It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 1 - 9 - One More Side of Him?

One More Side of Him?

Natsuki thought a lot of things while waiting for Naoto.

What kind of face does Morita-kun make whenever he leaves from his work? Does he make a tired face?

What face will he make if he saw me here? Will he get angry at me for staying out here in the cold? Let’s apologize if he gets angry. If I tell him ‘I’m sorry. I want to see you no matter what.’, he’ll forgive me for sure.

If he forgives me, I’ll then say my hands are cold so he’ll pamper me, then have him hold my hand.

In case I feel the need to see him again, I’ll take a picture of the two of us. Will Morita-kun feel embarrassed?

——Natsuki, who’s not good at waiting, smiled happily.

It’s about time for his shift to end……

While Natsuki’s wondering if this time he will finally come out of the restaurant, Naoto came out together with another woman. Naoto’s back was turned away from where Natsuki was. Naoto and the woman he came out with, who looks like a co-worker, talked about work on the side of the parking lot. Natsuki decided to sit on a bench on a dark part of the lot while waiting for their conversation to finish.

“It’s really a life saver when you gave your permission for me to show the letter. If you refused, she might be suspicious of me and hate me because of that.”

It is indeed Naoto’s voice, but it is louder compared to how he speak when he is in the classroom, it is loud enough that Natsuki can clearly hear what he is saying from her position.

“It’s perfectly fine to show that letter even without my permission, though.

Speaking of which, I’ll fill in for your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day shifts, so go on and confess to that girl you’re with earlier already. She really looks like she’s jealous about the letter, so you definitely have a chance, I’m telling you.”

The lady said.

Natsuki felt like here heart will jump out at any moment, so she panicked and hid in the opposite side of a wall nearby.

“I’m telling you, I can’t do that. It will just worsen her health. If I confess to her, she might feel disgusted.”

“But you completely fell for her, didn’t you?”

“That is indeed the case. Day by day I kept falling for her, when I noticed it, I can’t get it out of my mind. We just became close again just a few days ago you know. That it’s possible for this feeling to develop this way, its scary.”

“If you love her that much, I think it’s perfectly fine to confess, though.”

Natsuki, while listening attentively, started deducing what she heard in her mind.

Based on their conversation, that must be the Onee-san he’s talked about. Just how much did he told her about me, I wonder?

“I think that she was only able to confidently confide with me because she thinks I don’t have any ulterior motives. Even though that’s the case, If I tried to woo her like a drooling perverted beast, it’ll ruin everything.

Imagine, a guy you don’t like took a hold of your weakness, then you were forced to accept his help since you don’t have a choice, then after three days that same guy misunderstood and decided to confess to you. Would you be able to sleep soundly?”

“I might not be able to sleep at all.”

“See? So I definitely can’t confess until she’s fully recovered.”

“So you will confess to her once she’s fully recovered?”

“If I tried to woo her like a drooling perverted beast the moment she’s fully recovered, she might become so shocked her that her condition relapses.”

“Then that means you can’t confess to her.”

“That’s why I’m saying I’ll do it once were closer.”

“Then, on Christmas Eve if she holds your hand will you confess?”

“I don’t think so, we’ve already held hands before after all.”

——Just when did we held hands?

Natsuki seems to have forgotten.

“What’s the circumstances when it happened?”

“Back then it was dangerous because of the snow, so I held her hand while she’s getting of a taxi to support her, though it might be uncomfortable for her.”

That’s not it, Natsuki laughed in her heart.

“If it’s just holding hand, she might’ve been alright with it, you know.”

“But that night, I dreamt that she was angry at me because of it.”

“You saw her in a dream! That’s enough proof that your madly in love with her.”

“This is not a laughing matter! I cried after I woke up, you know. That was very mean of her to tell that to me.”

“What did she tell you?”

“When I confessed to my first love back in middle school, she told me ‘Are you stupid?’ That’s why, when I confessed to that person in my dream, same as my first love, she told me ‘Are you stupid?’ as well.”

“That’s mean! Your first love has a bad mouth! No wonder you were traumatized.”

“In addition, compared to the original, that person told me ‘Are you stupid? Nao-kun, are you stupid?’ being told that twice is very scathing.”

“Ah, she calls you Nao-kun?”

“No, she only calls me that in my dream. Furthermore, my dream version of her comes of too strong in all sense of the word. She’s a really mean person.”

Natsuki remembered the time when they called each other ‘Nao-kun’ and ‘Nat-chan’ back when they were grade-schoolers, then she muttered ‘Nao-kun’ in her heart.

“The way your dream casts her to be an evil person hurling complaints and insults your way is too amusing.”

“At any rate, I’m afraid of being rejected. That’s why until she tells me ‘Morita-kun is not stupid, don’t worry’ in real life, I won’t be confessing.”

“There’s no way she’ll just up and tell you that.”

“What I mean is I’ll be asking her ‘I want you to tell me, am I a stupid person?’ Then she will feel pity on me and tell me ‘Morita-kun is not stupid, don’t worry.’ Then I will tell her, ‘If that’s the case, I love you’. Then if she happens to say ‘I did say you’re not stupid, but I didn’t say I don’t hate you, and I hate you, normally.’, then it’s a huge success.”

