Chapter 145

“Fweh?” I grabbed the book and took off the dust jacket to reveal the cover: The Story of How I Dealt with My Unsociable Childhood Friend It had an illustration of a handsome guy grabbing a pretty girl’s chin. She looked spellbound, and her clothes were coming off. This…is erotica, right? “Wha?! Wait! Nooo! Don’t look!” She snatched the book away. “Th-th-th-this isn’t what you think!” She was beyond panicked. I figured it was just a light novel, but her reaction was too big for that. She escaped from the bed and hid the book behind her. “It’s literature, kind of,” she said, red in the face. “‘Kind of.’ So not really.” Her pajamas were disheveled, and the top button of her shirt was undone, revealing quite a lot of her chest. Yet, despite all the exposure, there was something I couldn’t see. Do girls…not wear anything…when in bed? “I don’t think it’s good for a kid like you to be reading adult material,” I said. “I-it’s not that! It’s pure love! J-just…an extension of romance…which does get depicted a bit…” Her voice trailed off as she looked away. “So you read that stuff?” “Don’t give me that condescending look!” “So is it good? Any scenes you particularly liked?” “Don’t ask that!” Okay, enough teasing. It seemed she really was feeling better. “It was just more stimulating than I expected…and it cleared my mind.” Apparently, it had her wide awake. “What are you making me say, you meanie?” She puffed up her cheeks and put her knee back on the bed. “I didn’t ask you to…” Just then, I heard steps coming up the stairs and approaching her room, so I dashed out of her bed and sat down on the chair. It was her grandma, bringing us tea. “G-grandma, we don’t need anything,” Fushimi said, shooing her away. I mean, I don’t want to stay too long. I stood up to leave. “You’re leaving already?” she said. “Yeah. See you tomorrow.” Her eyebrows drooped, and she gazed at me sadly. Regardless, I waved and walked out of her room, then bade her grandma good-bye and left the house. Similar things had happened a few times before… What was she thinking? Could it be that she felt the same special way about me as I did about her…? No way. Not about me. Being childhood friends, we had bathed together and slept in the same bed when we were children—this was probably just an extension of that. I bumped into Torigoe on my way home. “You’re back from seeing her?” she asked. “Yup. She seemed like she was doing pretty good. I think she can go to school tomorrow.” “Thank goodness… By the way, you didn’t do anything weird to her while she was sleeping, right?” “No!” “Of course.” She nodded. “I knew you wouldn’t try anything like that. You don’t have it in you.” I didn’t particularly like the way she phrased that. She wasn’t wrong…but it didn’t feel nice being called a wimp to my face. “She asked about you,” I said. “She’ll be delighted to see you.” “I hope so,” she said, starting off for Fushimi’s house. Wait, why’s she coming from the direction of my house? Did she get lost? I wondered about it as I made my way home. Mana was already back, sitting on the sofa in her uniform, and she forced me to say I’m home by kicking me the moment she saw me. “…I’m home.” “Welcome back, Bubby. Don’t forget to greet me.” “You’re too proper for a gyaru.” I sighed and sat down on one end of the sofa. Immediately, she put her feet on my lap. “Hey.” “Hee-hee.” Her skirt was so ridiculously short, I could almost see under it. “Shizu just dropped by. You do something, Bubby?” “I met her on the way here. I don’t think I did anything. Why would she come over?” Torigoe was friends with Mana, so maybe she just stopped by to say hello. “She asked about what you were like as a kid.” “When I was a kid? For what reason?” I raised an eyebrow. Mana tilted her head while staring at her phone. “Who knows?” “What did you say?” “That as far back as I can remember, you’ve always been kind, cool, and the best brother ever.” “Don’t lie to her.” “I exaggerate, but I really do think that,” she said bashfully before standing up and leaving for the kitchen. Why not ask me about it? Well, whatever the reason, it’s probably harmless. Shizuka Torigoe “I brought some pudding from the convenience store. That okay?” “Of course.” Hiina sat up in bed. Just as Takamori said, she was already back in good health. She opened the packaging and grabbed a spoonful of pudding. “Delicious. The sweetness radiates through my whole body…” “Please.” I’d bought one for myself, too, and I took a bite. “I was surprised to hear you caught a cold, Hiina. You seemed somehow immune.” “Shii, of course I catch colds. What do you think I am?” She frowned. I could tell she wasn’t really mad about my comment. We spent some time talking about Takamori’s visit, and she told me he’d accidentally found out about the book