Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16817330658028208231/episodes/16817330659429775946
I see Watanabe san staring at me with big tears in her eyes.
She just said something unbelievable, but she’s attacking me as if she’s broken.
Our faces are close to each other with her breath on my neck. I felt my heart pounding, even at a time like this.
She was holding me by my clothes, so I couldn’t move, and I couldn’t let her words slide through my mind.
Watanabe san told me that she was going to confess her feelings too.
She said that she felt relieved when Ishikawa san was rejected, and that she could not stay in the same relationship with me from now on. Above all, no one would complain if Aizawa were to stand alongside the school’s Madonna.
Probably, the person whom Watanabe san likes is Aizawa.
“Well, I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but……if it’s Watanabe san, Aizawa might be okay with it.”
My heart aches. I say words that are not what I really want to say. Hoping that this would help her regain even a little confidence, I somehow continue to speak while lying to my own heart…….
“You don’t understand !”
However, perhaps this offended her, Watanabe san’s expression became distorted.
I couldn’t let the conversation go any further with this strange misunderstanding.
“I’m sorry, I just don’t understand you at all. Speak up.”
Until a moment ago, I thought this would be our last conversation. I didn’t expect the last to be such a big fight, but I’d rather listen than continue to feel bewildered.
She falls silent for a moment and thinks. Then she let out a sigh……
“I suppose it would be atonement for Riho san and Aizawa kun if I were to be dumped as well.”
Watanabe san takes a deep breath, as if she has made up her mind. And then he looked at me with eyes that held strong determination……
“I like you. Aikawa kun. Please go out with me !”
“Erm……me?”
My thoughts were frozen for a while after her confession. Finally understanding the meaning of the words, I pointed to myself and confirmed it to Watanabe san.
“Yes. I knew there was no romantic tension in all the appeals I’ve made so far. You even mistook it for Aizawa kun when I said at the end, [I was going to confess my feelings.] I knew that Aikawa kun was not at all conscious of me.”
This is by no means the case, but self-analysis often leads to errors in the highly uncertain and sensitive content of romance.
If you assume that someone likes you, there is a high probability that they will reject you. On the contrary, there is even a future in which runaway romantic feelings create an obsession and turn into a stalker.
I never wanted to impose such a bad feeling on Watanabe san. So, I kept a precautionary line in my mind that she was a friend.
As I froze, she began to pour out her feelings like a broken faucet.
“I had been interested in Aikawa kun since the first time we met. I always followed you with my eyes when we passed each other at the school, or when I saw you in the school building.”
This was the first time I had heard her true feelings.
“I wanted to talk to you somehow, but I didn’t have any contact with you…… I remember how happy when you rescued me from the college students at the fishing port.”
After that, she happily recounts how we gradually became closer and began to talk.
“I felt a sense of crisis when I saw Aikawa kun gradually getting to know Maho san better and better. I was also worried that if you got your hair set for the new semester and went to school, you would become popular and someone would confess their feelings for you. So I was going to confess my feelings today.”
After finishing what she had been thinking, Watanabe san returned to her calm state.
“I told you everything I wanted to tell. I have no more regrets.”
She put on a refreshed expression and urged me, [Please respond to my confession.]
My brain had long since overheated from all the unbelievable things that had just happened, but I still understood that I had to give her a reply.
Watanabe san likes me. With this fact in mind, I responded in a buoyant feeling.
“I like you, too, Watanabe san.”
“Nnnn !?”
When I replied, Watanabe san made a surprised expression on her face.
“No, no, no because ! You didn’t show any sign of it !”
She swivels her eyes from side to side at high speed and looks agitated.
“Of course I would never show such a thing ! If I had shown interest in you, you would not be here right now !”
The time I spent with her was priceless to me.
Whether we were fishing together, going to the aquarium together, walking on the beach, or watching fireworks…….
Every time she smiled at me, I mended my expression many times. Every time she invited me to play with her, I restrained myself from misunderstanding.
When I’m with Watanabe san, I find myself becoming talkative.
I wanted her to be happy, so I became more active than usual.
“I like you, Watanabe san. I want you to go out with me.”
She was still confused, but I held out my hand and asked her to go out with me.
“W-what should I do?”
She looked at my hand with an expression on her face as if she were about to cry or laugh.
Her right hand is floating in the air, as if she is trying to decide whether to take my hand or not.
“I thought I was going to get rejected……. I was going to make atonement for Riho san by being unhappy. If I took Aikawa kun’s hand here, I would become the worst kind of woman.”
