※Gilbert’s roommate, Elliot’s POV
“Six years ago, I thought my roommate is a bit irritating.”
For whatever I said, somehow my classmates responded with a startled expression and the subject of my complaint said.
“After such a long time?! Is that how big your heart is?!!”
……Gil, it sounds like you are supposed to be an amazing person.
It was a beautiful afternoon after lunch. In a classroom with a comfortable temperature that seems to be just right for a nap, we were loosely given the best treatment called “self-study” more than anything else. Some indulged themselves with indolence, others amused themselves with idle talk, while others eventually left the classroom. Of course, there are also people who are seriously opening the teaching materials, but the number of people can be counted with one hand. In the first place, the sixth year class lecture is mainly review and application, and individuals are doing different things even they are within the same class. It is usual to turn like this if we are asked to study on our own (doing whatever we want). I also do not feel like reproaching.
……Although I do not feel like reproaching. The person sitting next to me is, frankly speaking, a little irritating.
He came back from the cafeteria and his mood has been like this.
My roommate, Gilbert, has a smile stuck on its good-looking face all the time, looking at a distance. As if remembering occasionally, he traced his thin lips with his fingers and smiled again. That’s it, this guy’s so-called playing-the-fool state. Dere-dere. [1]
……I don’t want to ask but I’m interested.
Probably, he seemed to be in a relationship with a woman he mentioned in his example last night. I am not in the slightest interested in other people’s love life, but I am a little curious how this Gil became like this.
…It is true that his lovestruck face in my sight is annoying though.
As it is well known, Gilbert Kralvane is a very popular man. Well, it is natural since he has a title of a well-known family and appearance. I also saw that the women who are by his side are changing daily, and I frequently saw him spend the night at other places. When he came back, even if his clothes were very disordered, I haven’t smelled women’s perfume from his body not once or twice.
Everyone around me continuously ask, “Why don’t you change your dorm room?” but I don’t feel it is a necessity. It’s because whatever he does with whom he is with, Gil always behaved in the same way with the same face when he comes back. He apologizes properly whenever he returns late, and when he smells of perfume, he polishes his body until it turns red and offers me to change the furniture as “it might have smelled”. He is not a bad guy. Oh yeah, I think he’s a little careless but . . . he listens when I scold him. That’s my role as his roommate.
I’m with a comfortable roommate. That’s why we’ve been together so far.
……However.
It’s the first time I saw Gil to be like this.
Although I’ve heard it is not hanging around but “dating”, but when he was with those women . . . Even when he broke up with them, Gil barely had any expression. Since my other friends would be either happy or depressed, I thought my roommate would not show emotions.
“……Elliot, you have something to tell to me?”
“Ah, sorry. I have nothing to say.”
When I was lost in my thoughts, I was called out by my seatmate in the end. His face turned towards me is devoid of any emotion as usual. It is a fine appearance that fits well with his original facial expression. If I only look at this, it is the usual Gil but . . .
“You look very happy so I thought something must have happened.”
“…Yeah, something good happened today.”
With just a few words, he smiled like a blooming flower in an instant. In contrast to me, my face became stiff when a girl who looked here shrilled.
“I had Meryl forgive my failure.”
I see. The name of the person he thinks of is Meryl, huh? As to Gil’s failure, various things that I do not want to remember came to mind . . . It’s okay, right? It’s something a person can forgive, right?!
“We-Well, she seems to be a broadminded person.”
“What are you saying?”
Even I who was told to have a “tolerance like that of a goddess of kindness”, there are actions of Gil that I cannot forgive! But I cannot tell him. Wait, why a goddess…
Apparently, Ms. Meryl seems to be a very kind person. Aren’t you glad, Gil?
Anyway, saying that you were forgiven for that one mistake is a progress. That is certainly favorable. Especially in his case. Does that lovestruck face tell otherwise?
“…Also, another thing.”
“Hm?”
While I am understanding the case on my own, he continuously smiled deeply… and like he did a while ago, he traced his lips with his finger.
“Have you two, by chance, kissed?”
“No, we have not gone that far.”
That far, he says, but I bet he will go farther in a calm way. I do not want to hear it but since it is inevitable, I roared with laughter when I heard his reply.
“We shared the same spoon and she became greatly flushed and stiff.”
“Shared a spoon? That means . . . an indirect kiss?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Turning like that, Meryl is really cute.”
Probably, he’s reminiscing the scene. As what I see beside me, he has an expression of uncontained happiness as he laughed loudly. O-Oi, oi… who is this person? I don’t recognize this kind of Gil.
Well, it is common to share utensils but it is a rare thing if it is not a close relationship. Ms. Meryl seems to be very inexperienced. I wonder, is it all right for her to stay by Gil’s side in this relationship?
Thinking after he has stopped laughing, this time he closed his eyes and smiled.
……I have never seen such a way of smiling as well.
“…Meryl.”
“I hope it goes well.”
“Mm. Thank you, Elliot.”
Staring directly at me, he nodded in a forthright manner as he acknowledged me. That gentle expression is perhaps for her.
I never thought he’d be able to make me talk about mushy things but . . . I wonder if there are such things as a last time.
I’ll just transfer to another room if things get too annoying.
After we finished talking, watching the other person who is still basking in happiness, I wonder if “a portion of his happiness” (a cute lover) will come to me as well.
That afternoon of a certain day ended with a sour sigh.
