An Introvert's Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me! Volume 4 E-Book

Yuishi

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Yoshin and Nanami are about to mark their one-month anniversary of dating: the day they are due to break up. As the end of their relationship nears, they plan their final dates—to the amusement park and the zoo! Yoshin prepares to tell Nanami how he truly feels about her, and Nanami gears up to tell him that her confession was actually based on a dare. As their intentions become crossed, their final dates begin, and the moment of truth soon arrives. With the fateful day upon them, the love that the two have been nurturing will finally be put to the test. What will be their final decision?

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Prologue: A Not-So-Bad Change

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Our Last Week Together

Interlude: Her Report

Chapter 2: Our Last Date, Day 1

Interlude: Upon the End of Day 1

Chapter 3: Our Last Date, Day 2

Interlude: The Two of Us after Our Last Date

Chapter 4: The Truth Comes Out

Epilogue: I’m Head over Heels for the Gyaru

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Table of Contents

Color Images

Prologue: A Not-So-Bad Change

After Nanami-san and I... Hold up. I mean, after Nanami and I made it through that strange incident between us—the incident that had been like a fight but not like a fight at all—a small change took place. That change was different from the change that took place between me and Nanami-sa—between me and Nanami.

Nanami-san, Nanami... Hmm, getting used to calling her by her name was harder than I’d thought. Unless I made a conscious effort, I easily slipped back into using the honorific. Saying it aloud also felt kind of awkward. Maybe that was just how it was going to have to be for a bit, given that I hadn’t addressed anyone this way for pretty much my entire life.

That said, it seemed that Nanami herself was enjoying seeing me go through all this. She especially seemed to get a kick out of hearing me rush to drop the honorific after calling her “Nanami-san” by accident. She would even smile at me now and again like she was teasing me. Still, I supposed I had no complaints as long as she was enjoying herself.

For now, let’s set that aside. At least I’d managed to take my first step forward. The first step is always the most important—it’s the step that requires the most courage. From here on out, I was going to consciously call her by her name each time. If I could keep that up, I had to get used to it eventually.

Damn, I got sidetracked again. Change... That’s right, I was talking about the change—the change aroundme. I knew all sorts of things had changed since I’d started dating Nanami, but this one was a little different. To be specific, when I was by myself, a lot of the guys at school would now start talking to me.

When I’d first started going out with Nanami, people would ask me loads of questions or would try to get a look at me from far away, but barely any of them had actually tried to talk to me. Them doing so now made me realize that not only had I never really talked with the girls in my class, but I had also never really talked with the guys. I basically never started conversations myself, so it had been pretty normal for me to not talk to anyone there. That was what made this such a huge change for me.

That said, most of our conversations were about Nanami. People would ask about me from time to time in the course of our conversations, but for the most part, we would talk about what Nanami was like, what kinds of places we went to on our dates, whether I’d been in Nanami’s room... That sort of thing.

Before then, I’d felt that it was girls who really liked talking about relationships, but to my surprise, guys enjoyed it too. Maybe that was to be expected among groups of teenage guys—or maybe they just wanted to get whatever information they could out of me. I supposed that was also a possibility.

Their questions were all ones I was now unaccustomed to, but I did my best to answer them to an extent where I wouldn’t cause any problems for Nanami. After all, it was important to keep some things private. That, and I wanted to keep information about Nanami all to myself. However, because I wasn’t used to explaining these kinds of things, I sometimes said things that were a bit off the mark.

“So? Fess up. How far have you gone with Barato?” one guy asked.

“How far? There was the hot springs, I guess.”

Like that, I’d given a strange response to a question that, had I just thought about it, I would have known was about the progress of our sexual relationship. The question had been so out of the blue that I’d answered it without even thinking.

Of course, my vague response invited a slew of questions about what that even meant, but I somehow managed to keep the staying overnight part to myself. I didn’t even want to think about what people would say to me if they found out that we’d stayed in the same room. Since we’d gone with our families, it wasn’t like we’d get in any trouble with the school or anything, but even then, that wasn’t the kind of thing that should be publicly announced.

