Pain Pain Go Away

5
it next time.
My last class came to an end. After putting my papers away in my
desk, feeling like a boy left behind in a lonely classroom on
Valentine’s Day, I went pointlessly rummaging through my
backpack. I wasn’t mature enough to not get my hopes up that
someone had left me some kind parting remarks.
Just as I was giving up on having any fond memories of this final
day, I noticed there was someone standing in front of me.
She wore a blue pleated skirt and had skinny legs. I looked up,
trying to conceal my nervousness.
It wasn’t Sachi Aoyama, who’d secretly had my fancy since third
grade. It wasn’t Saya Mochizuki, who tilted her head and smiled at
me whenever we met in the library.
Looking altogether too serious, it was Kiriko Hizumi, asking “Do you
want to go home together?”
Kiriko was a memorable girl, with hair cut to the exact length to
hang above her eyebrows.
She was shy, only ever talking in a whispery voice, wearing an
awkward smile she looked ashamed to be having. Her grades were
average, too, so she really didn’t catch anyone’s eye.
It was a total mystery why she, who had almost never held a
conversation worth calling a conversation with me, came to talk to
me today. I was secretly disappointed that it hadn’t been Sachi
Aoyama or Saya Mochizuki.