An Introvert's Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me! Volume 7 E-Book

Yuishi

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: An Introvert's Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me!
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 360

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

With summer school finally over, Yoshin begins his long-awaited part-time job—except his workplace senpai is a beautiful, tanned, college-age gyaru who doesn’t seem to understand the concept of personal space. Yoshin’s got no idea how to handle her, and unfortunately, Nanami blows up at him with jealousy the moment she finds out about her. To make up with Nanami, Yoshin enlists the help of her friends and arranges to go on a seaside camping trip with her. Will the two lovebirds make up? And what about Nanami’s birthday right around the corner?

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Prologue: Karaoke Do-Over

Chapter 1: Do You Prefer Ring Girls?

Interlude: Some Disturbing Rumors and My Tears

Chapter 2: Sunscreen and My Nervousness

Interlude: Alone on the Beach

Chapter 3: Night Owls or Early Birds

Interlude: I Don’t Want to Go Home

Chapter 4: The Circumstances We Don’t Know

Epilogue: Makeover Reveal, One Day Late

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Table of Contents

Color Images

Prologue: Karaoke Do-Over

It can take a lot of courage to truly communicate with someone else. Telling someone something—sharing with them—might be much more difficult than we can imagine. It could feel like performing in an elementary school play. Well, okay, maybe that wasn’t quite the same thing.

Still, I was often unable to do as well as I hoped, because I was so worried about making a mistake or failing in some other way. The worry did actually make those two situations kind of similar.

I worried about the other person disliking me, or me upsetting them because of what I said, even if I was just overthinking things. That was why I always made it a point to say whatever it was I wanted to say, as honestly and directly as possible. Honesty is the best policy—at least, that’s what I believed. I also knew that I started thinking that only after I started going out with Nanami.

Still, I should have realized that being too honest could also make the other person nervous.

Thinking about it now though, the fact that I didn’t was probably how my little blunder began in the first place.

♢♢♢

“Congrats on finishing summer school, Yoshin,” Nanami said, bowing to me with a formal air about her.

“Oh, uh, thank you,” I replied, also bowing in return. That’s right: as Nanami just announced, I had managed to complete my summer school obligations without a hitch. I was finally free of school until the end of summer break. That was all it was—and yet, being done with summer school was liberating.

Summer school didn’t feel so bad while I was in it, but once it was over, I realized that there was nothing better than not having to go in the first place. At least I got to have lunch with Nanami the whole time, and we also managed to go on dates after I got out of class each day. Still, I was now finally able to spend time with Nanami without anything holding me back.

The one thing nagging me was the fact that I hadn’t yet shared with Nanami what I heard at the very end of summer school. I only wanted to talk about happy things now that we could spend time together, so I couldn’t quite find the right time to bring it up.

I was doing my best not to let my preoccupation show, and with the idea that I wanted to get my thoughts on the situation in order before talking to Nanami about it, I let more time pass than I had intended.

But I really need to tell her soon.

Given my struggle, it struck me just how strong Nanami must have been when she immediately told me about the letter she found in her shoe locker. I have to do my part too.

“We should toast, huh? Congrats again! Cheers!” Nanami shouted.

“Yeah, congrats to me. Um, cheers.”

I wasn’t sure if it made sense for me to congratulate myself, but I clinked glasses with Nanami anyway. The clink of the glasses touching echoed around us.

Needless to say, we were celebrating the fact that my summer school had officially ended. We weren’t in Nanami’s room like we usually were; we were back at the karaoke place we came to previously. I felt like I was getting a do-over of the time we came after we’d finished our exams. A karaoke joint also seemed like a more convenient place for talking to her about what was on my mind, even if I hadn’t yet been able to bring it up with her.

I also couldn’t refuse since Nanami had told me she wanted to sing with me—as in, she wanted to sing duets together. Unlike last time, I had studied up on some potential songs, so I was pretty sure I could manage to get by.

That aside, though...

“Glug...glug...glug...oooh, that’s tasty!”

Nanami downed her drink loudly and exhaled as she took the glass away from her lips. What a bold way to enjoy a refreshing beverage. Maybe because she finished off her drink in one go, she also took a deep breath.

“Wait, why are you drinking it like it’s alcohol?” I asked.

“I thought maybe it would help set the mood! Come on, Yoshin, you try it too.”

