Day 133

[from I Watch You Sleeping]

Once Raiden has obtained his usual mapo tofu, and I get my usual soba noodles, we sit down at a mostly-empty table and start eating. "Oh, right, I almost forgot!" says Raiden suddenly, lowering his voice. "You remember you sent me on that errand? I managed to track down the girl from the photography club and get a handwriting sample from her. Here you go."

Raiden places a scrap of paper on the table in front of me. An old proverb is written on it, in what I assume is the photography club member's handwriting. I can't help wondering how Raiden got hold of the sample, but that's not really important. What's important is that, even at a glance, I can tell this doesn't match the stalker's handwriting.

"Does it match?" asks Raiden.

"Nope," I tell him.

Raiden frowns. "So we're back to square one, then," he says.

"Yeah, I guess so," I admit.

"Darn," says Raiden. "Well, at least we ruled her out as a suspect, I guess."

"True," I say, nodding. "But now we need to find some other line of inquiry."

Raiden opens his mouth to reply, but quickly closes it again as a familiar voice rings out from behind him. "Excuse me, may I sit with you both?" asks Sakura.

Raiden and I nod in agreement. "Of course," I say.

"Thank you," says Sakura, who promptly sits down next to Raiden and begins eating. Sakura Hatoyama is a girl from Class 3-1. Her younger sister, Shiori, is best friends with Natsume. Because of that, we've known each other for a few years now.

"I don't think we've spoken in a while, have we, Kentaro?" asks Sakura. "How have you been recently?"

"I've been pretty good, thanks." Up until this morning, that is. "How about you?"

"I can't complain," says Sakura. "How about you, Raiden?"

"Eh. The usual," mumbles Raiden through a mouthful of mapo tofu.

Sakura scowls disapprovingly at Raiden. "Please don't talk with your mouth full, Raiden," she says.

Raiden's response is to roll his eyes and make a motion with his chopsticks, in a crude imitation of a talking mouth. Sakura just ignores him, and we carry on eating our lunch, pausing every now and again to talk about nothing in particular. Sakura's calm, relaxed pace, and insistence that we all wait until we've finished out mouthfuls before speaking, means it takes us longer than usual. We've only just finished when the bell goes to signal the end of lunch.

"Lunch is over already?" remarks Sakura, as the bell rings out. "Gosh, that was fast."

"Yeah, we'd better get going," I say as I stand up. "See you later, Sakura."

"Until we meet again, Kentaro. Raiden." Sakura stands up and bows to each of us in turn, then heads off back to her own classroom as we head back to ours. I have to admire how polite and well-mannered Sakura is. Shiori's much the same, from what little I've seen of her. I wish Natsume was as polite as those two.

***

The afternoon lessons pass rather uneventfully. Before I know it, it's the end of the school day. While a number of students will be sticking around for club activities, I'm heading straight home as usual.

While the school day may have drawn to a close, it seems my ordeal is far from over. As I make my way through the grounds, towards the front gate, I receive another text message. It's the stalker again:

"YOU NOTICED ME! I KNEW YOU WOULD! I'LL FOREVER CHERISH THOSE MOMENTS WE SPENT TOGETHER TODAY~ THANK YOU, KEN-CHAN. XXXXXXX"

I guess that confirms it, then. The stalker really is one of my fellow classmates. I don't understand it… why go to all this trouble? If this person really loves me, why don't they just come up to me and say it to my face? Why send these letters and text messages? And… why send me photos of myself in my sleep?!

I shake my head wearily. None of this makes any sense at all. As far as I can see, the only way to make sense of this is to track the stalker down. I just… don't know how.

***

As I embark on the short walk home, I continue to go over the letter and the text messages in my mind. Especially this latest one. "You noticed me"… from that, I can only assume that I must have actually talked to my stalker at some point today. It's a horrifying thought. Having a stalker is bad enough, but knowing that you know them, that you see them and maybe even converse with them on a regular basis… dear God. It's like being the heroine of a magical girl show, and knowing your arch-nemesis is one of your classmates, but you have no idea who they are or how to prove it.

However, I think I have a way to narrow it down. I think it's fair to assume that the stalker is female. In that case, if I really did talk to them today, I can just run through the names of every girl I talked to. Meiko… Aiko… Sakura… Mizuki… Harumi. As unlikely as it seems, any one of them could possibly be the stalker.

If it's Mizuki or Harumi, then they're most likely doing it out of spite. As for Meiko, Aiko, or Sakura, I can't imagine what their motivations could possibly be. Least of all Aiko. But then, nobody ever knows her motivations for anything, as she never says anything.

I pause suddenly, realizing I already passed my house a couple of blocks ago. I was so preoccupied with everything that I didn't realize. As I turn and walk back towards my house, I silently resolve not to tell my parents about any of this. This doesn't concern them, and I don't want them worrying about it constantly, which they will do if I tell them. This is my problem. I'll deal with it myself.

***

The subject of this morning's letter isn't raised until dinner time. "So, Ken, dear, what was that letter from this morning about?" my mother asks me. "Anything important?"

I've had more than enough time to come up with a convincing lie, but I don't find one necessary. Instead, I just respond, "No. Nothing important, really," and to my relief, nobody seems to question it.

"Who was it from?" asks my mother. "One of your classmates, I assume?"

This time I don't need to lie. "Yeah," I say. "Yeah, it was." I just wish I knew which classmate.

"Speaking of your classmates, how's Raiden?" asks my mother. "He hasn't come over for a while now."

"Nah, he's been kinda busy lately, catching up with homework…" The conversation carries on from there, and the letter is not mentioned again. Indeed, for a while I can pretend I don't have a stalker at all. Until I get up to my bedroom, that is.

I'd left my cellphone upstairs on my desk when I got home. Checking it now, I have 38 messages. One is from Raiden:

"2DAY WAS TOUGH 4 U, I BET. DON’T WORRY, MAN. I'M HERE 4 U. OH, & WORD OF ADVICE: DONT TALK 2 ANY GURLZ. THE STALKER WILL KILL THEM. L8R~!"

What an idiot. Still, I can't help feeling better, knowing that I'm not going through this alone. The other 37 texts are all from the stalker. No, wait… make that 38. A vibration heralds yet another text from them. Guess I'm gonna be hearing from them at all hours of the day. I check the messages with a sense of foreboding that's already starting to become uncomfortably familiar.

The first message reads, "WHY AREN'T YOU ANSWERING MY MESSAGES, KEN-CHAN?" The second reads, "ARE YOU ILL? ARE YOU BUSY?" The third reads, "ARE YOU WITH ANOTHER GIRL?!!" The fourth simple reads, "ANSWER ME!" As does the fifth. And the sixth. Scrolling down, the rest of the messages all say the same thing: "ANSWER ME!" She's sent it over and over again, every other minute, as though it would actually get me to respond. I get the feeling she won't stop until I do… but I don't want to…

I guess I don't have much of a choice, though. I hit Reply, and just stare at the keypad for a while, trying to think of what I could possibly say to this person. I guess… maybe… sigh. No good. I can't do it. I can't respond to them. I just can't.

I switch off my cellphone and put it back on the desk. I can only hope that the stalker gets the message and stops texting me, though I know that isn't likely. This is all getting too much for me. If things continue to escalate like this… what next?

I sit down on the end of my bed and let out a heavy sigh. At this rate, never mind the obvious danger to myself, there's a danger other people could be affected by this. It's like Raiden said: if any other girl tries to hit on me, the stalker might well try and attack them out of jealousy. That's the last thing I want.

I don't know how, but when I finally go to bed, I fall asleep as I usually do. At least the stalker can't hurt me in my dreams.