I certainly understand what she is trying to say. On the very day her best friend was rejected, she confessed her feelings to a guy and she was going to go out with him.
I feel the same way, as I have a lot of guilt floating around too. But I don’t want to pretend it didn’t happen after revealing my heart to this extent.
“Even if I make enemies of the whole world, I still want to go out with you.”
She looks up and looks straight at me. Her eyes are shimmering and she looks anxious.
“It’s true that it may be an act of disregard to start a relationship when you have a best friend who has been rejected. But I’ve liked Watanabe san for a long time, and you told me that you liked me, too. We can’t just pretend it didn’t happen now and go back to being friends as before, can we?”
I don’t think I can act like that, and I don’t want her to act that way.
“T-that’s……true, but…….”
Watanabe san put her hand over her mouth and worried.
“Besides, if we leave here, I think we’ll be estranged because we don’t have any connection anymore.”
“I don’t like that !”
It would be too unnatural for us to continue our friendship without Aizawa and Ishikawa san. If that were the case, we would have to take our relationship further than it is now.
She was troubled by my suggestion and stopped her hand many times. But in the end, she finally…….
“Riho san, I’m sorry.”
The next moment, Watanabe san clenched my hand.
“I, too, want to go out with Aikawa kun even if I make enemies of the whole world.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
“Aikawa kun. I love you. Please make me your girlfriend.”
Watanabe san’s smile was the most beautiful I had ever seen as she accepted my confession with those words.
“I’m fine up to this point. You can see my house over there.”
Soon after becoming lovers with Watanabe san, I realized that it was getting very late before I had time to enjoy the afterglow of the evening.
I rushed to take her home, but just before I did, she said, [Here’s fine.]
“I know it’s right there, so there’s no danger, but are you sure this is as far as you want me to go?”
Perhaps it was because we were going out, but my feelings overflowed more than ever.
Now I tried to speak rationally, but once I realized that we were in love, I wanted to be with her as much as possible.
“I’m fine here. If we come to the front of the house, my family might see us.”
Watanabe san glanced at me as she cast her eyes down a little shyly. Her gesture is cute and makes me nervous.
Surely, that would have been awkward.
If we were just friends, I would be able to act nonchalant, but now that we had just started dating and my feelings were wavering, I would not be able to make things right if I met her parents and it would make a bad impression on them.
“Okay, Watanabe san, I’ll send you another message.”
A little embarrassed, I tell her that I will send her a message. Until now, I had never contacted her for anything other than business, in order to maintain a moderate distance, but from today onward, we are lovers and I’m allowed to send her messages as I please.
“Erm, that’s nice of you, but…..um……”
However, she looks around and confirms something.
“Here !”
Then she suddenly hugged me.
I feel her warmth through her yukata. Her floral fragrance fluttered in my nose, and my heart raced with excitement at the suddenness of the situation.
“Since our feelings had been shared, I didn’t want to part with you like this.”
Her face is at close range. Her eyes are moist, the bridge of the nose is slender, and her lips are well-shaped. Just staring at her makes me feel like I’m being sucked in.
I’m somehow resisting her charms, which have such tremendous destructive power, by mobilizing all of my rationality…….
“I feel happy when we hold each other like this. Do you feel happy, Aikawa kun?”
“Guha !”
When she tilted her head, it was so cute that my heart almost exploded. Watanabe san stares at me, waiting for a response.
Maybe she was embarrassed, her ears turned bright red, and she turned her head down.
I made up my mind and told her how I felt.
“I’m happy to be able to touch you, too.”
The next moment, Watanabe san pulled away from me and covered her face with her hands.
“W-Watanabe san !?”
“I’m sorry. I’m a little embarrassed, I can’t show you my face.”
Watanabe san’s face is burning. She was embarrassed in spite of her bold action. The imbalance is interesting.
After a while, she recovered,
“I-I’ll see you next time…….”
With awkward movements, I turn away and Watanabe san walks toward her house. On the way, she turned around several times and smiled when she saw I was seeing her off.
When we reached the gate, she waved at me before she went through. I waved back and she walked into the house with a happy look on her face.
As soon as she was out of sight, I covered my face with my hands and crouched down on the spot.
“She’s too cute…….”
Perhaps because I knew how she felt and told her how I felt, the emotions that I had dammed up overflowed.
I was on my way home while replaying over and over in my mind the image of Watanabe san I had just seen.
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