An Eye-Catching Date (2)
"Shin-chan! Over there first...!"
"Ah—yeah."
The Cultural Festival. A peculiar pleasure you could taste only in the flush of youth, and Tae-il found the whole thing awkward. Ayane was different. She had already drunk her fill of festivals with her friends, cultural and otherwise, and if anything, missing this summer's had left her more fired up than anyone.
"Let's take it slow, Ayane. We've still got plenty of time."
"No way! Ayane's going to have a blast before everyone else shows up!"
Rarely stubborn, Ayane yanked hard on his arm. That she fussed over Tae-il was an open secret among the teachers. They had even dumped every bothersome errand involving him onto her, on the grounds that the two were childhood friends. If he had gone into the Academic track, the two of them would almost certainly have shared a class in their second year. The reverse would have been just as true. They were already impossible to pry apart.
But the understanding that had once been confined to the faculty was beginning to spread among the students as well.
"Shin-chan, there's something on Ayane's cheek."
"Hold still..."
A smear of yakisoba sauce from the noodles she'd wolfed down that hungry morning clung to the corner of her mouth. Tae-il rubbed it away gently with his thumb. And then Ayane bit down on it.
"A-Ayane...!?"
"Hehe."
She sucked at his thumb a few times before letting her lips slip free. A strange shiver climbed his spine, and before he knew it his face had gone scarlet.
"Y-you can't do that! Do you have any idea how dirty hands are...!"
"It's fine, isn't it?"
Ayane hooked her chin over his shoulder and smiled, sly as a fox.
"Nothing about Shin-chan's body is dirty to Ayane."
"You really..."
Embarrassment stole the rest of his words.
Die, couples.
Die, average guys dating pretty girls.
Die, you lucky bastard dating your childhood friend.
Ha. This is bullshit. Isn't there a sign around here banning public displays of affection?
I'm so lonely...
Maybe I should just confess...
Would she like it if I did that for her too?
If this had been a panel in a manga, the space around them—everyone but the two of them—would have been packed solid with thought balloons. Goddamn couples. Hanging so blatantly off Tae-il's shoulder, laying on an affectionate assault that even a guy would have to call pure fox-play, she looked, to anyone watching, exactly like that.
"Ah! Shin-chan! They're selling ringo-ame over there! Candy apples!"
"Want me to buy you one?"
"Huh? Are you sure that's okay? You said you were broke lately..."
"I got my allowance."
Tae-il pulled out a wallet that had grown noticeably fatter. Out of nowhere, when he'd gone home, Yoo Ha-na had handed him his allowance. The woman who usually doled out pocket money like a miser had pressed a small fortune on him without a single question, and Tae-il had been terrified of whatever motive lay behind it. But money was truth. He had no intention of preaching that gold solved everything, yet as a general rule, having more of it never hurt. Afraid Yoo Ha-na might change her mind, he had snatched the cash and fled the house.
Pay comes in the week after next. Pool that with this, and one show's Norma might just be covered...
For Tae-il, who now had to start budgeting for live-house stages as well, managing money was a genuine headache. Music was always like that. Plenty of places for money to leave, and nowhere decent for it to come in.
Should I really have gotten into Bitcoin?
Blaming, all over again, the past version of himself who had been far too careless about the future, he held out the candy apple.
"Here."
"Wow! Thanks, Shin-chan!"
Ayane lit up as if she'd been handed a present.
"Is it good?"
"Mm-hm!"
Tae-il let out a quiet laugh, watching her shyly lap at the apple with her tongue. He already knew perfectly well that she had a sweet tooth. Most women were helpless before sugar. Even a certain woman who had kept herself on a brutal diet, insisting she had to watch her figure, had been no exception. Every time he offered her chocolate she would grumble, then eat it anyway, neat as a hamster. Which was why, whenever he stopped in Korea, he so often picked up the Ferrero Rocher she had loved in the original story from the airport duty-free.
"But is that actually good?"
"Yeah! Ayane likes it. Weirdly, all my friends hate it. Want to try a bite, Shin-chan?"
"Uh..."
He hesitated, darting a quick look around. Ever since the Eve Festival, the eyes on him had multiplied, unmistakably.
"Uhh..."
