After I Started Living Alone, My Place Turned Into a Hangout Spot for Beautiful Girls - Chapter 22-23

Chapter 22: Ice Cream

I’m starting to fall for Shizuru, and it seems she’s starting to fall for me too.

In a situation like this, I should probably show her kindness that makes her think of me, or act cool to impress her—stuff like that.

But, well, I think I’ll hold off on that for just a bit longer.

We’ve gotten closer, but it still feels too soon to start doing those things.

For now, I decided to keep things as they are and only put in effort if I truly fall for her.

A week passed like that.

After club activities, as usual, Shizuru came to my house to take a shower.

She looked at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read and asked, “Hey, since nothing’s happened since then, does that mean you’re not interested?”

Yeah, I figured she’d say something like that…

After all, Shizuru was blatantly hinting that she was waiting for me to make a move.

It’s only natural she’d wonder if I didn’t do anything.

“…I like you as a friend, but if you’re asking if I’m in love with you, it’s kind of iffy. I don’t want to rush things, mess up, and make things awkward with a friend I’ve gotten close to.”

She can laugh at me for being a coward if she wants. I don’t care if her opinion of me drops a bit.

With that mindset, I opened up to Shizuru about how I felt.

“Coward,” she said.

She called me a coward, but from the look on her face, she didn’t seem too disappointed.

Feeling a bit relieved, I said to Shizuru, who had just finished her shower, “I figured you’d say that, so check the freezer.”

“Huh?” she replied, curious.

Shizuru walked to the kitchen and opened the freezer door.

Her eyes sparkled as she looked back at me.

“Ice cream! W-Wait, can I eat it?”

“…You called me a coward, but it’s not like I’m completely uninterested in trying to impress you. So, I thought I’d get some ice cream to cheer you up after your shower made you all hot.”

By the way, the ice cream I got was a budget-friendly pack with multiple bars, easy to eat without worrying too much.

It seemed I got the message across that I wasn’t entirely unmotivated, and Shizuru teased me with a big grin.

“Trying to make me happy like this… maybe you already like me, huh?”

“Maybe, but let me take it slow just a bit longer.”

“Hehe, I’m not in a rush either, so it’s fine~ But if I end up getting interested in another guy while you’re taking your time, you’ll just have to deal with it, okay?”

She said that, but then grabbed a chocolate-swirled ice cream bar and started eating.

And, well, Shizuru eating ice cream was adorable.

Instead of biting, she licked it slowly, which was unfairly cute.

I couldn’t help but stare, and she laughed, a bit embarrassed.

“Hey, don’t stare so much. It’s hard to eat…”

Yeah, buying that ice cream was a great call.

“Sorry. You just look so cute slowly licking the ice cream like that.”

“Haha, my friends say that too. Licking it slowly is just too cute, right?”

“That’s sneaky.”

“What? No way! I just like to enjoy my ice cream slowly!”

Shizuru licked the ice cream again.

Then, with a slightly sad tone, she said, “But, you know, some people think licking it like this is kind of gross. I’m starting to think I need to break this habit…”

“Yeah, I get that. Some people do find it gross.”

“Exactly. So, my mom’s been telling me to stop eating like this.”

I couldn’t outright say she didn’t need to stop licking her ice cream, so I just gave a wry smile.

Saying it’s fine to eat like that in front of others would be too irresponsible…

“How about biting it in public and licking it at home?” I suggested.

“Yeah, that’s probably the best compromise.”

“Well, in front of me, you can do whatever you want.”

“Hehe, I knew you’d say that, Teruaki. That’s why I’m licking it today.”

It seemed Shizuru trusted that I wouldn’t mind, which is why she was licking the ice cream like that.

As she did, the melting ice cream started to drip, and she hurriedly licked it to keep it from falling.

The sight was so predictable that I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“That’s what always happens when you lick it, huh?”

“By the way, I sometimes drip it on the floor and get scolded by my mom.”

Is that something to brag about?

Just watching Shizuru eat ice cream was fun.

Suddenly, I thought to myself, how great would it be if I could share moments like this with a girlfriend?

“Oh, it’s about to drip again!”

The ice cream was melting and about to drip.

Shizuru quickly licked it to keep a drop from falling to the floor.

Watching her, I couldn’t help but think she was adorable.

—

Chapter 23: Side Story – Prologue for the Chieri Sato Edition

Lately, Shizuru Mizutani had not come to my house.

That made sense because final exams were approaching.

The club activities ban period had started, so she no longer came over to borrow the shower.

However, it seemed I still did not like Shizuru Mizutani that much, so I just felt a bit lonely without strongly wanting to see her.

As I lay sprawled on the living room sofa, lost in such thoughts, Sakuya Ieyiri came in carrying the melon that had arrived as a midsummer gift for the Ieyiri family and called out to me.

“You look like that, so are you going to be okay for the final exams?”

