The classroom was warm, and Shizuo could barely keep his eyes open. The sound of pens scratching and pages being turned over sounded like a lullaby. Shizuo could feel his eyelids getting heavier.
"Is it because I ran too much?" he thought. "I'll rest my head on the desk for a bit." Next thing he knew, the teacher was calling his name repeatedly. His body instinctively moved and he shot up.
"Yes, sir?" he asked. "Could you tell me the answer to question 7, please?" the teacher asked, with a smug grin on his face. Shizuo started fidgeting with the hem of his sleeve, his eyes darting all around the classroom. "Hey!" he heard a hurried whisper. It was Nomura, and she pointed at one of the choices. "I think it is choice C," Shizuo announced to the class. "You better pay attention next time… sit down now," said the teacher, turning to face the black board again.
Shizuo sat back down. "T-Thank y-you, Nomura" said Shizuo, fumbling over his words. "It's OK, but be sure to get enough sleep when you get back home, alright?" she said, tilting her head slightly and shooting him a smile. Shizuo just nodded and looked away towards the window to hide his flushed face.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. Shizuo struggled to keep his eyes open the entire day. He kept staring at the clock, watching every second go by. Tick… tock… tick… tock… each passing second felt longer than the last.
When the last bell of the day rang, Shizuo let out a sigh of relief. He started packing his bag, until he froze, his eyes widening with shock. His sketchbook—a place where he wrote down every fleeting thought and drew random doodles—was now gone.
"No please…not now," he thought. But his face turned pale when he realized "Someone might have found it." He frantically started digging in his bag.
His search was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps behind him; it was Nomura. "What are you still doing here, Shizuo?" she asked. "God, you look as pale as a ghost. Are you feeling, OK?" she said inspecting his face. Shizuo immediately turned his face away from hers, and bluntly replied "I'm fine."
"That only answers one of my questions… come on, you could tell me," Nomura replied with a soft voice. "I-I just lost my n-notebook, that's all," Shizuo replied. "I can help you look for it then," she said. "No-no, I don't want to impose, please," replied Shizuo. "It's fine, and for your information, I am the master of finding lost things," she replied, with her hands on her hips, grinning ear to ear.
So, they went all around the school looking for the sketchbook. They looked everywhere: the library, cafeteria, the field, deserted club rooms and all the utility rooms.
"Come on, Nomura, there is no point in looking anymore… it's getting dark so we should just head home," said Shizuo, his voice cold. "But we still haven't checked—" Shizuo cut her off and said, "Nomura, please… it's fine. Let's head back to class, OK?" "Alright then," replied Nomura, her face illustrating her disappointment.
As Nomura opened the door to their class she said, "I'm sorry we couldn't find your notebook, Shizuo." "It's OK, it's my fault I lost it anyways," replied Shizuo. "Hold on a sec, there is still one more place we haven't checked yet," said Nomura, as she walked to Shizuo's desk.
She bent down and searched with her eyes, and there, she saw a corner of a notebook, buried under a mountain of text books. "AHA! I found you," she said, pulling the notebook from underneath the textbooks. She held up the notebook to show Shizuo with a joyous expression on her face.
When Shizuo saw the notebook in her hands, he felt all the tension evaporate from his body. He let out a huge sigh and said "You actually did it." "I told you I was the master of finding lost items, didn't I?" replied Nomura, her voice filled with excitement. "I guess you live up to your title," said Shizuo, a smile forming across his face. "Yuppp, you just had to believe… what notebook is it anyways?" she said curiously.
She started flipping through the notebook. Then she stopped on a page when she saw Chibi—Small doodles of people with a cartoonishly big heads and tiny bodies—drawing with the names of people besides them.
"Wait, you can draw Chibi?" she said, flipping through the pages. At that moment, Shizuo froze. He thought about all the little doodles he made during all those boring classes and thought "She is going to totally hate me."
"Yep, this is it… It's over for me," he thought while nervously starting to fidget with his hair and asking "Y-You think it's t-totally creepy, don't you?" expecting it to blow up in his face.
Nomura looked at him confused and asked "Are you kidding?... these are so adorable." He was stunned for a second. Then she asked "Tell me there is one of me." Before he could let out a word, she exclaimed "OH my God, IS THIS ME! … I look ~soooo~ adorable." He looked at the notebook, then, at her and quietly said "Yeah I drew it yesterday."
Nomura held the sketchbook close to her chest, her arms wrapping tightly around it. She looked up at Shizuo with her hazel eyes, the rays of the dusk sun intensifying her gaze. "You know… you should show your drawings to other people… I'm sure they would love it."
Then she faced the ground avoiding his eyes and said "I-I wouldn't hate it if made more drawings of me either."