That day, we were ordered to stay at home.
…It was winter. Normally, we high school students would have a special holiday for entrance exams. We can’t go to school when the exams are being held. Naturally.
However, it was supposed to be a “special holiday,” not “stay-at-home.”
“It’s the flu, can’t be helped.”
“Can’t be helped, can’t be helped.”
Yes. It’s the flu. The flu spread in my class and Maito-san’s class, causing these two classes to be closed.
Although it was closed, it was originally a special holiday, so it didn’t interfere with our studies… However, we received the unwelcome order of “don’t leave your house.”
…Unfortunately, on this special holiday, I had plans to go out. But those plans were ruined, so I felt a bit down.
After all, the plan was for “Winter Chemistry Club Meeting ~With Board Games and Analog Games and Snacks~.”
The only fortunate thing was that I hadn’t booked the venue in advance. Even if it was just me, Maito-san’s class included not only her, but also Kariya, Suzumoto, Hagasaki-san, and Toriumi. With 5 out of 9 members missing, it would be impossible to have a game tournament. …Well, most analog games can proceed smoothly with four people.
However, we wanted to play games. Even with 5 out of 9 members being banned from going out, we wanted to have a game tournament.
“The result is an online chemistry club meeting.”
“Yay!”
“Online Chemistry Club Meeting, ‘Influenza Thanksgiving’!”
“Yay! Screw the flu!”
…The power of science is wonderful.
Yes. It’s an online chemistry club meeting. We are now talking online from our respective homes.
“Thanks to it being a weekday, I can use my home computer as much as I want! We can have a game tournament as much as we want! Yay!”
Through the camera, I can see Maito-san having fun at her house. …She didn’t have her own PC. It was a family-shared one. But today is a weekday. Since it’s a weekday, her family members are not home. No one is stopping her from having fun.
“Ah, ah… Can you hear me? I’ve never talked online before, so I don’t really know how.”
“Yeah, we can hear you.”
I thought there might be some technical issues with suddenly having an online chemistry club meeting, but we are the chemistry club, so everyone managed to solve them. Katori and Toriumi joined online without any problems, and even Maito-san, who probably had the hardest time joining, managed to participate by using the family digital camera as a webcam.
So, we started playing games while talking online.
“…Anyway, I can see that Katori’s room is a mess.”
“Huh? Ah, don’t look at the background too much.”
…Seeing the rooms and houses through the camera reveals a lot about each person’s hobbies.
Katori’s room… No, let’s not talk about it. It’s a very organized room. Yes. I won’t mention what exactly is organized.
“Hariu’s room is amazing. Surprisingly tidy.”
“Surprisingly? That’s mean! Hey, isn’t that mean!?”
Hariu’s room was unexpectedly clean. …Well, saying “unexpectedly” might be rude, so I won’t say it.
“Toriumi, are you in the living room?”
“Oh, yeah. That’s right. The BGM you hear now is from our clock.”
It seems Toriumi is joining from the living room. Apparently, there’s a clock in the living room that plays music every hour, and it’s playing a music box arrangement of a familiar song. This might be a good timekeeper for our online game tournament.
“Suzumoto, what’s that in the background?”
“Oh, this? A cushion.”
Hariu mentioned something in Suzumoto’s background, and Suzumoto brought it over.
“I like it because it feels good to touch. It’s comfortable like this.”
It was a cushion modeled after a character. It also looked like a stuffed animal. Suzumoto hugged it tightly and sat back in the chair. I see, it looks comfortable.
“…Um, I’m really curious about that thing on Hagasaki-kun’s bed…”
…Then, there was Hagasaki-san’s room.
I think what was visible in the background was a bed, and on it… there was a stuffed animal.
“Oh… I left it out.”
“Show us! Show us!”
With Maito-san looking excited, Hagasaki-san, who wore a reluctant expression, brought the stuffed animal from the bed and held it up to the camera for us to see.
It was one of those pocket monsters. The cute water-type evolution, whose form changes based on its type.
“How cute! Very cute! I’m a Br**n fan, but Sh**ders is also cute! But why is this in Hagasaki-kun’s room?”
“…I just got it from a UFO catcher.”
I see. He got it because it was cute. I can understand the feeling.
“Oh, I have the pre-evolution of that at home!”