The moment Ayane brought the candy apple up to his mouth, he felt the same killing intent he had only ever sensed in Class 7. Maybe because the lobby was wide open, there was even more of it than in class.
"I-I'm good... I'm not really into sweet stuff..."
"Huh? Were you?"
"Haha. If it's too sweet, it gets cloying. That's all."
"Mmm. That's a shame..."
Ayane murmured that it was tasty even as she slipped her arm through his without missing a beat. Tae-il didn't object—not even to walking arm in arm.
"So. What do you want to see next?"
"The haunted house!"
"Mmm. Doesn't strike me as a great choice..."
"No arguments!"
Knowing full well that Tae-il couldn't stand ghosts, Ayane set her face in stubborn resolve. Summer break. Sakuya's boasting still hadn't faded from her head.
Ayane's going to enjoy horror with Shin-chan too...!
Her expression was iron. Tae-il gave up on talking her out of it early.
"...Haa. Fine. Let's go."
It was true that he was weak to horror. Even a simple, childish jump scare was enough to make him flinch—that said it all. He wasn't terribly worried, though.
I mean, how scary can something a bunch of kids put together really be...
Yuuma High's cultural festival was, on average, higher in quality than other schools', but that was limited to the arts and athletics.
It's not like our school spends a solid month preparing just because they decided to hold a festival.
It wouldn't amount to much.
If Shin-chan gets scared and clings to Ayane... ehehe.
Dreaming entirely different dreams, the two of them headed for the Old School Building, where the haunted house was supposed to be.
"Why'd they have to put it in the old building? It's a pain to get to."
"Hehe. Probably for the atmosphere, don't you think?"
"Well, it is pretty run-down."
The Old School Building creaked underfoot the moment you walked its halls without putting any weight into your step. Five of the school's canonical Seven Mysteries had supposedly been born right here. Word was they had deliberately chosen the old building for the haunted house, the better to stage the feel of an abandoned school. It wasn't the work of any single club or class, but a project performance several groups had banded together to build, which was why the scale was no joke. Astonishingly, they had rented out the entire first floor and turned it into a haunted house. Taking in the real thing, Tae-il let out a breath of admiration.
"Whoa..."
Even from the entrance, he could already feel an aura. The aura of couples.
"Shin-chan, this place is seriously popular! Right?"
"Yeah, it is."
Couples here, couples there. Tae-il thought he might finally understand why Sakuya had so sincerely hated the idea of going alone, back when committee work had forced her to visit the haunted house.
"The whole world's nothing but couples..."
Setting outside visitors aside, there were far more uniformed couples than he had imagined. Ayane chimed in.
"Mm-hm. Ayane was shocked when she saw it yesterday too. Dating's pretty much free at our school, aside from a few clubs, but..."
Even to the eyes of the public morals committee, it was a bit much. Sure enough, this was a school where arts and athletics reigned. Romance and sex were bound to come with the territory—Tae-il convinced himself of that.
"Here's your entry number. Don't lose it, all right?"
"Ah, yes."
An upperclassman painted head to toe in livid bruises—yet, astonishingly, not scary at all in a sexy nurse outfit—brushed Tae-il's hand while stealing a sidelong glance. Thanks to Ayane and Sakuya, he had grown numb to most skinship. He checked the number first. Twenty-eight.
"We got here pretty early, and we're still in the twenties?"
"Right..."
Unlike Tae-il, who was impressed by how packed the haunted house was, Ayane answered absently, glaring at the back of the nurse senpai's head as she handed out tickets.
Is that girl serious...?
She didn't even measure up to Tales Tale's average, and she had the nerve to reach. Without realizing it, Ayane tightened her arm around his.
"Ayane?"
"Mmm. It's nothing. Ayane's already excited!"
"Just how much do you like horror..."
While Tae-il fretted—
Smack!
Behind them, a girl delivered a terrifying open-palmed blow to the back of her boyfriend, who had let his eyes wander.
"You were just staring at that senpai's cleavage, weren't you! You perv...!"
"N-no! That's—I mean...!"
"What do you mean, no! You idiot...!"
Truly, a haunted house. For any guy accompanying his girlfriend, it served up a dreadful fear right from the entrance. But there were those unfazed even by an assault like this.
