Chapter 4: Chapter 3.

Chapter 3. A Nosy Neighbor (3/4)

However, it was as if the gods were laughing at my naivety. To my left came the sound of someone standing up from their chair. A few footsteps later the chair closest to me on my left was pulled out.

I rotated my head to the left and peaked from the corner of my eye. There sat the touchy red-haired beauty staring at me with a taunting smile while waving her hand as a greeting close to her face.

She spoke softly, “Rise and shine, it’s almost time for class sleepyhead.” 

That was it, checkmate. I had no more moves. I had been thoroughly defeated in a landslide victory on her part. My only option left would be to leave the room and skip class, but who was to say she wouldn’t follow me out of spite?

Frustrated beyond belief as a result of this persistent petty woman, I wordlessly stood up and returned to my original seat. She immediately followed right behind me with a victorious smile having sealed off all my escape routes.

“Jeez~ heheheh, you sure are indecisive with where you want to sit, make up your mind already.” She said teasingly, finding my actions humorous.

“Haaaaah. Can you please leave me alone and stop following me around?”

“I’m not following you, I was just verifying where was easier to see the blackboard at the front of the class from back here.”

“Oh, how convenient.”

“Yes, it turns out it’s easiest to see beside wherever you sit.”

“Does it look like I have some sort of ‘make blackboard easier to see to my neighbors’ superpower or something?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty convinced of it now.”

“What a shitty power, I don’t want it. Do you think it’s possible to request a refund from whoever gave me this shitty unwanted superpower?”

“Last time I checked all sales were final.”

“I never purchased anything.”

“There’s a no returns accepted policy then.”

“I’d like to throw it away in the garbage then.”

“That would be considered pollution, you’ll face divine retribution.”

“Haaaaaah. This is quite unpleasant.”

“It sounds like it.”

While we senselessly bantered back and forth like this, other students finally showed up and entered the classroom.

With their presence, I shut my mouth unwilling to associate myself any further with this woman. It would be nice if someone else would draw her attention. Maybe a hot athletic guy with good looks would be enough to entertain her or something.

Every student who entered the class had their eyes drawn to the two of us seated at the back. Well… rather than the two of us, it would be more correct to say the girl seated beside me who’d at some point taken out a nail file to take care of her nails.

She paid no attention to the people entering treating them like air and only cared for the maintenance on her nails.

To her, this was likely a daily occurrence. The gazes directed at her meant nothing at all. She was far more concerned with her nails than their gazes.

A bit curious because of how much care she gave them, I took a closer look at them myself. Her nails were painted a deep red that suited her well, but they appeared to be quite sharp.

I couldn’t help but mutter to myself, “Are you trying to kill someone with those things?”

She didn’t respond, but I still noticed her lips formed an almost unnoticeable smile as if she found my words humourous. Thought that might have been my misunderstanding. She might not have even heard me and was smiling because she liked the way her nails looked.

Seeing as she was leaving me alone now and wasn’t responding, I returned to my usual position on my desk.

Somehow, even with my head down, I had an unsettling feeling I was being stared at by my touchy neighbor. I peaked to my side and our eyes locked for a moment confirming my suspicions. She didn’t look away immediately despite being caught. It was like it hadn’t bothered her at all that I knew she was staring at me. She didn’t care.

Only after ten seconds, staring directly into my eyes did her focus return to her nails.

I closed my eyes and feigned I was asleep again. As soon as I did I felt the same gaze again. When caught for the second time our staring contest went on for a solid twenty seconds.

Suspicious about what was going on I closed my eyes for the third time only for the feeling to return. When I opened them again it was thirty seconds. Suddenly I understood what was going on. It was a form of harassment. For every time this process repeated, ten seconds would be added to how long she stared me down in the eyes.

I wouldn’t be able to relax in class like this at all if she kept this up! But surely she’d get tired if I just didn’t look back at her. 

Actually, forget her, what the hell is with this dream anyway? When is it going to end? Actually… will it even end? Shouldn’t I have woken up by now? Is it possible… that this isn’t a dream like I thought?

Now that I thought it over… didn’t I feel it when she was touching me earlier? The time her finger slid across my skin starting from my cheek toward the back of my neck. Then the warmth when my arm was in contact with her body. Her soft hair when it brushed against my cheek. And lastly, her finger tapping my chin. 

