Noon. Lunchtime finally arrived. My classmates, tired from morning classes, showed their relief.
Some of them immediately went to the cafeteria with their friends while the others gathered around their desks to eat their lunch together. To each their own, but for loners like me, sometimes, lunchtime could be a pain, today especially.
“Huh, Maehara-kun, you didn’t bring a lunch today?”
“Mmm, my mom only gave me this.”
I showed Ooyama-kun my shiny 500 yen coin.
Normally, my mother would wake up early to make a lunch box for me, but, if she got too tired because of her work, she would just give me money like this instead.
“Hey, Ooyama-kun, wanna go eat together?”
“Ah… Well, my friends are waiting for me, so I gotta go.”
“Mmm… Have fun.”
I knew that this would happen, there’s no way that he would eat together with me. After seeing him off, I also moved away from my desk.“Umi ~ Let’s have lunch together ~”
“Ah, I’ll join ~”
Amami-san and Nitta-san gathered at Asanagi-san’s desk. During lunchtime, those three would usually gather around like this.
“Ah, sorry, I have to go out to buy something first, start without me, okay?”
Said Asanagi-san. This was rare, she didn’t usually try to break off from her group like this.
“Eh? But Umi, you brought your lunch, right? Do you still need to buy more food?”
“I mean, I’m not going to buy more food… Well, guess I’ll buy something to drink…”
“Then, I’ll–”
“Oh sorry, but can you let me go by myself today?”
Another unusual occurrence. Asanagi-san usually would bring Amami-san with her everywhere.
If you are wondering, no, we don’t have any plans to eat lunch together.
“…Fine, but come back as soon as you can! Or else, I’ll eat your lunch!”
“Yuu, a grudge over food is something reaaally scary, you know? …Well, actually, you can eat some of it if you want to… Well, I’m off.”
After waving toward everyone, Asanagi-san hurriedly walked outside the classroom and bumped into me.
“…Umm…”
“Hello.”
Asanagi-san just sent me a look before she passed me by and left the classroom.
I noticed that she was staring at her phone the whole time, her face looked slightly unhappy. Well, that didn’t have anything to do with me, I shouldn’t pry about it.
Though when our eyes met just now, it seemed like she had something to tell me.
…Well, I’d better get going too.
I decided to push Asanagi-san’s matter to the back of my mind and went to the store next to the stairs.
The store, which was located inside the cafeteria, was crowded with students looking to buy lunch tickets and bread. They neatly lined up in front of the store.
As expected, since I came here later, popular food like stuffed buns had been sold out. All that was left were lighter foods like sweet buns or just plain bread. I went to the cafeteria and there was no seat available left for me.
In the end, all I could get was a small anpan and milk even though I didn’t particularly like them and wandered around to look for somewhere to eat.
“Now… Where could I find a quiet place for today?”
Whether I brought my own lunch box or bought something for lunch, I would always look for a quiet place to eat.
Of course I could just go back to class, but I felt like the others were secretly ridiculing me whenever I ate alone.
If this were a gyudon or ramen shop, no one would give a crap about me eating alone, but it was the classroom, it just felt wrong if I were to sit there and eat by my lonesome.
You might say that I’m overthinking things, but the fact that I’m always overthinking these things is the reason why I’m a loner.
“The courtyard… is crowded today… Well, let’s go over there then.”
A loner always prepared several places where he could be alone. Like the bench in the courtyard… right below the tree shade, the rooftop which was normally off-limits, the teacher’s parking lot, and the bicycle parking lot
It was a nice day and I was in the mood to eat outside, so I went to the bicycle parking lot. There were a lot of shady spots, so I figured I could spend some time there without standing out.
“…ease… go… with me…!”
I heard the voice of a boy that I didn’t recognize coming from some distance away.
I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but he was probably confessing. Well, this scene happens once or twice a month in places like this.
“…Ah, youth…”
I couldn’t care less whether he got accepted or not, but getting too close to them wouldn’t be a good idea. I snuck around and blended into the shadow of the bikes, opened my bag of anpan, and proceeded to listen to the rest of the confession.
“Ah… Um… Sorry. I’m not interested in dating anyone right now.”
Said the girl, her voice sounded familiar to me.
I had a feeling that the one who got confessed to was Asanagi-san.