The Ratio of Six and Four
Kayama Akari’s daily life was filled with nothing but boredom.
Because it was a life where no one ever approached her.
And, until now, that had felt entirely natural.
She was the daughter of a bad man.
She understood that the reason no one spoke to her stemmed from fear.
Because of that fact, she hadn't been able to muster the courage to reach out to others.
However, for the first time in her life, Akari decided to summon that courage.
The courage to say just one thing to her driver.
“I’ll walk today.”
With her bag on her shoulders, she avoided all the other students heading to school.
She began to wait in front of a certain house.
The time had just passed 7:30 AM.
Just as she was lost in thought, wondering if she should just take the car to school after all—
“I hit… Diamond, heh heh……”
That guy, looking haggard but somehow proud, slipped out of the modest detached house.
He, who walked past the luxury apartment complex, was the reason Akari had found her courage.
“……”
Akari gathered her courage and followed him from ten paces behind.
The guy waited for a moment in front of the greengrocer’s, then began his walk to school with a classmate named Ishikawa.
“Ishikawa, I wanted to kiss my support a million times yesterday.”
“Jun, congrats on the promotion. You worked hard… grinding until dawn… *yawn*.”
“Why are you pretending not to hear me? You’d better prepare yourself for those million kisses.”
“Wh, why……”
Even while hearing incomprehensible words about "five-man queues" and the like, Akari’s courage continued to hold steady ten paces behind them.
She wanted to walk to school with them.
With friends, at that!
Kayama Akari wanted to share the scripts rustling inside her bag with a friend.
Especially since she had even been promised that they would look over her acting together after school today.
“What’s so good about giving the last hit to a ward and checking spells, Jun…?”
“If you were a girl, I’d just, ugh.”
“Seriously……”
Having someone else look over her acting was a first in her life.
Until now, every time she recited male lines, her concentration would break, and how empty it had felt to watch herself on her phone screen alone.
If it were that guy, who even had a nice voice, it would surely be a good experience and lead to good results.
Just as Kayama Akari narrowed the distance to nine paces—
“Are you going to play games again as soon as school ends today? Or do you want to come to my place and borrow some manga?”
At Ishikawa’s casual remark, Akari’s courage retreated by two paces.
She already knew well of the friendship between Yamada Jun and Ishikawa.
As they were already a solid pair of friends, Akari assumed she would be pushed down the priority list.
Of course, it was because the factor of never having formed a proper friendship weighed heavily on her mind.
‘… It’s fine if I do it alone. It’s always been that way…….’
The steps she had taken with such courage slowed down, and as she gradually fell behind—
Just as Akari was being pushed to the back of the lively crowd of students—
“Ah, I can’t do it right after school for a while.”
“Huh? Did a new anime come out?”
“No, there’s just… something.”
Jun mentioned the after-school appointment as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“What is it? Tell me.”
“There’s just something. You creepy, *menhera* stalker Ishikawa.”
“What!? No, I’m not worthy of that title, am I?!!”
The way he brushed it off as "just something" even to a close friend like Ishikawa felt like consideration.
However, Akari wasn't used to that.
Because she felt that she wasn't the only one who had been thinking about their appointment.
“…… Hehe.”
With a bit more courage, her pace quickened.
Passing the dandelion field from before, the petals preparing to embrace the fluff began to catch her eye.
‘… The weather is nice.’
Unconsciously feeling that something was about to change, along with the dandelions—
Akari’s courage narrowed the gap to seven paces.
‘… Is it still awkward?’
5th period, Math.
This time, it was a substitute class because the Korean language teacher was away on a business trip.
And if we do this two more times, this group project will be over.
Mitsune and Akari were sitting together, staring at the paper with serious expressions.
It was the material Akari had brought back after receiving my feedback.
Ruri spent a long time spinning her pen, examining Akari’s work…….
Just as I was about to pull out my phone, unable to stand the awkwardness—
“About this.”
“Y, yes!”
Mitsune Ruri placed the paper on the desk and began pointing things out while pressed close to Akari.
“I don’t think this part is necessary… and what was your intention in including this here?”
“This is material to help with Yamada-kun’s presentation… and I’ll, I’ll erase this.”
