Headphone Actor by JIN Page A

was staring excitedly at the display screen, and I couldn’t feel even the slightest sign of depression from him.
    No, if I thought about it, I’d never seen him become depressed at all.
    Even when I was his only classmate, or when our class was the only one that had to sit out and watch the athletic meet he’d been looking forward to, or even when he’d been hospitalized and couldn’t come to school; he smiled.
    And always,  always , I got mad at Haruka’s smile, was appalled by it …. And also, I was captivated by it.
    “Hey, Haruka …”
    “Eh? What is it? Oh, w-wait just a second, okay? The battle’s just started!”
    Without taking his eyes away from the screen, Haruka desperately waged the battle.
    The way he played the game while muttering to himself was almost like an innocent kid.
    …. But, he really was a carefree guy. Actually, couldn’t he have just finished slower so that he could keep me company for a while longer?
    I sighed, and stared at my worksheet again, but because of the shooting sounds right next to me, I honestly couldn’t concentrate at all.
    What was that about “finishing faster”? Wasn’t this having the complete opposite effect by distracting me?
    I glared at him, hoping to drive him away, but as usual, he wasn’t paying attention to me at all, and my anger quickly faded away.
    Having lost all motivation to do my work,  I rested my chin in my hand and rolled my mechanical pencil around, and suddenly, I thought of a good idea. Sitting up, I reached into my bag on the side of the desk and took out my headphones.
    ….. If I put this on and put on a brusque attitude, then he might become impatient and stop playing the game.
    When people immerse themselves in their own world and other people around them start doing something, they can’t help but feel very lonely. It would be the same for this guy.
    Putting on my headphones, I plugged the end of the cord into the mobile phone in my pocket.
    Although I tried to think of what I should listen to, there wasn’t any music in particular that I wanted to hear, so I simply turned on the radio feature, and as expected, background music that would suit afternoon teatime started playing.
    Just like that, I faced away from Haruka, and laying my head on my desk, I closed my eyes and listened to the radio.
    If I did this, Haruka would notice and probably try to talk to me. And when he did, I’d tell him, “I’m busy listening to the radio right now, so tell me later.”
    It was my perfect strategy. Confident of this, I grinned.
    …. But, even as some time passed, Haruka didn’t try talking to me.
    For the first few minutes, I assured myself, “Well, just a little longer, and he’ll say something,” and didn’t turn to face Haruka.
    However, after several more minutes, I began losing to the weakness of my own impatience.
    …. Slow. Too slow.
    I was no longer listening to the music from the radio, and was now fighting against my own desire to turn around.
    After about twenty minutes, I had all-too-soon reached my limit.
    “Ah, ahhh~ This is so boring~ I wonder if I should just go home now~”
    Even though this was the last of my willpower, I muttered this without turning around.
    I was gradually starting to feel ashamed of how immature I was being.
    Damn it. Why did I have to think of these things for that guy?
    And he was one to blame, too. It was too cruel of him to continue to ignore me even after so much time had passed.
    Or was it because I was just that unappealing ….?
    As I thought that, I became uneasy for some reason, and wanted to see what Haruka was doing if he still hadn’t tried speaking to me.
    On a sudden impulse, I forgot my willpower and sat up. Taking off my headphones, I faced in Haruka’s direction.
    “Hey! ..… Haruka?”
    After I took off my headphones, the world without music was filled only with the background music of the game.
    The shooting sounds had stopped, and I couldn’t hear the sound of the