Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354054922823111/episodes/1177354054934151115
“I missed you, Sana!”
“Woah! A-Akane!”
“Stop it, …….”
The moment I opened the front door to welcome the two sleepover guests, Kobayashi Akane hugged me.
“Because I got to see Sana for the first time in a long time! Ah, my sweet Sana ……. You look even cuter today.”
“A-Akane. Hey, you’re in a bit of pain, …….”
“Leave it at that.”
Seeing me suffering from Akane’s tight hug, Takagi Serika pulled Akane’s backpack to stop her.
“Don’t bother her when you’re intruding on her.”
“……Yes, I understand.”
Serika warned Akane, and Akane replied in a somewhat disapproving manner.
Whenever Akane gets too frisky or gets carried away, Serika will stop her.
The two of them are always like this, so I guide them along, smiling at an exchange I haven’t seen in a while.
“My mother won’t be here until the evening. Why don’t you leave your luggage in my room and we’ll talk in the living room?”
“Yeah! I can’t wait to see Sana’s room!”
“Thanks for taking care of me, Sana.”
“Thank you, too. Come on in.”
“”Sorry to bother you.””
For me, the first girls’ night out in my life started.
“Then, which subject would you like to start with?”
Akane said in a surprised voice as I served drinks to the two I let through to the living room and asked them that.
“Eh!? Since we’ve come all the way to Sana’s house, let’s play!”
“Eh?”
I was surprised by Akane’s suggestion, since we had talked about ‘Let’s do homework during the daytime’ as one of the reasons for the two of them to come.
So I turned to Serika for confirmation. Surprisingly, Serika also looked troubled and said
‘”It’s okay for today, isn’t it? I also want to take my time and talk with Sana.”
“I-Is that so ……?”
Serika even agreed with me, which made me even more puzzled.
Akane then patted me on the head and explained.
“Sana is really a very pure person. Homework is like an excuse to meet and play, you know?”
“It’s an excuse ……. Can’t you just say you want to play normally?”
I ask this with a roll of my eyes, and the two of them give me warm gazes.
“Oh, Sana’s so cute …….”
“Don’t do that. …… Sana. From the time she’s planning these things, she invites you, thinking that you probably won’t be willing to do it. It is summer vacation and she wants to have fun, but she feels guilty that she has to do her homework as well. ……She thinks, “Why don’t we do homework together,” but when she meet you, she always wants to play and talk”
“Oh, I see. ……”
Their smiles deepened as they watched me admiringly.
“Sana is really not used to socializing with other people.”
“I guess so. It took me a long time to even ask her to call me by my name. ……”
Akane laughed at Serika’s words, as if she had just remembered something.
“Oh yes, listen to me, Sana. The first time Sana called me by my name was a couple of days earlier than Serika, right? Serika asked me if she still didn’t like her. She asked me very anxiously, [Is Sana still not good at me?] …….”
“Hey, hey Akane! I told you not to talk about it with Sana!”
“Is that so? I’m sorry, sorry.”
Akane apologizes to Serika, who hurriedly warns her, without much offence.
“Is that so? I’m sorry, Serika. It’s not that I’m not good at it or anything, it’s just that Akane always told me to call her by her name, so………”
“I-It’s okay, Sana. I don’t care anymore!”
Serika looks even more embarrassed at my apology.
Maybe it’s better not to dive into this story.
“But you know, when Sana called me by my name for the first time,……, it was bad, wasn’t it?”
“……, I can understand that.”
“?”
The two nodded to each other as if they shared something in common.
What do you mean by ‘it was bad’?
I tilted my head, “It’s nothing”. The two of them said deceptively.
Then, the three of us cooked cold noodles for lunch.
Akane mostly just watched, but since I only did the boiling, it didn’t make much difference.
But the broiled egg Serika made was so thin and beautiful that I couldn’t help but stare at it.
“…… Sana, I get nervous when you look at me that much.”
“Eh? I’m sorry. It was so beautiful that I ended up doing it….”
“Thanks. Do you want to try cutting it too, Sana?”
“Is that okay? I want you to teach me.”
“Well, I’m mostly used to it. ……”
Serika gave me a simple instruction on how to do it, and I started to cut the egg into small pieces.
I think I did well, thanks to her advice.
“… amazing, it’s beautifully done.”
I answered Serika’s evaluation with a little embarrassment.
“Not as good as Serika, and not as fast at all ……. But I think I got the hang of it. Thank you.”
“If it’s this beautiful, it’s good enough for me. You’re welcome.”
Serika’s explanation is easy to understand. I wish I’d listened to her first.
“Do you want me to teach you how to do it?”
“Can you teach me how to do it……?”
“Of course.”
As I was verbally asking Serika how to cook an egg, Akane interrupted me.
“Mouu, you two are flirting too much!”
“I-I’m sorry, okay? Serika was so good at cooking that I ended up doing it…….”
“Ah, Sana! Noodles!”
“Ah, ……!”
I was so excited when Serika told me to check the pot, but the fire had already been turned off.
“I turned it off!”
“T-thank you. Akane.”
I was relieved and relaxed, and Akane said proudly to me.
“Totally, Sana is no good without me, you know.”
“Don’t get carried away. You’re being helped more, aren’t you?”
“I don’t think so.”
Akane said as if she was provoking Serika, and Serika smiled back at her.
