Chapter 3: Nights Without Gaming Feel So Long

Even though the two kids had made a solid promise, even exchanging secret gifts, they still couldn’t escape their parents’ sharp eyes.

Kenma Kotsume’s dark circles under his eyes were getting bigger and bigger.

And he even fell asleep during class.

Kenma Kotsume, who was hit on the head by a piece of chalk thrown by the Teacher, dazedly rubbed his own head. Only after a moment did he realize it hurt a little.

The Guowen Teacher called on him to answer a question: “Kotsume, continue reading from where we left off.”

Kenma Kotsume, who had been sleeping, had no idea where to start. He held his book, looking lost and helpless.

Yoriko Arisu, who also had a chalk mark on her forehead, held her textbook upright behind him and whispered, “Page 45, line 12.”

Only then did Kenma Kotsume manage to continue reading smoothly.

After class, Yoriko Arisu ran over to Kenma Kotsume’s desk, crouched down beside it, rested her chin on his desk, and looked up at him, worried.

“Kenma, have you not been getting enough sleep lately? Your dark circles are really heavy.”

Kenma Kotsume instinctively touched his eyes, pursing his lips.

“I… I am sleeping, at least a little.”

Because he didn’t sound confident, his voice was a bit weak.

Recently, Yoriko Arisu’s parents weren’t as busy with work, so she went back to sleep at her own house.

Without his human Alarm Clock, Kenma Kotsume had to secretly set his own Alarm Clock to get up and play games.

Because he was afraid his parents sleeping in the next room would hear, he always had to turn off the ringing immediately, which made his sleep much lighter.

Yoriko Arisu stared at him suspiciously.

“What time do you go to bed?”

Kenma Kotsume: “Nine o’clock.”

Yoriko Arisu nodded.

That was a normal time, though she usually went to bed at eight.

She then asked, “Then what time do you wake up?”

Kenma Kotsume’s gaze drifted.

“…Two o’clock.”

Yoriko Arisu was stunned.

“…Huh?”

She counted on her fingers, then exclaimed in shock, “Kenma, that means you only slept for five hours!”

That’s only half the time she slept!

No wonder his dark circles were so heavy!

Yoriko Arisu’s voice suddenly rose, attracting some curious looks from the class.

Kenma Kotsume, feeling the attention, wished he could disappear from the class. He lowered his voice.

“Keep your voice down.”

Yoriko Arisu remembered that Kenma Kotsume was shy, so she covered her mouth and nodded vigorously.

After a while, she let go of her hand and whispered, “Is it because of games?”

Kenma Kotsume nodded.

He habitually lowered his head, hiding his face behind his hair, and explained in a small voice, “The game plot was just getting exciting, so I couldn’t help it.”

Yoriko Arisu disapproved.

“That’s not good. My dad says kids need to sleep more to be healthy.”

Her mom, Yurihana Arisu, liked to watch melodramatic dramas, and Yoriko Arisu had watched quite a few with her. Just yesterday, the plot had reached the point where the overworked President coughed up blood and was hospitalized, and the Secretary female lead went to the Hospital to visit him.

Yoriko Arisu couldn’t help but imagine Kenma Kotsume as the male lead.

Tears quickly welled up in her eyes.

“Kenma, don’t die!”

Kenma Kotsume: “…I’m not going to die!”

Yoriko Arisu sniffled.

“You won’t cough up blood either?”

Kenma Kotsume was full of question marks.

“Why would I cough up blood?”

“That’s how it happened in the TV drama yesterday.”

Kenma Kotsume believed her.

His tone became uncertain.

“It’s not like I’m not sleeping at all… I should be fine, right?”

The two of them stared at each other for a while, then Yoriko Arisu suddenly dashed off.

“I’m going to ask the Teacher!”

Kenma Kotsume quickly grabbed her collar.

“Wait for me!”

If she did that, his secret of playing games behind his parents’ backs would be exposed!

“You promised to help me keep it a secret, right?”

Kenma Kotsume pulled her back.

“We even exchanged tokens.”

He emphasized, “You can’t go back on your word.”

“The situation is different now.”

Yoriko Arisu looked at him seriously.

“Kenma might die.”

“I don’t want you to die.”

“It’s just a little less sleep, it’s not like I’ll die…”

“Then how about I ask my dad and mom when I get home?”

Yoriko Arisu earnestly suggested, “They’re doctors, they’ll know for sure.”

“No way, if your parents know, that means my parents will find out too.”