In any case, although I couldn’t quite call my efforts smooth sailing, I was starting to be able to carry on conversations with my classmates. It was like going through rehab, in a way.

“And? How far did you end up going? I bet you guys have already done all sorts of things, huh? Dude, I’m super jealous that you have a girlfriend like her.”

“Huh? What do you mean? Uh...”

I’d managed to get around the whole hot springs topic, but because of that, we ended right back where we’d started.

The guy I was talking to looked kind of envious as he got lost in his own messed-up fantasy. I felt bad bursting his bubble as he was letting his imagination run wild, but the truth was, we really hadn’t done anything. At least, I didn’t think we had.

“No comment.”

The response I finally came up with wasn’t at all interesting. It was true that I wanted to keep our memories between just the two of us, but I also felt like the progress of our relationship wasn’t something to be announced to the whole world.

Apparently, though, even thatresponse was more than enough to fuel the vivid imagination of a high school boy.

“Are you saying you guys are doing things you can’t even tell people about?!”

How do you reach that conclusion?!

As I sat there, shocked by his unexpected response, the guy in front of me crossed his arms and nodded several times with a satisfied expression on his face.

“Yeah, makes perfect sense,” he said. “We’re talking about Barato here, after all. I heard a rumor that she hadn’t even kissed a guy before, but I just knew that was a load of garbage.”

Hearing that, I was at a loss for words. This is the exact opposite of the rumor that went around before.

The truth was now going around as a rumor, and what’s more, that “rumor” was described as garbage. Even though those who’d stuck around in the classroom on that fateful day had heard the truth from Nanami directly, the kids who hadn’t been there got information through hearsay.

That photo of us had been uploaded to the class group chat, but most likely no one had shared what Nanami had said that day. That being said, I couldn’t be sure, since I’d only gotten a glimpse at the chat log when Nanami had shown it to me. If we were making assumptions based on that image alone, it probably would be hard to believe that Nanami had never kissed anyone, and doing so wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary.

Even though, to me, Nanami was a pure, somewhat shy, perfectly normal girl, she probably didn’t show that side of herself to other people that much. Even I had only learned that about her after we’d started going out.

What should I do? I wondered. Should I correct them? No, wait. I guess I shouldn’t “correct” them. That would mean that we had kissed—and we hadn’t kissed each other yet. We’d kissed places other than on the lips, but since we hadn’t kissed properly, that meant we hadn’t actually kissed yet.

If I started explaining that, though, there would have been no point in me refraining from commenting earlier. Yeah, since no real damage is being done, it’s probably okay for me to leave things be.

The moment I thought that, I felt something soft grab me by the shoulders, and my body instinctively flinched. As I slowly turned around in my seat, I saw Nanami with a smile on her face, leaning forward to bring her face closer to mine.

“What are you two boys talking about? Let me join you,” she said, her hair swaying gently and brushing softly against my face.

Even if she hadn’t intended it, her sweet scent tickled my nose and made my heart skip a beat. It was the same scent as usual, but smelling it left my heart pounding. I’ll never get used to this.

I cleared my throat as if that might keep my cheeks from turning red. Then my eyes found Nanami as she stood there, smiling and tilting her head.

“It wasn’t anything serious. Just stuff about how you and I were doing,” I told her.

“You and me? Like dating stuff? I didn’t know guys liked talking about that stuff too.” She laughed lightly, her hands squeezing my shoulders. Her touch tickled, and I had to force myself to keep from twisting my body.

The guy in front of me watched the two of us with envy. He then smiled wryly and, adding to my response, said, “Yeah, we were just talking about how rumors can’t be trusted.”

When Nanami heard the word “rumors,” she reacted with a slight twitch. Of course she would. Strange rumors about us had gone around just the other day—it was no surprise that she’d be somewhat sensitive to rumors in general. She was probably nervous that maybe another weird rumor was going around, which made her next question inevitable.

