According to my childhood friend, “If you slack off thinking, ‘This kind of studying won’t help me in the future, it’s pointless!’ you’ll regret it. You should take it seriously to build a thinking brain,” apparently.

Now that I think about it, those were words that came with a lot of real feeling behind them.

Now then, as for my childhood friend Sakura Ayuri, who seems to passionately preach the importance of studying while you’re still a student, probably based on experience as a reincarnator…

“I don’t get it!”

“Ayu-chan, do your best~ come on, fai-o!”

“…Hina-chan is so cute.”

Today, the three of us—me, Ayu and our other childhood friend, Momozono Hina—are holding a study session at Hina’s house to prepare for our midterm exams.

…Mostly with me and Hina teaching Ayu.

“What don’t you get~?”

“All of Japanese history!”

“You’ve got to be kidding.”

We definitely learned at least some of it in elementary and middle school, so how did it come to this? From the outside, she just looks like an idiot.

“I can’t help it! Old people’s names, systems and years are hard to remember! Right?”

“Right?”

“Don’t get cocky, and Hina, don’t spoil her.”

Also, Hina can actually do it, so you really shouldn’t be agreeing with that.

…Anyway, like this, for someone who claims she’s a reincarnator behind the scenes, Ayu is still pretty dumb. If this is her second life, I’d hate to know how bad the first one was.

“Okay, jokes aside, Gin-chan is right~ let’s do our best and memorize it, okay?”

“Ehh? Isn’t there some easier way to remember?”

“Hm… like reading and writing it over and over?”

“We got the three of us together and it’s still so plain!”

“Don’t look for flashiness in studying.”

She should understand better than anyone that training, not just studying, is about piling up boring work. Besides, classroom lectures are boring in basically the same way.

“But three cute, blossoming high school girls are gathered together, you know? I thought it’d be more like, ‘I don’t understand the author’s feelings,’ or ‘I don’t get this formula,’ or ‘this grammar…’ and we’d squeal and teach each other!”

“That cutesy voice is gross.”

“Ayu-chan, do you have anything you don’t get in Japanese or math?”

“…Well, I still have some momentum from exam studying, so I can manage those… also, didn’t you casually say something really mean just now?”

“Must be your imagination.”

Unrelated, but whenever someone says, “I don’t understand the author’s feelings,” it makes them sound like that kind of psycho character.

Anyway, idiot Ayu aside, midterms are close for all of us. If we’re taking them, we should aim for high scores, and it might be nice to beat Hina on the very first test of high school.

So I decide to half-ignore this idiot and focus on my own studying.

“Ayu-chan, Ayu-chan, a study session isn’t only about teaching each other, you know?”

“Huh, then what is it?”

“Look at Gin-chan. Normally she’d be messing with her phone halfway through, but right now she’s doing it seriously, right? Why do you think that is?”

“Hmm… because we’re doing it together?”

“Exactly~ by checking that the others are studying too, we can keep our motivation up, and we can watch each other to make sure we’re not slacking~”

“Ohh! Mutual surveillance… like the group-of-five system!”

“Yeah, yeah, something like that~”

…Mutual surveillance? Right now, aren’t I the only one studying seriously? Isn’t it just me getting watched one-sidedly?

…Well, my secret goal is to beat Hina on this test, so if the important person, Hina, is busy chatting with Ayu, that actually works out for me.

“Still, it’s too bad Sumire-chan couldn’t come too.”

“She had family stuff, apparently. Instead, how about we plan for the four of us to go hang out next time?”

“Sounds good, after the test we can plan it together with Sumire-chan.”

…We gathered here to study for the test, right? Hina can study anyway, but Ayu should not have the spare capacity to get absorbed in chatting.

“By the way, Hina-chan, did you change your aroma? The old one was good, but this one is nice too.”

“Oh, you can tell? I found it at a shop the other day and I thought Ayu-chan would like it too.”

“Yeah, yeah, this kind of gentle scent is nice~”

“…Hey, you two.”

“Hm? What is it, Gin-chan?”

When I look up, the two of them were studying, technically. I had been hearing writing sounds for a while and it’s true their hands were moving. But…

“Hina is… studying English. How can you do that while talking?”

