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 58

Chapter 58

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Click, click, click—

“…Mm. What time is it now…?”

His consciousness was gradually pulled back from a dreamlike world into reality. As his vision slowly opened, it was dyed in the colors of the evening glow, and the irregular cawing of crows perched on utility poles echoed through the eerily lonely room.

When he checked the time on the smartphone by his pillow, the digital clock read exactly 5:00 PM. On the same lock screen banner was the message, “7 new messages,” suggesting that notifications had piled up while he was asleep.

He lightly tapped one of them—tap tap tap—and opened the chat screen.

Kanau: “I’m heading home now. Is there anything you want me to buy for you?”

About thirty minutes earlier, he had received that message from his younger sister, Kanau. It seemed she had contacted him right after school ended and had even gone out of her way to ask if there was anything he wanted.

Normally, Kanau acted cheeky and prickly toward Sorato, but in moments like this, when her kindness peeked through, her older brother let out a small, soft smile. The cheerful voices leaking in from the living room were probably Kanau, who had already returned home, and Mami, who was at home.

(I guess I’ll have to buy her donuts again.)

He would thank her properly later. For now, he opened the remaining six message threads that had piled up.

“…Huh? Are they talking about something in ‘Enjoy the Amusement Park!’? And I’m even being mentioned?”

The chat he was taken to was the group conversation Saki had created for the field trip. Around the time the sixth period had ended, messages mentioning Sorato had been sent by every member.

Kohaku: “@Sorato Can we come visit your place today?”

Tenma: “@Sorato Are you even awake in the first place?”

Kaon: “@Sorato !!!Wake uuuuup!!!”

Kaede: “Hey, Kaon. You’re being rude to @Sorato-kun.”

Saki: “The way Kaede mentions people sounds like a grandma lol”

Saki: “@Sorato We’re heading to your place now, okay? No arguments!”

“Eh!? What!? Right n— cough cough!?”

As he slowly reread the incoming messages, it finally dawned on him that they were planning to come visit him without his consent. The last message Saki sent had been just a few minutes ago. Thankfully, there was still a bit of time left, so he hurriedly grabbed the thermometer and mask from his desk.

Beep beep beep.

(37.1°C… If it keeps going down like this…)

When he measured his temperature, it was much lower than before he fell asleep, so it was probably safe to say he could relax for now. However, if all five of them came to visit, there was still a chance that germs could spread from his body, which still had lingering coughs and fatigue. After disinfecting his hands and putting on a mask, he immediately went to the living room, where voices were faintly audible, to ask for help.

“Cough. M-mom. Apparently my friends are coming to visit me… cough cough—I don’t have a fever anymore, but I’m still like this, so… Could you handle it for me?”

“In that case, Kanau would be better. I’m not good at talking.”

“Okaaay~! Leave it to me!”

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Click…

(That should be fine for now… Phew.)

Relieved that he had somehow managed to take care of things before they arrived at the house, he flopped back onto his bed. The faint headache lingering behind made time feel strangely stretched, and the sound of the ticking second hand echoed in his ears. Even though he knew better than anyone that he shouldn’t be meeting them in this condition, he still found himself longing to hear the familiar voices faintly drifting in from the entryway.

“No, no. There’s no way they’d come inside the house. I’m thinking weird things…”

He had asked his sister to handle things in an emergency, but would it go well? Given her personality, communication probably wouldn’t be an issue but a fear flickered through his chest that she might let something strange slip. There was no way Kanau, a bundle of mischief, would quietly and obediently deal with his friends.

“For now… I guess all I can do is wait.”

He opened the group chat again, but as expected, there was no movement. Amid the illusion that the ticking seconds were growing louder and louder, Sorato simply reread the chat history, as if trying to fill the hollow ache of loneliness.

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Ding-dong.

“…I wonder if these will be okay as gifts…”

“They’ll be fine. He looks like the type who’ll eat anything.”

The location was in front of Sorato’s house. Tenma, who had rung the intercom, kept nervously peeking into the plastic shopping bag hanging from his hand. Inside were an extra-large bag of potato chips, a two-liter bottle of soda, and, almost as an afterthought, coffee jelly, an energy drink, and pudding. Given the lineup—clearly including items that didn’t seem appropriate for a sick person—it was easy to imagine the reason behind Tenma’s expression.

“I forgot my wallet, so I asked Kohaku to buy my share too, but…”

“Potato chips and cola… Seriously…”

As each of them awkwardly confessed their misgivings.

Click.

“Yes~! Sorry to keep you waiting—oh? Huh? There are girls here too~?”

A sharp-eyed girl with chestnut-colored hair flowing down to her waist opened the front door and appeared.

“Ah, um. We’re here to visit Sorato-kun while he’s sick.”

“Oooh~! I heard from my brother~! Come in, come in~!”

Before they could fully explain the situation, the girl seemed to grasp it on her own. She disappeared briefly into the entryway, then came back outside, neatly lining up the sandals she had only been wearing on one foot. As the brown-haired girl pitter-pattered over and opened the front gate, she called out, “Welcome in!” and disappeared back into the entryway ahead of them.

“Well then, let’s go in… Hey, what’s wrong, everyone? You all look like you’ve just seen something unbelievable.”

When the boys, who had passed through the gate first and were heading toward the front door, turned around, they noticed that the girls—excluding Kaede—were frozen stiff, wearing expressions as if they had seen something impossible right before their eyes.

“Uh… Sorato-kun is…”

“Suzuya-kun is…”

When Tenma spoke up, Saki and Kaon exchanged glances in an instant and, perfectly in sync, said.

““He’s an older brother!?””

At that moment, a shocking truth dawned upon the girls.

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