Astral Season, Beastly Season by Tahi Saihate

of Morishita’s life in elementary, middle, and high school. “Is this all true?” “You should know. It’s real.” “I didn’t talk to Morishita that much when we were young, so I didn’t really know him then. Did you exaggerate anything?” “I mean, they embellished a little.” According to Friend B, Boy A had been popular since elementary school. Girls liked him, and boys flocked to him. Before class trips, for example, classmates would always argue over whose group he would join. Because Boy A would never express his own preference, this often led to conflicts. “Boy A also had a habit of giving his things to others. Friend B said that because he’d even try to give away expensive things like video games, Friend B often had to stop him… Is this true?” “It’s true. You probably got things from him, too. Books, pencils.” “Yeah, if you borrowed an eraser, he’d say you can have it. Everyone else took them, but I always gave them back.” “Giving stuff back to him started to be a pain. He didn’t have any bad intentions or anything, so every time I’d refuse to keep something, he’d get depressed.” “Yeah, he was like that. Wait. But Aoyama, you always refused to take his stuff, too, didn’t you?” Aoyama’s eyes opened wide at my words. “What? You knew?” “Yeah.” The first time I noticed Aoyama was in elementary school when Morishita was giving the other boys some type of pencil that was popular back then. Out of them all, only Aoyama snuck the pencil he received back into Morishita’s desk. When he r