Seeing that, Toriumi brought the brown pre-evolution stuffed animal and showed it to us.
“I have the ice-type evolution at home!”
Kariya also brought the ice-type evolution stuffed animal to show us.
…Is this popular?
“…I don’t have any stuffed animals, but I think it’s nice.”
“Yeah. Kadomi-kun should get one too.”
Somehow, it feels like stuffed animals would suit Kadomi-san the most among this group. Well, no offense meant.
“…Huh? By the way, where are you right now, President? In your room? It seems kind of dark.”
Kariya commented on the background visible on my screen.
“In my room… or rather, my secret base?”
“Where is this place? It’s dark.”
“It’s inside your house, right? Wait, does your house have a shed or something? Only our house has that, right…?”
…Yes.
“In the closet.”
“Why in the closet?”
“Because it was a perfect space.”
“…So, it’s because cleaning your room was a hassle, or something like that?”
“No. I always use my PC here. I converted the closet space into a living space.”
I use a bed for sleeping and store things in the lower section, so the upper section is exclusively for me. It’s a bit cramped, but quite comfortable.
“That’s cool! So cool! Being in a closet is so romantic! I get it! I totally get it!”
…Whether or not it’s romantic, utilizing the closet space in a limited room is very important.
“By the way, I’m curious about Katori’s T-shirt.”
“Yeah. I thought wearing pajamas was a bit much.”
Katori, who was visible on the camera, was wearing a T-shirt that said “glasses girl.” Yes, glasses girl.
“I wonder if I should have worn my ‘villager’ T-shirt.”
“Why do you even have such a thing?”
Maito-san is… well, not in her uniform. From my perspective, it’s quite refreshing, or rather, it feels out of place.
“I’m wearing pajamas only from the waist down!”
“Why did you only cut corners there? And why did you admit it after cutting corners?”
Meanwhile, Hariu seemed to have cut corners with his outfit. Indeed, only the upper half is visible on the camera.
“Uh, I’m in full pajamas…”
“Why did you confess that… Well, yeah. Kadomi-kun, that’s fine.”
Kadomi-san was apparently in pajamas. Though it looked like a regular T-shirt at first glance.
“Hmm, would it be more fun if we dressed up weirdly next time we have an online chemistry club meeting?”
No, I don’t think we need to focus on our outfits.
…However, it’s only during online chemistry club meetings, where we can see each other’s outfits without going out, that we can dress strangely. Katori’s “glasses girl” T-shirt is a good example.
It might be a good opportunity to wear such clothes.
“This is so fun even before we start playing games. What is this? It’s fun.”
“It’s interesting to see everyone’s rooms.”
“So far, the most interesting room is Katori’s.”
“Yeah, don’t look at it.”
Doing something online felt less convenient than in person, but this is actually fun.
You don’t usually see each other’s living situations. So, it’s refreshing when you get a glimpse of them.
“Okay. What should we play?”
“Oh! I have a game we can play online. I’ll send the URL!”
Also, we can do things that aren’t possible in person. We can’t play PC games face-to-face.
“Aah! Kariya! It’s your fault! I died because of you!”
“Sorry, but I died too!”
“…I was also killed.”
“But I also died!”
“Just because you die doesn’t make it okay. This grudge will carry over to the next game. Got it?”
“Fwee… Big brothers, you’re so scary…”
“Don’t pretend to be a little girl. Don’t pretend to be a little girl with that voice.”
‘Fwee… Big brothers, you’re so scary…’
“Just because it’s in text chat doesn’t make it okay!”
…We play games online while talking like usual.
It’s a very fresh experience. Well, let’s enjoy this for what it is.
“Okay, let’s play werewolf all afternoon.”
“I’ve always wanted to try werewolf where the wolves can chat at night.”
So, we’ll play the werewolf game in the afternoon. We’ll let a dedicated app handle the GM role.
…And unlike face-to-face werewolf, in this online werewolf, ‘the wolves can chat at night.’ You can’t do this in face-to-face werewolf. If you try, the wolves would have to decide on their targets through gestures at night.
