Hey, Best Friend. How About A Kiss Today Too? - Chapter 29: "I said I like it."

“I said I like it.”

The sound of a solid click indicated that the door was locked. I had just come out of the dimly lit and dusty former warehouse, which served as the Selfhood Research Club’s clubroom, and was being pulled by my childhood friend who was waiting for me. Sagiri, with her beautiful, long white hair swaying, turned to face me in front of the door.

“The correct answer was to have lunch together!”

She showed me a lunchbox with a smile. Just one thing, just one thing… I have to say it.

After being provoked in such a suggestive manner, can’t you see already!?

“Okay, okay, sit down.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“It’s written on your face.”

“You don’t have that skill, do you?”

“Okay, okay, sit down.”

“At least lend me your ear.”

It felt like an endless game of back and forth. Since lunch break would end without me being able to eat anything if I continued to be stubborn, I sat down at the usual desk arranged in the cramped clubroom.

There were four desks arranged two by two, facing each other. I sat by the window, and Sagiri sat next to the door. This was the usual arrangement.

“Things were tough in the classroom after you disappeared Renji. Everyone came to me.”

“It’s all your fault.”

“A popular beauty like me would be troubled…”

“Since when did you become so arrogant?”

She used to lament her weaknesses so much in the past. Now, she was sitting next to me, happily eating the side dishes from the lunchbox.

“Oh, why are you getting your mouth all sticky with just one bite!?”

“Tsk, look this way, Sagiri…”

“Huh? Hiyaa!?”

I wiped around Sagiri’s mouth with the handkerchief I took out of my pocket. The moment I pressed the handkerchief against her, she closed her eyes in surprise, and somewhere in my heart, I thought I had won.

“You really haven’t changed since the old days.”

“Waaaaa…!”

When I removed the handkerchief from Sagiri’s mouth and sighed, she grinded her teeth in a way that didn’t make her look like a beautiful girl at all. Her face seemed redder. She should have dropped all the ketchup by now.

“Grrr… Ah, kimpira!”

“What’s going on with your emotions?”

With a bright red face, my childhood friend, who had been grinding her teeth, suddenly showed interest in the contents of my lunchbox.

“It’s fine. I know you love a kimpira.”

“Don’t silently steal someone else’s side dish like breathing….”

“I said I like it.”

“Do you think it’s okay to do anything just because you like it…?”

While talking, Sagiri showed interest in the kimpira burdock that was protecting the edge of my lunchbox and plundered it.

“Hehe, plenty of openings!”

“Is that so.”

“Aah!? My one-bite hamburger is gone!?”

“Sorry, there were so many openings.”

“Think about fairness, rate it! It’s unfair!”

Having been taken away, it was taken back, and there was no fair rate in this battle. The history of the sad conflicts repeated by humanity was unfolding in the lunchboxes of Sagiri and me.

“This carnal desire demon…”

“Don’t you dare say those same words to me while we’re in public!”

The social lethality caused by words mocking a love for hamburgers is too strong. This is the terror of biased reporting.

“My fingers, too, were going to be eaten…”

“Wait, that’s your fault, isn’t it!?”

In response to the muttered words, I shifted my gaze from the lunchbox to counter the argument.

“…………”

“…………”

Looking down at me with a shy gaze, my best friend’s face was there. When I realized it, the location, situation, and atmosphere were all too late.

“Hey, best friend?”

On chairs side by side, the distance between us had decreased. My childhood friend crossed over her own territory and invaded my chair.

“I also love hamburgers.”

“I used to like kimpira too.”

I know. Because she’s my childhood friend, I know at a common sense level what each other likes. What each other likes ended up in each other’s mouths.

What I was looking at was only the entrance.

“Give it back.”

“You too.”

Rendered immobile by the hand against my cheek, we were bound. A struggle that couldn’t be taken back after the fact.

To reclaim what was taken from each other, there was no choice but to seal each other’s lips.

Bell Rings

“Hyah!?”

“Ohh!?”

The chime of the doomsday clock ruling the world of the school put an end to our struggle during lunch break.

“Uh, um… Wh-what’s the next class!?”

“M-Math! If we’re late, that sinister teacher will scold us with logic!”

In a big rush, Sagiri and I distanced ourselves from each other, packed our lunch boxes into bags, and hurriedly left the clubroom.

If it had continued like that, what would have happened? Perhaps there would have been some change in the form of our struggle with our best friend. However, unable to answer with what did not happen, I spent the remaining classes until the end of the day in a state of unease.