“Um, yes...uh, how can I put it? Are we going out...?” Teshikaga-kun muttered. He was scratching his cheek, slightly embarrassed, and seemingly still too reticent to make any kind of declarations. But his expression seemed a happy one.
Hitoshi, who was sitting on Teshikaga-kun’s other side, seemed interested in the story as well.
“Just last night, I managed to tell Kotoha that I like her,” Teshikaga-kun explained.
“Oh, finally,” I returned.
“Congrats!” Hitoshi exclaimed, clapping. When I joined the applause, Teshikaga-kun turned scarlet from the embarrassment. I see, these two finally... I couldn’t help feeling a little emotional myself.
And yet Teshikaga-kun wasn’t continuing the story. Since he still hadn’t responded definitively to the bit about going out, Hitoshi and I both tilted our heads.
“You two are going out, right?” I asked.
“Probably. Most likely. Definitely. I think,” came the answer.
Huh? What’s with that wishy-washy response?
Hitoshi, too, had his brows furrowed. I couldn’t figure out how to interpret Teshikaga-kun’s reply, so I tilted my head once again.
Teshikaga-kun, on the other hand, had his arms crossed in front of his chest and was groaning.
“Well, so, I told her that I liked her, but before I could ask her out, Kotoha kind of lost control, and we ended up...”
After a moment of silence, Hitoshi asked, “Did ya do it?”
Teshikaga-kun’s entire body quivered. Because the chair he was sitting on was attached to ours, both Hitoshi and I felt the reverberation like it was some kind of mini earthquake.
Hitoshi had said it as a joke, but Teshikaga-kun’s reaction had him covering his mouth with both hands. Hitoshi’s expression basically communicated Wait, seriously?
I wasn’t expecting such a question to come up here and now, and because Teshikaga-kun’s reaction was completely unexpected too, I had no idea what to say next.
After a long pause, Teshikaga-kun slowly opened his mouth and said, “We didn’t go all the way, but...we, um...”
“Ah, right. Yeah, say no more,” I told him.
It seemed Shirishizu-san had gotten a bit carried away, leading them to do things that couldn’t be mentioned—but if they had done all that, then it was probably safe to say that they were now dating.
Or was it? Maybe it would be best just to confirm things for sure when they got back to Japan.
When I looked around to see what Shirishizu-san was up to, I saw that she, Nanami, and the other girls were getting excited over something. I could hear them shrieking, so maybe they were in the middle of updating each other too.
“Wow, I guess you guys are moving fast,” I sighed. “Stuff like that is a struggle for me.”
“No way, you’re moving along pretty fast too. How can you even say that when you’re already wearing an engagement ring?” Hitoshi remarked, exasperated, looking at the ring that gleamed on my index finger pointedly.
“Truly an impressive feat, master,” Teshikaga-kun agreed, his eyes sparkling as he looked at me earnestly.
“No, wait! It’s not an engagement ring, though!” I protested, trying to correct the misunderstanding.
Or is it a misunderstanding?
“Do you really think it is?” I finally asked, entirely unsure.
“Why are you asking this?” Hitoshi replied.
“I mean...I guess I wasn’t not considering that, since we exchanged rings at a church and everything. But I wasn’t sure if that didn’t feel like a bit much, given that we were still in high school,” I explained.
“Of course it’s a bit much. It’s way too much. What the hell are you saying all of a sudden? I thought Barato was something else, but you’re pretty extra yourself,” Hitoshi declared.
Arg. So that was what people objectively thought of us. Actually hearing it out loud was pretty hard to take, though maybe I had no business feeling that way, considering everything Nanami and I had done.
As I sat there trying to deal with the emotional damage of being read to filth, Hitoshi must have taken pity on me, because he followed up by saying, “But as long as Barato doesn’t mind it, it’s probably okay, right? Do you guys at least talk about it?”
“No, not really. We haven’t talked about it. Is that something couples usually talk about?” I asked.
“Hmmm, I wonder. I feel like there aren’t that many high schoolers who get that far. College students might know more,” Hitoshi said.
I see, college students. Maybe Yu-senpai? But she doesn’t have a boyfriend. Maybe I should try asking Baron-san and them one of these days.
“What about you, Hitoshi? Did you manage to get a girlfriend on this trip?” I asked. “You went to the girls’ room last night too. Any success?”
“Well, I didn’t, but...”
“Kotoha said that you traded socials with a local girl yesterday. What about that?” Teshikaga-kun asked.
I thought Hitoshi was being reluctant somehow, but after Teshikaga-kun’s question he started grinning awkwardly. Huh? How did I miss something like that?
Apparently while Nanami and I were at the church the day before, Hitoshi—who had gone sightseeing with a group of girls from the class—had met and become pretty friendly with a girl who was from the local town.
So much so, in fact, that he’d ended up hanging out with her for the rest of the day.
“Dude, why didn’t you tell me about it? You always ask me about stuff like that,” I complained.
“I guess I just couldn’t believe that it really happened, you know? Like, if I said it out loud, it might all turn into a dream or something,” Hitoshi said, sounding uncharacteristically wistful as he unlocked his phone. “We got to know each other a little bit, but I don’t think people actually keep in touch from moments like this. More likely it’ll be another good memory of my time here.”
“I see,” I murmured.
In that moment, Hitoshi appeared more mature than he usually did.