My Childhood Friend's Room

Question: Where am I right now?

"Don't stare so much, it's disgusting and it'll rub off onto my room."

"My staring has that much of a negative aura?"

Answer: Rin's room!

How things ended up like this is pretty simple. It was about ten minutes ago when I just finished devoured and enjoyed every single bit of Rin's cooking. She suddenly opened her mouth.

"Wanna... come to my room?"

No it wasn't sudden... it was VERY sudden.

"Huh?"

My shock was equivalent to coming back to school the first day after summer vacation and realizing I forgot to do the summer homework.

"There isn't any special meaning to it, you hear me. I just thought that since you came here on the weekend, I'd humbly invite you to my room so we can talk some more. I'm like a goddess kindly offering you this proposition on a whim."

"You always default back to your 'I'm just a kind goddess doing this on a whim' phrase, don't you?"

"It's just a whim, no matter what, that won't change!"

Her pupils are glaring daggers at me as she puts force into her words. Well, in my opinion, I don't think it's a whim at all. I think Rin wants to spend some nice comfort time with me in her room. When we were eating, Rin said she was happy about all that. I've been thinking about that quite a bit. When we were in elementary, we would play in Rin's room a lot. Well, it was more like I would be practicing writing on her desk while she would lie on her bed and read.

I'm sure Rin's proposal has no deeper meaning anyways. On one hand, the fact that she's relaxed around me makes me happy, but on the other hand, Rin's a girl and I'm a guy and the prospect of us being in a room together is a bit worrisome.

"Like I said before, the difference between my room and yours is that you like to put embarrassing stuff in your room."

"M-my room doesn't have anything suspicious in it."

"I said embarrassing but then you said suspicious. That definitely means you're up to something. What kind of suspicious stuff is in that head of yours?"

"Nothing! And I don't have anything embarrassing in there either!"

"What about that black notebook that's filled with permanent marker scribbles?"

"Hold up, how the hell do you know about that?"

"I don't think that really matters, does it?"

"What the hell!? That's my most confidential secret!"

While we're going back and forth with each other, I enter Rin's room, a place I haven't been to in over five years. Rin's room really hasn't changed since the last time I been here. The pink curtains, the stuffed cat plushie on her bed, the clean carpet with its countless comfy cushions, the bookshelf that is arranged with cute accessories on top, it's all there. To put it plainly, it's definitely a girl's bedroom. The contrast between her usual prickly self and her is pretty surprising...

Well maybe not. Rin was originally the type of girl that was into this type of stuff.

"Ah, these cushions are the best. They'll definitely rot my brain."

As I say that, I lie myself on one of the ultra comfy cushions. These things are dangerous for sure, a Class A level threat. Rin sits on the bed and gives me a death stare while hugging her cat plushie.

"Wasn't your brain already rotted anyways?"

"I really appreciate the compliment. No, but really, aren't these cushions just amazing? Sitting on one of these is like taking a nap on the clouds."

"That wasn't a compliment at all. Anyways. the moment you sit on one of those clouds, you'll end up falling to your death."

"S-surely the cloud would be dense enough to support my body."

"Well, there are cumulonimbus clouds. But then you would be burnt to cinders because of all the lightning."

"No matter what, you always find some way for me to die so gruesomely."

"Well that's because even if you manage to go up high, the clouds will surely bring you down somehow."

"So I can reincarnate elsewhere?"

Since we've been together for a long time, we're both used to this casual and crude type of conversation.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, a familiar object enters my field of vision.

"What's up?"

Rin turns her head to my line of sight.

"That over there..."

I point to the object.

"You still have that charm after all these years?"

Hanging on Rin's desk light is a pink charm.

"Ahh..."

Rin covers her mouth with her hand, as I hear her shaking and frail voice. Her emotions are plainly written all over her face: "It's too late".

After saying that, I start to feel a wave of awkwardness as well. That memory pops back into my head. Way back when, I gave Rin that charm as a present, without really knowing what it meant. Now that I've grown up, I understand the significance of that particular charm. Even though I can't see the words written on it right now, I know for certain what it says.

"Fruition of love."

Rin's face starts to become as pink as the charm itself.