Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/2912051598917319858
After I got home and was relaxing on the living room sofa, Ellis sat down next to me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The sofa in my apartment is L-shaped and fairly large, so there’s really no need for her to sit right next to me, but Ellis pays no attention to that and squeezes in so close that our shoulders almost touch.
At first, I couldn’t help but be distracted by Ellis constantly being in my field of vision, but as time went on, I got used to it, and now I’ve just accepted it as normal.
Habit is a scary thing.
But today was a little different from usual.
I felt a strange gaze coming from beside me.
Curious, I glanced over to see Ellis staring at her phone screen with a creepy, smug grin on her face.
“…What are you looking at?”
“A photo of Rintaro. Shino sent it to me.”
“That girl went and did it right away, didn’t she…”
This is the biggest problem I’ve faced so far as a result of revealing that Elis and I are childhood friends.
The fact that Elis and Shino have met.
When they first met, I sensed a slight atmosphere of them sizing each other up, but it seems they ended up hitting it off pretty quickly, and now they’re apparently in frequent contact.
“It’s okay, Rintaro. The photo she showed me was just a regular one.”
With her face still slack with a carefree expression, Ellis held up her phone screen for me to see.
“This is… from our eighth-grade field trip… right?”
“Yeah, Shino said it was taken when you went to Kyoto.”
“I can’t believe she actually kept something like that…”
The photo showed Shino and me.
It was a two-shot of a much younger Shino than she is now, with her arm around my shoulder—a picture she’d probably forced me to take.
As for me, I looked like the typical bratty teenager in the throes of puberty, with a face that clearly said I was annoyed.
“Hehe, Rintaro. You’re cute.”
“What’s so cute about this?”
I just don’t get it at all.
What’s so fun about looking at old photos?
Looking back now, it’s nothing but embarrassing stuff—just looking at them makes me want to scratch myself all over.
“Elis, you didn’t send Shino any weird photos, did you?”
“…………Yeah.”
“What’s with that? You definitely sent some.”
“I didn’t send anything weird. They’re just normal photos from when Rintaro and I went out to have fun.”
“Really?”
I stared intently into Elis’s eyes to try to tell if she was telling the truth, but she just kept smiling cheerfully, so I couldn’t tell for sure.
It would be really bad if my personal information got leaked to Shino.
──If you don’t want these photos spread all over the place, you’d better do as I say!
I could only see a future where she’d boss me around like that.
If I don’t do something to stop this leak, my “normal” life might collapse even more than it already has.
“I’m so happy. I don’t have any photos of Rintaro in his school uniform at all.”
“Ah… Well, I don’t know how to put this, but I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m not blaming you, Rintaro. It’s just that it makes me sad to realize there are so many sides of you I don’t know… So I’m actually a little jealous of Shino.”
Elis narrowed her eyes, lost in thought.
The six years since I returned to Japan.
Shino was the one by my side, while Elis existed only in my memories.
That was partly because I, worried about what others might think, had tucked away the existence of Ellis—along with my own sense of being “different”—deep into the recesses of my memory.
So, once again, I felt a pang of guilt.
“Rintaro.”
Elis looked up at me, still clutching her smartphone to her chest.
“I want to wear a school uniform, too. With you, Rintaro… Is that okay?”
“Nope, that’s not okay.”
I’m not going to give in!
I’ve learned my lesson. Ellis is cunning; she tries to exploit my guilt to get me to do all sorts of unreasonable things.
I’ve been unable to refuse her and have been talked into it many times, but I won’t let her have her way that often.
That’s that, and this is this.
It’s a big mistake to think you can get your way with everything, you know?
“Mmm…”
When I showed my firm resolve, Ellis growled in her throat and glared at me.
No means no.
“I wanted to go to Disney in our school uniforms with Rintaro.”
“Absolutely not. We’re college students now—wearing our uniforms is just cosplay!”
“So, should we go in cosplay?”
“It’s not a matter of ‘so’…”
What kind of alternative is that?
Sure, Ellis would look good in anything, but being there with her would definitely make me feel like I’m sitting on a bed of nails.
“Then let’s just go normally.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Should we invite Shino and Iwami too?”
“……You idiot, Rintaro.”
Ellis puffed out her cheeks in displeasure, but when she realized she was in the wrong, she graciously backed down. I think knowing when to back off is one of Ellis’s good qualities.
“Hey, Rintaro. I want to know more about you back in middle and high school.”
“Well, I really didn’t do anything special.”
Yeah, I really didn’t do anything special.
Of course, I didn’t experience any of those bittersweet, special moments you see in school coming-of-age stories, but that doesn’t mean I had a dreary youth either.
My hard work paid off, and I was able to lead a pretty normal student life.
“—Did you go out with Shino a lot?”
“Nah, not that much.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t dating Shino—she was just a regular female friend. We’d study for tests together before exams… Oh, and I think we’d grab ramen on the way home sometimes. Ramen after using your brain was seriously delicious…”
“Ramen!”
Elis’s tone changed.
It was a slightly more cheerful tone, different from just a moment ago.
“Hey, Rintaro! Let’s study right now!”
“Right now? Why…?”
“Let’s study, and then go out for ramen for dinner!”
“Do we really need to squeeze in the studying?”
There were a few things to nitpick, but it was an appealing proposal.
I hadn’t started preparing dinner yet, and besides, I hadn’t had a chance to eat ramen out since graduating from high school.
I swallowed hard.
There was no way to talk my way out of it now. I was completely in the mood for ramen.
“You know, I haven’t been able to see you at all for the past six years, Rintaro… so there are so many things I want to do. That’s why I want to do all the things I haven’t been able to do until now. I want to try doing the things that are normal for you, Rintaro, together with you.”
“Ah, so that’s why you brought up studying.”
We can’t wear uniforms and go to the same school.
We can’t go back to those after-school days in middle and high school.
But if it’s just studying, working up an appetite, and eating ramen on the way home—we can do that even now.
That’s probably what Ellis wants to do.
“…Well then, let’s finish our homework first, and then we’ll go get some ramen, okay?”
“Yeah!”
Elis nodded happily, then lowered her gaze to the smartphone in her hand.
She looked at the photo she’d been looking at just a moment ago once more, then let a small smile spread across her lips.
“Hehe, I’ve got to tell Shino ‘thank you’♪”
–
–
If you enjoy our content, feel free to donate, Thank you in advance !