Episode 24 — “Listening to Bob Dylan” (Part 3)

“Coffee is bitter.”

“...”

Yasuhiro added more milk and stirred it around and around. Then, seeming to pull himself together, he continued.

...

I touched my head several times to make sure I wasn’t bleeding, but there was no red liquid on my palm.

Instead, a big lump had formed.

“Yasuhiro, are you okay?”

The moment he heard the slight trace of mockery in Watanabe’s voice, Yasuhiro was completely overwhelmed by anger.

Before he knew it, he had punched Watanabe hard in the left cheek.

“Aah!”

A girl nearby screamed.

Hearing that only made him panic more.

He grabbed Watanabe by the collar as he fell backward and punched him again.

The atmosphere suddenly became chaotic, and Yasuhiro came to his senses a little.

He quickly backed away from Watanabe.

In this situation, Watanabe obviously looked like the victim.

The girls rushed over, asking if he was all right and pressing handkerchiefs against his face.

Yasuhiro wasn’t really out of breath, but because he felt so awkward, he was breathing heavily as if he were exhausted.

Then, suddenly, a loud voice came from behind him.

“What are you doing?!”

It was Tsukiyama, the class representative, standing behind him.

Tsukiyama was a loud, overbearing girl who wasn’t particularly liked by either the boys or the girls.

The teachers trusted her, though she wasn’t especially good at academics.

Sometimes, when teachers handed back tests, they would announce the scores aloud.

Yasuhiro wasn’t good at studying, and every now and then a teacher would tell him his low score and encourage—or perhaps scold—him to try harder.

Tsukiyama often found herself in the same situation.

Whenever that happened, she would turn red with embarrassment and lower her head.

But at that moment, the class representative seemed somehow worse than any teacher.

“Did you do this, Yasuhiro?”

“...”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah! But why do I have to answer to you?!”

Yasuhiro felt horribly embarrassed and shouted.

“What kind of attitude is that? You beat someone up and still act like you’re the one in charge. That’s disgusting.”

“He started it. Watanabe did. And you’re the one acting all high and mighty.”

“Is that true? Did Watanabe start it?”

Someone explained that Watanabe had been hit, fallen against a desk, and that Yasuhiro had continued attacking him.

“That’s horrible. Don’t you understand that you can’t hit someone like that just because you’re bigger and stronger?”

Yasuhiro suddenly felt that none of the students around him were on his side.

“Someone saw it! He hit me on the head with the broom first. And there was a girl who told you guys to stop, remember?”

But nobody said anything.

“Anyway, let’s go to the teachers’ room.”

Tsukiyama took a step toward him.

“...”

“Let’s go!”

She reached for Yasuhiro’s arm.

“Leave me alone!”

As he tried to shake her hand away, Yasuhiro’s right hand struck Tsukiyama hard in the cheek.

Her small, slender body was sent flying onto the floor...