Epilogue
Two
days had passed since Shiho’s cooking training at the Tōjōin residence, and now
it was Monday.
Shimada
Sei had left her house and was walking her usual route to school.
The
weather was nice, so much so that her blazer felt a little warm.
Sei
stopped around the halfway point between her house and the school.
There,
she took a deep breath.
“Hah…”
It
had been about a month since she started dating Hisamura Tsukasa.
They
had decided to walk to school together every Monday, meeting up along the way.
She’d
gotten a little used to it after doing it several times, but she still felt
nervous.
And
today… was the first time she would see Tsukasa since that day on Saturday.
Just
thinking about Saturday still made Sei’s face grow hot with embarrassment.
(Ugh,
calm down… I’m about to see Tsukasa. I can’t be like this before I even meet
him…)
She
closed her eyes and took another deep breath.
The
reason she was so self-conscious was because of the phone call she’d had with
Shiho yesterday.
The
call had been just as sudden as ever. The first thing Shiho said when she
picked up was—
‘Did
you kiss Hisamura-kun?!’
Hearing
that, Sei had involuntarily shouted “Wha?!” in her room.
Apparently,
while Sei and Tsukasa were in the prep room, Tōjōin and Rie had been talking
about just that.
What’s
more, when the three of them came into the prep room, they saw how incredibly
awkward the atmosphere between Sei and Tsukasa was and concluded that they must
have kissed.
‘There
was a security camera in that room, so I watched the footage, but the angle
made it impossible to see if you actually did it or not, so I wanted to ask you
directly, Sei-chan!’
‘Wait
a minute, there was a security camera in that room?!’
‘It’s
Tōjōin-san’s house, you know.’
The
fact that this explanation was enough to make her accept it was incredible.
She
hadn’t noticed it, but it was a good thing the camera’s angle had been poor.
As
she was thinking about all that…
“Good
morning, Sei-chan.”
“Eek?!”
Suddenly
being spoken to, her body jumped in surprise.
Looking
to her side, she saw the very person who had just been on her mind—Hisamura
Tsukasa.
“Are
you okay?”
“I-I’m
fine. Good morning, Tsukasa.”
Embarrassed
that he’d heard her strange yelp, Sei spoke quickly to cover it up.
“Y-You’re
early today. And where’s Rie?”
“It
seems Rie had morning duty today, and she only realized it right before she
left. She was cutting it close, so she went on ahead by herself on her bike.”
“O-Oh,
is that so? Rie can be surprisingly scatterbrained.”
“It’s
easy to forget things like that over the weekend.”
With
Rie absent, it seemed it was now certain that the two of them would be walking
to school alone.
If
she were being honest, she would have preferred to walk with Rie today, not
just with Tsukasa.
Of
course, it wasn’t that she disliked being alone with him… it was just that she
wasn’t confident she could talk to him normally after what had happened.
For
a moment, an awkward silence fell between them.
“Sh-Shall
we get going? We’ll be late for school, too.”
“Yeah,
you’re right.”
Tsukasa’s
normal reply made Sei feel a little miffed.
(It’s
like I’m the only one who’s, you know, conscious of it…)
That’s
what Sei thought, but there was no way she could say something so embarrassing
out loud.
The
two began to walk their usual, yet slightly different, route to school.
For
about five minutes after their meeting spot, they rarely encountered any other
students.
That’s
why, when Rie wasn’t with them, they always held hands for just these five
minutes on their way to school, but…
Today,
they still hadn’t.
“What
do we have for P.E. today again?”
“I
think the boys have basketball, don’t they? I feel like the girls had tennis or
something outside.”
“Ah,
right. If it’s basketball, it’ll probably be the Yūichi show, as usual.”
The
conversation itself was normal, but Sei felt a slight sense of unease.
It
felt like Tsukasa was initiating the conversation more than usual.
He
hadn’t taken her hand, and he was the one constantly bringing up new topics.
(Could
it be that Tsukasa is also conscious of what happened the other day…?)
No,
it would be stranger if he wasn’t conscious of it.
Since
that incident, they had only exchanged the bare minimum of RINE messages.
Neither
of them had touched upon the events of that day.
While
talking with Tsukasa, she glanced at his hand, which was right next to hers.
The
first time they held hands, and every time they walked to school.
Whenever
they held hands, Tsukasa was always the one to initiate it.
She
was waiting for him to do it again today, but at this rate, they would soon
reach the area where other students were.