She remembers all that? Her memory is good, too.
Anyway, the distance where their heads were almost touching.
The sight of Akari’s shoulder pressing softly against Ruri’s.
‘Polar bear, close your eyes.’
Why does just watching that make me feel like I’m committing a sin?
Thinking it was an incomprehensible world, I pulled out my phone and turned on my game.
“… It’s excellent.”
“…!!”
“Actually, mine might be a bit lacking……”
Finally, a bright aura erupted from Akari.
Seeing her look so happy to be acknowledged was quite a pleasant sight.
“… Yamada-san, don’t turn on the game.”
Was she embarrassed by the praise, or did she remember what Akari had said about help earlier?
On the contrary, a shy emotion began to bloom from Mitsune Ruri’s side.
‘Ah, let me watch a little longer…….’
Just as I was tapping my phone to collect my daily attendance reward—
Akari approached me with a shy face.
After bouncing her chair with her hip to pull it closer—
“Yamada-kun, it’s thanks to you… th, thank you.”
“……”
“You’re the one who did it. You worked hard.”
I said that while looking at my phone.
Honestly, I didn’t really do much; wasn’t it because she worked hard that it turned out this way?
So, I said it without much thought, but—
A color I hadn’t seen in a long time shimmered.
When I lifted my head, there was something that filled my eyes before the aura did.
“……”
More than the color of her emotions, the redness of her face caught my eye first.
Was it because Akari never usually made that kind of expression?
I don’t know.
But there was one fact I could be sure of.
‘She’s fucking pretty…….’
That being close to a girl like this was hazardous to my heart.
Seriously.
“Jun, I’m heading out first, okay?”
“Yeah.”
Just like that, after sending off Ishikawa, who would normally have walked home with me, Math ended.
An inexplicable tension washed over me.
‘Come to think of it, I’m left alone with a girl after school.’
All sorts of *doujin* clichés sprouted up, but I shook my head violently to shake them off.
Once again, the sunset approached, and the air from last time drifted in through the window.
Strangely, air filled with spring.
Right in the middle, neither cold nor warm.
“… Yamada-kun, thank you for coming.”
That girl I had seen just a moment ago was there.
I’m curious. Would the me from a week ago have predicted a situation like this?
“Yeah, first, take a seat…!”
For some reason, after I was guided to sit, Akari pulled up a chair and sat facing me.
And then, she placed her bag on her lap, rummaged through it, and pulled something out.
“You agreed to help me with my acting, right?”
“You don’t have to ask again.”
“…… Yes, this is the script…!”
Akari pulled a stack of papers from her bag.
A stack of papers covered in sticky notes and various memos.
Just by looking at it, it was clear it was a product of hard work, worn just the right amount.
I picked it up carefully and turned the pages very slowly.
“You’re handling it so carefully….”
“Huh? What?”
“It’s nothing!”
I really need to change my earphones or headset; I keep missing what people say sometimes.
Especially with a timid type like Akari, the recoil when she misses a response would be huge.
I focused my ears and eyes and began to read what was called a script.
*Flip, flip.*
Every time I turned a page, there were many memos left behind.
“… It’s embarrassing, so please don’t look too closely…!”
“I didn’t look because I wanted to be embarrassed.”
“…… Then?”
Perhaps because it was a trace of her doing her best, I answered with a plain response.
“I focused because I could see you worked hard.”
I knew her handwriting was good, but it was so well-written that it flowed right along.
It felt like someone named Akari was narrating a book that only had dialogue?
Every time I turned a page, I could feel Akari guiding the direction.
# This part needs to capture the fluttering of first love!
☆ Hold hands tightly on the bus, in a state of being shy, wondering if you’ll get sweaty!
% But I’ve never held hands with anyone else, what do I do…?
‘Why is she so cute…….’
While I was reading the person named Akari by turning the pages—
‘…?’
I felt something was strange.
Why is almost every script on the same topic?
“I didn’t think… you’d think that way.”
*Flip, flip.*
While I turned the pages a bit quickly.
Akari said in a voice that grew brighter, as if thankful.
“That part… ah! I practiced it! So, I’m… confident even now!”
“Really?”
*Flip, flip-flip.*
As I turned the pages a bit more slowly, I also observed Akari’s side.