“Ehehe~ well, I know it’s not great because sometimes I make mistakes while talking~”

“You can just review it, and you can fix it easily, Hina. And Ayu is…”

“W-what?”

“…What is this? You’re just writing down great people’s names and the names of events over and over.”

“I-it still counts as studying, right? Hina-chan said that earlier too.”

It’s not completely useless, but… if she’s chatting while doing it, it probably won’t help much.

History class is about learning past events and understanding what kinds of layers built up to form society as it is now, at least that’s how I see it. Which means…

“Ayu.”

“…What?”

“Isn’t this less ‘studying history’ and more ‘studying kanji’?”

History studying should be about summarizing and remembering key points.

Well, for Ayu, who struggles with names, it might not be totally pointless, but if that’s all she can do while chatting, she should be concentrating properly.

“Stop chatting and focus, and memorize the events and years too. At this point you’re not studying history, you’re studying Japanese.”

“…Kuuhn.”

While I lightly lectured Ayu, at some point Hina had already gone back to focusing on her own studying.

* * *

“…Let’s take a break. I’ll go get drinks~”

“Wait a sec… puhah! Please do!”

“Can you get mine too?”

“Sure~ I’ll make black tea next~”

Clack.

“Ughhh…”

“Isn’t it a little fast to slack off?”

The moment Hina left the room, Ayu went limp and flopped onto the floor. She does this in my room too, but how can she relax this much in someone else’s room?

“I mean, for me, I worked hard, okay? I was quiet, right?”

“Yeah, true… but you’re the one who said something like, ‘Even if it won’t directly help your future, studying still has meaning, so do your best.’”

“I did say that, but… it’s history, you know? If you understand the overall flow, aren’t the small names not that important?”

“They’re important, which is why you’re learning them.”

“Yeah, but… still…”

Ayu has always been the type who does what she has to do in the end.

And at the same time, she’s also always been consistently unmotivated when it comes to certain subjects, especially history.

“Gin-chan, you know, right? The reason I hate studying history.”

Yeah, the reason only I know. In other words, a reason that fundamentally involves Ayu’s previous life.

Apparently, “Ayu’s previous world and this world are slightly different.” Most of it is the same, but things like place names and the names of historical figures are slightly different, and it confuses her, or something like that.

“I know I should study from scratch because the old version doesn’t matter anymore, but since most of it overlaps, I can’t help connecting them.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just forget it?”

“Mm…”

Silence.

Ayu acts like a goof all the time, but when the topic involves her previous life, she gets serious, and that seriousness is what creates the silence.

That’s probably because Ayu promised me that she “won’t lie about her previous life.”

I told her, “If you don’t want to say something, you don’t have to, and you can lie if you want,” but because it’s a question tied to that promise, she’s probably seriously thinking about whether she should answer.

“No, I don’t think I can do that. If something is tied to memories, I want to avoid forgetting it as much as possible.”

Her answer was no.

No matter how much she worried about her previous life, and even if one day those memories became something painful just to carry, Ayu once said she absolutely never wanted to throw them away.

So I expected this answer.

And yet…

“…I see. Then you can’t whine, you have to study, right?”

“…Yeah. Alright! I’ll do my best, even if it’s just a little, until Hina-chan comes back!”

Sometimes, it really hits me that Ayu is a reincarnator with memories of a previous life, when she shows expressions and thoughts she’d never show anyone else.

It’s only a little… really only a little, but it makes me feel like there’s some kind of unbridgeable difference between us, like a wall, like a distance in our hearts.

And every time I get that illusion of distance, I feel a small wind of loneliness blow through my chest.

* * *

“Ah, welcome back, Gin-chan.”

“Welcome back~”

“…What are you two doing?”

It’s about time to wrap up this study session.

After Hina came back with tea and we studied for a while, that kind of atmosphere started to form, so before getting ready to go home, I decided to borrow the bathroom.

But when I came back, what greeted me was Hina lying down with her head on Ayu’s lap, and Ayu giving her a lap pillow.

…No, seriously, what are you doing?

“Gin-chan wants to join too? Sure~ come here~”

“No, Ayu-chan, you can’t. Right now, your lap belongs to me.”