(…It’s
not right that I’ve never done it myself. Yeah, to be equals as a couple, it’d
be strange for me not to initiate it sometimes.)
Muttering
that to herself, Sei steeled her resolve and took his hand.
“Ah!
Huh…?”
“…Fufu,
what’s wrong?”
“N-No,
I was just a little surprised.”
“Is
it… weird for me to be the one to hold your hand?”
“No,
it’s not weird at all. In fact, I’m incredibly happy. I wish I had about six
hands so I could hold yours with all of them.”
“Are
you planning on becoming a spider or something?”
Tsukasa
spoke in his usual manner, but she could tell he was a little embarrassed.
If
he was this happy just from her taking his hand, she felt like she wanted to do
it more often in the future.
(Well…
I don’t dislike holding hands, either.)
Thinking
that, the corners of her mouth turned up.
“…Sei-chan,
about this past Saturday.”
“Ah!
W-What is it…?”
She
hadn’t expected him to suddenly bring up Saturday, and her heart skipped a
beat.
Embarrassed,
Sei’s face turned bright red as she looked up at Tsukasa next to her… but his
face wasn’t red. He looked somewhat worried.
“About,
um, that… You weren’t upset, were you?”
“Huh?”
“I
know that was a little too sudden, and you said it was a reward, so I just,
um…”
“…”
It
was true that the mood had suddenly turned that way, and Sei had been very
surprised, too.
The
feeling of him stroking her head had been so pleasant that she had leaned into
him as if entrusting her body to him, and when she opened her eyes and looked
up, his face was incredibly close.
Tsukasa’s
face, which she had never seen from such a close distance, was surprisingly
beautiful, and it made her heart race.
He
looked straight into her eyes, his face drawing nearer…
(Ugh!
D-Don’t remember that, me…!)
The
scene from that moment flooded her mind, and her face turned an even deeper
shade of red.
“So,
I’m sorry. Until a moment ago, I was thinking that maybe you’d started to hate
me, and I couldn’t bring myself to hold your hand.”
“I-Is
that what you were thinking?”
“That’s
why I was so, so happy when you took my hand, Sei-chan.”
Seeing
Tsukasa’s innocent smile as he said that made Sei’s heart pound.
So
he had been conscious of what happened, too, and had been feeling anxious.
The
reason he felt anxious was probably because she had been so embarrassed
afterward that she had left without even being able to look him in the face.
She
felt sorry for that, but at the same time, the fact that he had been thinking
about it so much on his own made her feel a little happy.
“There’s
no way I would ever hate you for something like that. I’m… you know… with you
because I like you, Tsukasa.”
She
hesitated to say something so embarrassing in the morning, but she was the one
who had made Tsukasa anxious, so she took responsibility and put her feelings
into words.
“Sei-chan…
Thank you. I love you too, Sei-chan.”
“Ah…
Th-Thank you.”
Though
embarrassed, Sei accepted Tsukasa’s words.
As
they continued walking, other students came into view, which meant they had to
let go of their hands.
“Sei-chan,
it’s about time.”
“Ah,
you’re right.”
As
they were about to let go, there was something Sei wanted to say about
Tsukasa’s earlier comment that had been bothering her.
“Tsukasa…
when you brought up what happened, you asked if I was upset, didn’t you?”
“Huh…?
Uh, yeah, I did.”
Tsukasa’s
reaction seemed to ask why she was bringing it up again.
But
there was just one thing Sei wanted to say.
It
was something incredibly embarrassing.
So
she looked around to make sure no one was there.
She
moved closer to Tsukasa’s ear and said in a small voice,
“When
I remembered what happened then… I was filled with a feeling of happiness.”
She
immediately pulled her face away and put some distance between them.
For
a moment, Tsukasa didn’t seem to understand what she had said, but the instant
he did, his face began to flush bright red.
“Huh?
Wh-Huh…!?”
“Y-You
get what I mean, right?! Come on, we’ll be late for school, let’s hurry!”
The
dazed Tsukasa had stopped in his tracks. She almost reached out to take his
hand to hurry him along, but stopped herself since they were in a place with
other students.
She
broke into a light jog to get ahead of him, then turned back.
“Come
on, let’s go, Tsukasa.”
“…Fufu,
I can’t win against you, Sei-chan. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to.”
Muttering
those words, Tsukasa came to stand beside Sei, and they began to walk.
“I
was… incredibly happy, too. Both then, and now.”
“Ah…
I see. Me too.”
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