I'm in Love with the Gorilla Sitting Next to Me - Volume 1 Chapter 1.2

The Gorilla Sitting Next to Me 2

Setting aside the fact that I’m cursed due to my ancestors’ influence, let’s get back to the story.

The world history class that brought sleepiness and urgency has ended, and there’s a short break before the last class of the day, the sixth period. Completely drained, I lay my head on the desk, facing sideways as if dead.

Without particularly looking, my gaze naturally falls on Gorilla-san, the gorilla next to me. After storing her world history materials in her bag hanging beside her desk, she takes out a light blue drawstring pouch from inside her desk.

What comes out of the bag is a lunchbox, and she begins to eat with her thick fingers skillfully handling the chopsticks.

She seemed to have gone somewhere during the previous lunch break, and I wondered if she had been playing without eating as I watched her absentmindedly. Sensing my gaze, Gorilla-san looked over.

“…What is it?”

Covering her mouth with her hand while holding chopsticks, she asked in a calm and cool voice that didn’t match her appearance. I replied without changing my position, still friendly with my desk.

“Nah, just wondering why you’re eating now.”

“…It’s nothing big. I had a club meeting during lunch break, and there wasn’t much time to touch my lunch. Almost half of it was left, so…”

“I see, makes sense…huh?”

As we talked and I continued to gaze absentmindedly, I suddenly realized something.

“Gossan, have you always used that lunchbox?”

She was using a rectangular lunchbox, but I seemed to remember her having a smaller, two-tiered one before.

By the way, “Gossan” is a nickname I’ve given her, not derived from gorilla, but from her real name. It’s a way to avoid accidentally calling her “Gorilla-san,” so I’ve asked her to let me call her that.

Anyway, in response to my question, Gossan slightly twisted her dignified face and said,

“…I changed it. I used to bring two, but I stopped and switched to just this one.”

“Huh? Why did you have two in the first place?”

“…I don’t really want to say it, but… because it’s conspicuous for a girl to have a large lunchbox, I asked my mother to make two. But last month, she decided it was too much hassle and bought this one, and since she gets up early to make it, I couldn’t argue…”

“I see… But when did you eat the other lunch before?”

“After morning practice and before club activities started. That’s why I would get extremely sleepy during the first period and often had stomach aches during club time. In the end, this seems to be the best solution.”

Gossan explained in a soft and rapid voice, then proceeded to eat even faster. Her manners, as well as her way of speaking, were too refined for a gorilla. Well, in fact, she’s not really a gorilla.

Still, the contrast between her bulky hands and the lunchbox and chopsticks, which seemed child-sized, was striking. I couldn’t help but stare blankly at the mismatched scene when suddenly, a sailor uniform blocked my view.

“Hey, that’s not okay, Saiki-kun. You shouldn’t stare so intently at a girl while she’s eating. You’re being glared at with a scary face.”

“Uh… oh, right. Sorry, Gossan.”

“…No, my face is just naturally like this.”

I didn’t mean anything by it, but the point was valid, so I apologized sincerely. And when Gossan said “naturally,” she probably meant her scary face, not that she’s usually a gorilla.

The sailor uniform that had warned me belonged to a raccoon dog—Yanagiya-san, who sits diagonally behind me. Her first name is Miyabi, and I call her “Yassan.”

Among the girls, she’s relatively outgoing with boys, a bright and attentive small animal who acts as a sort of coordinator for everyone. Naturally, she’s human-sized, but on the shorter side.

Yassan, with a face that combines cuteness and ferocity, twitched her small nose and turned back to ask,

“So, why are you having lunch now? Early lunches are one thing, but late lunches are rare.”

“Ah, I just asked her that. She said she didn’t have much time to eat because of some club stuff.”

Continuing to move her chopsticks without pause, Gossan let me answer for her, and Yassan turned back to me again, murmuring, ‘Oh, I see.’

“It’s almost time for the main competitions of the summer to start. Our table tennis club has already switched to a new system.”

“Huh, really? But isn’t it risky to change things right before a tournament?”

“Our team has already been defeated. The third-year seniors have retired.”

“That’s early. It’s only just turned June, right?”

“It’s common in sports with many matches. Hasn’t the volleyball club finished their district preliminaries too?”

The gorilla nodded with a mumble in response to the raccoon dog’s question.

“I see, so that’s how it is. Certainly, for a sport where you can only play one or two matches a day, you need to get the preliminaries done early to make it in time for the summer tournament. It’s usually on weekends, after all.”

“Then, sports clubs retire early, huh. But I guess that’s better for first-years? It’s easier to become a regular.”

“Table tennis and volleyball clubs are fine since they have a decent number of members, but it’s tough for the less popular clubs. They lack practice partners, and if they’re not careful, they might not have enough members to compete in matches.”

“Oh, right. You can play table tennis with just two people, but volleyball… Wait, is it five people per team or six?”

“…There are six players on the court. But in volleyball, you rotate every time the serve changes, so it’s unsettling not to have some substitutes. Injuries are not uncommon either.”

“I see. It’s a team sport, after all.”

“Even table tennis has team matches. Sometimes for the sake of your teammates, you have to perform beyond your abilities—Oh, I’ve gotten carried away talking. I’m on duty today, so I have to go to the staff room.”

“Another pop quiz, huh… Does Koba-sensei like making them too much?”

“I don’t mind them. At least it’s better than getting homework to do at home.”

Yassan, the raccoon dog, declared firmly and then waved to Gossan, the gorilla, saying ‘See ya!’ before hurrying out of the classroom.

Watching Yassan leave, I turned my gaze back to Gossan, who had already finished eating and was putting away her bento box in her bag, replacing it with a textbook. The fact that she bothered to bring her textbook home shows that Gossan is a serious gorilla. As for me, a not-so-serious guy, I just leave mine in my locker.