she was reading. I laughed out loud upon hearing the title. “You’re totally reading porn.” “I-it’s not that dirty. It’s pure love.” “Sure, sure. Vanilla porn.” I was certain of it after hearing the name of the publisher. Maybe Hiina was more uneducated about this sort of thing than I’d thought. I could already imagine her thinking about Takamori while reading it and squirming in bed. “I imagine he must’ve been shocked. Think about it—his childhood friend is suddenly reading erotica.” “Shut up!” She turned away, miffed. Even I found her adorable in her pajamas, making that gesture. There really had to be something wrong with Takamori for him to see her like this and not try anything. He knew as much as Hiina did about sex, and had a libido, and yet. “Huh? Bubby? Mmm, he was so cool. So kind. Every time I cried, he ran up to me and asked, Mana, are you okay? Hee-hee.” I couldn’t get any useful information out of ManaMana. She spoiled her brother way too much. And he was the same with her. It was not out of mere curiosity that I wanted to know more about Takamori. I wanted confirmation of what Himeji had said. I heard Hiina’s grandma say something from downstairs. I strained my ears; it sounded like she was going to go buy something. “Hey, has Takamori always been like that?” “Ryou? Yeah, he’s always been like that. Although he started putting on airs after middle school.” I imagined childhood friends were sort of like relatives one step removed. If you stayed like that for very long, classmates would start teasing you, so I understood why he wanted to create some distance. “What about grade school or preschool?” “You’re getting greedy.” She smirked. “I don’t mean it like that.” “Like what, eh?” “Oh, gosh. You’re such a pain.” Hiina giggled and stood up. “I’ll pour some tea. Or would you rather have coffee?” “Oh, thank you. Either is fine.” “All right, then!” She left the room. It was obvious she wasn’t sick anymore. And she was in a good enough mood to start teasing me. Something must have happened while Takamori was here. …What if they kissed? I felt bad just thinking about it, so I decided not to dwell on it. Some time went by and Hiina still hadn’t come back. I grabbed an old notebook off the shelf above her desk. I felt guilty, but I’d been wondering about it since I got there. Among the orderly textbooks and notebooks on the shelf, this volume alone looked older. I figured it was a diary she had from ages ago. I flipped through its pages. It smelled dusty. It really was a diary. But it was older than I’d thought—it was dated from before we were born. I skimmed through it and realized it was her mother’s. Why does she have this? I opened it to the newest entry and worked my way backward, finding a few mentions of the Takamori family here and there. They talked about the relationship between the two families, and the owner’s thoughts about the Takamori parents and their son, Ryou. I wouldn’t have been able to take in this much so quickly if I weren’t an avid reader in my spare time. “…” I heard footsteps and quickly put the notebook back in place. “I brought coffee.” “Mm. Thanks.” Hiina sat down on the bed, and I sat down on the chair. Chatting with her was fun, but I couldn’t concentrate on the conversation. She had to have read the diary, or else why would it be there…? From what I had just read, Himeji’s conclusion wasn’t entirely off the mark. Back in the library, she’d said: “According to what I remember, Ryou turned out like that because Hina betrayed him. It made him distrustful of women, or something, and he’s been subconsciously avoiding romance ever since…” Himeji said it was Hiina’s fault, but the truth was written down in Satomi Ashihara’s diary. The diary’s writer had told her daughter’s friend: “Hina doesn’t really like you.” She had looked back on it later and written an apology, regretting that she’d vented like that to a child. If the trauma from that incident had made Takamori subconsciously change his behavior, then everything clicked. It was like a curse. I could tell it happened with me and Himeji. And it had to be even stronger when it came to Hiina. The fact that he was so dense seemed perfectly reasonable. In fact, he was too sensitive. He picked up on that kind of atmosphere right away and subconsciously avoided it. Were the childhood friends from the Takamori and Fushimi families destined to be unhappy? If Takamori remained in the dark, they’d never find happiness even if they got together. I excused myself from the Fushimi residence and called Himeji on my way to the station. “Hello?” she answered suspiciously. “Sorry to interrupt your practice.” “Don’t worry, we’re on a break. What’s the matter?” “It’s about your proposal.” Himeji waited anxiously for my answer. “I accept. Let’s work together.”