“Listen, you…”
“This is a good bargain, if clinging to you is all it takes to see your cute side.”
When I glared sideways at my underclassman, who was getting carried away, she pulled her head back a bit.
“…Well, I’ll just think of you as a very large cat.”
If I didn’t think in that way, I knew my chest would tighten strangely and I would tense up.
The slight smell of sweat from Haru mixed together with her natural scent and reached me.
“Sayaka-senpai, you have cats at home, right? Two of them?”
“I do. Why, do you like cats?”
“I do, but I have to admit I like dogs better.”
I squinted my eyes when I told her my opinion, and Haru didn’t make any sign of changing hers to agree with me.
I wasn’t angry—I was just thinking back on the past.
I had read a type of novel I didn’t particularly like on Senpai’s suggestion and even lied that I enjoyed it.
As a result, I’d gotten her to smile, but had I been more honest…
…maybe I wouldn’t have regretted it as much.
“Looks like we don’t agree.”
“I think that might be a good thing, though, yeah?”
“I think so, too.”
If another person was going to cling to me like this, I wanted to feel differences between us. Haru put her arm around my neck and leaned in, then remained there unmoving. When I thought about it, it really was my first time touching someone so close. After all, Yuzuki-senpai hadn’t been trying to get close to me, but to love itself.
But Haru was definitely seeking me.
At present, she was unusually silent, her gaze intently pressing in on me. She wasn’t focusing on my face. When I tried searching for where she could be looking, it seemed to be lower than my shoulders. If I kept going and pinpointed it…
“So, Sayaka-senpai…” Haru started to say something. But then her eyes immediately shifted away. “Actually, amazingly enough, I realize this might not be a good thing to say.”
“I won’t get mad, so why don’t you say it?”
In point of fact, I felt my curiosity bubbling as to how Haru might make me mad. At the very least, I thought she was more of a good girl than me. How would a girl like that provoke my anger? I waited, slightly excited about it.
“Okay then, here we go…”
“Yes?”
“You’ve got pretty big breasts.”
“………”
I realized the meaning of Haru’s gaze up to this point.
“Hey, you said you wouldn’t get mad.”
“I’m not mad.”
I just didn’t know how to respond. No one had ever said that so boldly to my face before.
Although it wasn’t my face she was looking at. I averted my eyes.
“I don’t mean it in a harass-y way. It’s a totally normal observation, really.”
“That’s an excuse a harasser would say.”
“It’s just, y’know, I don’t have much going on there myself, so I’m a little jealous.”
“I’m sure you’ll develop more, Edamoto-san.”
“You’re being so cold!”
I ended up automatically calling her Edamoto-san again.
“I guess we’re starting over as friends again, huh? That’s a downer.”
“That was obviously a joke.”
Probably. As we looked at each other from up close, we both broke into smiles.
It might have been part of my imagination, but I felt like Haru had moved away from my back slightly.
“You know, just being able to look up close like this makes me happy.”
“You mean at my chest?”
“Your face! Obviously I mean your face!”
When I said the thing that had come to mind based on the flow of conversation, Haru adamantly denied it. Her insistence was a little suspicious.
The silence continued for a little while.
“Oh, right. Senpai, let’s go to the pool.”
“…Aren’t you being a little obvious?”
Maybe she had invited me the last time as a result of being guided by her ulterior motives.
Haru gulped and froze for a moment. But she immediately switched gears and became serious.
“Okay, I’ll just come out and say it, then. I want to see you in a bathing suit.” Haru wiggled on top of my shoulders. “Is that so bad?”
“It’s not bad so much as…”
It put me in an awkward spot when she said something like that directly to me.
I remembered the day when the student council went to the pool. My eyes kept following Touko the whole time.
I couldn’t judge Haru.
“Please, won’t you show me?”
Now she was asking me that sincerely. Since her expression and attitude kept changing all over the place, I almost felt like I was going to burst out laughing.
“Soon, then.”
“So now someday has turned into soon, huh?”
Haru chortled, but she wasn’t discouraged at all.
“Would tomorrow work?”
“You really are bold, aren’t you…”
I felt like she was going to wear me down.
It seemed Haru had enough power to chase my verbal promise of someday, overtake it, and make it come true. I felt almost as though she had retained the energy of a child even into adulthood, and was going to pull me along with her absorbed way of living. Though I didn’t dislike that sensation, it was just that I had been there before.
“………”
I imagined the surface of a pool, rippling quietly.
A pool from some time in the past. The sight that I witnessed in the water.
I wondered what it was that I had discovered that day. Would I be able to face it as the person I was now?
…At any rate, that was how this wound up happening.
“When you said that we were going to the pool, I didn’t think this was where you meant…”
It was the next day, Friday. I accompanied Haru, who had actually set up plans. But as it turned out, we weren’t even leaving the college grounds.
“And it’s just our college’s pool.”
“It’s only during certain hours, but they open it up for public use.”
C’mon, c’mon! Haru was giddy as she grabbed my hand. We were both students here, but they still charged us a usage fee. They explained to us that we had a designated time of about two hours starting now and told us where the changing room was. The woman in charge of guiding us also seemed to be a student.
“It says people with hangovers can’t go in.”
“Why are you looking at me right now…?”
As Haru read the warning we passed by, a refreshing smile appeared on her face.
“I didn’t really have a lot of time to think about choosing one, so I don’t know if I want you to see me in my swimsuit…”
“It’s fine.”
“And how is it fine, exactly?”
“You have a great foundation to work with, so no matter what bathing suit you wear, it’ll enhance your look.”
When she readily doled out compliments without showing any sign of bashfulness, I felt overpowered.
“Haru, you’re very straightforward about complimenting people.”
“Well, if you do it in a roundabout way, you might not get through to them,” Haru responded blithely, as though it were only obvious.
Sometimes her honesty was dazzling.
I’ll leave out what transpired when we went to change in the locker room.
When Haru saw me in my bathing suit, she pulled away as though she were literally taken aback.