Being so told, I brought my own glass to my lips and downed the drink without pausing for air. The fizzy soda spread throughout my mouth, leaving a pleasant, popping sensation before traveling down my throat. Honestly, it did feel good.

I didn’t often chug my drink, but doing so now made me feel like I’d found a new source of joy in my life. I put down my glass and like Nanami, took a deep breath. I couldn’t have stopped myself even if I’d tried. I now understood why some adults chugged their drinks.

For some reason, after I finished Nanami started clapping beside me. “Wow, you really chugged it down! You didn’t need me at all!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, come on. It’s not even alcohol,” I muttered.

Her applause was just a little embarrassing. The karaoke room was dimly lit, so she probably couldn’t tell that I was blushing.

“You know, I actually heard that it’s bad to chug alcohol. I wonder if you’re not supposed to do that with juice either,” Nanami remarked.

“I wonder, huh? Though I guess it doesn’t seem like the best thing to do for your body.”

“Yeah, that’s true. Oh, should we get seconds? You want the same thing?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

Nanami picked up the phone in the room to order another round of drinks, turning her back to me as she did so.

Why is it that people’s backs seem so defenseless when they’re on the phone?

“Yes, thank y— Huh?!” Nanami yelped, just as she was about to complete her order.

“Oh,” I exclaimed in equal surprise.

Hearing her yelp, I froze up immediately. Maybe because she’d let out such a strange cry, Nanami ended up slamming the handset down on its cradle. We both fell silent, the slam of Nanami hanging up so abruptly reverberating throughout the room.

Nanami, now totally unoccupied, slowly turned around. As her face came into clearer view, my heart started pounding. And, as expected—with her eyebrows raised and her face red—I understood immediately that Nanami was upset.

Yeah, I’ve totally done it this time.

Well, you know, it was just that when I saw Nanami’s back so vulnerably on display, I couldn’t resist the urge to stroke it, with the tip of my index finger, from top to bottom. I couldn’t deny the accusation that it was sexual harassment. Wait, was sexual harassment only applicable to deeds and actions at the workplace? No, that probably didn’t matter at all.

At Nanami’s expression, I hurriedly lowered my index finger that was still raised in midair. Touching her like that was totally on impulse. I knew that I felt the urge to be a bit mischievous, but I had no idea I would actually end up doing it—though that, too, sounded just like an excuse.

Still angry, Nanami slowly made her way toward me. She seemed just like a cat—a cat completely locked onto its prey. As though timing it just right, she leaned forward slightly.

I genuinely feel like I can see cat ears and a tail on her. Nanami with cat ears... I can definitely go for that. Maybe she could wear them for me sometime...

In that single moment when I was trying to pretend like nothing was happening, Nanami leaped at me without any warning. This wasn’t a metaphor: she literally flew at me like a rocket and hugged me tight.

The force of her leaping at me and wrapping her arms around my waist was too strong to brace against, so I ended up losing my balance. We both fell over backward onto the sofa in our private karaoke room. Being pushed down like that, I wasn’t sure whether I was allowed to resist in any way. I fell over with some force, but it didn’t hurt at all thanks to the sofa cushion.

Nanami’s soft body was fully touching mine, but rather than getting up off of me right away, she simply slid to move off of my waist. Then, burying her face in my chest, she wrapped her arms around me and placed her hands on my back.

I was curious for maybe a moment about what she had planned, but then I pretty much instantly got what she wanted to do.

“Whoa?!” I yelped, as Nanami placed a finger on my back and stroked it up and down. Wait, maybe she wasn’t stroking, exactly. Since she was only using one finger, it was more like she was tracing.

Unlike getting tickled, having her run her finger along my back made my hair stand on end. I couldn’t laugh out loud; only strange noises escaped my mouth.

By the time I realized it, Nanami had brought her face up close to my ear. In what was basically an embrace, she whispered into my ear, “Got you back.”

My ear tingled. My back tingled right along with it. A strange kind of numbness spread throughout my body. Even my brain seemed to freeze in shock. Was this what pleasure felt like?

No, this was bad. At least, it was bad to let Nanami do as she pleased. With that in mind, I tensed my body to prepare it to move.

But instead, my body was suddenly flipped over seemingly without any resistance at all. Like I had been pulled. Hold on, did Nanami just pull me?

