Shamer - Chapter 3.4
After Kiritani-sensei left.
I was lying on my bed in my room, thinking about the future.
In order to change my current situation, I should get out of the house.
It could be going to school, getting a part-time job, or doing volunteer work.
How could I live my life as Kiritani-sensei said, like Nanase-san was in the movie?
Could I, a man full of mistakes, enjoy my own life?
“…I don’t know.”
I thought about it for a while, but I couldn’t come up with an answer.
Well, it was not so easy to come up with an answer…
“!?”
Suddenly, I heard something fall.
When I turned around to see what it was, I saw a soccer ball on the floor.
When I was in middle school, I always used this ball for self-practice.
“…Well, I guess I left it there.”
I had left it in my room for a long time without throwing it away, even though I had become a shut-in and stopped playing soccer altogether.
I approached the soccer ball and picked it up.
The ball was scratched up and had all sorts of marks on it from all the stupid things I had done with it.
“How much have I practiced?”
I muttered to myself as I looked at the soccer ball.
Before all that happened with Touya and Ruri, I was just practicing hard to become a pro.
“…I want to give it one more shot.”
I want to play soccer again with all my might.
I thought as I looked at the battered soccer ball.
“I’d also like to get to know my classmates better.”
In middle school, I was only with Ruri and Touya.
I had teammates in my club activities, but we never hung out together…
I didn’t have anyone I could properly call a friend other than my childhood friend and my best friend.
So when I go to high school, I want to make friends with my classmates.
I would have given up on this before, but thanks to meeting Kiritani-sensei, I don’t feel that way at all anymore.
“If I’m going to play soccer… I want to join the school’s soccer club after all.”
Just a few minutes ago, I greeted Kiritani-sensei like it was my last goodbye, and now I’m going to go to school.
…That was ridiculously lame of me.
But I stopped going to school in the middle of middle school and since then my life had stagnated.
That’s why I think school is the best place to get my life moving again.
I haven’t been to high school for more than two months since it started.
If I went to school, I would surely be looked at strangely by my classmates.
Even so, I wanted to go to school, make friends with my classmates, join the soccer club, and play my favorite sport, soccer, as much as I can—I want to live the school life that I could not accomplish in middle school.
This is what it means for me to live my life the way I want to.
“Anyway, tomorrow I’ll go get a haircut.”
I touched my hair, which has grown terribly long. I couldn’t go to school with this.
After getting ready, I would go to school.
My classmates would have already made a lot of friends.
On the other hand, I naturally don’t know any of my classmates.
In that sense, I was very anxious.
…But I’m looking forward to going to school because I feel like I’m going to be able to spend a different kind of day every day.
“I’m going to do my best to be myself.”
I muttered the words given to me by Kiritani-sensei and Nanase-san.
And maybe I was smiling a little at that time.