“What is this?”

What exactly am I being shown?

I swear, I thought Ayu and I just had a slightly bitter conversation, but then right after that I see Hina openly clinging to Ayu, and I don’t know where I’m supposed to put my emotions.

It’s not that I’m jealous, not at all. And Hina doesn’t know anything about Ayu’s past life, so it can’t be helped.

“Ayu-chaa~n, do the usual~”

“Eh… o-okay…”

“Stop glancing at me for help.”

At Hina’s request, Ayu stroked her head while still giving her a lap pillow.

Also, she called it “the usual,” but this is the first time I’ve seen them do this, so they’ve probably been doing it when they hang out together.

And the way Ayu keeps looking over at me with eyes begging for help… maybe when she invited me earlier, it wasn’t really a joke, but more like she was trying to get rescued.

“Hehe~ Gin-chan, you’re jealous, aren’t you~?”

“Not at all.”

“Gin-chan, help~ I can’t move~”

“Why don’t we just do a sleepover? Tomorrow’s a day off and it’ll be fun if we’re all together~”

“No, I didn’t prepare anything.”

Honestly, should I just leave Ayu here and go home? But if I leave her and somehow Hotaru-senpai hears about it…

‘Ayu complains at me → Hotaru-senpai hears it from somewhere, gets jealous and forces a sleepover → this time I really can’t help, so Ayu complains at me again.’

Ugh, it’d be such a pain. Especially because I can already see Ayu complaining at me twice—once for leaving and once for not helping.

I personally think a sleepover is fine, but according to Ayu, she feels “like she’s deceiving them and the guilt is intense.” Is she really a guy from her previous life?

“…Alright, maybe I’ll have her do it for me too, a lap pillow.”

“Ehh~”

“Mm-hm, that’s right. It might be a bit cramped, but I only have two knees, so bear with it.”

If I go along with it, this will probably drag on until it naturally breaks up. Sorry, Hina, but I want you to do that stuff when I’m not here.

“Or what do we do? It’s late, so maybe next time when we have time—”

“Ooh, I’ve got it!”

Ayu, as if seizing the chance, clearly wanted to end things and go home, but Hina completely ignored her, looking like she’d just come up with a great idea. Poor Ayu.

“Heave-ho.”

Hina immediately sat up from the lap pillow, moved the small desk we’d been studying at to the side, then flopped back down onto Ayu’s lap again. In that handful of seconds, Ayu, who was too stunned to react, apparently couldn’t escape.

“…Okay then, Gin-chan, can you sit there facing that way?”

“Hm? Sure, I guess… wah!”

“One customer, right this waa~y.”

The moment my shoulder was grabbed, my view spun. It seems she pulled me down so I fell toward the floor, but my head didn’t hit the ground, it got caught by something soft.

“…What are you doing, Hina?”

“Ayu-chan’s lap is for me only right now, so Gin-chan is being guided to my lap~ and Ayu-chan, stay sitting and turn your back that way~”

“Huh? O-okay.”

With my head still resting on her lap, Hina sat up and started giving Ayu instructions.

I figured I’d just watch if this would satisfy her… but when Ayu’s head came into my view, I realized what Hina was plotting.

“Okay, Ayu-chan, lie down and put your head on Gin-chan’s lap.”

“Eh… can I?”

“…Sure.”

If this satisfies Hina, and it helps me avoid the future where I get complained at by Ayu, it’s cheap.

After thinking for a moment, Ayu cautiously laid her head down on my lap. Since I know her secret and I’m agreeing anyway, there’s no ‘deceiving’ involved, is there?

“Done~ I call it the ‘Lap Pillow Triangle’!”

“…What is this even?”

“Who knows…”

The three of us formed a triangle in Hina’s room, giving each other lap pillows. Me and Ayu could only be confused, but since the one who came up with it looked satisfied, I guess this is fine.

…After a while, complaints like, “Even when I look up it’s just the usual ceiling and it’s unsatisfying,” “I can’t relax at all,” and “I want to go home and play games,” came up, so the Lap Pillow Triangle was dismantled in under ten minutes.