Aren’t You Too Sweet Salt-God Sato-San?

I hurriedly caught it. Safe.

……..just what does she really intend to do?

Her strange demeanor and inexplicable “pause” are vaguely eerie.

Holding a tinge of anxiety, I unlock my smartphone. Somehow, the MINE app that I had closed greeted me now.

What? The next moment I thought that一一一I saw the screen and froze, realizing what a predicament I was in.

“Shizuku, what have you done~?”

Mayo-san, who was the only one in the room who didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation, asked in a stilted tone.

In response to this, “Hahaha”, Shizuku-san laughed in good mood and said,

“No, it’s not like I have done something big. It was irritating so I just sent I like you message to the Satou-san he is in love with.”

*Smack*

一一一The next moment, a loud sound echoed in the room.

It was only after a while that I realized that Mayo-san’s terrifyingly fast slap had struck Shizuku-san like a thunderbolt to the brain.

“Huh……?”

“ー一一That’s against the rule, isn’t it?”

The usually calm Mayo-san furiously rebuked her.

Shizuku-san’s shoulders, who were laughing till now in a good mood, shivered and tears accumulated into her eyes, but一一一I don’t have time to mind about other thing either.

“I like you, Sato-san”

The short message that was already sent to her, and the “read” mark next to the message.

For a moment, my head turned blank.

Bad, bad, bad, what should I do!?

I ran out of the Shizuku-san room in a frenzy, tapped the call button while running down the stairs, and put the phone to my ear. As soon as I left the store, I heard a pop ringing sound that went out of tune with the situation, and my mind finally went blank.

Although I was the one who called her, I didn’t expect Sato-san to pick up the phone so soon. No plan, i haven’t even thought of a plan.

Almost as a reflex, I shouted her name.

“一一Satou-san!!”

“一一Oshio-kun!!”

My voice and Satou-san’s on the other side of the phone overlapped.

The repeated unforeseen circumstances finally left me at a loss for what to say next.

The same seemed to be true for Satou-san, who fell silent.

“…….”

It was an uncomfortable silence that made the noise picked up by the microphone on my phone seem awfully loud.

My mind, which had once been so clear, started to get messy again. Unpleasant sweat runs down my face, and my spine begins to make a rattle sound. All the blood flowing through my body was concentrated in my head, and I felt a slight numbness in my limbs.

Countless conversational simulations floated and sank, settling at the bottom of my mind.

My brain’s tiny tissues were just on the verge of exploding.

In the middle of my whirling emotions, however that was asserting my existence.

一一一I don’t want to be hated.

I definitely don’t want to be hated by Sato-san.

“……..ha-haha, sorry for calling you so suddenly. Were you busy?”

In the end, such a vague line and forced laughter popped out of my mouth.

“What?………Ah, yeah, no it’s alright! completely! I was free! Hahaha…..”

Satou-san, who is kind and gentle, adjusts herself to the same tone as mine, with a forced smile. In response to this, I became sick of myself, who was a bit relieved after hearing this.

However, despite my feelings, my mouth spun words on its own.

“I-I see……Today was an unexpected coincidence, isn’t it? I never thought we would meet in such a place”

“Ye….yes! I was also completely surprised.There are coincidences like that, aren’t there?”

“Indeed”

“Hahahaha”, My heart ached every time at the clumsy, forced smile

……….I’m currently on the call with Sato-san, aren’t I?

Originally I should have been jumping around…..but I wonder why. All those practiced words or cheesy lines, none of them come out of my mouth. It was as if I was having a nightmare and nothing was going my way.

“Oh, I’m looking forward to shaved ice the day after tomorrow.”

“…….Yeah. When was the last time I had shaved ice? I think it’s around ten years…..ah, that’s too much, isn’t it? Anyway, I’m looking forward to it! Hahahahaha…….”

“Hahahaha…..”

I don’t want to be hated.

This is the only feeling that is asserting itself in my head.

一一一I don’t want to hurt her…….Isn’t it you who doesn’t want to be hurt?

I recalled the words of Shizuku-san.

What’s with every person having its pace? I don’t want to be hurt. In the end, isn’t it just like what Shizuku-san said?

Is it because I think about her, that’s why I’m careful? Wrong, it’s because it’s a serious matter to me, that’s why I just escaped from the conclusion in a roundabout way一一一

It was at that time.

In the inevitable silence that came after we had both said our piece, I heard a strange sound.

An intermittent, watery sound that sounded like it was coming from behind my phone, as if it was being desperately stifled.

I immediately realized what it was, and felt a sudden drop in my body temperature.

“一一一I’m sorry, Oshio-kun”

The voice that came out from the smartphone was that of Sato-san, a voice so faint that it seemed like it would disappear if I blew on it.

“Because Oshio-kun is kind……I know that you are being kind to me………m not the only one who is special…”

Although I wanted to say something, my throat was so tight I couldn’t speak. In the first place, I couldn’t think about anything.

“Probably there might be some circumstance in the message just now, right?…….I’m okay! you don’t need to care about it…”

一一You don’t need to care about it

That word was the decisive blow, and darkness spread in front of me

Let alone saying anything, I felt like I couldn’t move even my finger at all.

“………..But I’m sorry. I might not be able to go for shaved ice, perhaps……..I’m really sorry”

Sato-san’s voice gradually became muddled to the point that she could not hide it.

Her words echo inside my mind which has become blank.

……….I was like an empty shell.

In the silence, only the sound of water coming from my phone echoed unpleasantly.

“………sorry, It has become so long. I will cut it….thank you for saving Rinka-chan today”

Gradually, the sound of water turned into a distant voice, probably Sato-san pulled the phone from her ear.

Wait a minute, somehow I feel like I don’t have the right to say those words.

And when I can’t hear this sound anymore, my dirty and cowardly first love will come to an end.

“……….Good night, Oshio-kun”

*Clap*

Just at that time, both of my shoulders were grabbed with great force.

“!?”

A sudden shock ran through my body, bringing me back to reality..

I turned back promptly and there for some reason was Mayo-san and Shizuku-san with her face swollen up, with their hands on my shoulders.

Why…… before I could even ask that question, Mayo-san and Shizuku-san rapidly opened and closed Their mouths.

Seeing the exact same mouth movements, I understand what the girls are trying to say.

“You like her, right?”

“………ah”

A moment later, words that I had heard before else came back to my mind.

一一一Souta, muscles grows only when they hurt each other.

一一一A man’s vanity is trivial but not something to discard lightly. If there comes a time, you have to throw it away one day, then it’s only when you’re chasing after your crush.

一一一If you really love someone deeply……then you just don’t stop!

Suddenly I looked at the sky, it was full of stars.

As I gazed at them, small but surely shining, her smile flashed through my mind.

Her smile that day when she tasted the cheaply bought Konpeito like it was a treasured item.

一一一It was really sweet. Thank you very much.

That’s right.

I don’t know how I forgot something so important.

I wasn’t being nice to her because I didn’t want Sato-san to hate me.

一一一It’s because I like her.

I like her to a hopeless point, I wanted to convey these feelings someday, isn’t that all?

“一一Satou-san!!”

*Tap*