Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16817139558660048790/episodes/16818093085786000935
We arrived at Nagahama after taking the train and headed to our destination for lunch.
That’s why we gathered at 11:30.
It would have been fine if we had eaten lunch first, but Yuri said she wanted to eat with me, so that’s what we did.
Yuuri asked me what I wanted to eat, but I had never had lunch with a girl before, so I had a hard time thinking of what I wanted to eat.
The last time I went out with Suika, we had pancakes at a café as a break, not for lunch.
So I thought Yuuri would probably be happy with something sweet, so I suggested the same thing, but she got mad at me.
─ ─ You think all girls like sweets, don’t you?
Because when you came to our restaurant, you ordered a parfait.
I wanted to retort, but I guess that was not what Yuri was talking about.
Apparently, Yuri did not want me to pay attention to her, but wanted to ask me what I really wanted to eat.
At the time, I had a craving for ramen, and I answered honestly that I did.
I wasn’t sure if it would be okay for a girl and I to go out to eat together in such an unromantic way, but Yuri readily agreed.
So there we were, under the blazing sun, standing in line at a restaurant famous for its delicious food in Nagahama.
“Hot ……”
“Don’t say it again. I’m putting up with it too.”
“If I had known it was going to be bad ……, I wouldn’t have chosen ramen. ……”
“I don’t mind. It’s not so bad sometimes, is it?”
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
Yuri also looks hot, wiping away the sweat scratched on her forehead with a handkerchief and looking up at herself with her hands.
As one would expect, she frowned at this heat, but in spite of this, she seemed to be in somewhat of a good mood.
She has taken off her cardigan and is now wearing only a sleeveless one-piece dress.
Occasionally, I avert my eyes from the many openings I see glimpsed in her
“Yuri eats ramen noodles?”
“What do you think I am? That’s how much I eat normally. Nanami and I sometimes go out to eat together.”
“Is that so? I can’t really picture it. Kurase looks like she’s eating though.”
“Ahaha, what’s that! But yeah. That girl eats a lot. Considering that, she doesn’t gain any weight at all, so I’m really jealous of her.”
It is true that Kurase is not fat even though she eats a lot.
She is not exactly slender, but she is a little below the standard weight.
I wonder where all that food is going. ……
“……….”
It’s not hard to imagine.
“You’re not thinking about something weird, are you?”
“No, I’m not thinking.”
You have the ability to read people’s minds, don’t you?
Avoid being stared at. However, Yuuri does not miss the opportunity.
“No way, you definitely thinking about it. You were shaking.”
“……”
“Fufu.”
“……?”
That’s strange. Normally, I would have been called a pervert or something.
What’s going on here?
“Yuri, did you eat something weird?”
“If you’re looking for a fight, I’ll buy it.”
It was the same as usual.
“I’m not going to get mad just because Arase thinks something weird. I know Arase is a pervert.”
“What’s going on here?”
Yuri’s expression is bright. Compared to when we first met, the sharp corners have become completely rounded.
She smiles a lot.
“Something has changed.”
“Thanks to you.”
Yuri then smiled mischievously.
I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little embarrassed by her smile.
“….”
Then she looked a little sad and stared at my right hand, which was scratching the back of my head.
“That.”
“…..oh, this?”
Yuri said pointing to my bruised right hand.
This is the scar I got when I helped her. It has already healed completely, but the scar is still there.
Yuri must have some feelings about it.
“Don’t worry about it too much. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“I care!”
“—“
Yuri intensified her words and held my right hand as if she was tracing the scar.
I don’t know if her expression was angry or sad.
“I don’t know whether to be angry or sad, but it doesn’t change the fact that this scar is my responsibility. No matter how much Arase tells me not to worry about it. I’m the one who hurt it.”
“……”
“I’ve told you before, Arase is always reckless by himself. Also like this, he is working hard all by himself for Sana.”
I Silently listen to Yuri’s words.
“So, that ……what I want to say is…..”
Yuri is choking on her words, but she is earnestly trying to convey her message to me.
I somehow understood what Yuuri wanted to say.
“P-please rely on me. I also want to support Arase.”
