After Being Dumped With the Insult, “You’re So Clingy!” and Finding Her in Despair, I Kept Encouraging My Beautiful Classmate and as a Result, That Beautiful Girl Started Directing Her Heavy Emotions Toward Me Instead, but Since I Like Emotionally Heavy Girls, It’s No Problem - 13

Chapter 13: Jujoji Wants a Spare Key

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“…It’s morning already.”

I woke up and the familiar scenery came into view. Sunlight streamed in through the gap in the curtains, and I could hear the chirping of small birds from outside the window. I, Ichika Kokonoe, seventeen years old. It was a wake-up no different from usual. If there was one small difference from usual, it would be that my smartphone’s alarm hadn’t gone off.

Thinking I might have forgotten to set it, I picked up the smartphone by my pillow and checked. The screen displayed “6:55 a.m.” I see. Now I understood why the alarm hadn’t rung. The alarm was set to go off at 7:30 a.m. It hadn’t rung because I had woken up too early.

…Now then, what should I do? I had woken up more than thirty minutes earlier than usual. I could just stay up like this, or I could go back to sleep. I was living alone now. There was no one to interfere with my choice.

“…Alright, let’s go back to sleep.”

There wasn’t anything in particular to do even if I stayed up. I’d just get dressed, eat, and go to school. And waking up at 7:30 would be more than enough time for that. More than anything, I wanted to indulge in some lazy sleep right now. With that in mind, I slipped back under the covers and decided to go back to sleep.

Ding-dong!

However, just as I burrowed under the blanket, the intercom to my room rang. Rubbing my sleepy eyes, I turned my gaze toward the entrance. Who on earth would come visiting this early in the morning? My friends…? No, even they had at least the bare minimum of manners. If they were coming early in the morning, they would’ve contacted me beforehand. My parents… even less likely. They were currently overseas and not in Japan. If they were coming back, they would have let me know in advance.

If it wasn’t friends or my parents… suspicious door-to-door salespeople or religious solicitors came to mind. It was best not to get involved with that sort of thing. If I ignored it, they’d probably give up and leave.

Ding-dong!

The intercom rang again.

Persistent, aren’t they? 

I pulled the blanket further over my head. 

I’m still sleeping. Go home already.

“Kokonoe-kun! It’s me!”

But through my feigned sleep, a delicate voice like a butterfly reached my ears. That was Jujoji’s voice. Why was Jujoji coming to my room so early in the morning?

…And then I remembered the promise I had made with her. Yesterday, Jujoji had come to my room and went out of her way to cook dinner for me. It had already gotten dark by the time she left, so I walked her home. At that time, she had said, “Of course I’ll come make breakfast tomorrow morning as well.”

…This is bad. 

I had just woken up, and with how groggy I was, the promise had completely slipped my mind. I hurriedly jumped out of bed, unlocked the door, and let her in.

“Sorry, Jujoji!”

“No, no. I may have come a little too early. …Were you still asleep?”

“…No, I just woke up.”

It stung a little to realize I had mistaken her for some kind of shady religious solicitor and decided to ignore her, when she had come all this way just to make breakfast for me.

…From tomorrow on, I’d better not make that mistake again.

After stepping into my room, Jujoji skillfully took an apron out of her bag and put it on. Then she opened the refrigerator and checked the ingredients inside. As always, the apron suited her perfectly. As expected of the girl unanimously voted by the boys at school as “Number One Girl Guys Want as a Girlfriend.”

“Hm… The ingredients I brought over are starting to run low. Since tomorrow’s Saturday, shall we go grocery shopping together?”

“Grocery shopping?”

“Yes. …Ah, and I’d be happy if you could tell me your favorite foods, Kokonoe-kun. Also anything you can’t eat. I’ll use it as a reference.”

“I’d feel bad making you do everything.”

“I’m doing this because I want to, so please don’t worry about it.”

“……….”

I was accepting this kind of care from Jujoji to help heal the wounds in her heart, but still, being the one constantly receiving didn’t quite sit right with me.

When someone does something for you, it’s only natural to want to give something back. “Accepting her care” and “repaying her kindness” should be able to coexist.

I decided to propose that to her right away.

“Is there anything you want, Jujoji?”

She paused her rummaging through the refrigerator, turned toward me, and replied with a puzzled expression.

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

“I feel bad just receiving. Of course, I’m not saying I won’t accept your care, okay? You can spoil me as much as you like. I just want to repay you for it.”

“As I said earlier, please don’t worry about it. …Though, if you insist on giving me something, there actually is something I really want right now ♪”

“Oh? What is it? Go ahead. Anything’s fine.”

“Anything’s fine… You said that, didn’t you?”

She smiled sweetly as she said that. For some reason, a slight chill ran down my spine. 

That’s strange… My cold should have been completely cured.

“I-if possible, could you keep it within the range of what I can afford with my allowance? Brand-name bags would be a bit tough.”

“I don’t need anything like that. If anything, I’d be willing to pay for the money to make it.”

“Make?”

What did she mean by “make”? What on earth did she want me to make?

“What I want is a spare key to this room ♪”

“A spare key!? Why would you want something like that…?”

Not understanding her reason for wanting a spare key, I asked her.

“If I have a spare key, then on days like today when Kokonoe-kun is still asleep, I can just let myself in, right? It’s fine now since it’s only June, but once summer really begins, waiting outside until you open the door might become unbearable…”

She had a point. Japan in recent years hadn’t just been hot, it had been brutally hot. Considering that, waiting outside in front of the room for a long time would definitely be tough.

…More importantly, was Jujoji planning to take care of me for that long? Personally, I didn’t mind however long she wanted to do it.

“Is that really enough?”

“Yes. I want a spare key to this room ♡”

She nodded with a radiant smile. If that was what Jujoji wanted, I intended to grant it if I could. If it was her, I doubted she would do anything bad even if I gave her a spare key. I took the spare key out of my wallet and handed it to her. When I rented the room, the landlord had given me two keys, so there was no need to make a new one.

“Here.”

“Yay ♡ I finally got the spare key I’ve been wishing for ♪ Now I can enter Kokonoe-kun’s room anytime.”

Jujoji treated the spare key as if it were a precious treasure, even rubbing it against her cheek.

…Isn’t she overreacting over just a spare key?

Still, compared to everything she had done for me, this felt like too little in return. I’d have to think of some other way to repay her as well. As I watched Jujoji carefully tuck the key into her wallet, I found myself wondering how I should repay her.

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