Chapter 5: Volume 1 - CH 1.4

“I appreciate you lending me your own room, but… where are you going to sleep?”

“I can just go sleep on the sofa or the floor.”

“There’s no bed or futon in other rooms?”

“There used to be one in the room my parents were using, but they would rarely come back, and when they do, they’d just drop by for a bit and leave again later that day. Well, it got tossed out because they said they weren’t using it. And now it’s totally become a storage room. For the record, no need to strangely worry about me, alright? If I let a girl sleep randomly somewhere and I sleep soundly in my bed, I’m already nothing but a brute at that point, and I just don’t want to be like that. Think of it so that I won’t turn into a brute, and quietly sleep on the bed,” said Sandai matter-of-factly, and Shino chuckled.

“It’s not like I’m trying to, though. If I were that type, I wouldn’t have wilfully chosen your place as my refuge, or asked you to get something to play with, come on.”

“…I guess that’s true, too.”

“But well, thanks, for saying it in a way that’s making it easy for my mind… And so, where is your room?”

“Over there.”

“Come on, you said it’s over there but I can’t see anything since it’s pitch black… You go take my hand and lead the way.”

Shino held Sandai’s hand and intertwined their fingers.

Sandai’s heart spontaneously quickened at the feel of the gyaru’s small, slender, soft, and slightly cold hand.

“You’ve got… a cold hand, huh.”

“…Do you know what kind of a person someone with cold hands is? It’s a superstition that’s been told to exist since forever.”

Sandai forgot where he’d heard it, but he had also heard the superstition Shino mentioned. Someone with cold hands has a warm or kind heart, something of the sort.

Sandai was of the belief that superstition was just superstition, though, only now did he feel he could believe it.

The reason was simple.

Sandai was taking a rather cold attitude towards Shino. However, without even minding that, Shino was interacting with him normally.

Shino was kind, and her hand was cold, so it was also making him feel he could believe it.

“…Thank you, Yuizaki.”

“Wha-What’s wrong, so suddenly?”

“You really are kind.”

“…Praising me won’t get you anything, you know?”

“It’s not like I said it because I wanted something. I just gave it a try, saying what I felt. I’ve been pretty cold, yet you were interacting with me normally. That’s why it made me want to say thank you… I’m sure you are the nicest woman in the world, Yuizaki,” Sandai said as if to let it all out.

Then Shino gulped down a saliva, and suddenly turned silent without uttering even a single word thereafter.

Despite feeling anxious whether she might’ve gotten put off, Sandai had no regret. After all, precisely because he had always been a loner all his life, he knew by feel that a moment in which he could convey what he’d like to convey was precious.

So despite the sense of accomplishment, there was not a hint of regret.

Though, Sandai had no idea how Shino took the words he’d just said. Shino didn’t make any gesture trying to shake his hand off, so he knew that at least she didn’t consider it to be creepy, but…

Unfortunately unable to see her expression due to the pitch-darkness, there was an overwhelming lack of materials to make a judgment.

However, by simply knowing that it wasn’t considered unpleasant, Sandai didn’t even think of trying to know more.

If the feelings of gratitude were fully accepted, there would be no need to know further.

When they arrived in the bedroom, Shino, still silent, fumbled around to confirm the shape of the bed, lay on her side, and curled up stirringly.

“…Good night,” Sandai muttered to Shino and quietly left the room.

But immediately after, he could hear the sound of arms and legs flailing around coming from the room.

“Wha-What?”

Having nervously peeked into the room, Sandai only now did notice that he got his phone in his pocket, and went to turn on its light to see inside. 

“I heard some kind of noise just now,” he tried to talk to Shino for the time being, “did something happen?” but Shino remained wrapped up in bed and didn’t move a muscle.

“Hellooo.”

“…”

“No reply… Already asleep, huh. Was the noise just now my imagination? …Oh well, more importantly.” Sandai softly closed the room’s door, and checked the time as he turned off his phone’s light.

It was 00:20—about time for his hobby of late-night anime to start.

He would like to watch if he could, but it appeared to be impossible in the current situation with the power still out.

But there was still time until the start of the broadcast, so there was still the possibility that the power would turn back on before then.

Sandai decided to wait for now.

However, the light was still out even when it was the time for it to start.

“…I’m more towards wanting to watch anime on its first broadcast, but the situation is what it is, so I guess it can’t be helped. I guess I’ll watch it online later.”