“Yuri ……”
“Because I, about Arase ……”
“────”
I cleared my throat.
Yuri and I exchanged glances. My heart beats faster in my chest because my hand is being held.
In this hot weather, she is holding my hand.
Huh? Am I sweating? Such unnecessary thoughts are running through my mind, but right now I’m worried that this heartbeat isn’t being transmitted to Yuri through my pulse.
“Next, the two of you!”
“”!!””
I noticed that the line in front of us had already thinned out.
The waitress urged us to enter the restaurant
◆
F-Failure.
What the hell am I doing, I ……!
I didn’t mean to say those things in that place!
There were people in line behind me, and I was just ……!
I-I have to order for now.
We sit side by side at the counter and look at the menu.
We stared at the menu in silence.
“Have you decided?”
“Oh, yes. I think I’ll have tonkotsu ramen with chashu toppings.”
“I like it. I think I’ll have that, too.”
Somehow, I managed to avoid the air I had just been through, and ordered my ramen as if nothing had happened.
I quenched my thirst with a glass of cool water poured into a translucent plastic glass.
“Speaking of which, how’s the study session with Sana going?”
“Oh, it’s going well.
I don’t know, we just started.”
“You’re not doing anything weird just because it’s just the two of us, are you?”
“I’ve told you many times, I’m just teaching her the usual stuff.”
“That’s fine though.”
“Besides, Suika started to study with me.”
“Eh, is that so?”
Suika is the girl from the basketball team that played in the ball game tournament the other day.
Arase is also good friends with her, and they often come to the café and we often talk because of our connection to Arase.
“…..”
And somehow, her mood has changed recently.
I don’t know how to say it, I guess she was getting even prettier …….
I heard that something happened with Arase around the time of the basketball game, but I guess that’s why they became closer than before?
I feel that the way she looks at Arase has completely changed.
If something happened, I’m interested…….
“So, how are things going with that girl?”
“What do you mean ……?”
“You see, ……, it’s all kinds of things. Various things. You went to the tournament, didn’t you?”
“Ah, …… well.”
Arase choked up, as if remembering something.
“Hey, hey, something happened?”
“N-nothing special. Why are you concerned about that?”
“B-Because!”
“What is it?”
“…., you know, S-so you don’t do anything weird?”
“What do you think I am, anyway?”
“J-just! Just because there are a lot of girls around, don’t hug them!”
“Yes, yes.”
I don’t think Arase is going to do anything weird. The truth is, it’s simply because it bothers me.
Somehow I managed to fool myself into exposing my feelings.
Later, the ramen I ordered finally came, and we interrupted our conversation to eat it.
◆
Ramen arrived in the middle of my conversation with Yuri. Where was the air in front of the restaurant earlier? Yuri did not return to the conversation again.
I had no way of knowing what Yuri was going to say at that moment.
“Oh!”
“It looks delicious! Let’s eat!”
Both Yuri and I looked into our bowls and cleared our throats.
The aroma emanating from the thick soup made my stomach rumble.
I started with the soup. I scoop it up with a spoon and let it cool down a bit before putting it in my mouth.
“……!”
I lifted up the noodles with my chopsticks and slurped them down.
“Yum!”
Looking next to me, I saw that Yuri had also put her hair over her ears in the same way, and she was huffing and puffing and drinking the soup she had scooped up with the spoon.
Next, she slurps the noodles elegantly.
“Mmmm~!”
And then her face broke into a smile at the deliciousness of the soup.
Watching her, I felt …… a strange feeling.
“H0Hey, don’t look at me. You’re embarrassing me.”
“I-I’m sorry. You eat it deliciously like that”
“Because it’s so delicious. Come on, Arase, eat quickly. It’ll stretch.”
“That’s right.”
Following Yuuri’s prompting, we slurped the noodles with all our heart
“Oh, that was delicious.”
“Yes. I want to eat it again.”
After finishing our meal, we took a breath.
I poured a pitcher of water into Yuri’s and my own glass and drank it.
The cold water smells slightly of lemon.
Somehow, I felt satisfied even though we had just eaten ramen together.
“Speaking of which…”
“…..?”
“Do you mind if I go to the study group?”
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