Chapter 14 - Escape from Reality

Supporting my own group"s fire, and touring other groups. It was supposed to be fun and enjoyable school trip but all I keep seeing is fire.
Vibrant green scenery under the sun, and a bookworm silently adding wood to the fire. What a plain picture.
Speaking if what I am doing, it is being an errand boy of a member of sports club as an outcome of my own suggestion. It"s nothing but miserable.

Still, I"m glad it turned out like this.
Compared to looking at human faces, gazing at fire in the stove is more relaxing for my heart.

Somehow, I sound as if I am soon-to-be arsonist.
Although, the one who brought me to this mental state is having fun as always, so it can"t be helped.

Tachibana Karen and merry friends.
As long as I"m there, the only possible scene is being endlessly messed with by Tachibana in front of the other girls and Komatsu-kun. Just imagining it makes me irritated.

Don"t think deeply about her, lately I"ve been often telling it to myself.
I feel I"m at my limit. Thinking like that, I decided to escape at least until the lunch is ready.

But why is it that after all, this group turned out to be the same…

– Eeh! You"re incredible Ichijou-kun! It"s burning really good!!

– Uh… Don"t be too eager, it"s dangerous.

– Wow! Wow! I"m impressed! Incredible!

The guy who is crouching near me and making noise is the buddy of the good-looking guy that came to our group not so long ago.
Having a face that has a monkey-like charm, he is an excessively highly energetic guy.

He is gazing at the flames with gleaming eyes just like a grade schooler, but his hairstyle is on the contrary flashy, as if he is a graduate.
Specifically, he has dyed brown hair with great volume achieved via wax. You know, his hairstyle looks as if he was very good at card games. As if he had the three G.o.d cards1.

However, to my regret I can"t remember his name. As a person from another group, he was un.o.bserved.
And with that, let"s temporarily name him noisy one.

And the good-looking guy that previously came to our group, cool one.
Different from the noisy one, he is leaning against a tree nearby with folded arms.

He was a guy with thin eyes. Likewise his ruffled black hair were waxed.
He looks cool just standing here, the world is an unequal place. His hairdo looks more natural than noisy one"s, it really looks d.a.m.n good.

– Hmm…

Suddenly, he had a happy expression on his face.
Smiling as if understanding something, he looked at me.

– W-, what?

– You know, despite doing nothing but studying, you"re quite interesting.

– Not really… Anyone can do this much…

Bookworm Jimmy just happened to be fire attributed for some reason, that"s all.
Rather, look here, you guys observe it too. Remember how to do it at least this much. You are sociable guys, don"t you do lots of BBQ? Aunt said that summer vacation is approaching too, yeah. But you don"t need a stove for a BBQ, huh…

Well, I did feel more at ease considering that the other party was not a girl.
The topic brought up by the cool one seems to be a troublesome one.

– I"m not talking about that. I was just wondering why Karen became interested in you.

– Huh? What are you suddenly talking about?

– Before the group arrangement, I was indirectly told that there is a boy she wants to make a group with. So I was thinking, maybe it was you Ichijou-kun?

– No way. Didn"t she come to us having no one left to join with them?

Right now, I barely forced myself to say it. It was an awful try at self-deception.

Same as ever, one side of my mind is saying "That cannot be possible" while the other one is saying "Face the reality".
Recently, it has been the same during study sessions.
Thinking that our sessions will likely soon end, I feel like can"t we, by chance, keep doing this together for a long time?

In any event, since our recent date, I feel like I have been desperately running away from something.

However, at that time, wind blew.
Komatsu-kun, who was supposed to be a mannequin behind me, smashed me with a few quiet words,

– Now that you mention it, Ichijou-kun, you were having fun with Tachibansan just now, right?

Uh… Has it been like that today?

Ah. Has this young loner, who was standing behind me, seen how that girl stealthily poked me earlier?

– …Nah, that"s not true.

– But Tachibansan looked very happy. Have you always been chatting like that?

– If it is Komatsu-kun, then he should know it, as a fellow loner.

Cool one is now having an even broader smile. He looks delighted.

– Hee… I ended up hearing something interesting. Karen and Ichijou-kun, huh?

– What"s with the weird laugh… There is really nothing going on.

– Well then, I"ll ask the opposite question. Ichijou-kun, do you have interest in Karen?

– It is not a problem of my interest! Just as you said, all I do is nothing but study. There are almost no points of contact between us or something, um…

– But Karen showing interest herself, now that is something rare.

This guy is completely ignoring me.
Still, rare? Wasn"t the main rumor about how she eats any guy she takes interest in?

But this is coming from a friend whom she calls by his first name.
He should probably know much more than the ones circulating the rumors.

And I did what I always do. I didn"t look into it deeply.
If I have asked more, then it would mean that I really have an interest in that blonde girl. It"s not that I didn"t want others to think so. I didn"t want to admit it myself.

And that is how I… activated Continuous Spell card "Escape from Reality" and ended my turn.
With that mood, I kept silent.

– Well, whatever. Thank you for the stove.

– Ye-, yeah.

After that, cool one kept happily making a suppressed Fuun laugh.
By the way, noisy one kept saying "Incredible!" while gazing at the fire. It seems that he is a latent pyromaniac, so I am a bit worried.