Sandai lay on the sofa and closed his eyes. The sofa was surprisingly comfy to sleep in, and he slept like a baby.

Next morning.

Sandai couldn’t wake up with his own power.

What finally made him wake up was a somewhat good smell of a cooking tickling his nostrils and getting hit in the forehead again and again with a ladle at a good tempo.

“Wake uuuup.”

“My forehead… my forehead is… huh, Yuizaki?”

“You finally woke up~.”

“I did… but I kinda want to check on you… I don’t want to believe it, but have you been hitting my forehead with that ladle in your hand this whole time?”

“Don’t you think it’s bad that you don’t wake up?”

“So you have…”

“I was doing it without trying to hurt you, so you can rest assured.”

“That’s not the prob… By the way, I’ve been smelling something good since earlier, though.” Sandai looked at the table as he twitched his nose, and saw a simple but proper breakfast of cooked rice, grilled fish, miso soup, and pickled vegetables. “This is…”

“Breakfast. I made it.”

“You did? Even though there’s no ingredients at home to make a proper meal? There was nothing in the fridge, right?”

“Ah, there’s certainly nothing, but…”

Sandai practically wouldn’t cook for himself, relying instead on supermarket or convenience store’s packed meals. Not even one ingredient was home, except for rice and seasonings he was keeping just in case, so where in the world did the fish, pickled vegetables, and miso soup come from?

Shino smiled wryly at Sanda tilting his head in puzzlement.

“I went out a bit to buy ingredients. The typhoon has passed and all, so I thought maybe the supermarket which will be open since early morning will be open, so I tried to go there, and it’s open… I got a place to stay, so at least this much, okay?”

She seemed to mean it as thanks. Though, Sandai hadn’t given Shino a place to stay because he wanted her to do something like this.

However, it would certainly be hard to tell her to back out now that the dish had been completed. Shino also had taken the trouble to make it, so it would surely turn unpleasant.

Left with no other choice, Sandai in the end decided to accept it… but before that.

Shino said she had gone out to buy the ingredients, which meant she had spent money; Sandai was feeling inexplicably bad about that. Taking his wallet, he approached Shino—

“Ouch.”

—Tap tap, and his forehead got hit with the ladle.

“Why did you take out your wallet?”

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“No I mean, it cost money to buy the ingredients, right?”

“It didn’t cost me that much. It’s not even a thousand yen.”

“Maybe for the hassle of going out shopping and making it…”

“The supermarket is just close by, and I wasn’t even making a single elaborate dish~. It’s just stuff I can quickly whip out. You can’t honestly say ‘thank you’ like you did last night?”

As Sandai was racking his brain to somehow give the money, Shino’s expression gradually turned stern. She was clearly unhappy.

It wasn’t like Sandai was looking for a fight either, so he would have to back down now that she had taken such an attitude. He got something in mind, but he stopped the useless resistance and expressed his thanks. “…Thank you.”

“That’s good!”

Seeing Shino smiling happily and cheerfully, Sandai had his breath taken away. After all, it was exceedingly pretty.

Shino was originally one of the most beautiful girls, so it was obvious she would be pretty, but Sandai had never been conscious of it nor taken a proper look.

Beautiful double eyelid on a well-ordered contour without a single waste. A nose that wasn’t too high nor too low, fair skin that was giving off a refreshing feeling. The soft and fluffy pigtail hair as well, the end was slightly dyed in cherry blossom color, which enhanced the fluff and cuteness.

It made him realize that she was truly a genuine beautiful girl who would seem to overshadow lousy idols or actresses.

“What’s wrong? You’re staring at me like that.”

“It’s nothing…”

As to be expected, he wasn’t able to say that he got captivated.

“You’re weird. Actually, what kind of food are you usually eating?”

“What kind… I’m buying packed meals. Cooking for myself is bothersome so I don’t do it.”

“A no-good-man-like statement came out.”

“Whatever you say.”

Sandai faced away, took a seat, and ate the breakfast silently. In response, Shino sighed, seeming to want to say: Good grief.

Having finished breakfast while squinting their eyes once in while at the morning sun shining in through the gap in the curtains, they did the dishes, and decided to go to school together as they were going to the same school anyway.

“…This is my first time going to school together with a guy.”

“…It’s also my first time going to school together with a girl, huh.”

As they were advancing, avoiding puddles of water created by the typhoon, Shino suddenly took a step ahead of him and turned around.

