“…I heard you talking. The day we went to the theater, when I went to get popcorn. I heard you tell Dr. Karasuma that he should give it a shot and ask me out to dinner…,” she said very quietly.
“Aha…,” he said, nodding. “I’m sorry. Everything makes sense now.”
He coughed softly.
“Will you let me explain?” he asked. “The first reason I said that is because I wanted to avoid messing up your relationship with the vet by blatantly opposing the idea.”
She had figured as much, but she hadn’t wanted to accept it, because she hadn’t wanted to hear him say those words.
“I know…,” she mumbled.
“Also,” Keigo went on, “he’s got something going on with that nurse from the hospital.”
Going on? What was going on?
“I mean, I think they’re seeing each other,” he said.
Nagi stood there blinking for a long time, then finally blurted out, “What?!”
She thought back to the face of the nurse she’d seen with Dr. Karasuma when she and Keigo visited the veterinary hospital.
“There was a woman’s purse and phone on the seat next to him at the theater,” Keigo said. “A few minutes after the movie started, a woman came and sat down by him. Didn’t you see? I glanced over at her, and it was that nurse. They had on matching rings at the hospital, too. I can’t imagine any other explanation. You don’t remember?”
Obviously, she’d had no idea. She was shocked by how poor her memory was.
“Um…so…”
A lot of things were starting to make sense, but now something else was bothering her.
“If he has a girlfriend, then why was he going on about dinner with me…?”
If she accepted Keigo’s view of the situation, Dr. Karasuma was talking about asking a woman out to dinner in the middle of a date with his own girlfriend. Keigo frowned.
“He’s probably a player.”
What the heck? She stood there gaping.
“Anyway,” Keigo continued, “I thought it was weird he was asking about you if he was there with another woman, but since you’ve known him a lot longer than me, I figured you must have realized what kind of person he was. You’re not into womanizers, right? Since I knew you’d turn him down, I told him to go ahead and try. Anyway, with that type of guy, it’s usually better to tell them outright that you’re not interested.”
“…”
“Oh, I see. You hadn’t noticed, had you…?”
Keigo must have figured out why she wasn’t saying anything, because he smiled and rolled his eyes.
“If he asks you to dinner, just turn him down. His whole situation sounds like a mess.”
“…I’ll do that,” she nodded stiffly.
She resolved to maintain a positive relationship with Dr. Karasuma—as a client, that is.
“…I understand the situation with the doctor. I’m sorry for taking it the wrong way. But there’s something else I want to ask you about.”
The wry smile vanished from Keigo’s face.
“Oh…about that picture?”
She nodded silently, and he frowned.
“Honestly, I just forgot to delete it, and that guy happened to see it…”
“That’s not what I’m asking about!” she snapped before she could stop herself.
The image of Keigo with another woman popped back into her head.
“I had no idea the two of you were dating!”
“Yeah, I never told you about it… I mean, she asked me out, and then she dumped me right away, so I didn’t even have time to mention it…,” he said evasively. “The point is, we only dated for a really short time.”
He shrugged. Nagi scowled, sensing he was trying to end the conversation as quickly as possible.
“I see. You ‘only’ dated her?”
He hesitated, his gaze darting away from her face and eventually landing on the floor.
“I mean…we did kiss a few times.”
“You just kissed?”
“…And some other things,” he said, sounding resigned to his fate. Her stomach churned.
“Is that so. How nice you were able to enjoy your time with Miss Campus.”
She turned away. Now he was the one who looked sullen.
“Why are you mad about that?”
“What?!” she shouted back. She was about to say she wasn’t mad, then thought better of it.
He was right. She was mad at him. And not just right now. She’d been mad at him for weeks. But why?
It only took her a few seconds to realize the answer. What an idiot she was. A twenty-eight-year-old woman who couldn’t even put a name to her own emotions.
I’m jealous.
The second it hit her, she felt her cheeks rapidly grow hot and knew she must be blushing. Keigo, who had probably seen everything, tilted his head in confusion.
“I—I…”
“What?”
“…I think…I might be jealous…,” she mumbled.
He instantly turned as red as she was. They stared at each other’s flushed faces.
“…Nagi…are you serious…?”
Unable to hold out any longer, he covered his face with both hands.
“I said I might be! I’m not sure…but I feel like maybe that’s what’s going on…”
She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself, then reviewed the facts. There was Keigo’s comment to Dr. Karasuma. Then there was the fact that he’d dated Miss Campus. Clearly, those things had put her in a crappy mood. With that much evidence, she couldn’t very well deny it. She could remember feeling this way several times before, but never toward Keigo. And yet now, though it was slight—
“…Can I assume we’re thinking the same thing?” Keigo asked. The excitement in his voice was unmistakable.
“I won’t know unless we say it…”
It was all so mortifying, she couldn’t bring herself to be any clearer.
“Then go ahead.”
“You go first.”
“Fine. I’ll say it again,” he said stoically.
He let out a long breath, then gazed solemnly at her.
“Nagi.”
His commanding voice made her heart flip. She had heard him say her name hundreds, probably thousands, of times, but this time he sounded completely different—much more manly.
“Ever since we were children, I’ve been in love with you.”
Ah, that’s what it was. This was the voice he used to speak to the person he loved. She hadn’t noticed it before, but he’d probably been speaking to her in that voice all along.
“Now it’s your turn,” he said immediately, as if to cover up his embarrassment. She took a deep breath, gathered her courage, and spoke.
“…I haven’t loved you since we were children, but recently…I think I might…be falling for you…maybe.”
“Hey! …That was the wimpiest confession I’ve ever heard!”
“I—I can’t help it! It’s the truth! I’ll just have to fall more and more in love with you as time goes by!” she shouted frantically. Keigo took a deep breath.
“…I guess that’s good enough,” he said, reluctantly accepting her words. “By the way, Nagi. Can I go ahead and assume we’re dating now?”
Nagi’s heart flip-flopped again.
“Um…maybe?”
She nodded, and he nodded back. For a moment, they stared at each other in silence. Weird. If she wasn’t mistaken, they were now officially a couple. So what was going on with this peculiar atmosphere?
It would probably be normal to kiss in this situation, but unfortunately, the mood felt completely wrong for that, and she had no idea how to move things in that direction. As she hesitated, a hand suddenly appeared before her.
“Here.”
She looked up questioningly at Keigo. He glanced away uncomfortably, then mumbled, “…It’s okay to shake hands, right?”
He looked exactly like a sulking child, and she couldn’t help smiling.
“Yeah.”
She placed her hand on top of his larger one. It was warm and just a little sweaty. A man’s rough, angular hand—Keigo’s hand, which she knew so well.
From this day forward, the man attached to that hand was her boyfriend. The thought was unbearably strange and made her very embarrassed. She looked shyly up at him and met his equally shy gaze. Then he broke into such a happy smile she couldn’t help giggling, too.
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
That was how, in the winter of her twenty-eighth year, Nagi’s friend of over two decades became her boyfriend.