I Hope You’re Still Alive When Tomorrow Comes - 34

Chapter 34: I Will Give You My Everything

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I went out with Kiho on a sunny Sunday morning. Unlike that day, the seaside station was overflowing with people. There were more tourists than local people. Even the streets that were deserted on that day were now bustling with people. Cafes lined up along the seaside. There were too many cafes, but none of them had a vacancy. Every place had a line of people at the entrance. All of them were queueing to get in. 

And among those people, Kiho and I also lined up at the end of one particularly long line. 

“I saw this place on TV before. They said the pancakes in this place are really delicious.”

After waiting for nearly an hour, we finally got our seat. Even though we were entering October, but the sunlight was still pouring strongly. The temperature was still a bit high too, causing my forehead to be sweating. 

“Whoaaa! It really is delicious!”

Kiho smiled beamingly as she ate the popular pancake. In an instant, all of the fatigue disappeared from my body. In replacement for the fatigue, an extremely comforting feeling of relief welled up inside of me. All simply because Kiho was smiling. 

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Yes! Tsuchiya-kun too, your pancake looks delicious! It has melons! Lucky you~”

“Want to try some?”

“Huh? Are you sure? Um… Okay, just a bite then…”

“Sure. Not just a bite, feel free to have half of it.”

Kiho timidly extended her fork as I pushed my plate to her. 

“Really?!”

Kiho exclaimed. Her voice was tinged with excitement. However, upon seeing that my pancakes were still mostly untouched, she suddenly stopped her hand. 

“Huh…?”

Seemingly coming to realize something, she looked up at me. 

“Wait, Tsuchiya-kun, could it be….”

“Hm? What is it?”

“You… Don’t like sweets?”

Surprised by her question, I was momentarily taken aback. Wondering why she would ask me that, I realized I hardly knew much about Kiho’s favorite foods either. I knew she liked cream bread, hamburg and now… Pancake. In fact, I just knew she liked pancakes today. Thinking back, there were many things that I didn’t know about Kiho. For instance… Why did Kiho try to kill herself on that day? 

“Well… Not really, I guess?”

“Huh? Then why did you order pancakes?! And such a sweet one at that!”

“…Because you were torn between two options.”

“Huh?”

“You were seriously troubled between choosing this or that on the menu just a few minutes ago. You said you wanted to eat both.”

I recalled Kiho’s earnest face from a few minutes ago when she was struggling to decide what to order. She kept muttering how everything looked delicious. 

Eventually, she narrowed it down to two options, but then she looked even more distressed. She kept saying how she couldn’t choose and how she wanted both. I remembered how distraught she sounded, so I couldn’t stop myself from thinking of letting her taste both instead.

“That’s why, I’m thinking of sharing half of mine with you.”

“Huh?”

“That way, you can eat both of them. You can have the two things you want to eat the most.”

Kiho’s lips were slightly parted when she stared at my face. She looked bewildered. As if unable to comprehend what I had just said, she blinked several times before she quickly lowered her gaze. 

“Uh, then… Umm…”

She murmured, seemingly hesitant before she finally reached out to grab the plate I had offered to her albeit slowly.

“I will eat both. All of them.”

“Huh? No, no, you don’t need to force yourself.”

“No. Not at all. I’m not forcing myself. Absolutely not.”

Kiho poke rapidly as she pulled the plate full of pancakes to herself. 

“In fact, I want to eat it. I really do. Please let me eat it… I can’t just not eat it, you know…”

She murmured the last part softly. Upon closer inspection, I noticed the part of her ears that were peeking from the gaps of her hair looked a bit red. 

In the end, Kiho really did finish two plates of pancakes all by herself. She didn’t seem to be struggling, none whatsoever. In fact, she looked very happy throughout. 

“It was delicious…”

She murmured with a melting smile as she wiped her mouth with a paper napkin.

“…You know, your hair…”

“Hm?”

Her now black hair that she had dyed a few weeks ago caught my eyes. 

“How long are you going to keep that color on?”

“Huh?”

I asked. Kiho lifted her face at my question, looking confused. She didn’t understand why I was asking that. 

“Because, there’s no point in keeping that color anymore, right?”

I remembered Kiho said she dyed her hair black as part of her arsenal to seduce Hiwatari. She thought he might prefer this kind of girl. In that case…

“You don’t need to cater to Hiwatari’s preferences anymore, right?”

“Tsuchiya-kun, do you prefer brown hair more?”

“….Well…””

To be honest, that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, I might prefer black hair. However, I just didn’t like the fact that she dyed her hair solely for Hiwatari. 

“Anyway, you should go back to your original color soon.”

“…Hmm…”

But Kiho seemed hesitant. With a troubled smile on her face, she lightly touched the loosely curled ends of her hair. She twirled her hair between her fingers as she spoke.

“I’m thinking of continuing that plan a bit longer.”

“….Why?”

“Well, because of my personal reasons…”

“And what are those personal reasons?”

I frowned and sighed upon hearing the same answer. 

“If you want to continue stealing Hiwatari for personal reasons, isn’t that basically the same as you’ve fallen for him?”

“….I mean, stealing Hiwatari-kun is…”

Kiho repeated my words, looking troubled. She then lowered her eyes. 

“I… I just want to take something away from Nanami-san, I mean….”

“…Huh?”

“You see, I…”

Kiho looked up again. This time, she had a resigned look on her face as she stared at me. 

“I hate Nanami-san. I loathe her.”

She confessed in a calm voice, a clear juxtaposition to the content of her words.

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