Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia (Insomniacs After School / Kimisomu)

At night, I always feel wide-awake.

I get in my bed and try to doze off.

Rain Shower Radio

rain shower radio: episode 33

a leisurely chat by a bonfire until morning

But I can't sleep and time just passes by.

My inability to sleep causes a cycle of negative thoughts

and I end up wide-awake again out of worry and frustration.

At around 5AM, I hear the sound of the newspaper delivery bike...

and the elderly neighbor across the way opening up the shutter on their house.

Not to mention, the dogs...

Then the sky gets bright and light seeps in through the curtain,

the morning comes and I prepare...

for another day of despair.

Wanna hear a story?

It's about why our school stopped having an Astronomy Club.

Well, one of the girls in the club had a crush on this guy from the soccer team,

but she got rejected and took it so hard that she jumped off the school's observatory.

There was a funeral and then some time passed when, one day,

a boy from the club claims that he saw a girl waving her hand from up on the moon.

There's no doubt that boy had hidden feelings for the girl who passed away.

From that point on he was possessed by something that made him unable to sleep

and spent every night looking at the stars.

He took his final breath not long after and left these words behind:

"That girl isn't waving her hand at me to say hello.

She's beckoning me to join her."

All the other members of the club met with the same fate.

Then the club ceased to be and the observatory turned into a warehouse.

However, just beyond that tightly locked door,

the ghosts of the Astronomy Club are lurking!

A girl from Class 2 said she saw them recently!

The usually locked door to the observatory was slightly ajar, so she took a peek inside...

and saw the club members and their advisor beckoning her inside!

Hey, Kani?

Quit flapping your mouth and help out, would you?

Excuse me?! I'm multitasking just fine here!

And while I'm at it, that observatory rumor?

It's only the ghost of the dead girl who jumped that appears.

Don't give me that, Anamizu!

If you wanna get on someone's case,

then why don't you say something to the shameless slacker Nakami-kun over there?!

Gorojima Sweet

Potatoes

Hey, Nakami.

If you've got time to laze around, then go grab some more boxes for us.

They're over in the main building near the 4th floor landing, okay?

Yeah, what she said! Get to it!

Why me?

Huh?

It should be the person who's wasting time with ghost stories.

Here's the thing.

The boxes are close to where the haunted observatory is,

so none of us girls want to go near it.

There's no such thing as ghosts!

And besides, just look.

Nakami

Family

Grave

I made two gravestones all by myself already.

And despite us starting at the exact same time,

the three of you haven't even finished one of them working together.

Which means, I'm done for the day because I've completed 3 people's worth of work.

At the end of the day...

Check it out! It's my greatest work yet!

It's not a real monster, Nakami!

Nice going, Nono-san!

Huh?

Definitely the quality you'd expect from an Art Club member!

No monster would have that kind of gaudy color!

I'm gonna get more boxes...

Oh, really? Thank you!

That was brutal, Kanikawa.

What can I say? Nakami sucks.

He always acts like he's the only one suffering around here.

Nakami thinks he's better than everyone else, huh?

Totally. Plus he's always such a grouch.

Hey, where's Isaki? Totally. Plus he's always such a grouch.

Oh, and the way he talks gets on my nerves.

She was with me not too long ago... Oh, and the way he talks gets on my nerves.

So, is your boyfriend coming or what?

Yep! We're gonna look around together!

Tomorrow's the big day, so let's go through it one more time!

Okay!

So carefree. It must be nice.

Why am I the only one with this problem?

Keep raising it up. A little to the right.

That's good, now hook it right there.

Okay!

Sorry, be right back.

Okay.

Hey, Gan-chan!

Ukegawa.

Yo!

You don't look so good.

Yeah. Headache.

You haven't been sleeping?

Not a wink.

For real?

I read some reference manuals thinking they'd put me to sleep, but no such luck.

Okay, so this insomnia thing.

It's kind of like picking up one of those super stars in a video game, right?

You're invincible!

Just kidding.

For some reason I'm wide-awake at night, but sleepy as hell during the day.

It's so bad that nothing feels real to me anymore.

What if I'm losing my mind and you're just a hallucination?

Go get some rest in the nurse's office.

No way.

Why not?

Because if I hang out in the nurse's office all the time

people will start to think I'm some messed-up kid!

Whoa, what the...

Let's go.

Yeah.

I'm gonna go pick up some boxes.

Okay.

Kanikawa's gonna give me crap if I only come back with this much...

Observatory

They said something about this place being a warehouse now, right?

There's no such thing as ghosts.

Awesome.

It's like a secret base.

I can hardly hear any of the hustle and bustle outside,

and nobody comes close because of the ghost rumors...

Perfect!

It's official, I'm making this my hangout spot.

Okay.

Hey, wait!

You're Isaki Magari, aren't you?

Same class as me.

So, like, the door to this room has a busted lock and once it gets shut it can only be opened...

from the outside.

You're saying... we're stuck?

East

So, care to tell me what you're doing here, Nakami?

For boxes. I was told to come grab some.

My turn.

Why are you in here and skipping out on the prep for culture fest?

None of your business.

Whatever.

Man, this sucks.

I can't contact anyone since I left my phone in the classroom...

But hold on, maybe we can get out if we open up the ceiling.

It's too dark to see anything.

Need some kind of light source...

Here.

I might have passed out if I weren't so on edge right now...

Huh?

But that solves our problem!

Use your phone to call somebody and have them come help us.

Except I can't tell anyone... about why I was here.

Then don't. Just hurry up.

What other choice do we have? Give it here!

Ah! Hey, give it back!

Do you want to be stuck in here for life?

Jeez, is there something wrong with you or what?

There is.

Huh?

Like, I can't sleep at all at night and it drives me nuts.

I get bad headaches during the day and feel super drowsy.

So I come here to rest!

She's like me...

I don't want people to worry about me, which is why I have to keep it a secret!

There's a guy named Ukegawa,

he's an old buddy of mine and the only person who I've shared a secret with...

about my insomnia.

He's someone who we can trust.

And I don't think he'll ask any probing questions about this.

He's not picking up.

Mind if I text him?

Oh, sure.

Now we just wait.

You know, I've always been under the impression that you were just a scary jerk, Nakami.

So you hated me even though we've never had a real conversation before?

Well, I'm always sleepy and irritated so that tracks...

But man, this really is the perfect spot.

I always come here during recess and before club activities to sneak in some shut-eye.

It's a secret hideout only for me.

I even put the lock on it myself.

All right, I get it.

I'm not gonna tell anyone or try and take it for myself.

But you scared the crap out of me earlier.

I thought it was the ghost of the Astronomy Club when you popped out of that locker...

There's no such thing as ghosts, or Santa Claus for that matter.

I take it you don't get freaked out like the other girls do.

Nope.

And for good reason, because I'm the one who spread that rumor in the first place.