“…… Then, ‘Help me with my homework!’ I won’t help you and neither will Sana, no matter what you say.”
“I’m sorry!”
Serika knows Akane well, as she has heard that the two have known each other since middle school.
Serika and I laughed at Akane, who turned her palm and bowed neatly.
After lunch, we spent some time talking about Akane and Serika’s past, asking them how they were spending their summer vacation, and talking about their future plans.
–We talked about our plans for the future, though I was mostly a listener.
The time passed quickly, and we all ate dinner that my mother had cooked for us, took a bath, and went to bed.
“Sana’s mother was a good cook, wasn’t she~”
The three of us formed a circle on the futon laid out in my room, and Akane said to me.
“Yes. I want to be as good as my mother.”
“Sana will get better soon.”
Akane lay down on her stomach and looked up at me.
“Then make me eat Sana’s home-cooked food first, okay?”
“You are saying weird things again …….”
Serika held her forehead at Akane’s words, but Akane added.
“As expected, you don’t think that you should come before your family, do you? ”
“Then, Well……”
With that, the two of them looked at me for my reaction.
I was at a loss for a response since there were others who wanted me to eat first and I served them already.
“Umm, …….”
“Eh, …… didn’t you like it?”
Akane, looking shocked, shakes her head hurriedly.
“W-wrong! It is not that I don’t want to make it for Akane or anything,……, but first, I can’t do,…….”
When I answered, the two looked at each other.
“Perhaps……?”
“I told you. It’s absolutely true.”
The two of them were discussing something in a whisper.
I kept my head tilted and waited for them to finish their discussion.
“Do you want to ask ……?”
“Of course! It’s now or never!”
Eventually, Serika looked nervous and Akane got up and asked me, her eyes glowing with curiosity.
“Sana!”
“What?”
“There’s someone you like, isn’t there?”
“I do you know. ……?”
For a moment, the room was silent.
Then ……,
“What?!” Akane’s loud reaction expressed her surprise, and Serika’s eyes widened and she held her mouth with both hands.
Serika’s eyes widened and she clamped her hands over her mouth.
(Is it that weird, ……?)
I’m a high school student after all,……, I thought to myself, and both Akane and Serika came up to me.
“W-who! Shirakawa-kun!?”
“Why, Shirakawa-kun?”
I tilted my head even more at the mention of the name of a boy who often spoke to me in class.
“No, because ……, he obviously has a thing for Sana. …….”
“Really? I didn’t know that, but you’re wrong…….”
I remember he asked me for my contact information and said something about the two of us going out together.
I don’t remember much.
They froze in shock at my reaction.
“T-then, ……, who?”
Serika’s question was unusually distraught, and I put my index finger to my chin in distress.
“Ummm~ ……, I don’t really mind, but I don’t think I can tell you since that person wouldn’t like it.”
“Eh, what do you mean ……?”
“I’m sorry, okay? I can’t tell you any more.”
When I put my hands together and apologized, Akane put her hands on my shoulders and brought my face close to hers.
“No! The night is long, I’m going to make you throw up, okay? Don’t worry, I’ll never tell anyone else!”
“…… I guess I can’t let this one go.”
Akane, who was so excited, couldn’t hear a word I was saying.
“Well then, start with a hint! Same age? …… Sana doesn’t even do club activities and doesn’t have much contact with older people, right? Oh, but you wouldn’t know outside of school, would you?”
“Hey, hey, Akane ……!”
Serika was the first to notice something wrong with me and stopped Akane.
But Akane still wanted to continue the conversation.
“It’s fine, you’re curious about it too, aren’t you? …… who is the playboy who makes such a pretty Sana so captivating …….”
I felt that Akane’s reference to ‘playboy’ made him sound like a ‘playboy’ and a fool, and I could feel the blood rush to my head.
“…… Akane.”
“Ouch ……!”
I gripped one of Akane’s arms, which had been placed on my shoulder, with both hands, and Akane’s face contorted in pain.
I didn’t care, but I glared at Akane and advised her.
“I told you ……didn’t I? If you bother him or make fun of him, ……, I will never forgive you.”
“Hiiii ……!”
Akane lets out a short scream and starts shaking.
Serika, who had been frozen and watching the situation, moved with a huff after a while.
“See, see! This time it’s all Akane’s fault! Hurry up and apologize!”
Akane finally realized what had happened and started apologizing to me with a desperate look on her face.
“I-I’m sorry, okay? Sana. I got a little too excited. …… I’ll never force you to listen to me again, and I won’t bother that person, so forgive me ……?”
“…….”
I let out a big breath to calm down, and then said to Akane.
“No more, okay?”
“Y-yes! I’m sorry, okay? Really, I’m sorry. …….”
Akane shrugged and a heavy air flowed in the place.
The place was heavy.
“Can I ask you just one question? If you can’t answer, it’s okay. ……”
“Yes, what is it?”
My reply was the same as usual.
Serika asked me a little hesitantly.
“Sana, you’ve changed since you entered the school, haven’t you?…Is that because of that person?”
Perhaps, I thought, Serika is worried about me.
…… though it misses the point.
“No. Thanks to him, I’ve changed, I guess.”
“…… yes.”
I said that a little proudly.
Both Serika and Akane didn’t mention it anymore, so we started talking again about school and other things, and gradually we started to talk like we used to.
I decided in my mind that I would have to be a little wary of Akane from now on …….
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