My Childhood Friend Meows Under My Skirt. (GL) - Chapter 1

As I chased after Maki, she was already exiting the entrance. Naturally, she wouldn’t wait for me to change into my shoes.

“Hey, Maki.”

I caught up to her as we moved along the school building, just as she was about to turn the corner. It seemed she intended to make a complete round from the ground, through the courtyard, around the back gate, and past the parking lot for teachers and visitors. I had to negotiate before work began. It wasn’t the time to say I couldn’t talk because it was awkward. The disparity in workload was far too great.

“Maki, I need to talk to you about that net duty.”

“Matsuhara.”

“Huh?”

“That’s my last name. Matsuhara.”

She turned around, abruptly rejecting me. Instead of showing blatant disgust, she spoke calmly, deliberately hiding her emotions, which felt even more unpleasant. Memories of past arguments resurfaced in an instant. She really hadn’t changed.

“…Matsuhara-san. I have a consultation. Can we adjust the burden between the net duty and the cleaning duty a bit? For example, we could switch every other day—”

“There’s trash over there.”

“Ah, right.”

I picked up a discarded drink carton. Someone, probably a delinquent, had thrown it out of the classroom window after buying it from the school store. It was one of the reasons humans are inferior to cats.

“No, I mean, Matsuhara-san, if this continues, I’ll be the only one doing the work, so we need to adjust it a bit—”

“There’s trash over there too.”

“Ah, right.”

I picked up the remnants of a broken mechanical pencil and a rice ball wrapper. What if a cat accidentally ate something so small? I couldn’t forgive that. If I weren’t here, this school would fall apart.

“Seriously, how long are we going to do this?”

“Natsume-san is suited for cleaning.”

“W-Well… Matsuhara-san, you’re just changing the subject. We need to settle this issue. Actually, I’m going to decide it unilaterally.”

With a sigh, Maki stopped. I realized we had entered the grove at the corner of the field. A chain-link fence was set up beside us, but it was so decayed that it hardly served as a wall. Being alone in a place where most students wouldn’t come, it felt like we were the only ones in this school.

“After school, whoever gets to the staff room first will do the net duty. I’ll be the first one there today.”

“Got it. That works.”

With the conversation over, we resumed our work. I heard Maki mutter in disbelief that she hadn’t changed. I felt an urge to shout back that it was my line.

We moved along the decaying chain-link fence. Through the trees, I could see sports clubs practicing on the field. Youthful scenes unfolded as they transformed their overflowing energy into leg power, chased after a white ball while sweating, hit, threw, and skillfully kicked the ball in teamwork. Meanwhile, I was picking up the remnants of a mechanical pencil in a dim grove at the edge of the school with my estranged childhood friend. Where did it all go wrong?

The cats still hadn’t appeared. If even one had wandered in, it would have distracted me a little, but they were nowhere to be seen. It seemed no students came to throw trash in such a place, leaving me with nothing to do.

“Stop daydreaming and get back to work.”

Maki jabbed at me.

“Do you need me to point everything out for you?”

“Are you looking for a beetle or something? Should I go buy you a straw hat?”

Imagining Maki as a bug-catching kid made me burst out laughing. Maki seemed to catch my mockery, and her face turned visibly sulky. I had no intention of defending myself.

The more we talked, the more it felt like we were digging a deeper chasm between us.

And just as she was about to dig even deeper, Maki opened her mouth.

However, no sarcasm came out, no matter how long we waited. I found it strange, and then realized, belatedly, that she was looking not at me, but behind me.

“…Oh.”

As if guided by her gaze, I turned around to see a calico cat.

Not just one, but three kittens were following behind it. They seemed to be a family. The calico cat stopped as our eyes met.

I really wanted to take a picture, but I held back, not wanting to frighten the mother cat. Besides, I couldn’t even pull out my smartphone with the broom and dustpan in my hands.

The calico cat family was just about to exit the premises. The calico quickened its pace and crossed the rusty, decaying gap in the chain-link fence, disappearing onto the road and into the residential area.

“I’ve seen that calico cat around the shopping district,” I remarked.

“Me too,” Maki murmured softly, then continued, “I thought it looked fat, but it had a family.”

“The kittens were cute.”

