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

Chapter 26: Chieri Sato (Part 3)

Chieri Sato, who wanted to study without her little brother bothering her, came to my house again today to study.

I started studying side by side with her like that, but… I came across a sentence I couldn’t read in English. As I began typing the English sentence into my smartphone to look it up…

“That sentence means they built a facility for researching climate change.”

Chieri Sato, who had been glancing at me sideways, explained the meaning of the English sentence I couldn’t read.

I see, so climate change means climate change.

It was lucky that I saved the trouble of looking it up.

“Thanks. You really helped me out.”

“The English in the textbook, I mostly looked up the meanings and memorized them, so if you don’t understand something, feel free to ask.”

“Then, what does carbon monoxide mean?”

“It’s carbon monoxide.”

“…You really can answer right away, huh.”

“Well, I’ve been studying. Oh, right, I have a translation of all the English problems you’re working on now into Japanese. Here, feel free to use it if you like.”

Chieri Sato lent me her notebook with the English sentences translated into Japanese.

Not having to type English words into my smartphone or electronic dictionary one by one was truly stress-free, and studying progressed so much better.

This really was the right decision to invite Chieri Sato to my house.

As I thought that, I continued studying, but…

Gururururururu…

My stomach growled.

The current time was 8:15 p.m., and I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch.

There was nothing I could do about this, so I headed to the kitchen.

Once I ate my fill, I’d get sleepy, so I looked for something to satisfy my small hunger.

But there wasn’t anything quite right.

“…Guess I’ll hold out.”

I just lightly rehydrated and returned to the living room where Chieri Sato was.

“Where did you go?”

“I got a bit hungry. I thought I’d grab something from the kitchen. But there wasn’t anything quite right, so I came back reluctantly.”

“I have snacks if you want some?”

As Chieri Sato said that, she pulled a pretzel loaded with chocolate all the way to the end from her bag.

And she held the snack right up to my mouth.

“Here you go.”

I ended up taking the offered snack into my mouth with a bite.

That was, well, normally speaking, the classic situation of “here, ahh,” and it somehow felt embarrassing.

Chieri Sato, seeing me like that, said to me with an indescribable expression.

“Doing ‘here, ahh’ for a boy makes my heart flutter.”

“Even for someone like me?”

“Yes, surprisingly, I like Teruaki quite a bit. Like, the way you shyly take the snack I’m holding in my hand into your mouth, I thought that was just cute.”

“…Y-yeah.”

“What’s with that reaction, like you didn’t think I’d be the type to think that… Listen, I’m a girl too, you know? I want to get along with boys, I want to get close to them, and I’m pretty interested in what comes after that too?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, Chieri Sato seemed pretty interested in me, pretty fond of me, and it felt like she was open to things developing into real feelings.

Chieri Sato thought quite highly of me, and depending on me, something might really happen.

“…I-I see.”

“By the way, getting closer to Teruaki these past couple of days has been all heart-pounding and exciting.”

“You really like me more than I thought, Chieri Sato.”

That was when I truly realized she liked me more than I thought.

Chieri Sato pressed closer to me assertively.

“Yes. So, I want to get even closer, and I want to know more about you~.”

“W-what do you plan to do once we get closer and I know more?”

“That’s something that comes after it happens.”

“Well, yeah, that makes sense…”

Chieri Sato wasn’t confessing right away, so she probably wasn’t seriously in love with me or anything…

But without a doubt, Chieri Sato seemed interested in me.

So, in other words…

Does that mean she’s totally into me?

“Ah, want some Toppo?”

While I was pondering, Chieri Sato held the chocolate snack Toppo toward me.

She had a somewhat cheerful look on her face.

“You’re in quite a good mood.”

“Of course it’s fun. It’s my first time playing around with a boy like this. Don’t you think it’d be weird not to find it fun~?”

“Now that you mention it, from my side too, having a study session with a girl is normally heart-pounding and exciting. …Oh, sorry for interrupting your studying.”

Before I knew it, we’d talked quite a bit.

I apologized to Chieri Sato for that, but she chuckled and said to me.

“This much isn’t an interruption at all?”

She found our interaction enjoyable.

There was no way that didn’t make me happy.

“Shall we really get back to studying…? We can chat as much as we want after the exams are over.”

“That’s like indirectly inviting me to hang out even after the exam period ends, right?”

“If I invited you, would you normally hang out?”

“If you invite me, I’ll hang out normally. Actually, I was thinking of inviting you next time myself.”

“Invite me to what?”

“Since I’ve been bothering you by coming over and causing trouble, how about we go eat some cake together as thanks? Something like that. I’m a normal high school girl too, so I want to try going on a normal date with a boy.”

Want to try a date, huh… I totally get that feeling.

I sometimes want to go out casually with a girl too.

And well, if she wants to go out with me…

Chieri Sato really does like me more than I thought.

As I thought that, I picked up my mechanical pencil to resume studying.