Chapter 20


TL: Scaramochi


***


Sitting opposite me is a stalker I've been communicating with via DM. 


He has short, athletic-looking, two-blocked hair. He has blond hair, piercings in both ears, and wears a jagged skull-mark necklace and bracelets. 


He looks older than me, and is a very active young man. 


I had imagined him to be a much smaller, fatter man. 


"Oh, aren't you the guy who's been around the girl lately!" 


The DM's language is a lie. 


His voice is that of a nice young man, and the impression is so different that I doubt if he is the one I was exchanging DMs with not too long ago. 


"Huh? Was it different by any chance?　Please say something!" 


He's like a spoiled child. 


"That's right, I'm the guy near the girl." 


"I see! That's why you used the word "unrequited love" in your DMs. That makes sense." 


He shook his head. 


"But what you're doing isn't that of someone with a crush, it's that of someone who's stalking, right?" 


He tilted his head to the side.　 


"She told me what she's using. I'm not a stalker or anything like that. It's official." 


"Heh. That's nice. Please tell me what kind of pillows the girl uses." 


"I'm not going to tell you, stalker." 


"Hey, cheap, cheap! Why don't you at least tell me a little bit?"


The man gave me a sulky look and started to ask the waitress for coffee. 


I got the general gist of the conversation just now, but this guy doesn't know Rinka's real name. I don't know what a regular stalker is like, but it is unnatural for him not to call her by name. 


The next thing I knew, this man had no intention of backing down. He speaks in a rough manner with his mouth, but his words carry weight. This sounds a lot like when he had a crush on her. 


"Stalker. I was wondering, where did you meet this girl?" 


"The road, the street. I happened to drop my handkerchief and she picked it up and handed it to me and that's how we met......!" 


"And then you started stalking her?" 


"That's right. Well, it's been six months since then, right? I got fired from the job I was doing because I was following her, but it didn't hurt me at all considering I was getting to know the girl better." 


This guy is....... 


"That's crazy." 


"Haha! If you weren't crazy, you wouldn't be stalking people. You'd be in the same position as me if you weren't a classmate, right?" 


I can't deny it because it's true. 


What this man is harboring is the same one-sided love for Rinka that I have. He likes her, he loves her, he can't stop loving her. I understand how he feels because I'm the same. 


But. 


"But stalking her is a crime, right?" 


"If I didn't do that, I'll never know about that girl. Not at all. I'm a high school student, so I'm not familiar with this kind of thing." 


He sipped his coffee while making a determined face. 


He looks like he's trying to make room, but I can't quite understand what this man is saying. 


"You're a high school student, so you're not familiar with these things, or are you just an idiot? If you don't know the girl, you should have approached her in a non-criminal way. No matter what you say, what you're doing is nothing but a crime." 


"Yes, you are right. But in going after someone you like, isn't it a crime or whatever?" 


"Of course it's not a crime." 


"Haha....... Do you really dislike me that much?" 


"I'd like to know how to not hate someone who is stalking someone I like." 


"I guess you have to take it easy like I do." 


"And that's why criminals are born." 


"--Tch." 


The air became tense because of the tongue lashing. 


As expected, no matter how much I wanted him to stay away from Rinka, that was too much of a provocation. 


The man deliberately put his coffee cup on the table with vigor. 


"Ahhhhh, you've been rambling on since a while ago. I ain't going to stop stalking the girl no matter what you say. Is that all you want to talk about?" 


He glared at me with a language that gave no hint of the word "good young man." 


I guess his true colors are finally showing. 


I tried to glare back at him without fear, but I was defeated by his eyes. 


"Oh, you're a criminal." 


"That's what I've been hearing from you for a while now. You're done with me, okay? I'm going to have to start observing the girl from now on, you know." 


At first glance it looks like the stalker is pushing me, but I win. 


Because I've left my phone on since I left the house in my pocket, so I'm recording all of our conversations. 


Now all I have to do is get this recorded phone out to the stalker and go to....... 


"Oh." 


My phone was out of charge. 


"Tsk. I don't have time for you anymore." 


The man got up from his seat. He was heading for the exit. 


I hadn't served my purpose yet. 


I tried to hold him back, but before I could. 


"Sir." 


The coffee shop clerk stood in front of the man. 


"Huh? The guy I was with there will pay for the coffee, so let me out." 


The police are waiting outside.


***


The clerk at the coffee shop felt something was wrong in our conversation and called the police, which helped me win over the stalker, despite my screw-up. 


I had to go to the police station for questioning, and since I had charged my phone and checked the recording, I was able to go outside at the time when the sky was dark. 


Incidentally, the recording was cut off just as I entered the coffee shop. 


"What an excuse to tell my mom......" 


I'm trying to think of an excuse to my mom who is worried about me not coming home at night, but my sense of accomplishment was greater. 


I'm glad they caught the stalker. 


But my mind is far from it. 


Maybe it's because that guy is just like me. 


That one-sided unrequited love. 


What he said to me in the coffee shop, if I were in a different position, is stuck in my mind. 


"What the hell?" 


I stopped under a lamppost, unsure of what I was thinking. 


"Haa." 


A sigh escaped me. 


Leaning against a telephone pole. 


I would never tell Rinka about what happened today. I thought so, but I was calling Rinka as if I was hanging on to her. 


Drrr, Drrr, Drrr.


A few seconds later. 


||  "I really didn't think that Yanagi would call me. Perhaps you missed my voice?" 


A slightly happy voice. 


"......Yes." 


||  "Seriously?" 


"Yeah. I really miss Rinka." 


||  "S-So....... shall we meet up now?" 


It's a dreamy proposal. 


But... 


"No, I'm fine. It's enough for me to hear your voice on the phone." 


||  "Fufu. If that's the case, alright." 


If I met Rinka now, I'm not sure I'd be able to stay sane. 


||  "Did something happen?" 


It's a perceptive question. 


"I'd be lying if I said nothing happened. But don't worry about it. I don't think it's something that Rinka would think." 


||  "I see. Then I won't asking you more questions." 


"Thank you." 


The conversation never connected. 


A few seconds of silence fell. But I felt strangely at ease when I thought that it was a silence that had been created between me and Rinka. 


||  "Speaking of which..." 


I heard Rinka's voice mixed with her exhale from her phone. 


||  "The night sky is so beautiful today, isn't it?" 


"Is it?" 


I looked up at the night sky, but all I could think was that it was just a pitch black sky. 


||  "It's beautiful. You usually can't see the stars much more. See, we went to the planetarium the other day, right? It's not like that, but the stars you saw there look beautiful." 


"Wow........" 


||  "For example, do you see those four stars shining a little more strongly in the west?" 


"Oh, yes, yes, I see them." 


||  "That's called the Autumn Quadrilateral. It's made up of four stars: Alpha Pegasus, Beta Pegasus, Gamma Pegasus, and Alpha Andromedae. It's kind of amazing, isn't it?" 


I mistakenly think she's chanting magic. 


"Yeah. It's kind of amazing if you just listen to the description." 


||  "By the way, this constellation called Pegasus......." 


Thanks to Rinka's detailed explanation of the stars, I have a nice mental clarity. 


So. 


||  "Well, good night." 


"Yes. Good night." 


By the time I hung up the phone and arrived home, my mind was as clear as a cloudless sky. 


"Oh, what am I going to say to my mom?"



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