Tonari no Seki no Satou-San chapter 19

Here is chapter 20!

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Title: Days without Satou-san

“Sato-san, hasn’t  been here in a long time.”(Murakami)

As soon as she stopped me, Murakami-sensei said with a worried look on her face.

I wondered what she was talking about all of a sudden, but I replied bluntly,

“I guess so.”(Y)

“How long has it been since she had left early that day? Four days already?”(Murakami)

“Yes. It’s the fourth day including the weekend.”(Y)

While answering, I can’t explain it. Why did my teacher ask me about Satou-san?

Satou-san has been absent from school for a long time. She has been sick in bed with an unseasonable cold since the day I took her to the nurse’s office. According to our homeroom teacher, Kudo-sensei, her fever has finally gone down. But she hasn’t regained her strength and hasn’t been able to come to school yet. I don’t know much more than that. Satou-san and I are not close, and I have got her contact information. I have no way of knowing how she is doing.

And yet, Murakami-sensei went out of her way to stop me when she saw me in the corridor at lunchtime. She put her skinny, wrinkled hand on her cheek and blurted out,

“Satou-san is always so cheerful”(Murakami)

The teacher seemed to really want me to talk about her.

“I’d be worried if I didn’t see that nice smile of hers. And isn’t it the same for you, Yamaguchi-kun?”(Murakami)

“Yeah, well…”(Y)

I nodded vaguely, wanting to cut it off as soon as possible.

Speaking of worrying, I am indeed worried. I wondered if even Satou-san would catch a cold. Maybe the prolongation of the cold is due to the fact that she couldn’t get the prize for perfect attendance anymore. When she looked sick in front of me, I was in a hurry, as expected – but that’s just the norm. If someone looks unwell in front of you, of course you’re going to be upset. And there is no doubt that they are more or less worried. I’m also worried about Satou-san because we’re classmates and sitting next to each other. There is no other deeper meaning. So why did Murakami-sensei, who is not my homeroom teacher, ask me about Satou-san?

“We’ll miss Satou-san when she’s gone, won’t we?”(Murakami)

Murakami-sensei continued with a sigh. I’m the one who wants to sigh.

“I have to prepare for my next class, so can I go back to class?”(Y)

Then the teacher’s eyes widened as if she just noticed.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to keep you back or anything.”(Murakami)

She said something that she didn’t seem to be remorseful about it, and then laughed slowly.

“Can you give a message to Satou-san? ‘Sensei is waiting for Satou-san to come back, so take care of yourself’.”(Murakami)

“Huh….”(Y)

I gingerly resisted the urge to scowl. It’s a teacher.

“I wish I could tell her but it’s not like I’m in touch with Satou-san.”(Y)

When I replied with the least amount of politeness, Murakami-sensei cowered in surprise.

“Is that so? Since you seem to be so close, I thought…”(Murakami)

I’m sure you’re going to say something. I sat back on my heels, disgusted. I could have been ruder, I thought as I returned to class.

We’re just classmates, Satou-san and I. We don’t get along. On the contrary, I don’t know much about Satou-san, and I don’t know about  how her cold is and how well she is. There was no way for me to get in touch with her, and she never contacted me. It’s impossible. On the day I took Satou-san to the nurse’s office. I don’t even know the meaning of the words she muttered in her sleep, floating in the heat of the moment. There is no way to be sure of their meaning. It’s not that I want to know. I don’t need to know. In fact, even if Satou-san is not there, my daily life is passing by peacefully. There is one empty seat in the classroom, but the rest is the same. The class is going on as usual. In fact, it can be said that it’s going extremely smoothly because no student is stuck for an answer every time they are pointed at. I guess it’s the same with girls gym class, though I haven’t seen it lately, so I can’t say for sure. Anyway, the seat next to me was empty, but nothing else was unusual. I can’t help but feel lonely, but Satou-san is my only classmate. There are other students in the class, and some of them are so close to each other that they don’t have time to worry about the fact that there is no one else in the next seat.

And yet, I wonder why. Suddenly I found myself looking at the seat next to me.

If she points to her in class, shell be stuck for answers, so I can always help her out. I hope that I can always lend her a notebook when she falters as she tries to write the board. I hope that she will try to give me a piece of her candy when she eats it so I can always take it and thank her in a matter-of-fact way. And sometimes she speaks to me and says outrageous things, so I listen to every word she says so that I can answer her bluntly but in a way that makes sense to her. I found myself paying attention to the seat next to me. I was looking at the seat next to me. Before I knew it, I had come to pay attention to Satou-san, who had been sitting next to me since before I moved up to the next grade. It’s a strange habit to get into.

For some reason, my heart flutters every time I realize that the seat to my right, which I peeked at out of habit. I know that no one is there, but I unknowingly check it. Then I remembered that Satou-san was resting, and I wanted to sigh. There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s not like she’s going to get better fast just because I’m worried about her.

But I’ve developed another strange habit lately. That is, when I take notes, I assign furigana to difficult kanji. I didn’t do it for her. But when I started thinking about how to fool Murakami-sensei or someone around her when she asks me about it, I could not help but be suspicious of it.

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Notes:

The reason why Yamaguchi thinks the cold is unseasonable is because only idiots catch colds in the summer is a saying in japan

On the flip side, when Yamaguchi thinks “ I wondered if even Satou-san would catch a cold.” another saying in japan is idiots can’t catch colds.

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