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 41

Chapter 41

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“Hey… Suzuya-kun?”

“Ugh… Hm? What is it, Natsuki-san?”

“…Are you feeling okay?”

Feeling worried about Sorato, who was still a little woozy and slumped over, Kaon sat down beside him and leaned in to peer at his face. Even as they sat there, the number of people around them kept increasing. The path Saki and the others had run off down had, before they knew it, disappeared behind the crowd.

“Well, the dizziness has mostly gone away.”

After breathing in the outside air, the warped, nauseating sensation swirling in his head had calmed down quite a bit.

Ah… Right now, Natsuki-san really looks like an angel…

Since meeting her not long ago, Sorato had seen her weak moments and her mischievous, devilish smiles many times. But this might have been the first time she had looked at him with such pure, unguarded concern. Her well-proportioned figure and beauty, usually somewhat restrained by her school uniform, were displayed to the fullest in her layered casual clothes.

The way she tilted her head slightly made it easy to understand why she occasionally drew the eyes of passersby. She was objectively cute. 

“So, what was it you really wanted to say?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, was I wrong? I kind of felt like you were about to say something else, you know. Ahaha…”

What Sorato had faintly picked up on was the restless sense that, while her concern was genuine, she had been trying to say something more. But once he put it into words, she didn’t straighten her head, still tilted in confusion. Thinking it might have just been his imagination, he laughed it off on purpose to reset the awkward mood.

I showed another weird side of myself again…

Having blurted out something odd, Sorato didn’t know what else to say and was at a loss. He put a hand to his head, embarrassed by his own misstep.

“No. You were right. I really was trying to say something else.”

“What!? Then you should’ve just said that from the start!! I was desperately trying to figure out what to do with that weird atmosphere just now, you know!?”

“Ehehe… I thought maybe everyone would be back soon, and it might get awkwardly long~”

For some reason, Kaon looked away from Sorato with a subdued expression, staring at the people passing through the crowd without focusing on anyone in particular.

“You can tell me the rest even after everyone gets back, so just say it. I’m curious.”

“Hmm~? Well, I guess I don’t have a choice then… Maybe I’ll tell you~?”

Whatever pleased her, she puffed out her full chest with a smug little hmph, still not looking at Sorato, and began talking as a way to pass the time until everyone returned.

“So… You know? The other day, when I had that cold, Suzuya-kun was really kind to me. I guess you could call it an old trauma? When I’m alone at times like that, I get really lonely… I was so lonely I felt like I might lose it.”

“…I can imagine. Back then, things were just so different from how you are at school that I was honestly kind of confused. And the hand thing… Uum… The things you said out of the blue too… I was surprised too.”

“But that really makes you feel safe, you know? I’m sure only someone who’s been through it would understand. Just having someone hold your hand and tell you ‘I’m here’… It calms you down so much it’s honestly surprising. I really can’t thank you enough…”

“I get feeling lonely and wanting to fill that emptiness somehow. That’s why I just did what I could. So you don’t need to feel indebted or anything.”

What she conveyed to him again, in her own words, was her gratitude. It was true that since that day they’d had more chances to interact at school, but they hadn’t really had time alone like this. The truth behind her oddly hesitant, distant attitude turned out to be grounded in that gratitude. Sorato felt a little embarrassed and ended up trying to sound cool.

For Sorato, it had been nothing more than a simple act of kindness. But for Kaon, he had been the one and only presence that eased a deep, lingering anxiety she carried.

“And also…? And also… Since that day, I started thinking that Suzuya-kun is kind of like an older brother to me…”

“Huh? Natsuki-san, do you actually have an older brother?”

“Nope. I don’t. I’m an only child. I don’t have any sisters or brothers at all. That’s probably why I ended up seeing you that way. Ehehe.”

It seemed that, without realizing it, she had projected the illusion of a brother she never had onto Sorato’s presence, someone she could rely on when she couldn’t rely on her own family. With a solemn smile, her brows knitting together in a mix of embarrassment and melancholy, the roller coaster they had ridden just moments ago thundered overhead with piercing screams.

“……”

“……”

A brief silence fell between them. Sorato didn’t know what to say to her and had even forgotten how to react. But Sorato couldn’t tell what Kaon was thinking as she stayed quiet. His mind filled with frustration at his own inadequacy, unable to immediately find the right words for moments like this.

“…I didn’t… I didn’t hate it.”

“Eh—?”

“Ah, no, not in a weird way! It’s just… At school, Natsuki-san is perfect, beautiful, and feels really distant. Like… You’re someone completely out of reach.”