“Like what kind of rumor?” she asked.

Unlike the smile she’d had on her face a moment before, her expression was now one of seriousness. Maybe she was wary about what she might hear. I swallowed hard when I saw her expression.

Our classmate, however, didn’t seem the least bit bothered and shared the current “rumor” as though he couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard yet. As I sat there, I couldn’t help but wonder if it was okay for him to share it so freely, but I supposed it was no big deal for him since he wasn’t involved.

“Oh, you know, the rumor that you and Misumai haven’t even kissed yet,” he said.

When I heard it a second time, I realized that it was actually a pretty embarrassing rumor. Nanami’s face changed once again—from an expression of seriousness to now one of mild shock, with her mouth open slightly. I couldn’t tell by looking at her if her brain hadn’t quite caught up or if it was refusing to recognize the new piece of information.

As our classmate’s words gradually sunk in, her cheeks grew redder and redder. Once her entire face had reached maximum redness, she attached herself to my back to hide behind me, then raised her voice as though she were outraged.

“Huh?! What kind of a rumor is that?! It is a rumor, right?!”

“What? Uh, yeah, it is, but... Huh?”

He seemed overwhelmed by her reaction, or rather, he looked bewildered, surprised by a version of Nanami he’d never seen before. It was a sight I saw from time to time, but this must have been a first for him.

After thinking for a moment, Nanami came out from behind my back and stood up straight, puffing out her chest. “Yoshin and I kiss a lot! All the time!” she declared.

Excuse me?

Now it was my turn to be dumbfounded. I thought about what she’d said, dwelled on the words, let them sink into my brain, and then promptly turned bright red.

Wait, why are you telling a lie like that?!

“Uh, right,” the guy replied, unable to say anything more. His response was totally understandable. There was no right reaction to a declaration of kissing.

However, Nanami’s lie was immediately revealed.

“Come on, Nanami. What are you saying? You just said the other day that you two hadn’t kissed yet.”

“Huh?!”

The girl standing behind Nanami must have been in the classroom that day. I couldn’t remember her name, but I had a vague feeling that I’d seen her face before. Nanami, having been set straight, was quivering from panic and confusion.

“Wh-When I thought about it some more, I realized we’d kissed loads! He’s kissed me on the cheek and forehead and stuff!” Nanami exclaimed.

“What do you mean? He hasn’t kissed you on the mouth yet, right?” the girl asked.

“No, he hasn’t... I guess not.”

“Nanami, you’re so much more pure than you look. Do you want me to teach you how to do it?” The girl smiled teasingly and touched a finger to her own lips. Nanami stared at her, her cheeks glowing red.

“Oh, jeez! Seriously!”

Nanami—now as red as a tomato—began throwing a tantrum like a child. Seeing her transformation, the girl let out a mumbled “Oh, shoot,” and ran off like a rabbit escaping from a predator. Not missing a beat, Nanami took off after her.

Hmm... It looked like I was going to have to help clean up the situation. I could only assume that Nanami had blurted all that out in confusion.

“Barato can make faces like that too, huh? I had no idea,” the guy in front of me mumbled. The words lingered strangely in my ears.

To me, the way her expressions changed from one to the next was just part of who she was... No, it was part of the Nanami-san I’d been spending time with these past three weeks—part of the girl I’d come to know.

However, to my classmates, she was acting completely different. This was probably because she was starting to show them the version of herself that she usually showed me. On the other hand, I really didn’t know the version of Nanami that my classmates knew. I’d only vaguely known that she was a gyaru. I wondered if maybe I should ask Nanami about it when I got the chance—though it was possible that she wasn’t really aware of the difference.

As I was sitting there lost in thought, yet another unexpected question entered my ear.

“So you guys really haven’t kissed, huh? Wouldn’t that mean you’re still a virgin?”

