“No. Before I’m your girlfriend, you’re a sick person.”
“Ugh…”
With Remi waiting at the entrance, it wouldn’t be good to drag this time out unnecessarily.
“Then let’s do it together. Sorry for making you help.”
“Not at all.”
Hanazono smiled brightly and said “heave-ho” as she lifted the futon.
When I hurriedly supported the weight from the opposite side, a heavy load attacked my body.
As I stood at the bottom of the stairs supporting the main weight, the heaviness of my body became more pronounced.
…Had my fever risen from the earlier exchange between the two girls?
While we were moving up the stairs with heavy steps, Hanazono called my name in a low voice.
“Hey, Yosshi.”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t worry about me knowing Nikaido-san.”
I opened my eyes wide and looked up at Hanazono.
“I don’t want you to cut off your long-standing relationship for my sake.”
It was indeed a helpful suggestion.
“…Thank you. …But, were you two… on bad terms?”
“Not so much bad terms, but we’re completely different types of people. I’m just being jealous on my own.”
After Hanazono smiled in a troubled way,
“Ah, but really don’t worry about it, okay? That’s a separate matter from this.”
After opening the door to the room, she turned her gaze back to me.
“I think it’s good that you became my boyfriend, Yosshi.”
“…Thank you.”
“The people who have known you longer have left a deeper influence on the current you. In other words, they’re the people who created the boyfriend you are now. So I should be grateful to them too.”
…What a wonderful way of thinking.
The side of Hanazono I didn’t know runs deeper than I thought.
But the Hanazono I love also comes out like this right away. That puts me at ease.
When we placed the mattress on the bed, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my heart as well.
“Phew… now I can rest on the bed. Thank you.”
“Yeah. You’re going to rest now, right? It must be tough feeling unwell.”
“No, strangely I don’t feel bad at all. It’s just that my fever is high.”
“Really? I have times like that too.”
“Right? Let’s just talk about what we discussed earlier. Want to try sitting on the bed?”
“Talking is fine, but I’d rather you sit down.”
“Thank you. I’ll sit next to you too.”
Hanazono said “Good” and relaxed her cheeks, sitting down on the bed.
The bed sank slightly under her weight.
When I followed suit beside her, it made a creaking sound.
“It’s so fluffy.”
“Right? I got a good mattress.”
“Sleep quality is important, after all. I’m jealous.”
…The sight of her sitting on the bed is somehow bad for my heart.
Improper images flashed through my mind, and I struggled to chase away the distracting thoughts.
Then.
“…You won’t push me down, right?”
“Eh?! Of course not!”
“Ah, of course. That’s a bit of a complex feeling though.”
Hanazono put both hands on her knees and dropped her shoulders.
I hurriedly added, “Plus I’d give you my cold.”
“Are you worried about what Nikaido-san said? I’d be fine even if you gave me your cold.”
“No, I don’t want to give it to you. I’m a boyfriend among boyfriends.”
“Hehe, what’s that? It’s fine to give it to your girlfriend. It’s okay to cause trouble for your girlfriend.”
Hanazono suddenly stood up and continued her words.
“But you can’t cause trouble for other people. Understand?”
“Y-yeah…”
“Nikaido-san is also ‘other people,’ you know?”
I involuntarily opened my eyes wide.
I didn’t think Hanazono would say it so clearly.
And again, that cold voice.
As I thought, the relationship between these two is quite bad.
Moreover, it’s as if something happened between them in the past──
“…I understand. I’m well aware that Nikaido isn’t my girlfriend.”
Hanazono is the girl I should treasure most.
But Remi isn’t a stranger either.
Without compromising that truth, this was about the limit of what I could answer.
As if seeing through my thoughts, Hanazono relaxed her mouth.
“…Well done. For now, I’ll let that be the answer.”
“…Thank you.”
“But I get jealous. Childhood friends really are special, aren’t they?”
“Hanazono getting jealous, really? That makes me kind of happy though.”
“Of course. I’m your girlfriend, you know?”
“…That’s right. Sorry.”
Normally, from a girlfriend’s perspective, having another girl in the house would be unthinkable.
Even a guy like me can understand that to some extent.
“Maybe you don’t have enough awareness of being a boyfriend either, Yosshi. Because you don’t try to rely on me. I’m still lacking too, but we’re even.”
“Yeah… that’s right. I think I really do lack that awareness. I’ve always thought things were going well with Hanazono, and becoming romantically involved was my dream. So suddenly relying on you and all…”
I can’t switch over. Even if I could switch over, it would definitely take some time.
People can’t change unless they can incorporate it into their unconscious thinking.
“When we held hands before, you said you felt it more then, right?”
“Yeah, I said that. I see, then maybe…”
What if we increased opportunities to hold hands?
Just as I was about to suggest that.
“…Want to try going further?”
My movement stops.
Going further.
Going further – could that mean what I think it means?
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“Eh. Wait, for this kind of thing, there’s mood and…”
“Isn’t there mood now?”
Hanazono smiled gracefully.
The background is a bed. Hanazono’s bottom is slightly sinking in, creating wrinkles.
