Oze
Ah—there’s a spot of blood here.
Maybe it got on me when I failed to grab that bird earlier.
Ever since that night, ever since I saw that flock of birds, I’ve been obsessed.
—I want to catch that bird.
That thought keeps looping in my head all day long. I even chased it in my dreams, and this morning, waking up was rough.
Last night, too, I spent late hours in the park, just staring up at the sky, waiting for the flock that might appear at any moment and block out the stars.
It’s not that I want to kill it. I don’t even want to keep it as a pet or show it off. I just… want to catch it. That’s all. What I’ll do after that—I’ve got no clue. I won’t know until it happens. That kind of childish impulse has taken over me completely.
Yesterday afternoon, Aochi got in touch with me. Of course, we don’t know each other’s personal contact info, so he used the company messaging system.
“I got a spot on the boat. Use this to reach me from now on.”His personal contact was listed below.
Nice—that means I’ll finally get to go back to my hometown this year. I can’t even remember the last time I returned.
Aochi and I aren’t particularly close, and we didn’t join the company at the same time. I came in off-season as a mid-career hire, so I don’t even have a cohort.
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It was only during this project that we really started talking, and through some random conversation, we found out we were from the same hometown. We both lived there until high school, but we went to different schools, and I’m five years older, so of course we’d never met.
I guess Aochi rarely visits his parents either, since I’ve never seen any local souvenirs from him at the office.
Even after realizing I was older, Aochi never changed his casual way of speaking with me. Far from bothering me, it actually made things feel easier.
Oomi, on the other hand—the petite guy who’s always stuck to Aochi—never drops the honorifics. He’s so rigid with his polite language that it’s almost scary. Even when he’s clearly saying something kind of rude, he keeps that formal tone. It feels like he’s announcing, “I’ve put up a wall between us.” Makes someone like me feel a little sad. But Aochi doesn’t seem to care one bit.
Yeah, Aochi always keeps an eye on Oomi. He doesn’t favor him, and it’s not like he’s concerned either—he just… pays attention.
Why, I have no idea. Sometimes, Oomi even looks a little annoyed by it. Their relationship’s kind of a mystery.
If there’s time during this nearly day-long boat ride, maybe I’ll ask about it.
“If we don’t leave in thirty minutes, we’ll be cutting it close.”
“Ah… I’m almost done. I’m coming.”
I was a little startled to see Oomi himself standing in the half-open doorway.
“What is… that?”
He asked it like he was reading off a script. He was probably surprised, but this guy’s got so little variation in his tone and expression that you have to guess a bit. His eyes were fixed on the edge of my right sleeve.
The blood, huh? It’d be weird to hide it now that he’s seen it.
“I tried to catch a bird.”
“A… a bird?”
What the hell? He’s clearly freaked out. Oh—he probably thinks I was chasing it with a knife or something.
“Don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t hurt it. I got close enough to touch its wing, but it flew off. The blood must’ve already been on it—splashed off or maybe dripped. It didn’t look injured, so it’s probably someone else’s blood. You mentioned earlier that the bird had an eyeball in its beak, right? So it wouldn’t be strange if there was—”
Oomi was slowly backing away. I was literally explaining how not dangerous I am, and here he is looking at me like I’m some lunatic.
“Hey—”
“Well, see you later.”
Thud.The door shut firmly.…What the hell.I sank back into my chair with a sigh, halfway through getting up.