I was half surprised, half impressed to discover that questions like these really were asked in high school classrooms.

“Yeah, that’s right,” I replied.

“Wow, you sure admitted that fast. Don’t you wanna do stuff like that though?”

Stuff like that, huh? It would be a complete lie if I said I didn’t want to do it, and to be perfectly honest, there had been many such temptations during our trip. Of course, our families had been there with us at the time, so I’d been able to resist all of that. I wondered what would have happened if they hadn’t been there. But more than the question of me wanting to or not...

“If Nanami would get hurt by it, then I could stand not doing it, even if I did want to.”

That sentiment felt the most “right” to me. As my dad had once told me, if we did anything like that and something happened as a result, then the one who would have to shoulder the heavier burden would usually end up being the woman. If something were to happen to us as high schoolers, Nanami might have to give up her dream. When I thought about that, I couldn’t say that the risk was worth the reward. After all, we were only in high school.

Even as I said that, though, I knew that if Nanami were to ask me for something like that, my reason would waver. There was no guarantee I would be able to hold myself back, and I might end up doing all kinds of things. I’m sure all guys my age felt like that, but it was especially in moments like those that we had to stay levelheaded. There were plenty of other ways for us to confirm the love we felt for one another, right? Though maybe that’s not very convincing coming from me, given that I hadn’t even managed to kiss her properly yet.

My classmate nodded. “That’s really cool. Back when I had a girlfriend, I wanted to do it so bad, I could barely stand it. I wanted to get rid of my virginity fast too. I felt like I was horny all the time.”

“There’s no helping that,” I said. “At least, that’s just what I think. I’m sure it’s totally natural to feel like we want to do stuff.”

“Whoa, I was trying to steer the conversation toward some dirty jokes, but I feel like it’s turned into some kind of moral lesson.”

Wait, that was supposed to lead to dirty jokes? I thought. I wasn’t good at stuff like that, and since my online game friends didn’t really tell jokes like that either, I hadn’t even picked up on it. When my expression grew troubled, my classmate laughed a little.

“In that case, you’ll have to work up to your first kiss then. It’s easier to do if it’s an anniversary or something,” he said.

“Wait, what?”

But my classmate had already stood up. He gave me an encouraging tap on my shoulder and then walked away. Meanwhile, Nanami returned, almost as though she were switching places with him. I wondered if he’d left because he wanted to give me and Nanami time with just the two of us.

“Welcome back, Nanami,” I said.

“Thanks, Yoshin. Gosh, I’m spent...”

Either from embarrassment or from chasing after her classmate, Nanami was red in the face as she sat down in the newly vacated seat in front of me. Once seated, she slumped over my desk as if to rest her weary body.

What my classmate had said before he’d walked away continued to echo in my head. Anniversary... It’s easier to try kissing on an anniversary, huh? I shifted my gaze toward Nanami’s lips as she breathed in and out quietly.

It was almost our one-month anniversary and the final day of us dating because of a dare. Was Nanami going to break up with me on that day? Or would she not? I knew what I was going to do, but I had no clue what her plans were. For better or for worse, we were now living our last moments before the end. I had to make it so I would have no regrets.

As I thought things over, Nanami pouted, still slumped over my desk. “You’ve been chatting with other guys a lot more lately. I’m happy to see you becoming more a part of the class, but since I’m your girlfriend and all, I have mixed feelings.”

“Does it seem that way? Don’t I still stick out?” I asked.

“Not at all.”

“But, I mean, I still can’t put people’s names and faces together.”

“Wait, seriously? Even though you were just talking to them?”

“Yeah.”

Nanami raised her head slightly and looked at me. Seeing her piercing gaze, I began to feel a little guilty and scratched my cheek to try and hide it. I mean, you know... I never had much to do with these people until now.

Nanami continued looking at me and smiled wryly as if to say I still had a ways to go. I couldn’t help smiling back at her.

Maybe that was the beginning of our last week together.