Two people under one roof, a girl in a boy’s room.
“Ah… maybe there is?”
“Don’t you want to, Yosshi?”
Hanazono asks gently.
Understanding her true intention, I became flustered.
“No, um. I thought this kind of thing comes after dates and various other things, if Hanazono had that kind of dream──”
“You won’t do it now?”
“Now? Isn’t now a bit too sudden?”
“It is sudden. I just thought of it now. But so what? Don’t you want to confirm that I’m your girlfriend, that you’re my boyfriend?”
Hanazono said that and tilted her head slightly.
“If you don’t want to, that’s fine.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to…”
Hanazono chuckled and took a step closer to me.
“Then let’s do it? A kiss.”
A kiss.
The shock of those two characters coming from Hanazono’s mouth brought back a certain scene.
It was what Hanazono said when she rejected the senior.
──So then, we kiss, have sex… and only after that, finally, my inner worth gets measured.
“Is it okay to go further now? Is that fine with you, Hanazono? Because this is… a kiss we’re talking about.”
“Do you think there’s any girlfriend who would hate kissing her boyfriend?”
Her tone was gentle.
“Besides, Yoshiki-kun, no matter how close you are, you’ve never done it with Nikaido-san, right?”
“Of course not. She’s──”
“Your childhood friend. Then you’d at least hold hands, right? You might have even bathed together.”
Bull’s-eye.
Hanazono narrowed her eyes with a displeased look.
“Honest boy.”
“I’m, I’m sorry. It was when we were little…”
“You’re so easy to read. You need to get a little better at lying.”
“I basically don’t want to lie.”
“Yosshi, you’re that kind of person, aren’t you? Geez, Nikaido-san has gone much further than me. I’m jealous, even though I’m the girlfriend.”
With that one statement, I made up my mind.
Perhaps noticing the change in my expression, Hanazono lowered the corners of her eyes.
Then, in a testing tone, she asked:
“…Is it okay to give me your cold?”
“If you don’t want to catch it, move away.”
“It’s okay to move away now?”
“No, it’s not.”
“Hehe, which is it?”
The distance between us was the closest it had ever been.
Hanazono put her arms around my back and looked up at me for a while.
In her large eyes, the tips of each long eyelash swayed.
Getting closer.
“Here goes.”
Hanazono pulled me close.
Her lips disappeared from view, and I felt a warm sensation on my cheek.
──This is a kiss.
The kiss I had longed for so much.
The kiss I fantasized about night after night in middle school.
What would it feel like, what kind of situation would it be, who would I do it with?
Even if it was just on the cheek, the kiss I had yearned for, at such an unexpected timing.
And a time so precious that everything else became irrelevant.
When that sensation left, Hanazono was smiling right in front of me.
“…Too bad, it was on the cheek.”
“H-Hanazono.”
While maintaining eye contact, I played with the sleeve of her clothes and reached her hand.
“Mm… one more time?”
Hanazono looked up at me and smiled brightly.
“Okay.”
This time from my side.
Her soft cheek. I pressed my lips against her translucent cheek.
My boiling brain was telling me to pull Hanazono’s body close.
I wonder if following this command is what the relationship between boyfriend and girlfriend allows.
After the second kiss ended, Hanazono whispered while looking up at me.
“…Even though it was just on the cheek, it feels good.”
“Yeah, it’s… amazing.”
“It’s my first time being kissed and doing the kissing.”
“…Me too.”
“This is what everyone moves on to. …Amazing, everyone.”
Even in middle school, there were guys who climbed the ladder to adulthood.
I envied them, thinking they were quite early, and was half jealous.
But this reaction is.
“…Let’s do it next time too. When your cold gets better.”
“Is it okay? With me?”
“I want it to be you. My first time, with you.”
Hanazono whispered and put her arms around my waist again.
A message that she accepts everything.
I felt like this embrace contained that.
“I was told by you here, wasn’t I? That I fell in love with only what was visible.”
“…Yeah. I said that.”
“…I think I can see a little bit of what’s not visible now. Do you still like me? Or did you want me not to change from what was visible? I can go back now.”
Change.
Middle school Hanazono.
The way she looked at Yuzuha’s group.
The way she looked at Remi.
The Hanazono Yuuka I don’t know definitely exists.
But I.
“Accepting everything as it is, is a boyfriend’s job.”
“…I see. That’s quite a hard job.”
I was captivated by her charming expression for a while.
When I went to the entrance, Remi was standing there looking restless.
When Remi noticed us, she said in a displeased tone:
“That took a long time.”
“Yeah, a little.”
“I see. I wonder what you were doing.”
Hanazono didn’t seem to mind Remi’s curt response and replied in a soft tone:
“Well then, shall we go to school together?”
…If they’re on bad terms, it would be better to go to school separately.
I don’t really understand, but maybe the two of them have a unique relationship.
“Well then, Yosshi. Take care.”
After Remi glanced at me briefly, she left through the entrance without a word.
In the end, Remi and Hanazono went to school together.
I was curious about what they were talking about.
But even if I asked, both of them would probably dodge the question.
I don’t know why, but I had that feeling.
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