"Hmph. I came with you precisely because I knew it'd be like this."
"Indeed. If it's men going in together..."
"I hear there are lots of pretty senpai inside. Of course there would be...!"
"The haunted house's core staff are the gymnastics club senpai!"
"Number twenty-three! Next group after twenty-three, please come in!"
"Let's go! Onward to utopia...!"
"Yeah! Partner!"
Two boys who looked, at a glance, exactly like the best-friend slot in a dating sim charged into the haunted house with their arms around each other's shoulders. They stormed in snorting steam from their noses, and then—
"Kyaaaaa!"
"Th-this isn't utopia! Save meeeee!"
A scream, manly and thunderous, carried all the way outside. Tae-il's face went flat.
"No, seriously—how well did they build this thing, that even guys going in together scream like that..."
"The haunted house is a really traditional performance, even at Yuuma. The quality passed down through the years is probably insane."
"And why are you proud of that."
"Ahem!"
Men and women alike. While they waited, savoring the screams ringing evenly from inside, their turn arrived. There was an exit for people who tapped out midway, so the numbers came around faster than expected.
"Haa."
Tae-il let out a sigh and wet his bone-dry lips with his tongue.
"You're number twenty-eight, correct? Yes—please enter, and head straight down the passage on the left."
"Let's go, Shin-chan!"
"Yeah..."
Unlike Ayane, whose feet seemed light enough to fly, Tae-il felt as if he were being dragged to a slaughterhouse, and his steps grew heavier with every one. The moment he saw the entrance—blackout curtains drawn tight, the light dropping off a cliff—his feet stopped dead.
"Are you kidding me! They really made it look like an abandoned school..."
On top of that, a strange chill at the nape of his neck suggested they had cranked the air conditioning full blast just to set the mood.
"Shin-chan, the guide said we go left, right?"
"Y-yeah..."
The couple ahead had gone right, so they were probably splitting the corridor in half and rotating left and right in a zigzag.
Gulp!
Wound tight, Tae-il swallowed dry and, without meaning to, clamped onto Ayane's hand.
"E-ehehe..."
She laughed, loose and delighted, and took the lead. A moment later, the two of them stepped into the science lab—the haunted house's first gate.
It was gloomy. Like the science labs in old manga and anime, there were anatomical models, and flasks holding things like model eyeballs bobbed in glowing liquid. The red lighting, like a darkroom for developing film, startled him at first, but once he actually looked around, it wasn't as frightening as he'd expected. The course was laid out so you could circle the lab once and leave.
"I-it's better than I thought..."
"Yeah?"
By the time they had made it about halfway around, Tae-il's tension was slowly unwinding.
"Well, they staged the atmosphere to be scary, but it's all stuff that exists in real life."
True enough. The detail was incredible, but it wasn't staging the particular kind of fear that got to him.
"But Shin-chan, would people really scream that loud over just this?"
"When you put it like that, I'm worried again..."
There was something more waiting ahead.
"A-anyway, whatever it is, let's keep moving."
"Okay."
There were guests behind them, so lingering too long here would be a problem. Taking her warning to heart, Tae-il stepped forward without letting his guard drop any more than he could help.
Something caught the toe of his shoe.
"Huh?"
The instant he registered it, his gaze dropped, and a drawer rattled open.
Ah—so it was a trap...?
Sensing what was coming, Tae-il froze where he stood. Out of the drawer lunged a grotesque face, half Frankenstein and half clown.
Grotesque. But more than enough to startle a person.
"Ah, fuck!"
Jolted out of his skin, Tae-il spat the curse without thinking and kicked the protruding head. Sproing. The head snapped back into the drawer. He flinched.
"I-it didn't break, did it?"
Now frightened in an entirely different sense, his eyes sought Ayane in desperation.
"Hmm... hang on?"
Not startled in the slightest, she opened the drawer again to check. The head that should have sprung out on its coil slid forward limp and slack. It was broken. The clear footprint stamped across the face, in particular, had turned that grotesque, revolting visage ridiculous in a single blow.
"..."
"..."
An uncomfortable silence settled between them. Ayane fumbled the head back into place and shut the drawer tight.
"S-shall we just move on to the next course?"