Chapter 1: The Beginning of Our Last Week Together

Roughly three weeks ago, the slightly strange relationship between me and Nanami had begun. Since then, we’d experienced a number of changes. It was around a week now until our one-month anniversary—the day our slightly strange relationship would in one way or another come to an end.

Next week, I was going to tell Nanami how I felt about her. I had no idea what kind of a change that would bring. Whatever the case, I sincerely wanted to make that change as good a change as possible. There was no guarantee that there would be a happy ending, but I was going to aim for that regardless.

As I was thinking, the conversation I’d had with my classmate earlier brought a new question to mind.

“I wonder how far we can go and still have it be okay for a high school relationship,” I mumbled.

“What do you mean?” Nanami asked.

We were in Nanami’s room as usual, chatting about nothing in particular after we’d finished studying. I was looking at the photos we’d taken in the photo booth at the arcade to commemorate the day I’d called Nanami by her name. It was the first time I’d ever done something like that.

There were several different photos in the set. One of them was even saved on my phone, which I’d had no idea you could even do.

“Well, like in this photo, does kissing on the cheek count as being ‘high school appropriate’?” I asked.

That’s right. While we were in the photo booth, Nanami had kissed me on the cheek. It had been shocking even for a candid shot. Because of that, we’d ended up with a photo in which she was kissing me as I was sporting a dumbass grin.

If I’d done the same thing to her, we would’ve ended up kissing for real, huh?

When I gestured to the photo, she recalled the incident and blushed slightly, but she quickly feigned composure and returned to normal. As a side note, when we’d taken that photo, Nanami had gotten so embarrassed about what she’d done that she’d turned beet red. I guess that didn’t even need to be said though.

In any case, Nanami did a big stretch as if to take our attention away from the photo. She then yawned slightly, her eyes tearing up a bit.

“But if that’s true, then, strictly speaking, don’t you think we shouldn’t be going to an arcade after school either? I’m not really sure what the school policy is. I’d never even thought about it,” she said, leaning her body against mine as she rubbed her teary eyes. She reminded me of a cat as she rolled onto her belly and lay in my lap like that.

She wasn’t quite using my lap as a pillow as she sometimes did, but I could feel the warmth and gentle pressure of her body spreading across my outstretched legs. I knew I was imagining it, but I felt like I saw cat ears on Nanami’s head. Cat ears... Yeah, I could definitely work with that.

Nanami shifted to lie on her back and looked up at me. Since I’d been looking at her head, our eyes met when she flipped over. She seemed surprised for a moment but immediately flashed me a mischievous grin. She then brought her index finger up to her lips and tilted her head. Her hair fell across my knees, tickling me.

“What? Yoshin...are you saying you wanna do something more risqué?” Nanami moved her index finger slowly in an arc along her lips. With a somewhat sensual gesture, she lifted her finger away and pointed it toward me... Her cheeks immediately turned red.

“Don’t say that and then get all embarrassed,” I said.

Maybe she’d reached her limit, given the reminder of the photo. Finding even that to be adorable, I broke out into a wide grin, making her turn even redder. She began flailing around in my lap, pummeling my chest with her fist.

“Don’t say things like that!” she exclaimed. “Jeez, we’re supposed to decide where we’re going on our next date!”

“Sorry, sorry! You were just being too cute!”

“Seriously! I’m not kidding, okay?!”

She was punching me, but it didn’t hurt at all—in fact, I would go so far as to say it felt kind of nice. Nanami continued hitting me for a while, but eventually, she raised both her legs and swung them down, using the momentum to sit up.

The weight I’d felt upon me disappeared, and I felt a temporary sense of loneliness at the small bit of warmth that remained. Whether or not she knew how I felt, Nanami picked up her phone and started searching for ideas. Still feeling the loss of her warmth, I joined her in looking up possible date spots.

Today, Nanami and I had decided that we would each come up with an idea for our next date. It might seem like there was no need for us to be in the same room in order to do this—after all,we could have just as easily come up with ideas once I’d gone home. However, we had a reason for doing things this way.

