“Konuma-kun, are you okay now? Even though I didn’t even call you by your first name...”
“Y-Yeah...”
Gasping for breath, I finally reached Mac with Ichikawa.
While standing in line at the register, Ichikawa was saying things like, “I wonder what kind of shake I should get today?” No, there’s only the McShake...
Hmm, even so.
In a situation like this, I wonder if it would be better if I paid for Ichikawa’s share too.
Yeah, that would feel more... like we’re dating. I think.
With that thought in mind, as Ichikawa placed her order at the register (for some reason, she also ordered the coffee I was planning to get), I tried to pull out about 200 yen from beside her.
“I’ll pay for my own share, okay?”
She stopped me.
“No, but...”
Looking straight up at me as I hesitated, she said,
“Instead of that, let’s come to Mac together twice as often, okay?”
“O-Oh...!”
On the tray before us, about ten long, thin packets of sugar had been left scattered messily. What’s this about...?
After paying and heading up to the second floor, we naturally gravitated toward a window seat.
““Ah...””
Sitting there alone was a certain little devil with fluffy pink-beige twin tails—everyone’s idol (though she came in 4th in the Miss Contest).
Seeming to notice our voices, she glanced back at us with a glare.
“Waaaaaaaah, Takuto-kuuuuuuuun!”
With teary eyes, she rushed over to us as if to cling to me.
“So, what happened?”
After Ichikawa calmed Erina-san down, the two of us sat across from her.
“Because Takuto-kun wouldn’t pay any attention to Erina, I came to Mac all by myseeeeelf...”
“Ah, no, rather than what you were doing just now, I meant what happened in general...”
Could you please stop trying to spark a fire where there’s currently no fuel? Ichikawa is right here.
As if my worries were nothing, she let out a calculatedly cute sniffle despite not actually crying, and began to speak.
“Erina, like, performed as a guest vocalist for the Cherry Boys at the School Festival Rock-On, right?”
“Yeah...”
“That was really cute and great!”
“Ah, um, thanks...”
She had appeared as a surprise guest during the Cherry Boys' live set and sang YUI’s 'CHE.R.RY'. Everyone was captivated by her little-devil idol charms.
And there, Erina-san had done something akin to a confession to her long-time crush, Kenji Hazama, by using the lyrics: 'You've probably noticed by now, right?'
“Since then, Kenji’s been acting weird...”
“In what way?”
“Whenever I try to talk to him, he just gives me a refreshing, awkward smile and goes somewhere else... Did he not understand Erina’s feelings...?”
Erina-san slurped her chocolate McShake.
“No, if anything, isn’t he acting weird because the message *did* get through?”
“I wonder if that’s it!? You’re right... then, does that mean it’s a no-go after all... Maybe Erina moved a bit too fast... Ugh, either way is fine, I just want an answer...”
She grumbled and slumped onto the table with a “Fuhee.”
“I understand, Erina-chan!”
Suddenly, the girl next to me slammed the table in agreement and leaned forward.
“Hohe?”
“You mean, there’s no way he doesn’t understand when you’ve said it that clearly, right!?”
“Y-Yeah...”
“You mean, you wonder why he’s doing things to dodge the subject, right!?”
“T-That’s right...!”
Hmm, why is Ichikawa-san getting so heated up?
“We’re putting a lot of courage into saying it, so we want a proper response, right!?”
“Exactly!?”
While I was thinking about it, Erina-san’s switch got flipped too.
“Why are boys like that!? I mean, no matter how you look at it, that was a confession, right!? Was there any point in dragging it out until the school festival!?”
“Right!?”
Wait, wait, Ichikawa-san, is your 'that' referring to Erina-san’s 'that'? Hazama didn’t drag anything out until the school festival, did he? ...A lot happened! I already explained it! I’m sorry!
“What do you think, Takuto-kun!?”
Picking up momentum, Erina-san leaned forward toward me.
“Well, I’m sure Hazama has his reasons...”
““What reasons!?””
Hey, you two, this is a public place...
But in reality, it’s likely true that Hazama has his reasons. Certainly, he has more legitimate reasons than the person Ichikawa-san is currently mad at.
To begin with, if you think about it normally, Hazama should still have feelings for Sako. It was under that premise that he received Erina-san’s confession.
They are a close trio, and Erina-san is a female friend Hazama can even talk to about romance. I’m not familiar with his social circle, but looking from the outside, Erina-san is surely his best friend among those female friends.
He must feel, at least a little, that he doesn’t want to break that relationship itself. If he didn’t, Erina-san wouldn’t be rewarded for her feelings anyway.
However, there’s also the part of him that was honestly moved by Erina-san’s confession.
'Wait, if my feelings for Hasu disappear because of something like this, what does that say about me?' His own pride or sense of duty is at work, and in short, he’s in a panic.
Whether he should reject her properly or accept her. He doesn’t even know if he should put it on hold, so he’s putting *that* on hold as well—that’s likely his current state.
...Since when did I become so capable of understanding the subtleties of people’s hearts?
While surprising myself with this update that discarded the 'escape' of being dense, if there is only one thing I can say for sure...
“It means it’s not like there’s zero chance.”
“Takuto-kun is saying something like he actually understands... even though it’s Takuto-kun. None of the romantic logic you speak so grandly about clicks with me at all...”
That... is painful, but undeniable...
“Muu... I’m at my wit’s end...”
Erina-san slumped onto the table again. She knows some surprisingly difficult phrases.
“What should we do...”
“Yeah...”
While we were thinking with our arms crossed...
“Ah.” “Seriously...?”
Right then.
“Wow, that’s some genius-level bad timing...”
Sako and Hazama appeared from the bottom of the stairs, each carrying a tray.