Can I brag about my very devoted wife to you?

[Past Episode 3] I Can’t Forgive myself Because I Love You

The day after I met the girl in the stuffed bear costume. As I headed to the cram school for the summer semester, I sat down on a chair and called out to Rin Takamiya, who was sitting next to me. I thought that if I was going to talk to someone about what had happened over the weekend, it would be none other than my closest female friend, Takamiya.

“And that’s why I was wondering… Can you give me the opinion of someone who is also a girl? Takamiya is the only friend I can rely on for something like this.”

“… What’s with that?”

A cold voice replied in a forced manner. I had been looking in the wrong direction because of embarrassment, but I reflexively turned around to see Takamiya glaring at me with the coldest gaze I’ve ever seen.

“You don’t want to be consulted, right? There’s only one thing you want to hear. ‘I’m pretty sure that girl is going to confess!’ You wanted me to say that, didn’t you? That’s ridiculous. What’s up with your overly excited attitude?”

“…”

She pointed out that I was just being overly excited, and my face instantly heated up. I couldn’t deny it. Even if by any chance, a girl who liked me had appeared… I couldn’t help but feel a flutter of excitement just thinking about it. Moreover, I had developed a liking for that bear of a girl, which made me even more nervous.

“–Minato, You seriously don’t think I’m mistaken, do you? How could a girl be conscious of you just because you talked to her for a while? You don’t even know her face, right? There’s no way you can tell if she’s good or bad. And yet, to have delusions like these, just like falling in love, they are so silly.”

I couldn’t say anything back because it was too obvious. In that short time, I felt as if I had known the personality of the girl in the cub costume rather well, but from this girl’s point of view, the very idea of it was totally weird.

“I’m really disappointed that Minato was such a guy. Because guys who immediately mistake themselves as being liked like that are much harder to handle.”

” … ”

“With the way you’re acting right now, didn’t you act like that in front of the other girl too? I’m sure the girl was simply trying to say thank you again. But I think she realized that she was being misunderstood and got nervous inside. She’s probably regretting that she said something unnecessary right now.”

… If you ask me, the girl ran away at the end. Maybe it was because Takamiya was right, and my attitude was weird …

I felt miserable and overwhelmed with regret for all the things I had done, for getting carried away so easily, for assuming that she liked me without any reason, and for the embarrassment of having it pointed out to me head-on. The final deciding factor was a comment from Takamiya.

“Oh, and just so you know, she has surely never thought of you as a friend.”

Takamiya’s voice was trembling as she said this, and she looked like she was on the verge of crying. I couldn’t believe that he had rejected me to the point of making me look like this.

The more time passed, the more the words Takamiya said to me gained weight. No one had ever pointed this out to me before, so I was shocked as if I had been hit by a bolt from the blue. Furthermore, my closest female friend had denied me all of my confidence in the area of communication.

After that, every night when I went to bed, I remembered Takamiya’s words and felt like dying. Of course, I stopped associating with Takamiya at all, and I couldn’t talk to her or girls in general since I thought I might make them uncomfortable with my weird attitude.

The weekend I promised that bear girl was coming up, but I didn’t think I could talk to her properly anymore. However, I couldn’t just skip the appointment. Maybe she’d be more relieved if I didn’t show up, but…

After much deliberation, I dragged my heavy feet to the movie theater to turn down my weekend appointment.

Translator & Editor: Riciel