Of course, allowing wolves to consult gives them an advantage. So we adjusted the roles to make it harder for the wolves. Since we’re a small group, the roles are somewhat random…
…As a result, Hagasaki-san and Suzumoto teamed up as shared players and ate the villagers without any madman, Katori stayed perfectly hidden and won while I was on the front line, Hariu accidentally used the wolf chat in the public chat, and Maito-san’s solo wolf stealth caused the fortune teller Toriumi and the seer Kadomi-kun to be suspected and sunk… A lot happened.
We also played some games that can only be done online. For games where the GM and players, or players among themselves, need to secretly communicate, online is better. We didn’t play it this time, but games like Paranoia are an example.
With the chat, we can also communicate anonymously. Playing werewolf without knowing who is who was interesting because it was hard to use each other’s playing habits as clues.
Well, it ended up that you could tell who was who by the typing speed.
…Maito-san is incredibly fast at typing. So, while she doesn’t talk much in face-to-face werewolf, she talked the most in text chat werewolf, which was unusual.
We also used online features for fun. ‘Each person comes up with two random words, and we search two of them on a specific web search engine. The one with the fewest hits wins.’ Or, ‘Search your own name and the one closest to the predicted hit count wins.’
Conversely, we did activities that we could do because we were at home. ‘A scavenger hunt where you bring something that fits a given topic from your house.’
…Well, we spent the whole day playing like this.
“Ah, I need to get going. I have to start preparing dinner.”
In the evening, Maito-san said that and disappeared. Well, it’s about that time.
…After a while, from Maito-san’s mic, which she apparently forgot to mute, we could faintly hear the sounds of chopping and frying.
“…Fresh.”
“Yeah, it’s fresh.”
It’s kind of… well, when we see each other online like this, we get a glimpse into each other’s lives. I felt the same during the scavenger hunt earlier.
“Hearing the sounds of daily life makes me feel restless…”
“Yeah. When Kadomi-kun went to the bathroom earlier, we all felt restless too…”
“Eh… e-excuse me…?”
“Just kidding. We only heard the sound of flushing.”
“…If this weren’t online, I’d punch you.”
It’s a strange feeling, like there’s both distance and no distance. Indeed.
We can hear sounds and see each other. But with just one click, we can cut off everything. We can tease each other, but we can’t fight.
…It’s very modern, I guess. Somehow, that’s the impression I get.
After playing a few more games, and having Maito-san rejoin us after finishing her dinner preparations, we played one more game of werewolf. Then, the first online chemistry club meeting came to an end.
Without travel time, we could spend more time playing games. However… there was still something missing.
We could play games, but the sense of communication was lacking. It’s hard to explain, but there’s definitely a feeling of discomfort.
…Today’s experiment was undeniably fun, and I’m glad we did it. So, today’s event was worth doing. That’s for sure.
But still… the flu is quite a nuisance.
After the weekend, our class closure was lifted, and with the entrance exams over, our regular school days resumed.
“Ah, meeting in person is different, after all.”
“Yeah.”
As usual, we gathered in the chemistry lab. Meeting offline is fundamentally different from meeting online.
“…Shall we play Daifugo?”
“Let’s do it!”
“Alright, let’s go.”
“Wait a bit! I’ll join after I put away these reagents!”
Kadomi-san quickly pulled out a deck of cards, and Daifugo began.
From the chemistry prep room, we could hear Maito-san putting things away, then hear her footsteps as she came back. We gathered around a table, and the cards were dealt.
“Ah, this is it. Yeah. This is what I wanted.”
“Daifugo is hard to play online.”
“There are a lot of local rules too.”
We received the cards, checked them, decided the order with rock-paper-scissors… and the game started.
…I’m not a nostalgist, nor am I against science. Quite the opposite.
But still, playing games face-to-face like this has a special joy.
On the other hand, online has its own merits.
“Online is more casual, and we can do it for just two hours or so.”
“If we can find the time, we don’t have to worry about travel or location.”
“We don’t have to worry about curfew either.”
“Yeah, it’s nice…”
…In conclusion, fun is fun, no matter the format.
We will probably continue to have online chemistry club meetings occasionally alongside our offline ones.
With online meetings, even after we graduate, we can easily hold them. It’s not a bad choice to get used to it now if we want to maintain our friendships.
“So, let’s have another online chemistry club meeting this Saturday.”
“Okay!”
…With that, I think we’ll start playing online occasionally from now on.
In that sense… should we be grateful for the flu?