“Shall I show you a little bit first?”
Akari slowly cleared her throat and began to immerse herself in the emotion.
Perhaps because it was her first time talking about the same field, even though various emotions were running wild—
She closed her eyes and steadied her breath to immerse herself.
In an instant, the aura around her was controlled.
‘……’
“I’ll act as if I’m thinking of Yamada as my junior, okay?”
Her pronunciation and tone were clearly more accurate than before.
*Smile—*
As she opened her eyes with a smile—
The contents of the script unfolded.
In front of a crosswalk crossing the campus, a traffic island where only a single tree shade barely blocked the scorching sun.
Senior A from the university approaches the protagonist standing alone and puts an arm around her shoulder.
“I’m tired, so tired~ Junior, can’t you buy me a coffee?”
The junior tells the senior who says such things not to cling to her.
The senior hits the junior’s back as if it’s nothing and crosses the crosswalk together.
In between, the memo Akari had written down.
The emotion contained within the memo was transmitted to me.
★ A senior who likes her junior but finds it hard to pour out her true feelings
% Let’s feel the warmth transmitted by deliberately bringing my hand toward the junior’s side, almost touching!
Akari, who had stood up, lifted her chair and moved it next to me.
And, sitting beside me, she let her hand drop.
Warmth began to bury itself into the back of my hand little by little.
Akari’s small hand was cold, and every time the warmth of her cold hand touched me—
For some reason, my hand was getting hot.
‘…… She’s immersed.’
Akari, who was completely immersed.
It really felt like we were walking down the road together.
“Shall we hang out together today? How about it, Junior?”
I examined the annotation she had written down.
○ A smile that shows she likes him, but hopes he doesn’t find out ○
§ However, let’s set the feeling of liking at 6, and everything else at 4.
It’s a number I’m seeing for the first time, but I understand it perfectly.
I know what a smile with 6 parts liking and 4 parts not wanting to be found out is.
Yeah.
If I just stay still like an idiot here, it would be a nuisance instead.
Reading just below, it was written what I should do.
☆ The junior, with 6 parts not wanting to be found out and 4 parts the opposite, holds the senior’s hand!
Good.
Just as she wrote down.
The moment I tried to hold her hand, containing as much of the 6 and 4 as possible—
*Thud!*
“Th, this is enough…!!!”
Akari hurriedly pulled her chair and headed back to her original spot.
If she keeps her head bowed like that, her neck is going to hurt.
‘……’
The surroundings returned to the quiet classroom again…….
“Wow… you’re no joke, seriously.”
She’s really good.
She definitely has something, that’s for sure.
Thinking that, I nodded my head repeatedly.
“… Hehe, th, thank you.”
Akari returned to her original timid self.
My side was about to stop breathing just a moment ago, but is it different over there?
I watched Akari drinking bottled water for a moment.
“… Ah, right.”
I remembered the question I had forgotten because Akari started acting a moment ago.
“I have one thing to ask.”
“Yes, wh, whatever it is, tell me.”
As Akari spoke while fanning herself with her hand—
I was finally able to ask what I had been curious about since earlier.
“The thing you gave me.”
“Yes, I’ve been picking it out since yesterday… how is it?”
“Uh, that thing called….”
Akari is a pro, right?
I’m probably just paying attention to things like this like an amateur, right?
*Gulp.*
I swallowed my saliva and asked.
Why on earth.
“Why is the script all about… romance…?”
“……! That is!”
Silence flows.
I don’t know much about acting.
I don’t know much, but isn’t it true that acting isn’t just about romance?
There are sad ones, and there are many different kinds.
I want an answer.
I wish she would just answer properly once, whether I’m the weird one or not.
“…… That is, what, was it…?”
Embrace…
Fumbling, Akari’s face turned red, and her eyes began to spin in circles.
‘Ah?’
Around that time, I discovered a sticky note attached to the back of the last paper.
◎ Since it’s acting to do with Yamada-kun, I prepared things that are as easy as possible and easy to immerse in!
Like something written yesterday, the paper was stiff.
‘…’
And for some reason I don’t know.
“Why, is… everything… romance…?”
Akari seemed to have forgotten this memo.