For our first date, I’d invited Nanami to go see a movie together. For our second date, Nanami had invited me to go to the aquarium, and we’d made some unforgettable memories. For our third date, we had gone on a trip to the hot springs and enjoyed the cherry blossoms. At the end, we’d even played a game together in my room and surprised each other in all sorts of ways.

Every single one of those dates was fun, each with their own irreplaceable memories. But now, with only one week left until our one-month anniversary, we were starting to plan what to do for our fourth date.

And therein lay our problem.

Since it was the date right before our one-month anniversary, both Nanami and I were pretty pumped up about it. The more we’d talked, the more we had both come up with places we wanted to go, which in turn had made it increasingly difficult to decide where to choose.

We could go back to the aquarium to watch the dolphin show we’d missed, go to see the cherry blossoms again as just the two of us, try out an amusement park or zoo we’d never been to before... We could also just explore the town, go watch a movie that we wanted to check out, or even hang out and watch a movie at home like we’d mentioned before. Like that, we had kept coming up with more and more ideas.

It had been loads of fun just to sit there going back and forth, even if our plan hadn’t seemed to be coming together at all. At some point, though, we had to come up with a solid decision for what to do.

“It’s kind of tough to settle on one thing, huh?” Nanami had muttered.

“Yeah. I guess there are just too many things we want to do. We’d never get through all these in just two days.”

After some more brainstorming, we had ended up with an excessively long list of ideas. But no matter how many we packed into our schedule, we wouldn’t be able to check them all off in the course of one day. Thus, we’d come to an impasse.

The reason I was so worked up about making the correct decision was that this date could potentially be our last. That was why I felt so strongly about taking her someplace I’d chosen myself.

Nanami, too, seemed really intent on making this the perfect date. I could tell she really wanted to spend the day with me somewhere that she’d suggested.

“Won’t you let me do something for you to make up for the fight I started the other day?” she had even asked. However, considering how suggestive that had sounded, she’d immediately started blushing again and shouted, “Never mind!”

Of course, I’d reassured her that the misunderstanding before hadn’t even been a fight and that she shouldn’t worry about it at all, because I’d definitely been at fault too.

In any case, coming back to the topic of our date, we couldn’t move forward unless we decided on what we wanted to do. Since we couldn’t settle on any one thing, I’d made the suggestion that on Saturday we would go where Nanami wanted and on Sunday we’d go where I wanted. That way, we could each come up with a different plan for a date.

Nanami had seemed thrilled by the idea. “Let’s do that! That sounds fun!” she’d said.

So, in order to prevent us from coming up with the exact same plan, we were now sitting next to each other in the same room, exploring potential ideas on our phones. That way, we could continue chatting as we searched.

Up till now, neither one of us had mentioned a plan to the other. We seemed to have an unspoken agreement that we would only tell each other once we had settled on something, but we still thought it best to share our plans in advance, rather than surprise each other on the day of. It seemed we both felt our third date had left with enough surprises to last us for a lifetime.

As we sat there, both on our phones, Nanami suddenly changed the topic of conversation. “Hey, Yoshin, about what you mentioned earlier...”

“Earlier?”

“The whole ‘high school appropriate’ thing,” Nanami mumbled, her eyes still on her phone. When I glanced over at her, I couldn’t tell from her expression what she was feeling inside. Maybe I’d made her worry.

“Oh, I mean, I wasn’t saying... I’m not looking to do anything weird, so I don’t worry.” I took my eyes off of my phone and smiled at her, trying to reassure her. She noticed my gaze and looked up from her phone.

“That’s not it!” she replied. “What I mean is, I know that mom and dad and Shinobu-san and your father too say that we have to keep things PG, but I don’t really feel like we have to be constrained by that.”

“As in...”

“As in, since we’re both high school students, anything we do is ‘high school appropriate.’ Don’t you think?”

