The Real Childhood Friend and Future Husband

On the way home after the dramatic confession, Kuon and I were walking hand in hand with barely any distance between us.

The country road paved with asphalt, which was peeling in places, was tinted with the setting sun and led to the Kuon’s house.

Yes, I’m going to Kuon’s house now. According to Kuon, it is natural for her future husband to live with her.

…… I don’t mind since I live alone anyway, but isn’t this a little too abrupt?

“Hey, why were you trying to die? Don’t you have, um…..a girlfriend?”

“Didn’t I say it earlier? I don’t have anything anymore.”

I repeated the same answer as on the rooftop, and Kuon looked at me with a miffed expression on her face.

“She….Ai cheated on me. She was having an affair with a guy named Shiro Ryuyo. So I realized that nothing matters anymore.”

“Cheat?”

A shadow casted on Kuon’s face,

I told Kudo what had happened yesterday with some trepidation on my face.

“…… unforgivable.”

“No, it’s not something that Kuon should be upset about.”

“She insulted my Danna-sama, okay? There’s no way I can stay calm.”

(TL/n: Danna-sama = Husband/Dear Husband)

Is that how it’s supposed to be?

I mean, I’m not her husband yet.

“So what are you going to do about it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You haven’t technically broken up yet, have you?”

“…..Oh.”

Come to think of it, I didn’t even break up with her….

Uhh, that means that even though I have a girlfriend, I accepted a marriage proposal from a girl I just met for the first time.

“Don’t tell me you forgot?”

“No, That’s……! But you see, I was going to end it all today, so I didn’t have to break up with her.”

Yeah, in fact, this is also true.

It’s true that I forgot, but the truth is often any number of things.

“Is that right? I don’t mind if you did…… But I’ll have to think about it.”

“Think?　Think about what?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

Kuon grinned as she said this.

The dark shadowy expression on her face seemed to reveal a part of her inner self, sending chills down my spine.

“…Revenge.”

Revenge….

“Certainly, Ai’s betrayal was painful, but that doesn’t……”

“Isn’t it vexing? Even if you broke up, it would only make them more determined to be together, right?”

That being said, the image of Ai and some guy named Ryuyo making out in front of me popped into my head.

───Oh, that is certainly unacceptable.

“When you say revenge, what exactly do you want me to do?”

“It depends on what you want. But first, I need to know more about this guy named Ryuyo.”

Come to think of it, I don’t know anything about the other guy.

I’m pretty sure there is a girl in the same class with the last name of Ryuyo, but I wonder if they are related?

“Hmmm, it’s not particularly easy, especially when you don’t have any contact.”

“Don’t worry, I know a girl who knows things, and she’ll probably figure it out soon.”

Kuon started fiddling with her phone.

Perhaps she was contacting that acquaintance.

“Well, we have arrived at my house. Let’s think about the rest when we get a reply and know more, shall we?”

Then Kuon stopped.

For some reason, when Kuon’s house appeared in my field of vision, I was struck by a strong sense of deja vu.

What’s this…..? It looks like something I had seen a long time ago….

“…..What’s up?”

“Um, no. It’s nothing.”

I stopped and thought about it, and Kudo peered into my face.

She seemed to be grinning more than ever, if not heartily.

“Come on, let’s go in quickly, okay?”

With that, she pulled me by the hand and walked me to the front door.

Her steps were light but her grip on my hand was unusually strong.

“Well, will you come in?”

Kuon unlocked the front door and invited me in.

Thinking back, my only experience of entering a house of the opposite sex was Ai’s house.

…… No, I think I used to go to the house of a girl I was close to when I was a kid.

Before I moved here, maybe just about ten years ago?

“Up ahead is the living room, upstairs is my room, your room, and one more guest room, but I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t enter that one.”

“Hm? Oh, got it.”

Once inside the house, the sense of déjà vu became even stronger.

Blinking to stifle the sense of déjà vu, I looked down the hallway leading to the living room and saw a door to what appeared to be a storage space by the stairs and a door to a bathroom across from it.

…..huh?

“Hey, Kuon, is that a bathroom behind that door?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Kuon replied matter-of-factly.

But her expression was one of a scornful smile and she seemed to be observing me.

……I, How did I know that behind that door is a bathroom?

“Come on, let’s go to the living room.”

When we got to the living room, the deja vu finally reached its climax.

It’s as if I have memories of the layout and furniture as if I’ve lived here before.

What is this, am I in some kind of time loop?

Was I the protagonist of a time loop story!?

……..What an eerie situation that makes you imagine stupid things.

“What’s wrong? You’re acting like you’ve seen this before.”

Kuon stared at me with a cold, beautiful face smiling at me.

It was as if her eyes were expecting something.

“It’s like, what do you call it, a déjà vu? I feel a strong sense of it.”

“Déjà vu….Fufu, no, it’s not. You know the floor plan of this house───no, you remember it.”

The tone of voice went up a notch.

“What do you mean remember it? Me and Kuon have never met before, right? I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve even been in this house, right?”

Doubts gave rise to more doubts, and I bombarded her with questions.

“No, that’s wrong. You and I have been in love for a long time────long before you met a girl called ‘Ai’.”

─────.

──────.

“…….what?”

I made the dumbest sound of my life and froze on the spot, staring into Kuon’s eyes as she declared this with pure innocence.

“After all, I knew you wouldn’t remember…”

I was silent for a while, not knowing what to say, when Kuon came up to me with a sigh.

“Have we ever met in the past? You said we’ve talked before, but I honestly don’t have any idea what you’re saying…….”

“We used to play together all the time when we were kids …… up until the second grade, you know?”

Second grade?

……Oh!

“Now that I think about it, a girl I used to play with had a similar name……?”

“My parents divorced and I changed my last name. You called me by my last name back then, so maybe that’s why you didn’t recognize me.”

“Perhaps you are Nogi-chan?”

Kuon nodded with a smile at my question.

Ah, I remember her. We used to play together as a family when I was in elementary school.

I had never seen her since I moved here.

“Oh, how nostalgic! But if that’s the case, you should have told me long ago.”

“Because we would have recognized each other at first glance, right? And yet you didn’t even notice when we passed each other, and on top of that, you had a girlfriend…….”

No, I can’t remember the faces of my friends from the second grade.

But, this isn’t the right atmosphere to say that……

“Th-That was, you see, because you have become really beautiful!”

Let’s try to deceive her with some random answers for now.

“Huh? I-I see….! Thank you, that made me really happy!”

Saying so, Kuon fidgeted and shook her body.

Apparently, she was fooled, maybe she is more easy than I thought.

“I thought for sure you had amnesia. Because you do, don’t you? You and I loved each other so much and even promised to marry each other… How is it possible that you forgot about me and dated another woman? So I’ve been looking into it for a long time, thinking there must be a reason for this, right?”

Kuon rapidly rambled on.

Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and she looked straight at me as she continued to speak, and I felt a slight twinge of fear.