I’m an Introvert, but After Taking Care of the School’s Most Beautiful Girl Who Lives in an Apartment When She Was Sick, She Became Attached to Me and Started Inviting Me Over to Her Place! - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

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Knock, knock, knock…

“…Mm. Mnn…”

How long had I been asleep, I wondered. The headache had eased a little, and the dizzy, feverish lightheadedness had subsided enough that I could at least walk properly. The pleasant sound of a knife striking a cutting board echoed rhythmically through the door. Suzuya-kun was probably still in the house.

I took the nonwoven mask I had left on the desk in my room out of its wrapper and put it on. Still feeling a bit uneasy, I got out of bed, steadied my steps more than before, placed my hand on the door, and slowly opened it.

“Hm? Natsuki-san, are you really okay to be up already?”

“Yeah… cough—sorry. I ended up asking too much of you.”

“Well, I’ll admit I was confused in a lot of ways, but I get wanting to rely on someone when you’re sick. For now, don’t worry about anything, okay?”

Suzuya-kun stood in the kitchen in a rolled-up dress shirt, just finishing chopping green onions on a cutting board and transferring them into a deep bowl. In a house where I usually never saw anyone but myself reflected, it felt strangely unreal to see someone else standing in the kitchen.

“Thank you, Suzuya-kun.”

“…Here. This is the egg porridge you asked for. I wonder if it’ll suit your taste.”

“Wow—cough—it looks so delicious…!”

After rolling his sleeves back down, Suzuya-kun set the bowl garnished with green onions on the table and glanced around shyly through the gaps in his long hair. What he had made for me—after indulging my selfish request—was a dish topped with nori and chopped green onions, clearly delicious just from its appearance and aroma.

As my symptoms settled down considerably, a fierce appetite welled up at the sight of the porridge in front of me.

“Suzuya-kun, I’ll gratefully dig in.”

“Okay. Go ahead.”

After thanking him, I sat down in a dining chair and picked up the spoon placed beside the bowl. He looked at my face for a moment with gentle eyes, then quickly turned away and started washing the pot and knife.

“Fff—fff—haf, haf…! …Mm! It’s so good!”

From the very first bite, the soft flavor of the egg spread through my mouth, perfectly matched with the aroma of the green onions. Even with my digestive system weakened from a cold, the porridge went down smoothly and stirred my appetite. Even if I made it myself using a simple recipe, it probably wouldn’t taste this good.

Since I was living alone, it had been a long time since I’d felt the warmth of another person so strongly. Until now, I’d always managed colds on my own, but this time the symptoms had been too severe for even that.

“…It really is delicious. I guess it’s been a while since I ate someone else’s cooking.”

“You’re okay with your first homemade meal in a while being porridge?”

“Yeah. They say you’re responsible for your own health, right? …And besides, I really felt like eating porridge right now.”

“Honestly, you shouldn’t push yourself, Natsuki-san. If you were feeling so bad you couldn’t even move properly, you should’ve told me when I rang the intercom! I would’ve gone straight home…”

“Well, I couldn’t exactly turn away a classmate who brought a get-well gift at the door. And like I said earlier, that specific loneliness you get when you have a cold hit me really hard. To be honest, having you come over made me feel really relieved.”

“I mean, I feel like it’d be awkward to be told that by a girl you’ve never even talked to before… It’s good that I’m this kind of person, but, you know, there are way creepier guys out there. I think unless it’s with a trusted friend, you really shouldn’t let a guy you’ve never spoken to into your house like this…”

That was meant to be Sora’s way of giving advice. Setting aside the fact that I had collapsed at the entrance earlier (since I genuinely couldn’t stop it myself even if I wanted to), the real issue here was the fact that I had let a classmate in my house. It was clear to see how kind he was. He never showed any sign of refusing my request and that kindness of his too that made him more worried about me. 

Everything was fine because he was a timid guy and it seemed he had absolutely no intentions to do anything bad to me. However, if I were to tell some perverted guy, “I want you to make me porridge,” and led him in the house, he could easily get the wrong idea and cause trouble for me.

