, senpai. Did you earn enough time to remember it already?」

She found out, huh.

And also, I can’t remember anything at all.

「I didn’t remember at all.」

「It can’t be helped then. Let’s go.」

Oi. Won’t you tell me the answer?

I immediately chase after Kouhai-chan who has the pair tickets with her.

Speaking of「aquariums」, I think there is an image that it is a place with manu dark rooms.

This aquarium is not an exception. It has a slightly darker exhibition room.

There are shiny things that look great as a picture in an aquarium. I wonder what is that.

There was a dolphin show guide. Kouhai-chan didn’t glance at it at all.

There was an exhibition where large sharks and rays swim in a large aquarium. As I thought, Kouhai-chan also didn’t glance at it at all.

And then. Kouhai-chan stopped in front of the aquarium with colorful tropical fish, and she took out her smartphone.

「Here it is. Look.」

When I look at the aquarium, there are a lot of brightly colored fish. The information next to it is filled with names I don’t really know, like Oriental butterflyfish, or blue striped angelfish.

Since she is going to draw, of course it would be this kind of beautiful fish, huh? But then, I don’t understand why she tried to make me guess before.

Kouhai-chan was starting up her smartphone camera, pressing it against the glass.

At the end of the lens was a yellowish-white fish full of thorns.

It’s name is, the「pufferfish」.

I remembered.

When Kouhai-chan and I had just met each other, I heard how she was s member of the art club, and asked her lightly to show me her drawing next time.

At that time, I said something like,「you can even draw a pufferfish, you know?」without really meaning it. If I’m not wrong, we also talked about crossing heart to die if she didn’t fulfil the promise.

「You still remember that kind of thing?」

「Senpai also remembered, right? I’m glad.」

To be honest, I just proposed that irresponsibly.

But regardless of that, I feel happy that she (plans to) finish an illustration following my proposal.

「Thanks.」

I muttered those words in a hushed voice while facing the water tank, but it seemed like it reached Kouhai-chan who was looking at the pufferfish properly.

「No, no. Please look forward to it at next week’s cultural festival, alright?」

That fact makes me embarrassed, and I can’t help but to reply to her with abusive words.

「It will be nice if you can finish it.」

「Eh, that’s heartless, senpai.」

「It’s regrettable. But I’m really worried about that, you know.」

「Considering that, senpai was unexpectedly monotone, though.」

「Come on, let’s go back now. Don’t you have to do your work?」

「What are you talking about? The date is about to start now, senpai.」

Looking back at me, she shone brilliantly, with tropical fish swimming around her.

I couldn’t say anything anymore.

The things I knew about my senpai 57

He might have a pretty good memory.