That was a pretty outrageous argument. By that logic, we could do literally anything and no one could say a word against it. What’s more, if we used that as our excuse, we might not be able to stop ourselves from doing all kinds of things. I hesitated over whether to agree with what she’d said.

“Don’t you think that sounds kind of problematic?” I finally asked, still not being able to buy her argument. I didn’t entirely enjoy disagreeing with her, but I also felt reluctant to approve of what she’d said.

Nanami, on the other hand, didn’t seem upset with my reaction. In fact, she didn’t seem affected by it at all. “Yeah, you’re right,” she replied.

I hadn’t expected her to react that way, so I just looked at her and gave her an awkward smile. She seemed to have expected such a reaction from me as well, since she continued her explanation.

“A friend has a boyfriend, and she, uh, does stuff with him that I’m not even sure I should be hearing about. I mean, it’s so much that I can’t even say it out loud...”

“What kinds of things is she telling you?! That makes me kind of worried in more ways than one.”

“I used to just listen to her without thinking about it much, but things have changed now that I have a boyfriend too.”

I began to feel uneasy, wondering what kinds of things she’d been hearing about from her friends, but she didn’t go into details. She had likely remembered some of the contents though, because her ears were turning pink.

Some time ago, I’d heard that girl talk tended to be way more scandalous than talk between guys. Was that really true? I’d never talked about stuff like that with other guys, so I had nothing to compare it to. Perhaps the reason Nanami was sometimes so bold when it came to stuff like that was that she’d heard crazy stories like that from her friends. Seeing the worry on my face, Nanami smiled as though to reassure me.

“But you know, Hatsumi and Ayumi are taking things pretty slowly. They told me one time that they’d only really kissed their boyfriends, so it seems like the pacing really depends on the couple.”

That was kind of surprising. I’d assumed that Nanami’s two closest friends had gotten pretty far with their boyfriends already, but apparently, that wasn’t the case. Maybe it had something to do with the guys they were dating. I’d heard that both their boyfriends were adults, so maybe they couldn’t legally do anything with high schoolers. If that was the case, then it made perfect sense.

“But since I hear all those stories and am always learning so much, when the time comes, we’ll have nothing to worry about.”

Just as I thought I could stop worrying, she’d hit me with that. My concerns seemed to have been spot-on. When Nanami winked at me, all proud of herself, I narrowed my eyes slightly and looked at her, exasperated.

“There you go, saying stuff like that again. I’m not gonna help you when something happens but you end up self-destructing, especially after making a statement like that.”

She laughed. “I guess I’ve just picked up lots of stories from other people, even if I haven’t done anything myself. You never know what’s gonna come in handy one day.”

“Why would you say that?!”

Despite my shock, I burst out laughing and Nanami joined in.

Once we’d both flushed the amusement out of our systems, Nanami turned serious and came closer to me. As I watched her, wondering what she was going to do, she leaned her back against my own. I felt her warmth spreading through my body. It felt so comfortable that I couldn’t say anything. Maybe she could feel my warmth too, because for a while she didn’t say anything. A moment of quiet settled in the room.

Then Nanami whispered, “Do you remember that one time when you kissed me while I was asleep?”

“Uh, did I do that?”

“Jeez, you’re just pretending like you forgot! I know you remember.”

Yes, I’m pretending. I was trying to play dumb because I still felt guilty about it, but she’d seen right through my act and laughed at me. I mean, of course I wouldn’t forget. It was an important memory of something that I’d done of my own volition for the first time—even if she had been asleep.

The warmth of her body as she shifted against my back felt comfortable, but I was now sitting there all red in the face because I was remembering what I’d done that night. Seriously, I can’t believe I did that.

“I’m truly, truly sorry I did that while you were asleep,” I said.

“Oh, no, no. I don’t mind it at all. I told you it made me happy, remember?” She laughed even more heartily, her back still against my own. But rather than getting angry with my apology, she seemed somehow relieved. As I was still sitting there, trying to deal with my remaining guilt, I was suddenly enveloped by a soft, warm sensation.