It felt like my middle school judo instructor throwing me onto the mat. In other words, it seemed as though I had resisted out of my own free will, when in fact Nanami had made me resist.

Having smoothly switched positions on the sofa, I was now in the opposite situation from earlier—as in, I was on the top, and she was on the bottom. I raised my upper body to look down at Nanami, with her now-tousled hair and mirthful grin.

“Oh my, you’ve pinned me down,” she said, seeming entirely nonplussed, letting out a fake scream with both hands in the air. The edge of her uniform shifted, revealing her stomach a bit.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” I asked.

“Oh, can you tell?”

Of course I can. I got up on my knees and shifted my body away from Nanami’s, doing my best not to put too much weight on her. It wasn’t the easiest position to be in, but I could just consider it exercise.

Having suddenly stopped moving, the two of us were both slightly out of breath. We looked at each other in silence for a moment, but Nanami was the one who spoke first.

“Did something happen?”

Asking that one simple question, she looked at me with the most gentle gaze. Although she surprised me, I answered her honestly and said, “Can you tell?”

Nanami laughed happily and said, “Of course I can.” Still lying beneath me, she opened up her arms as if to invite me in.

Resignation—that I couldn’t fool Nanami even if I tried—welled up inside of me. In fact, despite the circumstances, I somehow felt very calm. I wondered if I’d managed to regain my composure because of what Nanami said. Well, no, I couldn’t possibly be composed when we were positioned like this. If anything, this was a moment when I definitely wouldn’t be able to stay calm.

But still, as if drawn by some invisible force, I let myself fall into Nanami’s arms. And just in that moment—the door opened.

“Thank you for waiting...”

The karaoke staff person cut her words short, freezing mid movement. I was impressed that she managed not to drop the drinks that were on her tray.

I leaped up from on top of Nanami and turned toward the staff person. That’s right, we’re at a karaoke place. What in the world am I getting us into?

The staff person, who looked like she might be a gyaru herself, placed the two drinks on the table and smiled brightly at us. Nanami, still lying down, raised her head, while I sat next to her and thanked the staff person.

“I’m terribly sorry, but I’m afraid I must ask you to refrain from such conduct,” she said to us.

“Th-That’s not it. We were just, um, hugging each other, and we had no intention of doing anything like that,” I stammered, trying to deny any notion that Nanami and I were doing something questionable. But it quickly became obvious that no matter what we said or did, we’d just be digging a deeper hole for ourselves, so in the end Nanami and I simply apologized.

After the exchange, the staff person smiled and got up to leave. When she opened the door, though, she turned her head back toward us. I thought she was going to leave parting words of admonishment, but that wasn’t the case at all.

“By the way, even though I have to ask you to restrain yourselves inside our establishment, if you do want to engage in such activities, the motel by the river is a good place. Even if you’re in high school, they can’t tell if you’re wearing normal clothes,” she said.

“Excuse me?!”

Paying no heed to the exclamations that escaped from both my and Nanami’s lips, the staff person slipped out of the room with no further comment. Even though we were at karaoke, the room was now totally silent.

Um, a m-motel? Did it really look like we were about to engage in such activities?

With such a raw and explicit suggestion suddenly being made to us, I completely froze and even forgot about the drinks that were now on the table before us. The staff person, too, was already gone.

Come to think of it, is Nanami okay? I shifted my gaze and looked toward her. She was sitting there, still as a rock with her face completely red.

Shoot, what am I supposed to do now? Dammit, was that employee trying to be helpful? I mean, how does she know about stuff like that in the first place? No, wait, I really shouldn’t go there.

Nanami stole a glance at me too, then immediately looked away and hid her face from me. Her reaction made me even more embarrassed.

Maybe I was just imagining it, but I felt like Nanami slid farther away from me as well. The motel by the river, huh...? Even though I had zero intention of patronizing the place, I felt like I might not be able to forget that piece of information so easily.

Despite the fact that we were at karaoke, Nanami and I stayed quiet for some time after that.

♢♢♢

I was the one who eventually broke the awkward silence.

Of course, despite our silence, it wasn’t that there was no sound at all. It was just that the room felt quiet, since Nanami and I weren’t saying anything.

“G-Getting back to our previous topic,” I started, “the class rep said something about you to me just as we were finishing up our summer class.”

