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 - 3

Chapter 3: Offering Her a Bath at My Boarding House

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“I’m home.”

“E-Excuse me for intruding.”

I opened the door to my empty apartment room and flipped on the light switch on the wall. The ceiling light flickered two or three times before brightly illuminating the room. A kitchen sink piled with dirty dishes, a futon left fallen on the floor, a half-read manga and a half-finished cup of coffee on the table. It was exactly as I had left it when I went out this morning.

This was completely an excuse, but I had overslept this morning and didn’t have time to clean any of it up. If I had known I would be bringing Jujoji over, I would have cleaned properly. The embarrassment of a girl seeing my messy room washed over me.

“Ah… ahem. Jujoji, go take a bath right away and warm yourself up. If you turn the red faucet, hot water will come out.”

Trying to brush off my embarrassment, I urged Jujoji to bathe first.

“Eh, but Kokonoe-kun, you’re soaked too. This is your home, so you should go first. I can wait…”

“I’m a guy, so I’ll be fine going later. Go on, go on.”

That was what I said, but the truth was I wanted to tidy up this scattered room as much as possible while she was in the bath.

“Ah, wa—”

“To use the dryer, just put your clothes inside and press this switch here. I think they’ll dry in about ten minutes. Well then, make sure you warm up.”

“…O-Okay.”

I gently pushed her by the back into the changing room and, at the same time, explained how to use the dryer. Even if she took a bath, without dry clothes she would end up having to stay naked.

“Phew… so cold!”

After pushing Jujoji into the changing room, I closed the door. Along with the relief of accomplishing one of my goals in bringing her here, a violent chill assaulted my back. I had put on a brave front in front of her, but I was actually in pretty bad shape myself. My head felt slightly foggy.

“The towel… Oh, damn… it’s in the changing room.”

I tried to at least dry myself off, but I remembered in despair that all the towels were in the changing room. If I barged in now, I would probably run straight into Jujoji while she was undressing. Left with no choice, I wiped my body with some clothes that had been tossed aside nearby, changed out of my soaked uniform into loungewear, and turned on the air conditioner, switching it to heating mode. It was strange to turn on the heater in June, but the chill attacking my body left me no choice.

“Okay… I need to clean the room before Jujoji comes out. Oh, and I should probably make some hot coffee too. It’ll warm her up.”

I filled the kettle with water and brought it to a boil, putting instant coffee into paper cups I had prepared for guests. Then I got to work cleaning the messy room. I returned the manga to the bookshelf, poured the half-finished coffee down the sink, straightened the futon neatly, and finally washed the pile of dishes in the sink. Even while cleaning, the intense chill continued to assault me.

This might be really bad. From experience, there was a high chance I would have a fever tomorrow.

“Phew… finished. Achoo!”

Fighting the chill, I somehow finished cleaning the room and pulled out a winter sweater from the dresser, layering it on. But even then, the chills would not stop. My head spun and my consciousness grew hazy. These were unmistakably the symptoms of a cold. It seemed I had caught one already, without even waiting for tomorrow.

Just then, I heard the sliding sound of the bathroom door opening. It seemed Jujoji had finished her bath. I couldn’t let her worry. I slapped my cheeks to fire myself up and tightened my expression. The changing room door opened, and Jujoji appeared.

“Thank you for the bath. Kokonoe-kun, you should get in right away too. Ah… the heater’s on. It’s warm.”

“Yeah. I’ll… go in… right away.”

I stood up and tried to head toward the changing room. But my body wouldn’t move the way I wanted it to.

“Hu…huh…?”

I felt my body falling forward.

“Kokonoe-kun!? Kokonoe-kun!?”

I faintly heard Jujoji’s panicked voice in my ears. But my consciousness sank into darkness right there.

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“Sniff… hic… waaah, waaah…”

“……… ”

I was dreaming. A girl was crying, large tears streaming down her face, while I hid behind something and watched her from a distance. A memory from my childhood. At that time, I hadn’t been able to gather the courage to speak to the crying girl, and I pretended not to notice her.

Even though she was my childhood friend and we were supposed to be close…

A few days later, the girl transferred to another school. It had been such a sudden transfer that I hadn’t asked for her contact information. I never found out why she had been crying, nor whether she had overcome her sadness.

If only I had gathered my courage and spoken to her back then, could I have saved her? Could I have made her smile? That incident remained in my heart as a deep regret. As if God were scolding my heartless self, that scene would sometimes resurface in my dreams like this. That was probably why I couldn’t abandon Jujoji when I saw her crying.

Because I never wanted to experience the same regret again…

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