“It’s a huge failure!”

“Being rejected without being called stupid is already a step up from being rejected and being called stupid. There’s a high possibility that in this world, 50 percent of people who got their confessions rejected were also told they are stupid.”

“No way, absolutely no way.”

“If I as told I’m stupid then that means there’s no going back to our former relationship, she will absolutely avoid me in the future. Even if we used to be very close, I was told I’m stupid after all.”

“I think that’s a very rare case though.”

“In any case I don’t want to confess. She might punch me with all her might in the stomach like her dream version did.”

“I’ve been thinking this from the start but isn’t your dream kinda brutal?”

“But when I looked it up, I read that a ‘dream where the person you like hurls abuse at you and punches you in the stomach’ means that the person in your dream likes you, and you will experience great happiness before long.”

“Eh? That’s great then! Is that real?”

“It appeared in the search results.”

“It really did! It’s kinda scary, like, what in the world?”

“That’s why it’s okay even if I don’t confess. I will be able to take a peek of her underwear after all.”

“Is that your idea of ‘great happiness’?!”

“Because of that person, I’ve always been conscious of what’s under her skirt. Honestly, whenever I felt the urge to take a peek, all of the times her guard is always down that one can actually do it actually do it. And yet she told me she doesn’t care if I can see it.”

“Then that means the feeling is mutual, right? She’s clearly inviting you.”

“No, it might’ve been a trap of some kind. Surely she’s been testing me if I’m someone that can be trusted. If I looked at her underwear, she’ll be so frightened her condition worsen in an instant shortening her lifespan to last only until the next month.”

“Your thinking is way too extreme.”

Even though Natsuki is feeling romantic since earlier, the conversation turned into the comical that just holding her laughter is taking all her might.

After that, the conversation between the two continued for a while.

“Somehow I’ve been laughing too much that my stomach hurts. Really, Naoto-kun is easy to talk to.”

Certainly, Natsuki also thought that the flow of their conversation is very good. If the atmosphere was like this, then one will feel comfortable to complain about something like a woman’s monthly.

“Naoto-kun, you must be famous in your class, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m the one who doesn’t stand out the most. I spend my time murmuring with my equally gloomy friends in a corner.”

“Why is that? The customers even praise you for how funny you are.”

“When I was still little, I grew up in the care of my grandma. That’s why I am comfortable with talking to those older than me. Everyone is kind to me, after all.”

Natsuki imagined a Naoto that was even younger than the Naoto she first met. Speaking of, I forgot to look for that photo album. I’ll definitely have him show it to me next time. I only knew him from when he’s a grade-schooler after all.

“I try too hard to look good in front of people my age. In school, I never experienced saying things like what’s wrong with saying panties or what’s wrong with being a pervert. In the first place, I didn’t have any moment when I was noisy, even if it’s just boys in the group, I would take trouble to try looking good. And I have even less experience of directly talking with the girls.”

The current Morita-kun that I know is that Morita-kun, Natsuki thought.

“I can’t even speak a word while in class. And when there is a time when I need to call her out to the hallway naturally, I panicked and blundered it, so she got mad at me. I’ve only caused her trouble.”

Natsuki, who regretted venting her anger to Naoto, became embarrassed.

“Basically, I’m useless at school, and I am hopeless, but that person still gave me a chance, I felt that she was waiting for words to come from me. I really felt regret as she looked at me with an expression like saying it can’t be helped, but somewhere in my heart it felt calming. When I look at those eyes, it feels like I’ll be absorbed by it, I felt like I would cry. Every time, I feel unsteady on my feet that it feels like I might embrace her.

I easily misunderstand whenever someone says something kind towards me. Just like yesterday evening, we’re not even dating but I thought to buy her a Christmas present. Then while I am absorbed in looking for presents on the web, my conscience kicked in asking me what I’m doing acting like I’m her boyfriend.

I’m worried if I can keep my ulterior feelings in check until Christmas.”

“Although it’s perfectly fine to go ahead and confess to her. You can look at her undies all you want if you become an item, if you think about it.”

“It’s not like I’m holding myself back. I want to prioritize her recovery first, so it’s not really painful for me.

At any rate, looking back at me from last month, it’s a miracle that I can have a conversation with her. It’s a bit difficult, but I was able to tell her things from the bottom of my heart. And as I become more and more comfortable with speaking with her, there are more things that I want to tell her, and more questions that I want to ask her. I’m already happy with each day.

That’s why for now, I want us to be close to each other. Of course, I still want to take a peek at her panties, but that’s just one percent of my desire to be close to her. For now, I just want to see her smile.”

Hearing Naoto’s words, Natsuki’s face heated up. Feeling that she might cry, before that happens, she decided to leave that place while holding her mouth as to not make a noise. After she had covered a fair distance from where Naoto was, her body relaxed and the emotion she’d been holding back came out at once, tears flowed out of her eyes.