“You can do this,” Nagi whispered as she rushed off to the store, leaving Keigo alone with Saotome. He sighed deeply. Do what?
“…I can’t stand this!”
Keigo stole a glance over his shoulder at the sound of Saotome’s voice, which had suddenly turned malevolent. A few seconds ago, she had been sweetly clinging to Nagi. Now she was glowering fixedly at him.
“Glare at me all you want. I don’t care,” he said.
Instead of answering, she clicked her tongue.
“Dammit… This isn’t what I meant to happen…,” she said, tottering to the curb and squatting down. Keigo suddenly remembered how little she’d drunk at dinner. Maybe her tolerance was super low after all. He crouched down beside her, starting to wonder if she really was feeling sick.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Just as he was about to gently place his hand on her back, she slapped it away.
“Please do not touch me. I hate men. And you, in particular, I detest from the bottom of my heart. So would you please stay away?”
Under her biting stare, his concern vanished.
“Is that so?” he said, quickly standing up and moving away from her. Watching her out of the corner of his eye, he angrily waited for Nagi to return.
“…Huh?”
Suddenly, he noticed three men huddled around Saotome. When had they shown up? They were staring rudely into her face.
“Hey, miss, have a few too many drinks? How about you come with us and rest for a while?”
They really thought that stale pickup line was going to work? Keigo started to walk toward Saotome, then remembered she’d told him to stay away and stopped himself.
As he debated what to do, he heard Saotome say, “Hey, quit it…” He looked over in surprise. One of the men had grabbed her hand, clearly against her will. Screw it. She could yell at him later. He ran over to her.
“Is there some problem with my friend?” he said, standing above them. The three men looked up in unison. From this close, he could see how young they were. They must be university kids.
“Oh… No, nothing at all. Let’s get out of here, guys.”
They stood up and slipped past Keigo as he loomed forbiddingly over them. He was glad it hadn’t ended in a fight. Relieved, he took a step toward Saotome, who was staring up at him.
“…Didn’t I tell you not to come near me?” she asked crossly. “What, you think you saved me or something?” He could handle this level of nastiness.
“Think of me as a utility pole,” he replied.
She snorted but stayed obediently where she was. She acted completely different around him than she did around Nagi. It was amazing, actually. Stealing a glance at her prickly expression, he couldn’t help but be impressed. He didn’t know which version was the real her, but whatever the answer, it was clear how much she cared for Nagi.
“…So tell me—what do you like about Nagi?” he asked, genuinely curious. She glanced at him, then quickly looked away.
“She’s cool,” she muttered. “She’s tall, and she’s got a nice body and a pretty face, but more than that, she’s got an amazing personality.”
“How do you mean?” he prodded.
“…Once, I made a mistake at work, and it ended up causing some trouble for a client,” she began haltingly. “It didn’t have anything to do with Ms. Yoroizuka, but she said since she was my direct supervisor, she would go with me to apologize. On top of that, she stayed and worked half the night cleaning up my mess…”
Saotome blinked tenderly, as if she were replaying the memory in her mind.
“She didn’t scold me at all. The only thing she said, once everything was over, was ‘Good job today. You worked hard.’”
That was just like Nagi. Keigo couldn’t help smiling as he remembered how she’d canceled her date with Mr. Cider Commercial to redo that proposal for him.
“I made up my mind to never make the same mistake again,” Saotome went on. “Not for my sake—but for Ms. Yoroizuka’s, because she was the one who went with me to apologize. No one had ever treated me that kindly before.”
Being great at your job didn’t guarantee you would be respected as a manager. Keigo felt like thoughtfulness was the extra piece you needed to gain the trust of your subordinates. But even managers were human. They came under pressure when they were busy, and sometimes they got angry. The amazing thing about Nagi was that she put all of that aside and prioritized consideration for other people.
“I see,” he said in reply. He could probably spend his whole life trying and never catch up with her. He nodded, filled with a mixture of envy and pride.
“…And that’s why you’re so intolerable,” Saotome said in a low voice.
“Huh?” Keigo blurted out. Suddenly, she was standing, looking at him sharply.
“You’ve got enough of an advantage just being a man, but on top of that, you’re her childhood friend? What the hell?!”
Several people looked over in surprise at her loud declaration.
“It disgusts me to think you know sides of her I don’t… Why you?! Why Ms. Yoroizuka?! It’s so unfair!” she wailed.
“Huh? Please try to calm down…”
He reached out to restrain her, but she flung his hand away.
“You have everything!” she shouted. She glared hatefully at him, eyes full of tears. “Why can’t you let someone else have Ms. Yoroizuka?! Aren’t you happy enough already?!”
Happy enough? Him?
“…You’re full of shit,” he spat out.
She flinched in surprise. For an instant, he glimpsed fear in her eyes, but his anger was far from quelled.
“If I was happy enough, would I want her this much?! The one thing I want most in life has been out of reach for over twenty years! How could I be happy?!”
Always. Since he was a kid, for so long it boggled his mind. Always, always, always. In fifth grade, when a classmate had called her ugly, he’d wrestled them. Nagi had apologized in tears when she saw him covered in scratches and bruises, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her she was cute. In their third year of junior high, she told him she was dating someone for the first time. When he happened to see them together, the shock was so bad he developed a fever that night and couldn’t go to school for three days. In their third year of university, they went to the beach with some friends, and he saw her kissing the guy she was dating in the shade of a rock wall. Wanting desperately to forget it all, he started dating the next woman who told him she liked him.
His love for Nagi had been shaken many times, but he’d never been able to give it up. He was still desperately hanging on to it. None of the women he’d dated had ever satisfied him—there was always a gaping hole in his heart. He felt like Nagi was the only one who could fill it. If he couldn’t have Nagi, he was sure he would remain incomplete forever.
“You can say what you want, but I have no intention of leaving her alone. At least not until she personally asks me to,” he announced decisively. Saotome’s eyes went wide. Then she grimaced and looked down.
“…I hate you…,” she said as if she were cursing him, her voice shaking. “I really, truly hate you…” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m begging you—don’t take Ms. Yoroizuka away from me…”
Her voice sounded like it was about to break. Tears fell between the fingers covering her face. As Keigo watched her, the anger swirling inside him subsided. He didn’t like Saotome, but she was suffering for love, just as he was.
“Come on, Saotome, don’t cry…,” he said, reaching out to her.
“Saotome!”