Chapter 60: Volume 2 - CH 3.4

As the second semester began and several typhoons passed, the heat gradually eased.

On a certain holiday in October, Yuriko said she was going to participate in a women's soccer match, so the three of us, myself, Nagai, and Tachibana, decided to go watch the match. At first, it was just Nagai and me, but when he told Tachibana about it, she wanted to come with us.

"When I talked about it, Akari said she wanted to come, too, so could I take her?" On the night before, I received a message from him via a messaging app.

When I read that, I immediately felt uncomfortable.

---Akari?

That was Tachibana's given name.

When did he start calling her by name? When I think back to my memory, I don't recall that guy ever calling her by her name. If I had heard it even once, I would have surely felt a sense of discrepancy and remembered it.

But it seemed silly to bring up such a thing in a message exchange, so I simply replied, " Got it," at the time.

It had been a while since they first started dating, but at club activities, they still looked almost the same as before. From what I saw, I don't think anyone in the club had noticed the change in their relationship yet.

The next day, Nagai got off with Tachibana at the bus stop where we were to meet. Tachibana was wearing a floral mini-skirt and a long-sleeved white top. Her hair looked like it had been perfectly arranged. Her medium-length hair ends were curled inward, and her bangs were pinned back. There was a blush on her cheeks and lips, and it looked like she was wearing a little makeup.

The three of us started walking together. Our destination was a municipal ground on the riverbank, about 10 minutes from here.

While walking, listening to Nagai and Tachibana's conversation, both of them were as expected calling each other by their given names. Nagai was called "Keita-kun" by Tachibana. Listening to the conversation from the side, for some reason, I felt a sense of embarrassment that sent a shiver down my back.

I said, "I see you've started calling each other by name," to which he replied, "When we're outside of school," 

"Sounds great."

"You call Mori by her name too, don't you?"

"It means something completely different than it does in your case. I've said it a lot of times."

"I don't know. I think we're the same. In the sense of intimacy?"

"No, it's not."

"You're surprisingly detailed in that way, aren't you? Is that why you call Izumi by her first name as well?

"Ha?"

"No, because don't we usually call our relatives by their given names? Especially since you live with her."

Then Tachibana made a sudden appearance in our direction,

"Hm? Do you live together?"

She tilted her head and said that with suspicion.

"What do you mean? Izumi-san is senpai relative, whom we met at the summer festival, isn't she?"

I made a bitter face, and Nagai apologized with his eyes, "My bad."

"Ah......I'm sorry, that was a weird thing to say. She was staying over at Sakamoto's house for a while."

"Staying over? What do you mean by that!?"

Tachibana raised her voice in surprise.

"I mean, you know, relative stay-over sometimes, right? You said you two are like a cousin, right, Sakamoto?"

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"Ah, yeah."

Nagai was trying to cover it up somehow. "What do you mean by like a cousin?" Tachibana was still a little suspicious, but since Nagai was the one who said it, she would probably listen to him. Besides, even if we were relatives, a story about just staying over for a short time would be more convincing than the outrageous story of a boy and a girl of the same age living together.

As for how to call Izumi, in the beginning, I thought about calling her by her given name a few times. But the first thing that came out naturally was her family name, and before I knew it, I had settled on the way I called her now.

I was also trying to maintain a distance from her without getting too close. But now that I think back on it, I feel that this had the opposite effect. As Nagai said, it is probably more normal for relatives to call each other by name in a casual manner.

What kind of relationship do I have with Izumi after all? What kind of relationship do I want to have with Izumi in the future?

My life with Izumi will end at the end of the year. But that doesn't mean that our relationship will be completely cut off at that moment. I have no idea what will happen after that. Will we not see each other much anymore? Or......

As I was thinking about this, the topic of conversation among Nagai and Tachibana shifted away from Izumi to something else. Anyway, I was relieved that Tachibana did not find out that I was living with Izumi and that it did not become a problem.

We were almost at our destination, a field run by the city. There was a small flower bed by the sidewalk where we were walking, and pale purple cosmos flowers were blooming. Persimmon trees were planted in the yards of the surrounding houses, bearing reddish fruits. The sweet smell of golden osmanthus drifted in the cool breeze, mixed with the smell of exhaust fumes from the occasional passing car.

With a sidelong glance, I saw him talking with Tachibana and thought he was a cool guy. It was neither self-conscious nor superficial; he goes to school normally, studies normally, participate in club activities, date girls, and takes good care of his girlfriends.

I felt kind of stupid for feeling jealous of him a few times over Izumi. I was all alone, fretting and self-loathing ....... I sighed, thinking that I had been totally misguided.

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The destination field, located on a riverbank, consists of a baseball field and two soccer courts separated by a fence. The soccer court is a little bumpy, but it is planted with grass and is often used for soccer practice games between local elementary and junior high school students. Yuriko and I had played here several times when we were in elementary school.

When I looked around the field, I found Yuriko sitting in the middle of the field, stretching, wearing the blue jersey of our club. It was a practice game between the junior college and women's college teams that would be held today, and Yuriko had apparently been asked by an acquaintance to join. The dozen or so people around Yuriko are all wearing matching jerseys.

There was a concrete tiled slope between the field and the driveway, and we sat there.

Around us, there were a few people who had stopped in the middle of their run, and a sparse group of young people who looked like they had come to watch this match. Among them was a woman in her forties with a parasol and a small girl. It was Miyuki-chan, Yuriko's cousin. The woman with her was probably her mother.

My eyes met Miyuki-chan's. She smiled, pulled the bottom of the woman's dress beside her, said a few words, and then came running toward me.

"Kenichi-kun, did you come to see the game too?"

"Yeah. It's been a while."

Nagai and Tachibana looked at me suspiciously as I was talking with Miyuki-chan.

After talking for a while, Miyuki-chan ran back to her mother again. She was going out with her mother by car today, and they had stopped by this ground on their way.

"That Sakamoto-senpai is being longed for by a little girl! Why!?"

Tachibana exaggerated as Miyuki-chan walked away.

"Seriously, what the heck do you think I am......? She's a junior member of my elementary school team. A relative of Yuriko's."

"Heh. When you say that, indeed, she somehow has the appearance of Mori-senpai."

Tachibana said, looking at Miyuki-chan from a distance.

"I wonder if senpai has something that makes him popular with soccer girls."

I heard her mutter something like that, and when I asked her back, "What?"

"No, it's nothing. Please don't be concerned about it. More importantly, I made a lunch box! You can have some, too, Sakamoto-senpai!"

Saying that, Tachibana took out a cloth package from her bag and unfolded it. She placed some rice balls wrapped in plastic wrap and a Tupperware box containing karaage and meatballs on her lap.

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