“Eh… I won’t give you away, I’ll just say I read it in a book!”

“Uh…”

In the end, the two of them didn’t come up with any good ideas, but soon, they didn’t need to worry about it anymore.

Because the next day, Kenma Kotsume, who got up early to play games, was caught red-handed.

“Kenma,” Miwako Kotsume said gently, “what are you doing?”

In the pitch-black room, Kenma Kotsume’s little face was pale in the glow of the screen.

When the door opened and the big boss appeared, his eyes widened in terror, turning into cat-like vertical pupils.

Unlike Miwako Kotsume’s smiling face, Kenma Kotsume was filled with dread.

His little head was full of bold, enlarged words.

I’m doomed, Mom is mad.

Miwako Kotsume was the type to smile even more gently the angrier she got.

She walked in with a smile, took away Kenma Kotsume’s Game Controller with a smile, and said softly, “You can’t stay up all night playing games. It’s bad for your health. I’ll hold onto your games until you reflect on your actions.”

“No…”

Kenma Kotsume knelt on the floor, one hand on the ground, the other reaching for the Game Controller, his face looking like he’d been struck by lightning.

Miwako Kotsume turned back with a bright smile.

“Hmm? Kenma, did you just say something?”

Kenma Kotsume shivered, snapped back to reality, and shook his head quickly.

“No! Nothing at all!”

An angry mom is terrifying!

With no games to play and too startled to fall back asleep, Kenma Kotsume faced a very tough morning.

He lay in bed, practically watching the sky get brighter with his eyes open.

When Yoriko Arisu came to walk to school with him, she immediately noticed something was off with Kenma Kotsume.

Although Kenma Kotsume was always quiet, today there seemed to be a faint shadow of despair in his eyes, as if his soul had been sucked out.

“Kenma?”

“Hey—Kenma—”

She called him for a long time, but Kenma Kotsume didn’t respond.

Yoriko Arisu stayed quiet, watching as he walked straight into a utility pole.

Yoriko Arisu let out a cry and couldn’t help but marvel, “So you really can bump into a pole when you’re spaced out.”

“Ow!”

Kenma Kotsume clutched his forehead, grimacing in pain.

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

Yoriko Arisu blinked innocently.

“I did call you, but you just kept ignoring me.”

Kenma Kotsume glared at her.

Yoriko Arisu: “…Sorry?”

Kenma Kotsume snorted and continued walking forward.

Yoriko Arisu knew this meant he’d dropped the subject, so she jogged to his side.

“So what’s up with you today?”

Kenma Kotsume pouted and told her about his mom catching him playing games and taking away his Game Controller.

The Game Disc was still there, but without the Controller, he couldn’t play at all!

Yoriko Arisu was puzzled.

“How did your mom know?”

Kenma Kotsume had a guess.

“Maybe the Teacher told her?”

After all, he’d just fallen asleep in class yesterday, and today he got caught.

Yoriko Arisu put her hands on her hips, indignant on his behalf.

“How could the Teacher tell your parents! That’s so mean!”

As the queen of sleeping in class, Yoriko Arisu had been called to the Principal’s office more than a few times.

Fortunately, her grades never slipped, so after a while the Teacher just turned a blind eye.

What could she do! In such hot weather, with no air flow, and the Teacher’s voice so hypnotic, it was perfectly normal to fall asleep!

Kenma Kotsume didn’t feel comforted at all; his mind was full of ways to get his game console back.

The little cat’s brows furrowed tightly.

“What does it mean to reflect, anyway…”

Yoriko Arisu pressed her hand to her chin, thinking for a while.

“Go to bed early and wake up early?”

“Hmm…”

“Don’t be picky about food?”

“Hmm hmm…”

“Get a perfect score on the Exam?”

“Hmm hmm hmm…”

Kenma Kotsume turned to look at her.

“Wouldn’t that mean I have to wait until Summer Vacation to get it back?”

The next Exam was the Final Exam.

Yoriko Arisu nodded.

“That’s true.”

She comforted him, “It’s okay! Time passes really fast. Blink once and it’ll be over before you know it!”

Kenma Kotsume looked like he’d died inside.

Yoriko Arisu caught his slumping body in a hurry, shaking his shoulders in a panic.

“Kenma! Kenma, what’s wrong! Kenma, hang in there!”

Without his Controller, Kenma Kotsume suddenly had a lot of free time after school.

After dinner, with plenty of time left before bed, he found himself at a loss for what to do.

It was still bright outside, nowhere near bedtime.