I realized that it was a weird thing to start talking about, but it was something I had to share with Nanami at some point anyway—though I actually blurted it out now because I felt I had to talk about something.

“About me?” Nanami asked.

“Um, yeah. Sort of.”

Nanami looked at me, confused. I, too, had to search for what to say next, despite having been the one who had started the conversation. I guess I had no other way but to tell her just as I’d heard it. I had to admit that it felt difficult to say—guilt clogged my throat. I felt like I was tattling or something.

Trying to force my lips—which had suddenly grown heavy—to move, I slowly, slowly told Nanami what I had heard from the class rep, trying to remember each word as clearly as possible.

“I know why Barato-san confessed to you.”

I was pretty sure that was how she had phrased it. Maybe because I was reciting what the class rep had told me, I felt like I came off sounding slightly theatrical, the way she had as well.

The moment Nanami heard what I said, her eyes widened in surprise. Then her brows furrowed, sad, and I couldn’t help but feel sad with her.

After thinking for a moment, Nanami muttered, “The reason I confessed to you, huh?”

Her soft voice was quickly drowned out by the other noises in the room, but it stayed in my ears as if it were stuck there with glue. There was only one reason for Nanami confessing to me, after all.

“Still, since I already know about it, none of this really means anything,” I said.

Nanami, on the other hand, sipped her drink slowly through a straw and let out a long sigh. She placed her half-filled glass on the table and, playfully, as if put-upon, leaned back onto the sofa and kicked her feet up into the air.

Because she lifted her legs so suddenly, the force of her movement produced a slight breeze that brushed against my cheeks. Her skirt, too, fluttered slightly, revealing her thighs a bit. Even though the room was slightly dark, I could make out that much.

Paying no mind to the fact that my gaze was focused on her thighs, Nanami sat up and brought her legs up to the sofa so she could sit hugging her knees.

If I had been standing in front of her, I would definitely have been able to see her underwear. But since I was next to her, my current angle would fortunately hide that from me. That was probably why Nanami had chosen to sit that way in the first place. I also wasn’t sure if this was something I could call “fortunate.”

Isn’t your underwear showing? No, there was no need for me to say that. We weren’t in that kind of a mood anymore anyway. The air now felt heavy for a different reason.

With her arms still wrapped around her knees, Nanami tilted her head and turned toward me.

“I don’t mean to keep bringing this up, but this ‘reason’ that the class rep is referring to is probably the dare, right?” she asked.

“I’m pretty sure that’s it. She even said that she thought we would break up in a month.”

“Wow, she knows that part too, huh?”

Hearing Nanami sound so sad, I scooted closer to her. When she noticed what I was trying to do, Nanami leaned her body into mine while still hugging her legs. Even though the sofa was spacious, I was still impressed that she could move her body in such a deft way.

“I have to say, I really did do something terrible, didn’t I? When I think about it now, I honestly can’t believe I did something like that,” Nanami said.

“Don’t worry about it anymore. I’m totally over it, and besides, what I did wasn’t too far off either.”

Nanami let her body sway, wondering out loud if what I said was really accurate.

I heard once that when we feel down, regret washes over us in waves. That was probably how Nanami was feeling right now.

What should I say?

“I mean, if that whole thing hadn’t happened, there would’ve been no way you would’ve ever confessed to me,” I declared. “And the chances of me asking you out would’ve been even less.”

“Huh? Wait, you really wouldn’t have asked me out?”

“Why do you look so shocked? If I had said, ‘Nanami-san, I like you. Will you go out with me?’ what would you...”

“I would’ve said, ‘I’d be delighted to.’”

Her eager reply had me speechless. I wanted to tell her that that was beside the point, but I also felt happily embarrassed by just how quickly her response came.

I didn’t know if she really understood the implication of our discussion though.

“That’s not what I mean. If I had confessed to the ‘you’ from before we started going out, then you wouldn’t have said yes, right?”

Saying it out loud made me kind of sad, but in response to what I was really asking, Nanami nodded slightly, her face sour.

“You’re right—back then I would have rejected you. I probably would’ve said, ‘I’m sorry,’ and refused right away,” she responded.

“Why do you look like that?” I asked.

“Just imagining myself rejecting your confession makes me hate my past self,” she murmured.

