I Want to Know Everything About Love

Is this. By any chance. The confession has started?

“…I’ve never had a girlfriend before. I don’t know if I can continue to have a good relationship with you. But I’ll try my best. Kihino-san has a reputation for being intelligent, and you have a broad mind that accepts me even if I do something as strange as I do today. I wanted to talk to you and make you my girlfriend.”

Ootsuki-kun said this while looking at me intently.

“So, if you don’t mind. I want you to go out with me.”

─I was confessed for the first time in my life.

The first confession was not as surprising as I had expected, but it was not anticlimactic either. My mind just tells me that something is going on, but my thinking circuit is short, and I can’t tell the correct answer.

His right hand was offered to me as if waiting for a handshake.

If I take this hand, that’s it.

The conclusion of this confession is now left to my judgment.

It feels good that I could feel the blood circulating in my mind. Is this what main drugs are?

As soon as that feeling passed by, I regained enough clarity to start thinking again.

Even if Mika-chan and I were in the opposite position, he would have confessed to Mika-chan in the same way.

Certainly, it’s not normal or sincere that either is fine. Maybe it’s no use saying it’s the worst.

Mika-chan might reject him with “The worst!” but does that mean it’s the same for me, too?

…

The more I think about it, the less I think of it as the worst.

Because I’m the same as Ootsuki-kun.

If a person is not afraid to go out with an equal likability, the initial value of the likability of each other can be even one. I don’t think there’s much difference between me thinking that way and Ootsuki-kun now.

He just wants a boyfriend or girlfriend, and whether he likes me or not right now doesn’t really matter.

Like Ootsuki-kun, I think everyone is fine.

Anyone who says it’s okay, but if it’s completely unattractive and has no sense of cleanliness, it’s impossible. Everyone says it’s fine, but I’m also choosing people.

When I think about it like that, Ootsuki-kun may be said to be my ideal partner who meets all the conditions I want in a boyfriend.

His quirks are similar to my twisted personality, and I actually find that appealing. He’s even aware of how strange he is.

It seems that someone told him to behave so strangely, but even if he were told to do so, I wouldn’t find anyone in the world who would serve tea behind the school building for the first meeting.

We don’t even know how far they were instructed to begin with.

His every word of confession must not have been specified.

His gentle behavior, tone, and personality.

His behavior must be his own.

We don’t really like each other.

It’s not physiologically impossible.

He’s friendly.

He has similar ideas to me, and I think he’ll understand me.

I’m sure there’s no one else in the world who meets the requirements to be my boyfriend. He must be the only person I could possibly go out with.

Alright.

The reason why I’m going out with him has been sorted out.

I was convinced not only by instinct but also by reason.

But there’s one thing I still need to confirm.

I need to ask Ootsuki-kun’s heart.

Ootsuki-kun has his own will in this confession, right?

“Do you want to go out with me regardless of whether someone tells you or not?”

“Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have prepared this from the beginning.”

I see, so to Ootsuki-kun, I’m someone he’s interested in.

Even though I’m blunt and have no communication skills.

I’m a girl who doesn’t even know what’s good about her, right?

“What do you like about me?”

“I don’t know if I like you yet, but I’ve always been curious about your atmosphere. You have always had an aura of slightly looking down, with an unhappy expression, keeping your classmates at bay. I’ve never seen you make a mistake on a problem, and when a senpai gives you a tough problem, you just solve it on your own smoothly. You also have this human side that can be a bit troublesome. I want to know more about you.”

Ootsuki-kun wants to know more about me, too. It’s the same.

Can such a strange confession be called fate?

Please tell me if there is a god of love.

Anyways.

There are certain things that I feel for sure.

I’m in love.

“Hey, Yuki? Hurry up and answer. You have already come to a conclusion, haven’t you?”

“…Yes.”

Ootsuki-kun’s right hand trembled a little.

I don’t know if he has been waiting too long for my reply or if he’s nervous.

But it doesn’t matter anymore.

I just extend my right hand forward.

I just have to have the courage to do that.

My fingertips tremble too.

I stretch out my hand just a few centimeters ahead.

That’s enough to make me want to laugh.

I don’t want to grin and look disgusting. But I can’t help it.

I can’t stop the muscles in my face from contracting.

I push my left hand forward.

My fingertips touched his hand with a snap. That moment.

――！

My hands were wrapped in his hands.

I could feel the heat coming from his wrapped hands.

Unlike Mika-chan, he has a firm and boyish hand.

“I value my future relationship with Yuki. I promise! I totally thought you’d say no!”

He looks at me with a smile.

I take that look without avoiding it.

“Ah!!! Congratulations, but I’m the only one who can call her first name. Add ‘san’ to her name.”

“Then I’ll call her Yuki-san. What would you call me, Yuki-san?”

“Huh? Not Ootsuki, but I call you Taiyou-san?”

“No, I want you to call me by my first name.”

“…Taiyou.”

“That sounds good. The only person who can call me by my first name is Yuki-san.”

Mika-chan glares at Taiyou-kun, but she doesn’t say anything more.

“Well, it’s getting dark. I’ll clean up, and then let’s go home together.”

In the end, the three of us cleaned up, and the three of us left school together.

In the order of Mika-chan, me, and Taiyou-kun, my hands were occupied with their hands.

The world has changed.

I thought this was the only place for someone like me to be in the middle.

■■■■■

After I get home.

There are still things I have to do.

It’s about replying to a love letter from a third-year senpai.

I’d like to give him a sharp refusal because it’s troublesome to leave it ambiguous.

I guess I should be grateful to the senpai.

If I had not received two letters at the same time, I would not have chosen one.

My usual mechanical pencil on the appropriate memo pad.

I wrote it down and erased it several times.

It’s my first time writing a love letter, but I wonder if it’s okay like this.

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Kageyama-senpai

I’m Kihino from the first year.

I already have a boyfriend, so I can’t go out with you.

I’m really sorry that I couldn’t return your feelings.

To be honest, I’ve never been interested in senpai.

It takes courage to express your feelings. And I think that the amount of courage you spend on communicating affects the person you communicate with.

It is unlikely that I will go out with senpai, but I don’t think I will ever forget the courageous feelings that senpai shared with me.

Postscript

Since you’re in your third-year, please focus on your studies.

If you can enter a good university, there will be girls who are prettier and smarter than me.

First-year Kihino

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

Maybe the postscript is unnecessary? Oh well.

I have a bad personality.

“Huh, I have written it, but I don’t have an envelope. I guess I’ll go buy a crappy envelope too.”

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