10 years had passed since I started playing the game of sekkusu with my childhood friend. - Chapter 37. Inside an empty classroom, we

Chapter 37. Inside an empty classroom, we

The festival was coming to an end. In a classroom a short distance away from where the festival was being held, where there was almost no one around.

There she was already waiting for me, while looking at the setting sun from the window. With the light streaming in, the whole of her body was bathed in a reddish hue.

“Haruhime.”

When I called out, Haruhime spun around and looked back at me.

“Tet-chan.”

Haruhime had already taken off her stage costume and changed into her regular school uniform. Her hair, which had been tied in a knot, hung straight down to her shoulders.

Although I was sure I had decided what I was going to say, when I turned to face her head on, I couldn’t get the wording out right. Because of the backlight, I couldn’t see her expression quite well.

I started walking toward where Haruhime was. With each step I took, the backlight faded away and revealing Haruhime’s eyes, which were shimmering anxiously.

Sitting in front of Haruhime, I took a breath and was finally able to open my mouth.

“Good job, …… on the play.”

“…… Tet-chan too, thank you. As I expected of you. To be able to perform it on such short notice. You’re really amazing ……”

“Nope. ……”

To the Haruhime, who was acting on being surprised, I nodded my head slowly sideways.

“I’m sorry, I have already heard from them.”

“Eh?”

“I’ve already learned everything about it from Inawashiro and Fukuo. About how this all, was your part of plan”

After a pause, Haruhime turned her head down, her face gradually becoming as red as the setting sun.

“So umm, you heard everything?”

“Un.”

in a quiet muffled voice, she continued.

“…. Huaaah, so embarassing …….”

“Sorry.”

“U~gh,……, after planning all this time, I’m getting awfully embarrassed now.”

Placing her palm on her cheek, her mouth trembling, then taking a deep breath, Haruhime opened her mouth again.

“I’m sorry, Tecchan. I’ve always felt this was a wrong thing to do. But this was the only way I thought I could express myself to you.”

“Haruhime……”

“Because we’ve been together for so long. And because being together had become the norm for me, I thought that this would continue forever, for a long time.”

“But, you know.” Haruhime continued,

“At the time we went to the beach together. When I saw Tet-chan about to drown, I got really frightened. Then when I thought, ‘What if Tet-chan were to disappear one day, just like that; and got incredibly scared.”

Haruhime spoke in stuttered bursts.

“Then on Wednesday, our usual  …….”

Haruhime touched her hair, and shyly continued.

“O–our play of pre-pretending adults, would.”

I swallowed hard hearing that.

“And as the time went on, I started cherishing more and more about Tet-chan in my thoughts. Eventually, it went to a point where I just couldn’t control, and everything in me just overflowed.”

Haruhime’s voice was trembling. She was probably crying, although it was hard to tell from her downcast expression.

“I’m sorry, I know how creepy it sounds like.”

“That’s not the case at all.”

“But ……”

“It’s because of ‘that’s not the case’ that I, understood that It was actually all my fault, Haruhime.”

“Tet-chan, ……”

“After all, it was I who was the one constantly running away.”

Relying on a relationship that was convenient for me, and wanting nothing more than her body, was all because I was weak.

Only because I was too weak to tell her how I actually felt about her.

“Can I be the one to say it aloud first?”

“……Yes.”

She nodded her head softly.

“Haruhime, I love you.”

I told her the words I couldn’t say to her until just now.

“Please go out with me.”