I never imagined she would feel that way toward herself from the past. Perhaps this, too, was an indication of how much she cared for me.

I’ve got to do my best to keep up with her. If I’m not careful, I might end up drowning in Nanami’s love. Or am I overthinking things?

“It makes sense though, right? If we only did what we thought was the ‘right’ thing to do, you and I would’ve never started going out,” I said.

We would’ve never gotten together. Just the thought of it made shivers go up my spine. Me, not going out with Nanami—I couldn’t even imagine something like that.

That was why, even if other people thought we were being foolish, as long as Nanami and I made things right, everything was as it should be. What the class rep thought, then, didn’t really matter.

Nanami seemed to have calmed down a bit, because she let out a low moan.

“Do you think she was the one who put the letter in the shoe locker?” she asked.

“I think that’s very likely, given the timing for all this.”

The class rep hadn’t declared that she had been the one to give Nanami the letter, but that was probably the case. I wasn’t sure why the class rep even told me any of this in the first place. She seemed to have her own reasons, but I still couldn’t understand them all.

“Our class rep is a really serious person. I can understand that she can’t overlook what I did,” Nanami sighed.

I didn’t like that I was making Nanami look so unhappy. Even though I knew she was partially responsible for the situation, it still didn’t sit right with me.

“The class rep’s that much of a square, huh?” I asked, trying not to show what I was thinking inside. I also genuinely didn’t know much about the class rep at all.

“Yeah, she’s really straitlaced. She can be odd, but I’ve seen her scold delinquent-type guys with zero hesitation. She seems like she has a really strong sense of right and wrong,” Nanami explained.

“Delinquents,” I muttered. Wasn’t that somewhat dangerous, no matter how serious she was? Actually, I had no idea we had delinquent students at our school in the first place. Maybe I didn’t know because I never came into contact with them.

“Still,” Nanami murmured. I turned my head to look at her, then waited for her to continue speaking. Nanami then turned her gaze slowly toward me and asked, “So, when are you meeting up with the class rep? Can I, um, maybe...”

“Huh? I’m not gonna see her.”

When I answered as if by reflex, Nanami looked at me in shock. Not sure if what I said was really so shocking, I continued to explain by saying that now that I finally had more time to spend with Nanami, there was no way I was going to carve out even a moment to meet with the class rep.

“You’re not gonna see her?!” Nanami exclaimed.

“Wait, is it that surprising?” I asked in return.

“I mean, don’t you wanna know? Like, what she might tell you, or what she might actually be thinking instead?”

I wasn’t terribly interested, to be honest. If I didn’t already know the circumstances behind Nanami’s confession, maybe I would have wanted to know. I also didn’t understand what Nanami meant when she asked about the class rep’s thinking.

“We hadn’t even decided on when we would meet,” I explained.

“Really? Then how are you...”

“I got her contact info. She just told me to get in touch with her if I felt like it.”

“Oh, so you did get her contact info,” Nanami murmured.

I guess I hadn’t told Nanami that yet. It wasn’t anything to hide, so I showed Nanami the piece of paper with the class rep’s info on it. I also didn’t really know how exactly to contact the class rep with this information either.

Nanami stared intently at the piece of paper. Then, suddenly panicked, she asked, “Is this something you’re allowed to share with me though?”

The class rep never stopped me from doing so. Rather, she probably didn’t even dream that I would tell Nanami any of this in the first place.

“If it bothers you, I can just toss it. I don’t think it’s worth contacting her anyway,” I said.

“Um, well, maybe I want you to get in touch with her, at the very least, though it’s up to you in terms of when. I’d like to hear what she has to say too, but I guess that might be kind of difficult, huh?”

I didn’t expect Nanami to make such a request. I thought instead that she would want me to toss out the class rep’s contact info. Wanting me to meet her threw me for a loop. Maybe I should ask her later what she meant by all this.

“Then let me just add her to my contacts and get in touch with her now. You might feel better if I do it in front of you, right?” I asked.

“I’ve thought this before, but you can be efficient at the strangest times, you know that?” Nanami muttered.

I felt like Nanami seemed mildly scandalized, but I was probably just imagining it. I proceeded to add the class rep’s contact info to my app, then chatted with her to set a date to meet while Nanami was next to me the whole time.

But in that moment, I failed to realize just how anxious Nanami was really feeling.

