I Just Wanted a Girlfriend, But Now I Have Three Fiancées! …Even Though I Don’t Remember Proposing to Any of Them - Chapter 05: Apparently I Helped Someone Without Realizing It

Chapter 05: Apparently I Helped Someone Without Realizing It

“Haru-san, it’s me! You helped me yesterday—you remember!?”

“Y-You’ve got the wrong guy, maybe…?”

The moment I heard the word “yesterday,” my brain slammed the emergency shutdown switch.

I was already overwhelmed just dealing with Mitsuki and Mei. If things got any more complicated now, I’d totally short-circuit.

So I tried to bluff my way out and slip past her.

But—

“No way. Look—this!”

The girl, who introduced herself as Luna, held something out to me.

“This is yours, right?!”

It was…

My student ID.

“Wha—why do you have my student ID?!”

“You dropped it yesterday, Haru-san! I wanted to return it right away, but… I figured if I turned it in at school, I’d probably never see you again.”

Ugh… I was drunk and dropped my student ID? Seriously, Past Me—get it together!

“S-So… you held onto it for me?”

“Yup! I’m giving it back now.”

“…Thanks.”

I took it, but at this point, there was no weaseling out of it. The “you’ve got the wrong guy” line? Completely useless now.

Checkmate?

“I’m really, really grateful for your help yesterday, Haru-san. I’d just gotten back to Japan after a long time, and I was totally lost… but then you showed up and helped me. It honestly felt like fate.”

“…………”

What the heck did I even do yesterday?

Did one cup of coffee seriously flip my whole personality??

And what did she mean by “back in Japan after a long time”?

Wait—so she used to live here?

While I was still trying to process all this new info and figure out how the heck I was supposed to respond—

“U-Um… I’m sorry. I just started talking way too much out of nowhere… Is my Japanese okay…?”

“It’s fine. Totally fine, but…”

Wait a sec.

Mei and Mitsuki only got tangled up with me because I pretended to remember things I didn’t, right?

So maybe this time, it’d actually be better to just tell the truth.

If I fessed up about not remembering anything, maybe I could avoid digging myself into another massive hole.

“…The truth is, I don’t remember anything from yesterday.”

“Ehh!? (Oh mon dieu!) A-Are you okay!?”

“Yeah. That’s why…”

I lowered my gaze to the ground.

But I had to say it.

I had to be honest.

“I don’t remember you either.”

Then I slowly looked up…

And saw her—eyes shimmering with tears, clearly doing everything she could not to cry.

She held it in for a moment, but then, with trembling lips, she whispered—

“T-That’s a lie.”

“No… it’s the truth…”

“Even if you lost your memory… I know you’d still remember me.”

“…Huh?”

“You really… don’t remember me?”

Watching her on the verge of tears like that—

There was something strangely familiar about her face.

“…Luna-chan?”

She was the transfer student from way back in elementary school.

She used to go back and forth between Japan and France, and we were in the same class from third to fifth grade.

But before sixth grade started, she transferred out again… and I never found out where she went after that.

“That’s right! I knew it—Haru-san remembered me!”

“It’s been forever! How’ve you been?!”

“Of course I’m doing great. I was living in France the whole time, but I just got back a few days ago.”

Whoa—serious blast from the past.

Luna transferred to our school around the same time I lost my mom.

Back then, I wasn’t close with Mei or anyone else—I mostly kept to myself.

Luna was the same. She moved around so much, she didn’t have any close friends either.

I can’t even remember how it started, but somehow, the two of us—classroom loners—ended up becoming friends.

“You’re still a crybaby, huh?”

“Well, that’s your fault for saying you didn’t remember me.”

Yeah. Luna had always been a crybaby.

She’d tear up over everything, and I’d always be the one stuck trying to calm her down.

“I totally remember now. It’s been like… ten years, right?”

“Five years.”

She gave me a half-exasperated smile at my awful guess.

Still… Luna had changed a lot since the last time I saw her.

We used to be about the same height—but now I was taller.

And her face, which used to be all round and cutesy, had grown into something graceful and beautiful.

“You came back to Japan for school?”

“It’s because of my parents’ work!”

“I see. So… are you gonna start transferring schools all over again?”

“Non! Even if my parents move for work, I’ll be living here on my own!”

“Oh wow. That’s… really good to hear.”

“Yes!”

Back when she kept transferring from place to place, Luna always had a hard time making friends—

And even when she did, she’d end up losing touch with them right away.

But now that she was in high school, she could live on her own.

Which meant… she probably wouldn’t have to deal with all that loneliness like she did back in elementary school.

“But… why don’t you remember anything from yesterday, Haru-san?”

“Well, actually…”

I gave Luna-chan the quick version of what happened.

That I didn’t handle coffee well.

That I drank some anyway, got totally wrecked, and basically blacked out.

Honestly, it sounded like a ridiculous excuse even to me.

But maybe because I told it so seriously, Luna accepted it without question.

“I see… I was worried you might’ve hit your head or something!”

“Yeah, honestly, that would’ve made more sense…”

Maybe I should just start telling people I fell and hit my head instead of blaming the coffee.

“But I’m really glad. That you actually remembered me.”

“Sorry… You’ve changed so much, I didn’t recognize you at first…”

“For a moment, I thought you even forgot our pro-mise.”

“…Huh?”

The mood shifted—

And not subtly.

That word.

That one word hit like a red flag waving in slow motion.

“Remember? The day before I transferred, Haru-san, you made me a promise. That if we ever met again, it’d be fate.”

“Fate…”

All I could do was echo her like some confused parrot.

“We promised to get married, remember?”

“…………”

I stood there frozen, scrambling through my memories.

…Did we?

I feel like… maybe we did…?

Or maybe not…?

“It’s like… I kinda remember… but also kinda don’t…”

“We did! Look—this!”

Luna looked like she was on the verge of tears as she held something out to me.

It was the torn corner of an old loose-leaf sheet.

And scribbled on it—in clumsy, childish handwriting—was a homemade marriage certificate.

With both our names written on it.

“…That’s definitely my handwriting.”

“So… you remember now?”

“Oh—yeah.”

We really did make that promise.

“I knew it. I just knew Haru-san would remember eventually.”

…Can I still blame the coffee for this?

…Yeah, no. Probably not.