Shi— Before I could run away, Makoto pulled harder on my arm, pressing her chest against my elbow.
“We finally met again after all this time... It’d be sad if we just went back to how things were before, right?”
She has a sound argument... But also, when did you become capable of making this kind of flirty expression?!
“W-Well, yeah...” I finally said as I felt hives on my arm. “The other guys too...right?”
“Hmm? Yeah, of course. Oh, wait, did you think...” A mischievous smile spread across Makoto’s face and she looked right into my eyes. “Were you thinking of doing something...dirty with me?”
My vision blurred and it shrunk to the size of a pinhole. I shot to my feet, unable to bear this any longer.
“Bathroom...” I squeaked out before scurrying away.
After we finished bowling, we went to the karaoke place in the same building. Of course, there weren’t rooms big enough for twenty people, so we split into two groups. In our room, we had the same five members from our mini reunion and the five from Minami’s group. This was also where we planned to have lunch, so we ordered some karaage, takoyaki, french fries, and some other things, filling our table with the classic go-tos. As we ate, Sota and some others used the tablet to pick out songs.
“Gettin’ kinda nervous... Feels like my coolness is being judged.”
“You worry too much! Anime songs, VTuber songs—anything’s good! Put in whatever you want!”
Amid the excitement, I strongly gripped my cold cup. Makoto was sitting next to me. She’d done so as if it were the most natural thing in the world, all before I’d even realized she’d sat down. There was nowhere for me to run.
Normally I wouldn’t even give this a second thought, especially since we’d usually sat like this whenever the five of us went to karaoke in the past. But now I couldn’t help but think that she had an ulterior motive for sitting next to me.
One way to escape was by grabbing the microphone and singing, but I really wasn’t in the mood. My body was tense and my head wasn’t working. I couldn’t remember any of the songs that I could sing. Resigned to my fate, I began eating karaage silently, like someone who’d come to a karaoke party but wasn’t friends with anyone there.
“Are you hungry?” Makoto asked, smiling slightly, making me nearly choke on the piece I was eating. She giggled as I gulped down some orange juice to wash it down. “What’re you panicking for? The food’s not going anywhere.”
One of the girls from Minami’s group picked up the mike. “First victim! Wish me luck!”
Everyone cheered for her as she began. She sang confidently and well for about a minute or so, but...
“Gwah!”
As a joke, the other girls began stuffing karaage into her mouth. She tried to keep singing with her mouth full, and her friends kept feeding her. It was really a childish way for them to play around with each other. But honestly, it was kinda heartwarming to watch.
“I like the way they think,” Makoto said as she watched. She moved toward the takoyaki near her and grabbed one and put it in front of me, steam still coming off of it. “Say ‘ahh.’”
“Wh-Why?”
“You’re hungry, aren’t you? I’ll feed you.”
“I can eat by myself!”
“You really know how to embarrass a girl, don’t you? Come on, open wide!”
I felt like being stubborn here would have the opposite effect, so I relented and opened my mouth, accepting the takoyaki in my mouth. Makoto giggled as she watched me chew.
“Taste good?”
The way she looked at me was like a girlfriend looking at her boyfriend. It was almost like how A-chan had looked at me when we dated in middle school. I felt like I was gonna hurl, but I swallowed that down with the takoyaki.
“There’s plenty more where that came from. Here, say ‘ahh’!”
“Blehhh.” I bent over the toilet and vomited out the contents of my stomach.
I had goose bumps all over my body. It was as if a dam had burst and all the reactions to girls’ advances came flooding out. It wasn’t as if this was the first time that a girl had flirted with me like this, but usually that only resulted in hives at worst. I hadn’t gotten this sick ever. But ever since yesterday when I’d found out that Makoto had been the one in my room, whatever had been holding back these reactions had broken and they spilled out with the food.
After I flushed the toilet, I shut the lid and sat on top of it. What do I do...? Seriously... Should I run? Should I say that I came down with something? I held on long enough today, right? But if I do that, I’ll have to see Makoto again. Every time I see her, I feel like I’m gonna barf. Should I say something like my head hurts—or no, my stomach hurts, and run home? Should I never meet up with her again? Should I stop being friends with her entirely?
How many friends would I lose like this in the future? Who would be left at the end if I kept cutting people off because of how my body reacted? What would be left for a person who couldn’t fall in love or be friends with others?
No, I can’t let myself think this negatively. This isn’t good. It’s seriously bad. I know that, but I can’t stop. But I’m so scared of taking a step out of this bathroom stall, it feels like what’s waiting for me is a dragon’s lair. Please, someone...do something. I prayed weakly. As I did, I remembered a friend of mine who was able to calm me down, even if it had only been for a little bit yesterday. Desperate and unable to think straight, I took out my phone. Then I called him and said the same thing as yesterday.
“Irido... Help me...”
Mizuto Irido: Hearing the Above Story
All I could say after hearing his circumstances was... “Are you trying to brag?”
“Does it sound like I’m trying to brag here?!” Kawanami snapped back so loudly that I had to move my phone away from my ear.
“Well, I mean... You’re saying that you’re being seduced by a girl you were friends with in middle school, right? What is this if not you bragging?”
“A huge problem, that’s what it is! She likes me! Makoto likes me!”
“You’re talking like I know who this girl is. Besides, are you absolutely sure that she actually likes you?”
“H-Huh? No matter how you look at it...”
“Let’s go over what you presented as evidence. First, she casually tapped your shoulder. Then, she held her body against your arm. Last, she fed you. These are all things that friends do too, you know?”
“Are you stupid?! Stop using Higashira as a base for what’s normal! Normal girls aren’t that touchy-feely if they just wanna be friends!”
“Huh? So what are you trying to say? Isana’s been pretending to be my friend while trying to seduce me and fulfill her own desires?”
“Yes!” He’s crazy... Hmm... Or maybe not? “You’re friends, but you’re still a guy and a girl—there should be a certain line you don’t cross. Makoto’s clearly going past that with how touchy-feely she’s been. She... She clearly wants to get in my pants!”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“Higashira was like that too, wasn’t she?!”