If it was just one instance, I could dismiss it as nothing much, but I felt all of it, everything little thing she did. Even her gaze directed toward me.

My body jolted up. I finally looked down and examined my body more closely. I confirmed that my appearance was definitely that of when I was in high school.

My mind entered a state of chaos.

This has to be a dream. It has to. If it wasn’t a dream… then what about before? When that knife was in my chest and the subsequent whisper I heard.

What happened before that point? What led up to that?

I couldn’t remember.

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My memories were hazy and indistinct.

Was I… actually… killed by someone?

A thought so absurd entered my mind.

Had the story idea I’d played around with before death turned into reality?

Slowly, but surely, I was gradually losing a grip on reality.

What was real and what was fake. I couldn’t tell.

I even had the hysterical thought that the twenty-five years I remembered after this was all part of a dream I had before the start of my first day of high school.

I was much more inclined to believe that than something absurd like I’d died and truly returned to relive my past from this point on.

C-Calm… I need to calm down. I need to slowly think this over properly and not immediately jump to conclusions. I’ll have a nervous breakdown and an identity crisis on my hands at this rate.

Perhaps… neither of the two options I’d thought up were correct.

Or maybe it was just a dream after all. Maybe I was in a comatose state.

I couldn’t decide. There really wasn’t anything I could do even if I figured it out either. The only thing I could do at the moment was let things play out and see what would happen.

I took a deep breath in and held it in for several seconds before slowly breathing out steadily.

With that single action, my mind was clear and I’d regained my senses.

“What’s wrong? You looked pretty panicky just now out of nowhere. Did you forget something important at home?” My nosy neighbor asked while working attentively on her nails despite not looking at me.

“Well… it was probably a mid-life crisis of some sort.”

“Mid-life crisis? You’re fifteen, aren’t you? Isn’t it way too soon for you to have something like that?”

“Leave me alone, I’m a forty-year-old fart at heart.”

“I’d nearly be inclined to believe it if you said that. I have a thing for older mature guys after all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I raised one eyebrow at her strange response.

“Nothing in particular. I’m just not really interested in high school boys I guess.”

“Ah, I see. You’re looking for a free ride in life. Your typical high school boy certainly wouldn’t be able to meet those standards.”

She closed her right eye and stared at me with her half-open left. “I take offense to that. Though a free ride in life might not be so bad, it wouldn’t necessarily be that fun.”

“You would prioritize a fun life over an easy life?”

“I suppose you could say that.”

“It must be nice having such a leisurely life that you can choose.”

“Oh? You’re saying you can’t?”

“I guess so.” Life isn’t easy. Never has been, never will be.

“Hmmm, is that so? Why do you say that?”

“Why do you care?”

“No particular reason. Just a bit curious is all.”

“You really are an unpleasant nosy woman.”

“At least it's better than being an unpleasant guy like you.”

“If I’m unpleasant, then please do leave me alone. Also, stop staring at me when I’m trying to relax, it’s annoying.”

“I’m not staring at you. I’m staring at the wall behind you, it’s a rather fascinating wall. It’s at the very least much more pleasant to look at than you.” She said that with a pleasant smile that didn’t match her words as she took a heavy jab at me.

Unsure of how to respond I gave up and returned to my usual position.

A few minutes later, the class was fully packed, it seemed that everyone was finally here. All the desks were occupied, it was a packed class.

The bell rang signaling the start of the class. The homeroom teacher stood up. At the center of the class in the very front, he introduced himself the same way he’d done with me before, only this time addressing the entire class.

From my perspective, it felt like it had been such a long time since I was last surrounded by this many people. It was… nostalgic. I don’t think I disliked it as much as I had back then. The only thing that hadn’t really changed was the fact that I still didn’t want to interact much with any of them. I’d like to just keep alone to myself and just watch the happenings around me peacefully removed from any drama as a third-party observer.

Something like that was enough for me. For someone who didn’t belong anywhere. Who had nothing, and wanted nothing. Incapable of loving anyone or anything. An unambitious nobody without any hopes or aspirations in life. That was all I ever amounted to in this world.

While giving such a self-deprecating evaluation of myself internally I eventually dozed off in the middle of class. The last thing I felt was a gaze on me to my right.

…

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