What did he used to do when he wasn’t playing games?

Kenma Kotsume thought hard, but couldn’t remember.

The first day, he cleaned his room and found a Picture Book Yoriko Arisu had left behind wedged in his bookshelf.

The second day, he read through all the comics he’d collected recently and laughed for half a day.

On the third day, unable to find anything to do, Kenma Kotsume lay on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

So there really was this much time at night?

I wonder what Yoriko Arisu is doing right now?

Suddenly, he thought of this.

Yoriko Arisu was doing Homework, specifically her least favorite, Copying Homework.

It wasn’t as challenging as a Mathematics Problem, nor as fun as a Handicraft Assignment.

It was just boring, repetitive copying.

She yawned every two words, and after each line she rewarded herself by playing with her eraser for a bit. In this way, she dawdled until it was dark.

Until someone knocked on her door.

“Come in.”

Yoriko Arisu turned her head casually, and when she saw who it was, her eyes widened in surprise.

Usually, she was the one who ran to Kenma’s house. This was the first time Kenma had come to hers.

Did the sun rise in the west today???

She even checked outside the window, but since it was dark, she couldn’t tell.

Kenma Kotsume looked a little nervous too. He stood at the door and said in a small voice, “Do you want to play Board Game or Monopoly?”

He was holding a pile of things in his arms, almost dropping them several times.

Yoriko Arisu blinked, then blinked again, and broke into a big smile.

“Yeah! I want to! As long as you don’t mind waiting for me to finish my Homework first!”

“Find a place to sit down, okay?”

Kenma Kotsume walked into Yoriko Arisu’s room, and just then a breeze blew through, making the Wind Chime hanging by the window ring.

The crisp sound startled Kenma Kotsume.

Because that was the Wind Chime he had made.

“You hung it up?”

Kenma Kotsume blurted out.

“Of course,” Yoriko Arisu said, puzzled, “Isn’t that what a Wind Chime is for? Ah!”

Thinking of something, she frowned.

“Kenma, don’t tell me you didn’t hang up the Wind Chime I gave you?”

She hadn’t been to Kenma’s house lately, so she hadn’t noticed.

Kenma Kotsume looked away.

“…I’ll hang it up when I get home.”

“Hmph, I’ll remember that. Next time I’ll check!”

Yoriko Arisu reminded him, then buried herself in her Homework again.

Kenma Kotsume sat down on the rug and set up the Board Game and Monopoly on the table one by one.

Only then did he have time to look around.

Yoriko Arisu’s room was about the same layout as his, but the way things were arranged was completely different.

Her wardrobe was bigger than his, and where he had a TV, she had a huge bookshelf stuffed with books and comics.

He even saw a Family Photo of the Arisu family, as well as photos of himself and Yoriko when they were little.

Against the wall was a single bed with a Shark Pillow on it, and anime posters from the latest shows were stuck on the wall.

And…

To keep Kenma Kotsume from waiting too long, Yoriko Arisu powered through the rest of her Copying Homework, quickly packed her schoolbag, then hopped off her chair, sat cross-legged on the floor, and raised her hand.

“I’m done! Let’s start!”

“Oh…” Kenma Kotsume blinked slowly.

“Oh right, here’s the Picture Book you left at my place. I found it when I was cleaning my room a couple days ago.”

Kenma Kotsume handed her a Picture Book.

Yoriko Arisu let out a surprised gasp, her eyes wide with delight.

“I’ve been looking for that forever! So it was at your place!”

“Is that book really important to you?”

“Of course!”

Yoriko Arisu nodded hard.

When she was little, because her parents were busy, Yoriko Arisu was often home alone.

She was too young to go out by herself, so besides watching TV, she spent her time devouring the Picture Books her parents bought for her.

She couldn’t read most of the words, but just looking at the pretty pictures made her happy.

Sometimes, she’d fall asleep while reading, and when she woke up, her parents would be home.

Gradually, she grew to love that routine of reading—falling asleep—reading—falling asleep.

That way, time passed super fast! Blink, and her parents were home!

And when her mom wasn’t busy, she would read the stories from the Picture Book to her.

After hearing them enough times, she started to match the stories in her head to the words in the books, and without realizing it, she learned a lot of words.

“This is the first story I ever read and remembered.”

Yoriko Arisu stroked the Picture Book lovingly and carefully put it back on the shelf. “Thank you for finding it for me!”

Kenma Kotsume looked at Yoriko Arisu’s sparkling eyes and softly replied, “Mm.”