Wait, my mom locked the front door before she left. I didn’t get up during the day, so I didn’t unlock it. So...how? Did my mom stop by before Nanami came over and unlock the door?
“Nanami, wasn’t the front door locked?” I finally asked.
“Oh, yeah. I had a spare key,” Nanami mumbled.
A spare key?! Wait, how come I’ve never heard of this before? Wait, Nanami has a spare key to my house?
As I lay there confused by this new piece of information, Nanami saw me and began thinking...and then waved her hands in a panic.
“D-Don’t worry! It’s not like I went and made a copy of your house key without asking!” she stammered.
“Oh, I wasn’t worried about that. Where did you get an idea like that one...?”
“Well, lately I think you suspect me of being a yandere.”
Ah, yeah, that would be my fault. I did mention it offhandedly once. But I had faith that Nanami wouldn’t do anything illegal or immoral like that. A yandere who followed the law seemed like a pretty innovative idea, but maybe in this situation I was just biased.
Let’s get back on topic. The spare key.
“I didn’t know you had a spare key to my house,” I muttered.
“Oh, um, yeah. I said that wrong. It’s not a key that I had,” she began.
“What do you mean?” I couldn’t help asking.
“It’s your dad’s spare key.”
Um...my dad’s?
Because I remained mildly confused, Nanami explained to me what transpired.
Once she’d gotten permission from my mom, the problem of the key arose. As my mom and Nanami were debating what to do, it was decided that my dad—who happened to be nearby—would deliver a key to Nanami to resolve the issue.
I see, I see. That makes perfect sense. I should thank my dad later...
“Except...he gave me the spare key in front of everyone, so...”
My brain froze at Nanami’s new reveal. Wait, what did you just say? You got the spare key...in front of everyone? And by everyone, you mean...everyone?
I felt the blood leaving my face, despite the fact that I had a fever. My parents had come to the school festival, so my classmates probably recognized them. And precisely because they recognized them, the fact that my dad gave Nanami the spare key...
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I groaned.
Dad, why couldn’t you have been a little more discreet? But hold on, sneaking it to her would probably have been even more questionable. Yeah, if that’s the case, it’s better to do it out in the open. People might tease me about it later, but that’s better than my dad’s social rep getting tarnished in some way.
“Couldn’t you have just called me to tell me to unlock the door?” I asked.
“We wanted you to rest while you’re sick,” Nanami said softly.
Everyone was so kind, they were damn near overprotective. Was it just because I was sick? Nanami had even helped me drink through a straw earlier.
“Thank you,” I finally said.
I was about to apologize at first, but I corrected myself. This was a moment for gratitude instead of apologies. Nanami seemed really happy, though, and told me not to worry about it at all.
“So you want some jelly? Oh, I bought some flan too,” she said, extolling their benefits for a sick person as she took them out of a convenience store bag. She’s right that I don’t usually eat this stuff when I’m not sick...
“Maybe I will have some,” I said.
With Nanami’s support, I slowly sat up in bed, with her watching me in concern all the while. Since I wasn’t feeling as bad as I was earlier, I smiled at her and told her that I was okay. Maybe because I had been curled up under my blankets, though, the air in my room did feel pretty cool. I must have been sweating in my sleep, too, because my pajamas were damp.
Nanami placed a blanket over my shoulders once I’d sat up. Even as I thanked her, a part of me worried that I might smell bad because of how sweaty I was.
I thought of mentioning it, but Nanami sat on my bed with me and, holding the jelly cup in her hand, brought a spoonful up to my mouth with the words, “Here, say ‘aah.’”
She had come to see me still in her school uniform. The room must have felt warm to her, because she had unbuttoned the top buttons of her shirt underneath her jacket.
Nanami. With her shirt unbuttoned. Was sitting on my bed. Just that fact alone seemed enough to raise my temperature again.
“No, I can eat it myself,” I protested.
“Oooh, no. If you’re sick, you should be taken care of. Should I have worn a nurse outfit? I didn’t bring it today,” she said, paying no heed to my protests as she continued holding the spoon up to my mouth. Nothing she said helped to allay my embarrassment about being looked after—quite the opposite.
“A nurse outfit?” I repeated.
“Yeah. A nurse’s costume. And it’s a miniskirt, of course. It’s the kind where it looks like you can see my underwear, but you really can’t—but when I wear it I’ll be sure to wear a cute pair anyway,” she explained.
Why is she talking like that’s something I’m concerned about? No, that’s not what I’m wondering; I wanna know why she has such a thing...
“Is it from Yu-senpai?” I guessed.
“Oh, you totally guessed right! Yup, Nao-chan gave it to me.”
Nanami continued explaining that Yu-senpai had given it to her because apparently the chest area had gotten too tight. It seemed, though, that the hand-me-down from Yu-senpai was the perfect size for Nanami.
That’s not it either. Just how many different costumes does that lady have? That bunny costume from before was from her, I’m pretty sure. I have to ask her the next time I’m at work. How dare she give Nanami such sexy clothes... Wait, I feel like I wanna thank her instead of get mad at her. Maybe I should think about this later. I’m too jumbled right now.
“Nanami, have you been getting more into cosplaying lately?” I asked.
“Hmm, it’s not really cosplay, but more like I like getting to wear different kinds of clothes. If I said I liked cosplay, I’d feel bad toward the other girls who really do do it as a hobby. I’m really not that serious about it,” she explained.
Oh, I see. I guess I sort of get it, and I sort of don’t. As I was half-grasping the situation, Nanami said “say ‘aah’” again, so I ate the next spoonful of jelly that was offered to me.
Oh, that’s tasty. It’s a fruity, peach-flavored jelly. The texture is so smooth it’s practically gliding down my throat.
I had eaten lunch, but not a whole lot of it, so for my mostly empty stomach the jelly was really hitting the spot.
“There are girls in our class who like cosplaying too. They’ve asked me if I’d like to cosplay with them sometime,” Nanami continued.
Nanami got invited to cosplay, huh? I wondered if that was an anime cosplay, or more like the nurse cosplay that she mentioned earlier.
I accidentally pictured Nanami wearing a nurse’s outfit and was forced to quickly turn away from her. When my eyes focused on my phone instead, I saw that there were a number of notifications that I hadn’t checked.
With Nanami still feeding me jelly, I picked up my phone. Unlocking it revealed that I did, in fact, have several new unread messages.
Aside from the ads, the rest were all messages from my classmates. Actually, there were also messages from my parents, even though I hadn’t noticed them before.