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 - 8

Chapter 8: Being Taken Care of by Jujoji

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“Well then… since we’ve finished eating, shall we clean the room next?”

After finishing the dishes, Jujoji said that while retightening the strings of her apron behind her back.

“You’re going to clean too?”

“Yes.  Kokonoe-kun, I suspect you’re not the type to clean very often, are you? It’s tidied up roughly, but dust and dirt have accumulated in the small places.”

“Ugh… I have no excuse.”

She was absolutely right. I was the type who felt satisfied as long as the visible areas looked clean, and I only cleaned my room when I felt like it. If I remembered correctly… The last time I cleaned was about two weeks ago. It felt wrong to let her do this much, but if it eased Jujoji’s mind, I decided to let her do as she pleased.

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Jujoji rolled up her sleeves, turned on the vacuum cleaner that had been gathering dust in the corner of the room, and began sucking up the larger debris from the floor. Next, she took a brand-new cleaning cloth out of her bag and started wiping down the floors and windows. On top of that, she cleaned the toilet and bathroom, organized my manga, and arranged the textbooks scattered messily across my desk in subject order. She handled even the smallest details.

“Phew… I think that’s about it.”

“That’s amazing…”

My once-messy room became spotless in no time. It even looked like the whole room was shining.

“Thanks, Jujoji. I’ll properly repay you for this.”

“Please don’t worry about it. I’m doing this because I want to. You’re very worth taking care of, Kokonoe-kun♪”

Jujoji smiled with a satisfied expression and then glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

“Oh, it’s already noon? I need to prepare lunch…”

While she had been cleaning, it seemed that somehow it had become lunchtime. She headed back to the kitchen and began taking ingredients out of the plastic bag to start preparing lunch.

“Uh… Jujoji, you just finished cleaning. Maybe you should take a short break…”

Up until now, I had let Jujoji do whatever she wanted. I thought it would help repair her heart. But she had been working nonstop since morning. Even if she was doing something she liked, fatigue still built up. At the very least, I thought she should take a short rest, so I spoke up.

“I’m perfectly fine—whoa.”

She turned toward me and struck a muscle pose with her slender white arm, trying to show how energetic she was. However, as she turned, her right foot caught on her left, and she stumbled slightly.

Come to think of it, even if she hadn’t caught a cold herself, she had stood in the rain for a long time yesterday and must have exhausted herself. On top of that, she had been working since morning. Of course she would be tired. I had been so focused on her emotional state that I hadn’t paid attention to her physical condition. I regretted not noticing sooner.

Mental health was important, but physical health was just as important.

“See? I told you so. Skipping one meal won’t kill us, so let’s take a little break.”

“I’m fine! Taking care of you, Kokonoe-kun, is what gives my life meaning right now!”

But she stubbornly insisted she didn’t need a break. Wanting her to rest, I racked my brain for an idea.

“Ah… for some reason, I suddenly feel like having tea with you, Jujoji. I’d be in trouble if you didn’t have tea with me. There are some snacks and tea bags in the cupboard, so how about we have a little tea time together?”

Even I thought that was a clumsy way to invite someone. But it was all I could come up with. I didn’t possess any smooth lines for inviting a girl. At first, Jujoji looked exasperated by my words, but soon her lips softened into a smile.

“…Hehe, what was that? That was such a clumsy invitation. But if you’re going that far, Kokonoe-kun, I suppose I have no choice. Let’s have tea together. This cupboard?”

“Yeah, that one. I think there were some cookies in there.”

She took out a box of cookies from the cupboard and arranged them on a plate. Then she placed it on a tray and brought it over with cups of tea.

“Thanks, Jujoji. I really wanted some tea. You should sit down and drink too.”

“Hehe, okay, okay. …Kokonoe-kun, you’re clumsy, but you’re kind, aren’t you?”

“Am I? I’ve never thought so myself. I’m just normal, aren’t I?”

“Someone who isn’t kind wouldn’t catch a cold just to encourage a mere classmate. And just now, you spoke up because you were worried about my condition, didn’t you? …I think someone who can care about others is a kind person.”

She said that and smiled. As expected of someone called a beautiful girl, her smile was incredibly cute. My heart skipped a beat.

“…Is that so? I’m just doing what I believe is right.”

“Yes. That’s how it is. And maybe that’s why… I feel like taking care of you.”

“I see…”

It was the first time in my life a girl had ever said something like that to me, so for a while, I felt too embarrassed to look her straight in the face.

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Time passed, and night fell. Before going to bed, I took my temperature with a thermometer. When it beeped, I removed it from under my arm and checked it.

“…Thirty-five degrees. That’s normal.”

“That’s right. Judging by how you were today, Kokonoe-kun, there doesn’t seem to be any sign of a relapse. It should be fine for you to go to school tomorrow.”

Jujoji said that while peeking at the thermometer from beside me. With her approval granted, I could finally return to school tomorrow.

“Thanks, Jujoji. I recovered this quickly because of you.”

“No, no. Originally, you caught the cold because of me, Kokonoe-kun… I merely fulfilled my responsibility. …But when I think about how taking care of you ends today, I feel a little lonely.”

A full recovery from my cold meant the end of her caretaking. She had been desperately trying to fill the hole in her heart by doing something she loved, which was taking care of others. Her care had healed my cold, but that didn’t necessarily mean her emotional wounds had fully healed… There was surely still a deep, painful scar left in her heart.

“Well… if you like taking care of people that much, I don’t mind if you keep taking care of me for a while. Of course, only as long as it’s not too much for you.”

I had been the one to reach out and involve myself with her. So I thought it was my responsibility, as someone involved, to stay by her side and help her heal as much as I could. That was why I made that suggestion.

“…Are you sure? I’m taking you at your word, you know? No taking it back later, okay? Ufufu♡ Ufufufu♡”

“Yeah. Until you feel better, I’ll let you take care of me.”

“Then I’ll take such good care of you that you won’t even be able to imagine life without me♡”

But at that time, I still hadn’t realized the true meaning behind her words.

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