She offered an awkward smile, dusted off her hands, and stood.
"L-let's!"
Tae-il nodded violently and agreed with enthusiasm. A few more traps did pop out along the way, but the two of them barely looked, scrambling out of the science lab in a fluster. After that, it was the same. Rather than people in costume, most of the horror beats relied on traps and props. But his attention kept snagging elsewhere, and fear was hard to come by.
"Whoa. Shin-chan, they made this blood really well! The sticky part's kinda like gel! Wanna touch it?"
"I'd really rather not..."
If anything, he was more terrified when Ayane calmly appraised and explained the props inside.
One by one, they passed through: the science lab, thick with the air of a mad scientist; the music room, with a piano dripping blood; the art room, where a spider made of nothing but hands—cut off at the wrists—came chasing after them. The final course. They arrived at the ballet studio, wall mirrors and all, that had been used back when a ballet club still existed.
"Fuck..."
Tae-il led with the curse.
"Ayane, you might've even seen this one in Hollywood...?"
"You crazy bastards..."
He wanted to grab whoever had planned this nonsense by the collar and shake them. The inside of the ballet studio was extremely simple. Mannequins. And more mannequins. Mannequins in sexy nurse outfits packed the room wall to wall, leaving only a single passage, as if to say go this way. But in the gaps between them, pale nurses deliberately worked their joints, little by little, making their presence known—and they caught in Tae-il's eyes.
"Nooo! Even knowing what it is, this is scary...!"
Sunk to the floor, he stared straight ahead with dead eyes. Between the mannequins, an arm in rough zombie-game makeup jutted out and waved at him, light and playful. Come on in. Welcome to our haunted house.
"Ahaha! This looks fun. Let's hurry in too, Shin-chan!"
"Ayane, you really..."
Nerves of steel. She pulled into her arms the same Tae-il who had gotten through everything relatively easily, let his guard down, and then collapsed.
"It's okay! If you're with Ayane, it's not scary!"
"Haa."
There would be no retreat. Ayane wouldn't allow it. Tae-il squeezed his eyes shut, then wrapped his arms tight around her from behind.
"I'm not opening my eyes, all right...?"
"Hehe."
The makeup was surely incredible too. Just from the quality of the zones and props they had seen so far, it was easy to guess how much care had been poured into this last stretch. If he witnessed it right in front of his face, Tae-il was confident—in the vulgar sense—that he would piss himself. And since they had gone to the trouble of the costumes, they were obviously going to pull some vicious pranks and milk it for all it was worth.
Absolutely do not open them...
He plastered himself to Ayane's back and hugged her shoulders tight.
"Hehe."
Unhurried, she hummed a little tune and started walking again. The longer this took, the better.
Maybe this is all right too...?
In their relationship, it was always Ayane who clung, and she liked it that way—tucked into Tae-il's arms, tickling his chest, breathing in the scent of him. But now it was different. His breath against the nape of her neck, and the pleasant tremor his faintly shaking arms sent through her. Tae-il was relying on her. In the band she could feel his trust, but the reverse—him depending on her—was harder to feel. Even when he showed his lacking side in ordinary life, within the band Tae-il was nothing short of a mountain. Everyone trusted him and leaned on him. Now it was different. The vivid sense that he was clinging wholly to her existed, for Ayane.
Hehe. Sakuya, that awful bitch...
How much fun must she have had, spending a whole two hours alone with Tae-il at the movie theater? Truly unforgivable.
Ayane nearly died of misery back then.
She walked between the mannequins with his arms locked tight around her. Tap, tap. At the touch against her forearm she turned her head, and a nurse with a grotesque face waved. Blink. When Ayane stared back blankly, the nurse jabbed an index finger into her own face, poked around, and exposed an eyeball. A face with no features showing had already been plenty bizarre. This was grotesque in its own right. The nurse stomped the floor.
"Eek! A-Ayane? Th-they moved?"
"Yeah. They moved."
The pressure of Tae-il's nose crushing into her shoulder grew stronger. Ayane smiled faintly and looked at the nurse again. The nurse gestured this way and that.
Want me to scare your boyfriend a little more?
She wasn't sure that was exactly what it meant, but Ayane took it roughly that way.
