Episode 18 – Maki Apologize

[ [We’re home.] ]

Around 10:00 p.m., Mom and Dad came home.

“Welcome home, you two.”

“Kento, what happened to your neck?”

“……I must have slept in the wrong position…”

Of course, it was a lie.

There’s no way I can say that I’m hiding the hickey my own sister gave me.

I’ve been using concealer, but I’m a little nervous about it, so I’m holding my neck.

“You won’t be able to sleep at night, you know? Make sure to take naps as well. ……Ah ! That’s right ! I forgot to tell you !”

Mom. I have a bad feeling about the way she’s going to start this.

“Yuko chan and the others are coming over for dinner tomorrow !”

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If me and Maki are childhood friends, it’s no surprise that our parents are close to each other.

There is no room or need to be negative about my parents having a friend they feel comfortable with…

“I was in contact with Yuko chan, and it just so happened that we were going to have dinner together tomorrow !”

This time it seems to have backfired.

“……”

“She said she’d bring her daughter, so Maki chan is coming too, you know?”

Perhaps my mom took my silence as a sign of dissatisfaction with Maki’s absence, and corrected me.

“……”

“What’s wrong? You look so bristly. You like Maki chan, don’t you?”

……I dislike her. No, I started to hate her.

But my mom doesn’t know what’s going on between us, and I’m not going to tell her.

Nothing good will come from going out of my way to tell my parents about Maki’s foolishness, and worst of all, my mom and dad might get angry and distance themselves from Maki’s parents. That is not my intention.

And there is no need to involve Mom and Dad in our problems.

But if I don’t tell my mom what’s going on, it’s a little unnatural for me to be reluctant here.

……I guess I’ll just have to accept the offer.

That said, it seems like it’s already been decided.

“Kento, aren’t you glad that your dear Maki chan is coming?”

I wondered what my dad, who has been silent until now, would say…….

I thought he was making fun of me, but given my dad’s personality, I guess he was being extremely serious.

“It’s not that I don’t like Maki.”

“That’s a lie !”

“It’s not a lie.”

……It was a lie until a little while ago.

It took a lot of effort to avoid my mom’s pursuit.

After that, Mom and Dad explained to Hikari, who came downstairs late, the same way I did.

Hikari was as reluctant as I was at first.

She was glancing at me during the conversation, so maybe she was worried about me.

Mom seemed a little skeptical, as she wasn’t expecting a negative reaction from us, but in the end nothing was pursued.

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[ [Sorry to bother you.] ]

“E-excuse me……]

Maki greets my parents a little later.

Her voice sounded a little sad.

The Sudo family quickly washed their hands and sat down at the table.

Maki is in front of me and Hikari is right next to me.

My eyes met with Maki, who was looking around uncomfortably.

I saw her face at that moment and she looked a little pale.

“……You’ve been leaving early again lately, are you feeling all right?”

“Eh?”

Maki was not expecting me to talk to her, so her eyes widened and she froze.

Hikari and the others were equally surprised.

I honestly don’t want to talk about it if I don’t have to.

But if Maki and I don’t say a word to each other, Mom and Dad will realize that something is wrong. That must be avoided.

If I don’t talk to her, today’s dinner party will become an awkward affair.

So I had no choice.

“Kento……I’m glad you’re worried about me, but I feel better now !”

Maki is beaming as she says so.

The smile was so charming that I found myself admiring it just as much as before, even though I should have disliked her.

However, I suddenly came to my senses as I felt a chilling, disturbing presence coming from my right side,

“Onii chan……what’s wrong with you? You’re spacing out.”

Hikari’s eyes without sparkles caught me in the act.

“N-no……it’s nothing.”

I did my best to cover it up.

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When the adults were all drunk, I quietly went back to my room.

After all, I had talked quite a bit with Maki at today’s dinner party.

Unlike her previous arrogant attitude, she did not abuse me at all, which was rather disconcerting.

Hikari and Maki also seemed awkward at first, perhaps due to Maki’s previous bad-mouthing of Hikari, but by the end they were talking amiably.

The two of them were having a lively conversation, and I was starting to feel a little out of the loop, so I came back to my room.

While I was relaxing on the bed, there was an unexpected knock at the door.

“Kento? I’m coming in.”

“…..Hey, can I at least come in?”

For a moment I thought about ignoring it, but then I felt like complaining about her way of saying it and ended up interjecting.

Then, Maki suddenly hugged me vigorously as I was sitting up on the bed.

“H-hey !”

No matter how much I dislike the other person, when a beautiful woman hugs me, I get nervous out of male instinct.

I tried to get her off so that she would not realize the beating of my intensifying heart, but she put her hands behind my back and held them tightly, so that was not possible.

When I give up and try to get her to talk, I notice that her chest area is wet.

“……Why are you crying?”

“……Uh……Uh…….”

“……Sorry…..hiks…..my misunderstanding…….hiks …..hurt Kento…….”

“I was actually……..going to apologize…… immediately……hiks……but……hiks….I couldn’t……because I’m weak…….”

After that, she continued to cry and say [I’m sorry] repeatedly, and I found myself patting her head as if to soothe her.

After a while.

“……Have you calmed down?”

“……Yes.”

Maki’s eyes are completely red. Her face was a little red, probably because she was embarrassed that she had cried.

“What do you mean by misunderstanding?”

I asked her directly about any questions I had.

“The part where I thought Kento wanted to be dominated.”

“……Why is that again?”

“Because Kento said he wanted to be abused by Lisa tan,…..so I thought he was a masochist……and then I started abusing Kento.”

“……Is that right.”

Was Maki’s sudden change because of Lisa tan……

“……So all that abuse was for me?”

“……Yeah.”

Seriously. I thought that character was her true nature, but that means she was acting out to suit my sexuality. Well, that was also a misunderstanding.

What the heck. So Maki didn’t have any bad intentions at all. …..

It’s a little bit unbearable.

“But then why didn’t you tell me when I asked you the reason?”

“That’s because……, I read on the internet that masochists also like saying no.”

“…..I see.”

I guess nothing has changed in the fact that she’s an idiot child when it comes to believing information from the Internet.

As I was thinking about this, Maki took a deep breath and spoke up as if she had made up her mind.

“…..I knew that I still like Kento. I love you. …….I wonder if we can start over again?”

I thought so.

After all, she still loved me.

I had vaguely noticed it, but after she told me, I finally became convinced.

I’m glad she likes me. But even so, my answer is still decided.

“…..I’m sorry.”

“! I see……that’s right……you don’t like me anymore……”

“….I don’t hate you, Maki. However, no matter how much you don’t really mean it, when asked if I like Maki, who insulted my family…I don’t know. At least, I can’t just joke about it.”

Other things, like the fact that she doesn’t apologize right away, or the fact that she misunderstands and goes off on a tangent……

Besides, the hurt I got from her is real, even if it was a misunderstanding.

It’s not something that can be so easily dismissed.

“……”

Maki was silent for a while, then spoke with tears filling the corners of her eyes.

“I’m really sorry,……but I don’t want to give up. I really love you. I’ll definitely make Kento see me again.”

“I see…….”

Perhaps I was overwhelmed by her strong-willed eyes, and all I could do was give a hollow reply.

“Then, are you going home today?”

“….Yeah.”

In my room without Maki, I close my eyes with my back to the wall.

…As expected, I also misunderstood something.

There are some misunderstandings that can only be resolved by talking like this…

…Maybe I need to listen to the stories of the other girls I’ve been ignoring until now.

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