“Speaking of which, here.” Shino took out a sheet of memo she fished through her bag, and shoved it into Sandai’s chest pocket with a gusto.

“Wha-What…?”

“I hurriedly wrote it before you woke up, so it might be a little hard to read, but… it’s a memo with my contact address.”

“Contact address?”

“Yep. I also slipped in a memo when I returned your clothes, but I thought it maybe got lost somewhere. That’s why I’m giving you another one here.”

Then Sandai remembered; about the memo in his returned clothes he had assumed to be a prank, which he had crumpled up and thrown away.

Although he understood it now, that hadn’t been a prank. In that memo he had gotten from Shino had really been written with her contact address.

“Don’t lose it this time, okay? I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”

In the world colored by the light reflected by puddles of water, Shino raised the corners of her mouth and smiled, and Sandai’s cheeks heated up at that sight.

“Huh? Aren’t your face kinda getting red?”

“…It’s not.”

“Nuh-uh, it’s read, y’know?”

“It’s not red. Doesn’t it seem that way because of the light reflection or optical illusion or angle or something?”

“I don’t think so, though~.”

Repeating such questions and answers, Sandai felt a strange sensation he had never experienced before: something somewhat sweet and sour.

His heart was fluffy.

What made Sandai’s strangely unsteady heart able to calm down was because and thanks to the noisy gazes pointed at them from the surrounding after arriving at school and passing through the gate.

The fact that they were going to school together seemed to have given a renewed energy to the rumors and suspicions, and naturally, the whisperings from the surrounding were reaching his ears even without him trying to listen to it.

It was a rather irritating kind of attention to be honest, but Sandai wasn’t particularly perturbed as he had already experienced such a situation once before.

“Look, over there.”

“I knew it, those two…”

“Going lovey-dovey aren’t they.”

“Does this mean that guy is… Yuizaki’s boyfriend? …I guess that’s how it is since they’re together in the morning… A loner like that is Yuizaki’s… The world is so ridiculous.”

“I do think it’s hypnoticism. Yuizaki is being brainwashed. I mean, how else could it be possible?”

“What do you mean hypnoticism. Snap back to reality, you.”

…They sure are saying whatever they please again.

Sandai sighed, and beside him, Shino tilted her head and repeatedly blinked her eyes. It was a gesture that seemed to want to say: I don’t know why I’m being looked at.

“Somehow.. I feel like I’m being looked at more than usual. Something similar also happened a little while ago, but I wonder why.”

She was feigning ignorance… not. Shino didn’t seem to be self-aware just how much of a conspicuous existence she was.

No, more precisely, she was deliberately not aware of it, or something along those lines perhaps. She got such a feel somehow.

When humans are stressed, they would shut out and avoid information, regardless of consciously or unconsciously. Sandai got a relatively high stress tolerance and wouldn’t block out information to the same extreme as Shino, but that was a kind of brashness.

“For the time being… I guess it might be better if we stay away from each other at school.”

Sandai thought that that would be the very best way to lighten the burden on Shino even a little. The degree of the effectiveness wasn’t definite, but it should be better than doing nothing.

Though, Shino didn’t seem to take fancy to Sandai’s proposal and got sullen.

“Why? Why is it better to stay away?”

“Why, you ask… You don’t get it? Anyway, forget about me at school, just get along with the rest of them. Aren’t you always talking to other girls and stuff in the classroom?”

“You’re suddenly getting cold…”

“We can now talk outside of school if we want to. I’ve got your contact address after all. It’s not like it’s necessary to forcibly associate at school. …I’ll contact you tonight. I promise.”

The words Sandai muttered with the flow were, inadvertently, the first words in which Sandai, out of his own intent, declared to have a relationship with Shino.

Sandai’s heart was shaking; more than the tender fresh leaves beginning to sprout. Shino seemed to have noticed that change and opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“…I heard your words just now loud and clear, and have memorized it, okay? Totally contact me in exchange for not approaching at school, okay? It’s a promise you said yourself, so you absolutely can’t break it, okay?”

“I-I got it.”

“Good!”

Pom-pom, Shino hit Sandai’s back lightly, found female friends among the students coming to school, joined the group, and began chatting happily like usual.

Still stopped in his tracks, Sandai pressed the back of his hands against his own helpless cheeks, which had been burning since some time ago, thinking of cooling it down.

However, the heat didn’t cool off easily. It was a heat that would linger in the core of his body.

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