Nanami was hugging me gently from behind.

I could feel her against my entire back. Her scent was gentle and reassuring. I savored her warmth, dreamily thinking of how happy I would be if I just fell asleep right there and then. Then a comforting voice that was somehow reminiscent of a mother’s echoed in my ear.

“I think it’s better for us to go at our own pace instead of worrying about what’s appropriate for high schoolers. We don’t have to force ourselves or anything. That’s why, moving forward, let’s just keep going like we always have.”

When I heard her say that, I felt something I couldn’t put a name to overtake my heart.

It was true that maybe I was too caught up in the “high school-appropriate” thing. That probably had something to do with the fact that today had been my first time in a while talking with a male classmate. When he’d told me that high school students wanted to do all sorts of things, I’d panicked. Feeling the pressure of the end of our relationship drawing closer probably hadn’t helped either. When I’d realized I was deviating from what other people considered normal, I just couldn’t help wondering if that was somehow a bad thing. However, Nanami’s affirmation of my actions made me feel a lot better.

“You’re right. We have all the time in the world. We can take it slow and do things at our own pace,” I said.

“Yeah... We have, uh, all the time in the world,” she replied.

Well, I didn’t actually know if we had so much time, but even then, I told myself that I wanted to continue building our relationship slowly and without rushing too much. I wished for that precisely because the end of our relationship was drawing near.

And it was this conversation with Nanami that made me think of a place I wanted to go with her for our date on Sunday. It might not be a terribly exciting place, but I felt it was the kind of thing Nanami would appreciate. The gentle hug she’d offered me and the relief that had followed had reminded me of the place. I was pretty sure I’d been there once with my dad and mom.

The haze in my mind dissipated, and my head felt a lot clearer. Perhaps because of that, another question popped into my mind.

“By the way, how far do you feel comfortable going with me right now?”

With her sitting there hugging me from behind, I’d ended up getting a bit cocky. However, Nanami didn’t seem fazed at all. Still holding me, she brought her face close to mine and ever so softly whispered, “Actually, I’d like to know how far you’re willing to take me.”

She’d spoken in such a beautiful, gentle, comforting voice, and yet what she’d said was absolutely mind-blowing. The problem went way beyond the fact that she’d countered my question.

My entire face burned red, and sweat seeped from every pore of my body. I’d thought she would become all flustered by my question, but here I was, KO’d by an unexpected comeback. My heart became filled with a sense of defeat—along with an odd sense of satisfaction.

“I lose. I totally give up. Where did you learn to say a thing like that?” I asked, wondering if this had spawned from the talks she’d been having with her girl friends. My heart just couldn’t take it. I raised both my hands in surrender.

Nanami just laughed. With her body still stuck to my back, she spoke in my ear again. Her breath tickled me, sending a shiver down my spine. “I’m totally embarrassed, but at least I got my own back. Truthfully, I don’t know what I’d do if you actually tried anything with me.”

Even though she’d said that, her cheeks weren’t red, and her ears weren’t flushed either. Maybe more than embarrassment, she was feeling delighted that she’d gotten me to give in. Is this the kind of thing she’ll get embarrassed by when she thinks back on it later? I wondered.

As I continued sitting there, Nanami moved away from me. Then, as though she’d suddenly remembered something, she brought her index finger up to her lips and smiled at me sensually. “If you ever wanna kiss me on the lips, let me know. I’m probably good to go whenever you are.”

I was at an absolute loss for words. All I could do was turn bright red and stare at her finger. I might have even stopped breathing. Eventually, though, a shout from Nanami tore through the silence.

“Say something!”

Having witnessed her self-destruct as always, I felt a sense of relief and burst out laughing. She tried to grab me with indignation in her eyes, laughing all the while.

Yup, this was the way she ought to be.

♢♢♢