Volume 28 Chapter 17 (1/2)
”Take a look at this.”
It was an out-of-focus photo. It was of a different quality to the rest of the photographs that had so far appeared on the table, and a fairly poor effort considering the photographer was Tsutako-san.
”Do you know who this is?”
”Huh?”
There were all kinds of things she wanted to ask, but Tsutako-san shut her down by saying, ”Without prejudice,” so Yumi reluctantly stared at the photograph. No-one other than Yumi could see the photograph, and they watched and waited for her response.
”It looks like someone I know &h.e.l.lip; but it's not all that clear so I'm not sure. It's dark, so it's hard to tell for sure, but it looks like it was taken at our school. But they're wearing street clothes&h.e.l.lip; and the date &h.e.l.lip; that was during summer holidays, the year before last. So, that's not right, I guess.”
”What isn't?”
Tsutako-san asked. Meaning, What isn't right?
”I must be mistaking them for someone else. It's not the person I thought it was.”
Yumi held out the photograph to return it, but Tsutako-san pushed it back towards her, saying ”Take another look.”
”Without prejudice.”
Tsutako-san repeated and, once more, Yumi reset and looked only at the face.
”It looks like a friend of mine.”
”They don't go to our school, right?”
Based on that, Tsutako-san probably knew the person she was thinking of too. Yumi agreed, saying, ”Right,” and Tsutako-san mumbled, ”That's what I thought.”
”What is?”
”Actually, this is something Minato-san gave me.”
The name of Yumi's cla.s.smate burst forth.
”Oh? Ah, right. So this is Minato-san then?”
A slender body and short hair. A boyish figure teamed with a pink T-s.h.i.+rt may seem like a mismatch at first glance, but having heard her sweet voice it all became clear.
”That's what you'd think from looking at it.”
So was Tsutako-san saying that that wasn't the case? That was probably why she'd been so insistent about saying, ”Without prejudice.”
”But she told me that this was a spirit photograph.”
”A spirit photograph?”
”That the photograph was proof of her doppelganger. At the time, I thought it just an out-of-focus shot that she'd taken of herself, so I laughed it off. But since last Autumn it's been kind of blurry.”
”Blurry?”
”Yeah. Like the photo.”
And as a result, she'd apparently been left wondering if this really was a photograph that Minato-san had taken of herself. Indeed, it seemed like Tsutako-san had started to reflect on it. At first she'd overlooked it, but now she seemed convinced that it was someone other than who she had initially thought it was.
”Not always, but occasionally I'd think about it. Then, suddenly, I had a flash of inspiration the other day. Like things came into focus. So I thought I'd ask you to take a look, Yumi-san.”
”I see.”
Indeed. After all, she'd been a lot closer to the person that Tsutako-san seemed to have in mind than Tsutako-san had been. At least, that's what Yumi thought.
Yos.h.i.+no-san and s.h.i.+mako-san both had a look at the photograph, but didn't say anything. Since Tsutako-san had specifically mentioned Yumi, and since the subject was someone in street clothes who wasn't from their school, they probably a.s.sumed it was someone they'd never met.
Therefore, Yumi thought she should keep this to herself too. If her reasoning was correct, and this photo came to light, then that person would be in a bit, no make that a lot, of trouble. Because it meant they'd crept into a girls school in the middle of the night while there were school camps taking place.
The spitting image of the boyish-looking girl Minato-san was a girlish-looking boy.