At school, Kaon truly was perfect. She was kind to everyone, beautiful, and academically gifted. Without some kind of miracle, it felt presumptuous and scary to even imagine having anything to do with her.

But that “miracle” had fallen right into Sorato’s hands. A small trigger, the timing of that moment, every single action… If even one thing had been different, they might have ended up walking completely separate futures.

“At first, you pushed yourself too hard and collapsed, and I couldn’t figure out why you trusted me so much. My head was a mess… But somehow, it didn’t feel bad being relied on. It was strange, really.”

“I see… So that’s how it was…”

“Well, I do have a younger sister, so I’m kind of used to being leaned on. If anything, I like the ‘little-sister-like Natsuki-san’ who can honestly ask for things more than the stiff ‘honor-student Natsuki-san’ at school.”

“I’m glad… I’m glad you don’t think badly of me. I hadn’t properly thanked you for that day, and I was selfish too… I kept worrying you might hate me for that. That’s all I could think about.”

“Ahaha, I really don’t worry about details like that. And everything that day was my own choice, so you don’t need to overthink it, Natsuki-san.”

Somehow, the reasoning behind her actions finally clicked into place inside Sorato. The way she’d poke his side with her fingertip when she thought no one would notice, deliberately choose him to talk to during PE, puff out her cheeks like a chipmunk and maneuver him into asking for her contact info himself….

All of that was probably not the Kaon Natsuki she showed at school, but the real Kaon Natsuki—someone who freely clung to Sorato and sought warmth against her loneliness more than anyone.

“Everyone wears a mask during school life. Instead of worrying yourself sick over things like that, you look way better with your usual little-devil smile. See?”

What she had wanted to say was a mix of gratitude and a small confession of anxiety. This was the gap between who she was at school and who she really was. Sorato gently accepted the courage it took for her to lay it all bare. To cheer her up as she still wore a slightly uncertain expression, he lifted the corners of her mouth with his fingertips, deliberately making a silly smile.

“Fufufu, what’s that? What a weird face.”

“That’s rude… I was just trying to cheer you up since you looked so down.”

“Hmmm~? I have no idea what you mean! I’ve been energetic this whole time!”

Laughing softly with her eyebrows curved into a playful inverted V, she sprang to her feet and stretched.

“Ah, looks like they’re back.”

“Oh! Really?”

When Sorato stood up after her, he saw Saki running toward them from afar with a plastic bottle held high, Kaede trailing behind her, struggling to keep up.

“Hah…! Hah…! Th-this…! Water…!”

“Thank you, Hiiragi-san. I’ll pay you back later.”

Hands on her knees, breathing heavily, Saki shoved the bottle of water toward Sorato as she desperately sucked in air.

“Hey, Saki…! You didn’t have to run that much…! It would’ve been fine if we just walked…!”

“But Sorato-kun looked like he was really struggling…!”

Kaede, dressed in something far less functional than Saki’s outfit, shot Saki a sharp glare. But whatever intimidating presence she usually had seemed to have leaked out along with her oxygen, as Saki didn’t look particularly remorseful.

“Huh? Come to think of it, where did Tenma and Kohaku go?”

“Oh, Tenma and Natani-kun went to buy some food that we can eat while we walk. It’ll probably take them a bit longer to return.”

“I see! Then I’ll sit here until Kohaku-kun and the others get back!”

“I’ll rest a little too until they return…”

“Hmm~ Suzuya-kun, what should we do?”

“If there’s somewhere you want to look around, you can go ahead. I’m fine now.”

“Come on, don’t say such lonely things! I want to check out that area over there, but it’d be lonely alone…You know~ It’d be nice if someone came with me~?”

“Sure. Let’s go.”

As a small thank-you for staying with him during a painful stretch of time he would’ve had to endure alone, Sorato decided to accompany her to wherever she wanted until Tenma and the others came back. Seeing how much more honest she’d become, he faintly overlapped her image with that of a younger sister.

Why Kaon leaned on Sorato so much—he had finally heard the truth from her own mouth, and at last felt clear-headed enough to think properly about their relationship.

“Hey—!?”

“Wait, seriously!? That—!”

Ah… Well, whatever.

As he walked beside her, led along at her pace, students who looked like they were from the same school widened their eyes at the sight of them. He knew they didn’t quite match, but the discomfort he once felt wasn’t there anymore.

“Oh, Suzuya-kun! I want to go see that!”

“Ahaha, I get it. Calm down already.”

Apparently having spotted something that caught her interest, Kaon grabbed the hem of Sorato’s clothes tightly and tugged him along at a jog. Sorato followed after Kaon—who finally openly showed a side as cute and innocent as a younger sister—with a fond smile on his face.

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