Chapter 1: Do You Prefer Ring Girls?

In the end, I decided to meet with the class rep at school after summer vacation ended.

It felt very strange to contact another girl while sitting next to Nanami herself. Nonetheless, it was my decision to wait until the end of summer break to meet with the class rep. Nanami asked multiple times if that was really okay with me, and each time I said it was fine.

Actually, the class rep asked me multiple times if that was okay with me too. I didn’t expect that the two of them would ask me the exact same question.

It didn’t make sense not to be direct with the class rep, so I told her that I had no intention of seeing any girl aside from my girlfriend by myself during summer break. That explanation finally seemed to convince her. At least I wouldn’t have to think about this issue for the remainder of the break.

Nanami still seemed like she was worried about something else related to the class rep. I couldn’t quite figure out what that something else was though. Maybe I should talk to her about it at a different time.

The truth was that I had a reason for wanting to spend my energy only on Nanami. That was why I decided not to meet with the class rep during the break. That reason...was something that was a first for me, though not a first for Nanami.

I had no need not to just come out and say it: it was about my part-time job.

“I’m starting to feel nervous,” I murmured.

Once I reminded myself that it was, in fact, my first time ever holding a part-time job, I began to grow even more nervous than before. My first day was tomorrow. Oddly enough, my part-time job was starting the same day as Nanami’s.

I was going to be working at a Western-style restaurant near our school that Shoichi-senpai introduced me to. It was run by acquaintances of senpai’s, and it was also supposed to be a pretty popular place. Would I be able to handle working somewhere like that? I wasn’t in a position to be picky, but a lot of things about it had me anxious.

“You’re feeling nervous already?! No need to be so keyed up,” Nanami commented, smiling wryly at me. She seemed to be business as usual, maybe because she was used to working. Her part-time job starting soon didn’t seem to worry her at all.

“It’s just that I’ve never worked before in my life. I get really nervous when I’m about to do something I’ve never done before. I think I’m trembling,” I lamented.

“You’re gonna make yourself sick if you’re already feeling so tense,” Nanami muttered.

“Didn’t you get nervous when you were gonna go work for the first time?”

“Not for the first time, I guess. Maybe because Hatsumi and Ayumi were with me too. If anything, I think I was more nervous when I confessed to you, or when we went on our first date together.”

Those were very heartening words indeed. Nanami was right though—compared to how nervous I was before our first date... No, wait, I might be even more nervous this time than I was then.

Maybe it was more accurate to say that back then, there was so much going on in my head that I didn’t even have the luxury of nerves. Thinking about it that way, this time around I might have it more together.

Got it together...er, probably not.

“If you’re so nervous, do you wanna try touching my boobs?” Nanami asked.

“Why?! No, wait, I feel like we’ve had this conversation before,” I muttered.

“You didn’t touch them then either. Oh, but I don’t mean it in a sexual way. I just remember hearing that people tend to feel more relaxed when they hear the sound of a heart beating.”

“I think I’ve actually heard of that too. No, still, why are you the one proposing this idea? You don’t have to put your body on the line like that for me.”

Nanami winked at my question and then stuck her tongue out at me. They seemed to be very cute and calculated gestures on her part. It was kind of a shame, but I didn’t feel it was right for me to actually touch her chest then and there. We were still out in public, after all.

Today was our late date before Nanami and I started working. We had seen a movie earlier, and just now finished eating lunch.

I had been thinking about what we should eat, but since Nanami mentioned that she wanted to have ramen, we ended up coming to a chain restaurant that was a bit on the nicer side. It was summer break and a fairly hot day to boot, but apparently eating hot ramen in hot weather was the thing to do.

I could see what she meant. I could, but...

“Gosh, I feel so hot after having that ramen. Look how much I’m sweating,” Nanami said, pressing her breasts together and leaning forward as if to show me her cleavage. There wasn’t anyone around, but I couldn’t feel at all calm having her do that while we were out in public.

Today, Nanami was dressed in light clothing, with skinny pants that showed off the curves of her legs. She looked very stylish and also somewhat sexy.

Until just a little while ago, we had both been eating ramen while sweating, so I hadn’t really thought about her outfit. Now that the meal was over, I couldn’t help staring at her.

“Yoshin, wipe my sweat for me?” Nanami asked.

