Petit Bourgeois Volume 5: The Berliner Bollen Mystery (Part 1)

The New York Cheesecake Mystery (Part 8) | Contents | The Berliner Bollen Mystery (Part 2)

It was after school on a day when the end of the year was in sight, and I was heading to the Newspaper Club with the answer sheets for a survey in hand. The survey was a poll on whether we supported some changes in certain school rules, and while it was voluntary, my class was not used to such freedom where we could choose whether or not to answer, so we all did it anyway. Even though the deadline was still quite far off, there was no reason to hold off on submitting the responses when they had already been collected. As for why I had been chosen to bring the responses to the Newspaper Club, I was doing some late preparations to head home when the someone from the class committee asked a favor of me, saying, “Kobato, you’re good friends with the Newspaper Club’s Doujima, right? Sorry, but could you bring this to him?” There were two mysteries here. Why did this class committee member know about my personal relationships, and why did he misunderstand that I was good friends with Doujima Kengo? I was pondering these mysteries while walking down a corridor that was being lit up by the westering sun when I noticed a female student leaning by a window. The girl resting her arms on the window sill and staring outside while her bob cut fluttered slightly in the wind was none other than Osanai-san. She was not the kind of person to strike a pose in a hallway after school, so I called out to her while wondering what exactly she was up to.

“Osanai-san.”

She turned around, allowing me to see her face, upon which I stopped moving. Tears were spilling from her eyes. Additionally, her cheeks were slightly flushed and her lips were red, as if she’d put on lipstick. I could tell from a glance that it was no trivial matter, but I couldn’t find the words to say. As I stood in front of her, at a loss for words, Osanai-san wiped the corner of her eyes with her little finger.

“Ah, Kobato-kun.”

She tried grinning with forced fortitude, but immediately looked away, then muttered in a vague, slurring voice.

“You must be surprised. Sorry, I’m unsightly, aren’t I?”

“Erm… did something happen?”

“Nothing at all. Sorry, I’ll be heading home for today.”

With that, she turned on her heel and went off to the far end of the corridor in a trot. While I held the dream of becoming a petit bourgeois dearly in my heart, I still took pride in being a person not averse to bringing hidden truths to light. Even so, all I could gather from that short exchange was that something sad had happened to Osanai-san. It was seemingly not my place to do anything about it.

Thinking about it afterwards, that statement probably applied to Osanai-san, rather than to me. I would encounter some strange events and, by chance, attempt to resolve the situation, but Osanai-san would not play any part in that entire process. This would actually be the first time ever since we swore to maintain a symbiotic relationship that Osanai-san would not be near me as I face a mystery.

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The New York Cheesecake Mystery (Part 8) | Contents | The Berliner Bollen Mystery (Part 2)

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