Yes.
The instant she nodded, the nurse snapped her fingers.
Creak. Creak-creak. Creeeak.
The nurses hidden among the mannequins began to move all at once. Cut off a person's sight, and their other senses grow sharper. Hearing is no exception. At the sound of the floor groaning from every direction, Tae-il's whole body jolted.
"W-wait! I've got a bad feeling about this...!?"
"Puhehe! It's fine, Shin-chan. Hold on tight to Ayane, and nothing's going to happen."
"This is very much not nothing!?"
The footsteps were drawing closer and closer. Curiosity killed the cat. As it always did. Knowing he shouldn't open his eyes, Tae-il opened them anyway and lifted his head just a little. And he saw it: four Bubble Nurses surrounding the two of them, slowly reaching out their hands.
"Ah, uh, ah, uh..."
A finger drew near. It touched him. An index finger, sticky and rough, reeking of iron. It tapped the tip of his rigid nose.
"In...sane."
Was it the bleak air pouring from the air conditioner? Thud. His senses honed to a razor's edge, Tae-il felt that skin-crawling touch in the flesh—and fainted on the spot.
"Huh? Sh-Shin-chan!? Shin-chan!?"
Flustered, Ayane cried out as she hastily caught him sliding off her shoulder.
"Kyaa! Shin-chaaaaaan!"
From outside, it was nothing but a girl's scream.
"There are no ghosts in this world. There are no ghosts in this world. There are no ghosts in this world. There may be a god, but there are no ghosts. There may be a god, but there are no ghosts. There may be a god, but there are no ghosts. And the god's name is... mumble mumble."
Sakuya pointed at Tae-il, who kept spilling the same words like a broken music box.
"Why's Tae-il like this?"
"Nya, nyahaha..."
Ayane, with a guilty corner she couldn't quite hide, subtly averted her eyes.
"Haa."
Sakuya sighed. Anyone could tell this had the smell of Ayane having done something.
"You couldn't even hold out that long before you did something, could you?"
"I-I did not!"
"That 'did not' doesn't sound like a did not..."
Covering her forehead with interlaced hands, Sakuya tapped the head of Tae-il, who kept muttering words no one could quite make out.
"Almighty Akarat, save me with your light. Almighty Akarat, save me with your light. Almighty Akarat..."
"He's broken. Guess I'll just wait till the others get here."
Fortunately, she had a great many shock therapies on hand for snapping him back to his senses. It had been a while. To kill the time, Sakuya picked up the acoustic guitar in the corner of the art room, thinking she might as well practice. By now, the hand that held a guitar looked fairly natural.
"Ahem."
She cleared her throat and began to play, humming along as she tried arranging Autumn Love Song into an acoustic version.
First grasp the chords, then work backward from there to pin down the melody...
Making full use of the tip Tae-il had taught her, she slowly filled in the tab floating in her head, the way you would fill in a drawing.
"Practicing a cover?"
"Yeah."
Learning a song by ear wasn't something you could pull off on the spot just because someone handed you a tip. Sakuya had floundered at first too. But sure enough, as she repeated the practice, she could feel the idea of copying by ear growing familiar. A string twanged.
"Oops."
Mid-copy, she hit a sour note by accident. The sound raised a faint chill and strangely called a horror game to mind. Sakuya stopped playing and clapped her hands.
"Oh, right! Ayane, do you happen to know about the haunted house the senpai are running on the first floor of the Old School Building?"
When the haunted house came out of Sakuya's mouth with no warning at all, Ayane flinched.
"Huh? Yeah!? I-I know about it, but why...?"
"I hear they made it insanely well."
"R-really...?"
"Yeah! Even the volleyball club's buzzing about it. So I was thinking we should all go together."
"Y-you know Shin-chan can't handle that kind of thing!"
"That's true, but..."
If Tae-il were with four pretty girls—no, five—wouldn't he be immune to fear? And in the dark, she could do something naughty to him without anyone knowing.
"What do you think? It'd be fine, right?"
"I-I'm against it! Absolutely against it!"
10:47 a.m. Until the members caught Ayane—her own foot already prickling with guilt—for having slipped off and gone through the haunted house alone with Tae-il, about five minutes still remained.