“Please don’t try to make me wipe the sweat off of there. I don’t mind wiping your face, but I definitely can’t wipe your chest while we’re out and about. You’ve gotta let me off the hook here,” I replied.

“If we weren’t out, then you’d wipe it for me?” Nanami said, flashing a toothy grin while swaying her body giddily from side to side. Every time she moved, beads of sweat slid down her skin, soaking into her clothing.

If we weren’t out... No, that won’t do either. I do want to try my hand at wiping sweat off of her chest, but I don’t know what might happen if I do.

“Actually, sweat collects underneath my chest too. If I don’t take care of it, it turns all red and stuff. It’s such a bother,” she added.

I felt like I learned another strange factoid. How was it even possible for sweat to collect under someone’s chest? I looked down at my own body, but I couldn’t understand how sweat could possibly collect anywhere in that region.

My curiosity was definitely piqued, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask her to show me the next time it happened. I’d be fine if she reacted like she had earlier, but if she looked at me with complete disdain, I wouldn’t be able to take it.

“That does sound rough,” I finally muttered.

“Yeah, it is rough. It’s so tough being a girl,” Nanami murmured back.

I felt like I’d dig myself into a hole if I said anything more, so I decided not to pursue the matter of one’s chest any further. Though I was pretty sure it would stay in my head for quite a bit longer.

I mean, really. How does sweat collect under someone’s chest? Nope, don’t think about it. Don’t think about it at all. Oh, but my eyes just keep traveling there. Damn.

Just as I thought that, Nanami and I locked eyes. Or, it was more like Nanami peered into my face to make eye contact.

I felt certain she was going to tease me again, but instead, Nanami just smiled gently at me.

“Do you feel less tense now?” she asked.

“Huh?”

Her voice was kind, not at all like when she was making fun of me earlier. Confused at first by her question, I placed my hand over my heart. The strange feeling I had earlier was now nearly gone. A tiny bit of it still remained, but it wasn’t so much that it made me restless. I felt like I would be okay. After all, they did say that feeling some amount of stress was healthy.

“Yeah, I’m still a tad nervous, but I think I’ll be all right now,” I replied.

“Good, good. I got to relax by watching you too, so I guess we both win.”

“Was it that amusing to watch me get all flustered?” I asked.

“Hmm, I wouldn’t say it was amusing. More like, cute? Like I just wanted to squeeze you. I wanted to hold you tight and pat your head and tell you what a good boy you are,” Nanami said.

I felt like Nanami’s standards for what was cute were gradually changing as well. Or, maybe based on what she was saying, her maternal instincts were coming through.

To be patted on the head by Nanami. Maybe I’d like that on a day when I felt really down on myself.

In any case, I felt like now I was ready to take on tomorrow. Being apart from Nanami felt like something we hadn’t done in a while, but I was pretty sure I would be fine.

After that, we settled the bill and left the ramen shop. We also decided to go Dutch this time. Once I got my first paycheck, I wanted to take her out to a nice restaurant.

Just as we stepped outside the eatery, Nanami came up beside me and moved to link her arm with mine—and then immediately stopped.

Huh? Wasn’t she going to link arms? What happened? Maybe it’s too hot, so she changed her mind. I can understand that, though it does feel kind of sad.

As I felt slightly let down, Nanami shook her arms as though trying to loosen them up.

“I suddenly remembered that I still have to finish a few things,” she announced.

“Finish things?” I wondered out loud, tilting my head. Nanami, though, went ahead and raised her palm up toward me after tracing something on it with her finger. In front of my face, I saw Nanami’s lovely hand along with her long, thin fingers. They were as beautiful as ever, and I couldn’t help thinking how different they looked from my own.

She wasn’t wearing any rings or other accessories on her fingers today. I thought vaguely to myself that I wanted to give her a ring as a gift someday. A ring...a ring, huh?

I wondered if there would come a day when we would both wear one.

Just as I was letting my mind wander, I heard Nanami say something very unexpected.

“Here, drink up and finish it off! Go for it!” she exclaimed.

Huh? Drink? Drink, like, water or something? But Nanami isn’t holding anything to drink right now. We haven’t bought anything to carry around with us either.

“Do you wanna get something from the vending machine?” I asked.

Seeing me totally confused, Nanami adorably waved her hand from side to side. After staring at her swaying palm for a bit, I caught her gaze.