However, Natsuki brushed aside even Sora’s well-meaning warning, and the words she said next were so unexpected that they hit far too hard.

“Then it’s fine if it’s Suzuya-kun, right? We’ve talked now, and I trust you too, don’t I?”

“—!? That’s not what I meant…”

Sitting across from him, she leaned forward, closing the distance, and gently tucked the long silver hair falling across her cheek behind her ear with her fingertips. Whether intentional or not, the sight was so alluring and beautiful that even her cute polka-dot pajamas couldn’t cancel it out, and he found himself at a loss for where to rest his gaze.

“Fufu, I get it. I understand, I really do. Thank you for worrying about me. Though… I do think I’m pretty good at judging people, you know.”

“Well, if you say so… Anyway, you’re not completely better yet, right? Since you’ve eaten, go back to bed and rest. If you collapse again, I really will call an ambulance this time, okay?”

As if to distract himself from stray thoughts, he confirmed that she had finished her porridge and urged her to return to her room. Picking up her dishes, he stood and placed them in the sink next to the kitchen.

“You say ‘it’s fine,’ but you won’t listen anyway, will you? I figured that out in this short time. You’re like a mom.”

“If you’ll go back to bed quietly, I don’t mind being your mom.”

Propping her cheek on her hand at the table, Natsuki watched Sora’s back with a satisfied smile and joked lightly. Meanwhile, Sora—who didn’t want to see her looking so worn out any longer—hoped she’d take her medicine properly and rest while her symptoms were still mild. Accepting her joke with a smile, he encouraged her gently.

“…Somehow, my impression of you changed a lot just today, Suzuya-kun.”

As Sora washed the finished dishes, Natsuki’s teasing voice reached him from behind, accompanied by the sound of a chair being pulled out. Somehow, this sense of closeness was probably her default setting. If she interacted with the boys at school like this unintentionally, it was no wonder Kohaku ended up the way he did. If most guys were approached at this distance by such a beautiful girl, their heart definitely wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Well, if that impression is changing in a good direction, that’s fine. See, there are people—mainly Kohaku and plenty of others—who’d be in trouble if you didn’t come to school tomorrow. So hurry up, sleep, and get better.”

“So… Does that group of ‘people in trouble’ include you too, Suzuya-kun?”

“…I’ll just say that my impression of you changed quite a bit today too, Natsuki-san.”

“I’ll take that positively, then.”

Why is Natsuki-san trusting me this much?

From the way she spoke, she didn’t seem like the type to casually invite boys into her house. And yet, closing the distance this boldly without gauging it at all was way too much for an introvert like him. Not to mention, he could already imagine the icy glares from the so-called “Natsuki-san fans.”

Still, even while questioning why she trusted him so much, all he really wanted was for her— who was sick with a cold—to rest as soon as possible. And for the sake of protecting his future school life, he wanted to leave here as quickly as he could.

“Oh, right, Sora-kun. Since you’re here anyway, why don’t you come up to my room?”

“Hm~ I appreciate it, but I’m heading ho— …Wait, what?”

Did she just casually say something outrageous?

“Oh? Even the gentlemanly Suzuya-kun is curious about the room of the prettiest girl in the school? Fufu~”

“You actually call yourself the prettiest girl in the school… No, and I’m not going, okay? If I step any further, I’ll lose my place at school, both figuratively and literally.”

“What, that’s too bad~”

Hearing Sora’s answer, Natsuki muttered regretfully, though her reaction seemed like she’d expected it, and then returned to her room.

“…Natsuki-san, aren’t you going to close the door?”

“Mm~? I’m kind of flushed from the fever and it’s hooot~”

Sensing an unpleasant premonition he’d already learned to recognize in this short time, he spoke to Natsuki-san as she grinned at him.

Ho-Hot..? It’s still early in spring and even I feel cold with my uniform on. There’s no way Natsuki-san, who’s only wearing a thin polka-dot pajama set, could feel hot, even with a fever.

It seemed her teasing wasn’t over yet.

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