The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Read Free Page B

level as pumpkins or potatoes.
    At that point, the completely dumbstruck guys, myself included, were kicked out of the room by Ryoko Asakura.
    It seems that afterwards, Ryoko led the other girls in lecturing Haruhi, but yeah, it didn’t accomplish anything. Haruhi continued to change without giving a damn about her male audience. Which is why when the bell for the break before gym rang, the guys were obligated—per Ryoko’s orders—to immediately sprint out of the room.
    But damn, she was hot… I mean, let’s move on.
    Peculiarity number three. Haruhi would invariably be absent from the classroom during breaks. And you could count on her to be out the door carrying her bag the second school was out. At first, I thought she went straight home, but apparently not. To my amazement, she had been temporarily joining a wide range of school clubs. You’d see her dribbling around with the basketball team one day only to find her sewing a pillowcase in the handicrafts club the next day and swinging a stick on the lacrosse team the next. She even joined the baseball team, so it didn’t look like she was leaving anything out. Every sports club, without exception, fervently pursued her membership. Turning their requests down, she would arbitrarily join a different club every day. In the end, she didn’t stick with a single one of them.
    What exactly was she trying to accomplish?
    Naturally, the rumor that “there’s a strange girl in this year’s freshman class” spread like wildfire throughout school. It only took about a month before every single person involved with our school knew of Haruhi Suzumiya. By the beginning of May, it reached the point where some people still didn’t know the name of the principal, but everybody knew the name Haruhi Suzumiya.
    As all of this was going on—well, Haruhi was the only one actually involved—we reached the month of May.
    I’m more willing to believe in the chance of someone discovering a plesiosaurus in Lake Biwa than in fate. But if fate does in fact affect the lives of humans from some unknown place, I’m guessing that this was when my wheel of destiny began to turn. I’m positive that someone up there had rewritten my future without my consent.
    It was the first day after the Golden Week holidays. I discovered that I had lost track of what day of the week it was as I trudged up the winding hill, dripping sweat in the scorching, abnormal May weather. What was the earth trying to do here? Did it catch yellow fever or something?
    “Yo, Kyon.”
    Someone behind me tapped me on the shoulder. It was Taniguchi.
    He had his blazer slung nonchalantly over his shoulder, necktie half-loose, and a grin plastered on his face.
    “Did you go somewhere for Golden Week?”
    “I took my sister to see our grandmother.”
    “That’s lame.”
    “What about you?”
    “Worked the whole time.”
    “How is that any better?”
    “Kyon, a high school student shouldn’t be babysitting his little sister on a merry little trip to visit grandparents. You’ve gotta act more like a high schooler.”
    Incidentally, the nickname “Kyon” belongs to me. From what I recall, one of my aunts was the first to call me that. It was a few years back when I hadn’t seen her for a while. When she saw me, she went, “Oh, Kyon. You’ve grown so big,” which was an unwelcome twist on my name. Upon hearing that, my sister thought it was hilarious and started calling me “Kyon.” Some friends who came to my house happened to overhear her calling me that, and ever since, my nickname’s been Kyon.
Damn.
    “It’s an annual family tradition for us cousins to get together during Golden Week.”
    And with that indifferent response, I continued trudging up the hill. The feeling of sweat dripping from my hair was extremely unpleasant.
    Taniguchi was cheerfully going on about stuff like some cute girl he met at work and how he’d been saving up money so he had plenty to spend for a date. This could be