“Yeah. The one in the middle had a tail that curled up. That’s rare.”

“Did you see the one at the front? Its nose was black.”

“I did. That one was cute too. The one at the back was still a bit wobbly in its walking.”

It wasn’t unusual to see a family of cats, but encountering a new family always excited me a little.

“The mother must have a hard time,” Maki said.

“Maybe we should leave the chain-link fence a bit more open for them to pass through.”

“No, we’re the ones in charge of chasing them out.”

We both laughed together.

Then it hit me. I suddenly realized that the person in front of me wasn’t just one of my usual classmates.

It seemed she realized it at the same moment, as we both fell silent, as if we had synchronized our breaths. Since you brought it up, I wanted you to wrap it up neatly. Wait, was it me who initiated the conversation? If so, was it my responsibility?

“We haven’t even made it halfway, so let’s keep going.”

With a rustle, Maki stepped forward, not waiting for my response. “Okay,” I replied, following her. We walked in silence, the sound of crunching twigs punctuating the quiet every few seconds.

But I could tell the air felt lighter than before. I didn’t feel like I was being blamed for being quiet, nor did I feel the urge to blame her. A year and a half had created a distance between us, with an unfathomable chasm in between, and I thought our voices would never reach each other again. But it seemed the other person wasn’t that far away. I could hear her voice, and it reached me. We found the parts of each other that hadn’t changed, confirming that distance. Maki still loved cats just as much as I did.

The sound of a bat hitting a ball echoed from the baseball club. The track team was rhythmically counting out loud as they ran. Somewhere out of sight, a crow cawed. From the direction of the school building came the sounds of the brass band and the laughter of female students. The sounds of our footsteps crunching through dirt, stones, and leaves flowed together with the passage of time.

“‘Hey.’”

Our voices overlapped.

I turned back to see Maki looking at me, our eyes meeting directly.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Nothing. What about you?”

“Me too. Something happened, didn’t it? You go first.”

“No, you go first.”

What I wanted to ask was about that day. The day we were supposed to go on our last trip, and I turned it down.

Why had I clung so tightly to that promise?

Was there something else that made me think she would never forgive me?

Now, could I ask her? I felt a bit lost. In the end, I was doing something unnecessary, and the awkward atmosphere returned.

“Ladies first, go ahead,” I pressed.

“Do you want me to talk so badly that you’d throw away your own lady?”

Maki scratched her head vigorously. Then she gently smoothed down her disheveled hair. It was a gesture she made when she was in trouble and things weren’t going her way. I found myself noticing her unchanged habits once again. Perhaps I too was unconsciously revealing some similar quirks.

“You know…”

Just as I was waiting for her to continue.

Maki suddenly dashed off to the side.

“Hey, wait, don’t run away!”

At first, I thought she was fleeing from the awkwardness. As I tried to chase after her, I realized that wasn’t the case.

Outside the chain-link fence, in the middle of the road, a white cat was curled up and sleeping peacefully.

“That cat…”

I thought I recognized it and quickly remembered. Just yesterday, I had seen it walking through the courtyard from a window near the entrance. A white cat with light pink tips on its fur. A rare sight that wasn’t in my photo folder.

Maki, still holding onto the net, charged toward the decaying chain-link fence and forcefully leaped outside. The sound of the fence breaking echoed loudly. The intensity of it stunned me, leaving me momentarily paralyzed.

I began to hear the sound of a car engine, and I finally understood why Maki had run. Looking back, I saw a recycling truck approaching through the trees.

“Maki!”

I started running. Using the space Maki had created in the chain-link fence, I followed her outside.

Maki had just jumped onto the road.

The horn blared. All the sounds that had been coming from the school grounds were drowned out.

I saw Maki raise the net high.

She swung it down, just above the ground, scooping up the sleeping white cat.

It was a scene I felt I had seen somewhere before. I recalled an animated film featuring a cat, and my brain consumed unnecessary memories. Though it wasn’t a bug-catching net, but rather a lacrosse stick.

The startled cat jumped and slipped from the net. Maki stopped in her tracks, looking up at the cat above her.

She spread her arms to catch it.

The moment the white cat landed in her arms.

“Wait—”

A dull thud echoed.

Before my eyes, the truck swallowed Maki and the white cat.