"You're wearing glasses," Naota noticed. He'd never seen the class president wearing glasses, so he was surprised. He had no idea her eyes were bad. She must've worn contacts normally.
"Our secret."
"You have something to hide?"
Ninamori had worn glasses since around the time she'd modeled for the ad. Maybe she felt more averse to people knowing about her wearing glasses than she did about them knowing about her father's scandal. There was something special about only Naota knowing such a deep secret of hers, though.
"You do, too."
"What?"
"Well, I'm in your room, wearing your pajamas." Ninamori looked smug, as though she were victorious. "It's pretty weird, huh?"
"Really?" Naota sat on the bed with a carefree face, but he was panicking on the inside. Ninamori, straight out of the bath, was in his pajamas and in his room. As she'd pointed out, it was pretty weird. Sharing a secret was the first step to having a relationship beyond the ordinary. They'd suddenly entered into one such special relationship.
This isn't good. This really is not good, Naota thought.
"You'd better not tell anyone else in class," Ninamori warned.
"Of course not," Naota replied, instinctively raising his voice. "If people found out, who knows what they'd say. Starting tomorrow, you shouldn't come near me for a while."
"But tonight, it's okay." For some inexplicable reason, Ninamori got up from the chair and sat next to Naota.
His heart pounding at being alone on a bed with a girl, Naota thought he was in a dangerous situation. Tonight it's okay? What does that mean?
"I'll sleep downstairs," Naota said coldly and stood up.
Ninamori grabbed his arm. "Wait. Stay here a little longer. I didn't mean it like that. It's an unfamiliar room and I only need to relax a little."
How did I get myself into this situation? This is so not cool. Worried that he and Ninamori would become the gossip of the school, Naota knocked her hand away.
"Go home. This isn't okay. It's too weird," Naota insisted.
Ninamori, somewhat annoyed, decided to play her final card. "What's weird is what you have on your head."
Naota instinctively pulled his hat on tighter. He'd been wearing it the entire time he'd been in the house. She's seen my cat ears. It must've been when the bike hit me earlier. Damn! This really isn't good.
"You saw it?" Naota asked.
"What is it?"
"What is it you saw?"
"Cat ears—perfect for playing a cat!"
"I told you, I'm not doing the play. Anyway, why was I chosen to play a cat?" Naota moaned.
"You didn't notice I rigged the voting, huh?" Ninamori replied with a sharp smile.
"What?"
"No one suspected that I, the class president, would do such a thing, right?"
"You mean the class vote on who would play…?"
"I'm the lead role—and you're the cat."
Naota had thought it was strange at the time. It was a bit unlikely that the class would have chosen the cool Naota to play the cat. There was no reason someone like him should play such a comic character. Things made more sense knowing they'd been altered by trickery, though. Even so, Naota still couldn't understand why Ninamori was so obsessed with the play.
"You're not mad, are you?" she asked.
"Why did I have to be the cat? And why did you want to play the lead role so bad?"
"The Marquis de Carabas deceives the princess for happiness, never once revealing who he really is. He lives the lie and finds happiness. The lie becomes the truth. Isn't that nice?"
Just as Ninamori said, Puss in Boots is the tale of a poor young man who borrows a cat's wisdom and becomes a success story. The hero, who gets close to the princess under false pretences, is, to put it unkindly, a con artist.
Suddenly, the pair heard a girl's voice: "Is that really okay, meow?"
Glancing up, they noticed that at some point, Haruko had laid down on the top bunk.
"You were there before?" Ninamori asked.
"I was here, meow," Haruko replied.
"You've been listening the entire time?"
"Not really. Why would I care that you cheated to get the lead role, meow?"
"It isn't as if I hurt anyone!" Ninamori insisted in a defensive tone that belied her inner guilt.
"You hurt me!" Naota argued.
"I'll keep your secret, meow, if you keep his, meow," Haruko proposed.
"Who is your maid?" Ninamori inquired all of a sudden.
It was a question that Naota wanted the answer to, as well. Really, who is she?
"Where does your maid sleep?"
"Here, meow."
"You sleep there every night?"
"Yes, right here—every night with Takkun. Ahhhh!" Haruko replied, pulling off Naota's hat and stroking his cat ears.
"Stop that! Don't touch them! They…" Although Naota attempted to protest, he appeared to be somewhat happy.
This woman was a completely different kettle of fish compared to the secretary, but as Ninamori watched Haruko and Naota play, she knew she was up against another enemy.
Chapter 4
It was dark again. There was no light—no one there. Time had stopped. He stood in a dark place, but he'd been to this dark place before.
Yes, he knew it well. This was the darkness in which he mustn't turn around—the darkness in which he couldn't turn around. If he turned around, that girl would never come back again.
Girl? What girl?
If he listened closely, he could hear something—a murmuring.
There seemed to be a river flowing in front of him. At the center of the darkness, the surface of the river had gradually lit up.
There happened to be something floating in the river. It was a cat floating in a cardboard box.
He ran out quickly. He had to help her. There wasn't any time. He couldn't catch her, though, and the box with the cat in it had begun disappearing into the darkness. Although he knew it was futile, he chased the cat as fast as his legs would allow, because if he couldn't save it, the cat would be carried to the depths of the never-ending darkness, swallowed by the abyss.
He had to catch up… had to catch up. He had to save her. In spite of the urgency, he started to tire and finally collapsed in the darkness.
It wasn't any good. He couldn't chase any longer. The cat had already disappeared and the river was also disappearing. Once again, everything was becoming utter blackness.
"You came all this way, didn't you, Your Highness?"
Standing in front of him was Miyu Miyu, wearing boots.
"I'm not Your Highness," he answered as the Nandaba pet cat shook its head.
"No, you are, Your Highness—the proof of that being your ears are donkey ears."
"I don't have donkey ears."
"Remove the crown you're wearing from your head and see for yourself."
"My head… a crown?
But I can't take this off. I can't take this off! he panicked.
"Why can't you take off the crown? If you don't have donkey ears, why can't you take it off? Your Highness, you're a liar. As punishment, you will be food for the man-eating demon."
"Man-eating demon?" He asked, sensing someone. Before he knew it, the man-eating demon was coming at him from behind. When he turned around, the man-eating demon was a girl riding a Vespa and carrying a metal guitar. She had a bloodthirsty laugh, and her red mouth was wide open.
"Stop it! Stop!" he yelled with all his might, but the man-eating demon closed in on him.
Smooch! Haruko kissed Naota's sleeping face, which caused all his classmates around him to start giggling.