“They say that if you write the word ‘person’ on your palm three times and then drink it, that you feel less nervous, right?” she declared.

“Oh, right, they do. I think I’ve heard of that. So, what’s this hand for?” I asked, indicating Nanami’s palm.

“Huh? That’s what I’m saying, if you drink up all the people from my hand, the spell will be complete. Go ahead, don’t be shy!”

I couldn’t help tilting my head even further at her response. She still had her palm raised up toward me. Drink from her palm. Wait, what?

“So? Aren’t you gonna drink up?” Nanami asked, now being the one to tilt her head as she waved her hand at me.

“Well, uh, how am I supposed to drink, exactly?” I asked.

“Mmm, maybe nibble on it. Or kiss it,” she replied.

Oh, I see. So she actually means for me to drink from her palm. As I debated what to do, Nanami added one final option to the list.

“You could even lick it,” she muttered.

Doesn’t that seem a little bit creepy? No, wait, that’s not it. That isn’t the part I want to question. Not at all. There’s a much bigger issue that I need to point out. I could be the one who’s misunderstanding things. I need to double-check, just to be sure. In anything, confirming the information you’re working with is important. That’s the only way people can reconcile any differences in their understanding of the same situation.

I pointed at Nanami’s palm with some trepidation and, opening my mouth tentatively, asked, “Aren’t you supposed to do that with your own hand though?”

“Huh?!” Nanami exclaimed, freezing with her palm still raised toward me.

With an awkward silence settling between us, Nanami began alternating between looking at her own palm and showing it to me.

Finally, though, she exclaimed, “Just do it anyway!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She just went with it.

Yeah, I feel like I made the wrong decision there. I might not have been insensitive per se, but I definitely wasn’t considerate enough. But what should I do now? I don’t have the emotional fortitude to lick her hand, and if I’m going to pretend to drink, maybe it’s better if I just kiss it.

Pausing to note that I found licking her hand to be more difficult than kissing it, I realized just how much my relationship with Nanami had influenced me.

Touching her hand gingerly, I pressed my lips to her palm. When I touched my lips to Nanami’s skin—soft, damp, and smooth as silk—I got to enjoy that sensation for just a few moments.

I then stepped back and locked eyes with Nanami again, only to find myself immediately overcome by embarrassment.

Wow, I know I just did that myself, but this is super embarrassing! This is like something out of a shojo manga or whatever!

Nanami, too, had turned beet red. Right, yeah, of course she would.

Even our steps became faster too. As if to justify that it was our walking speed that was making us flush, we walked briskly in silence for some time after that.

Just as a side note, Nanami explained to me later that, in the Barato household, it was quite common for family members to drink the word “person” traced onto one another’s palms. Ordinarily, it seemed, Tomoko-san did it for Genichiro-san, or Genichiro-san did it for Tomoko-san.

That was why I ended up having to promise to Nanami that the next time she got nervous, I would have her drink the word “person” off of my palm too.

When we would actually execute that, though, only the gods knew.

♢♢♢

When doing something for the first time, a strange exhilaration as well as a certain sense of excitement bubbled up inside of me. It was odd; I had dreaded the arrival of this day as much as I wanted it to hurry up and happen as soon as possible.

My fingertips grew cold, tingling with numbness. I guess my emotional state was starting to manifest itself physically. Maybe I wanted this day to come just so these confusing sensations would go away.

“My name is Yoshin Misumai! I’ll be working here starting today. It’s a pleasure to meet you!” I said, raising my voice as much as reasonably possible and bowing with gusto.

I was starting my part-time job today, and so I wanted to sound as enthusiastic as possible when introducing myself. A part of me was overdoing it because I was nervous, but still, I knew that first impressions were important.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too. I’m the owner, Hitoshi Kinaoshi.”

“Yes, it really is nice to meet you. I’m Raika, Hitoshi’s wife.”

The kind-looking couple in front of me returned my bow with one of their own. The man had a gentle demeanor, with his hair cut very short. The wife had light brown hair in a short bob, with eyes that turned slightly downward in the outer corners, giving her a soft impression.

I was going to work at a Western-style restaurant operated by a married couple. It was located fairly close to our school, though I never knew about it before.

Apparently some of our teachers occasionally came here for lunch, and the restaurant made deliveries to the school too.