She must have felt anxious seeing me relaxing on the sofa.
However, I gave her a smug reply.

“As you can see, I have not studied properly at all, have I?”

Sakuya was such an idiot for asking something so obvious.

As I put on that flippant attitude…

“By the way, if you do not get into the top ten in the class, your allowance will be reduced.”

Sakuya said it in a threatening way.

I stopped lying on the sofa, sat up, and defiantly asked her.

“Th-that is a lie, right? My grades are always around thirtieth in the class.”

“Unfortunately, it is true. You transferred the sales from Merikali to the account from which your aunt sends your allowance, did you not?”

“Wh-what about it?”

“It is not only you who can check the deposits and withdrawals. Your aunt found out that the sales money from Merikali had been deposited into the account and got quite angry. And that led to this punishment.”

If I did not get into the top ten in the class on the final exams, my allowance would be reduced.

Well, at least it was better than being taken overseas…

“Sigh… well, not helping it, I suppose.”

The special advancement class I was in was a den of people who could really put in the effort.

Even if someone like me, who was suddenly in the thirties, tried hard, getting into the top ten was normally impossible.

It was best to give up quickly.

When Sakuya saw the pathetic me like that, she started saying something scary.

“And, since your aunt anticipated that you would give up without even trying, she also left me another message.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“If you do not get into the top twenty-five, she will take you overseas.”

“She really means it since it is right around the limit of what I can barely achieve…”

“Well, you can manage it if you try, so just try, okay?”

“Yeah. By the way, how about you for this test, Sakuya?”

That was when I asked her lightly.

Sakuya puffed out her breasts and confidently told me.

“Getting into the top three in the class will be easy.”

“You really are smart.”

“Teruaki could get the same scores easily if he studied as much as I do, since he just does not study enough.”

“No, the hardest part is not slacking off.”

All the smart people said the same thing, like, “You can do it if you study, right?”

It was true that I might be able to do it if I studied.

But not everyone had the talent to concentrate and study without slacking off, you know?

I really wished that people who could concentrate and study diligently would understand that.

That was when I showed a bit of rebellious spirit.

“No, Teruaki used to be a kid who could put in the effort, right?”

“Well, that is true, but…”

“Well, I can sort of understand why Teruaki would want to slack off. In elementary school, even though you were not hated by the teachers, your grades were lowered a bit to boost the scores of an energetic and lovable kid, and in middle school, even though you were the one who got cheated off of, you were falsely accused of conspiring and given a zero, and in the basketball club, you thought you would become a regular once the seniors retired, but you got bumped from regular because it was the same position as a foreign helper kid who had just enrolled, and you tried hard on tests in middle school aiming for a recommendation, but they told you that you could get in through general admissions anyway and did not give you the recommendation… and yet, even though you tried pretty hard, nothing paid off.”

Stop. Do not remind me of my brutal past…

The accumulated traumas clawed at my mind.

“If effort does not pay off, you end up wanting to slack off a bit, right?”

“Well, that is why your aunt stopped telling you to try hard much after you entered high school.”

“But yeah, it is about time I had to start trying again…”

Effort did not pay off.

But I could not keep dragging that around and slacking off forever.

After all, university entrance exams were getting pretty close now.

“You were originally the type who could try harder than a normal kid, so you will be fine.”

“I hope so.”

“Really, you have become such a spineless, pathetic guy…”

Perhaps because she knew me from when I used to try hard in the past, Sakuya looked at me with a face full of genuine disappointment.

It stung a little, but I headed to my room to get my school bag with the textbooks in it, in preparation for the tests.

※

I had slacked off so much because effort did not pay off enough that I had developed a full-blown slacking habit.

A slacking habit was a troublesome thing, and I could not concentrate on studying at all.

Even when I studied at home, I quickly ended up fiddling with my smartphone and slacking off.

Mom must have given me this chance to try hard at this timing because she knew I had become quite like that.

As I thought about such things, and since studying at home did not progress at all, I decided to study outside.

I went into a family restaurant, ordered the drink bar and fries, and spread out my textbook.

At that moment, the manager came flying over.

“Could you please refrain from using the place for studying purposes?”

It seemed like I had watched too many comics and anime.

Studying in a family restaurant had become a relic of the past by now, and while I did not know about ones in rural areas, almost all the ones in the bustling streets banned it.

“Yes, sorry about that.”

“This time slot is not particularly crowded, and there are empty seats, but it is instructions from headquarters, so sorry…”

“No, I am the one who should apologize for some reason.”

In the end, I could not study in the family restaurant, so I mindlessly devoured the fries, drank a few rounds from the drink bar, and hurriedly left the store.

As I walked home, I thought.

I could not concentrate at home, so where should I study?

By the way, since exams were close, the school classrooms were open until 7:30 p.m., right?

Tomorrow, I would not go home early and would study in the study room before heading back…