It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 3 - 10 - The Seiso Trio?

The Seiso Trio?

(TL Note: Seiso means pure, tidy, any similar terms.)

“Speaking of, what about my concern?”

After eating donuts, Iida asked.

“Huh? I just felt like everything’s resolved now.”

Answered Naoto. Naoto, who openly lost motivation, was laying down on Natsuki’s lap.

“Don’t just go forgetting about it! You’re the one who called me to your room”

“Somehow, I don’t have any power left in me. Right now, talking about Iida who I don’t really care about just lowers my motivation.”

Naoto said while yawning.

“It’s just because right now, you just keep flirting right in front of me, ain’t it?!”

“E——r, why did I call you here again?”

“About this, the graduation yearbook!”

Iida banged on the yearbook that was left alone on the table.

“Ah, right, right. I feel too tired, to explain. I’m sleepy……”

“Gee, try your best a bit more. Come on.”

Natsuki raised Naoto’s upper body, massaged his shoulders, and cheered him on.

“You’re right, its rude to Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san if I sleep on them…… but I’m really sleepy.”

Naoto muttered while feeling good.

“Would it kill you to care about me even just for a bit?”

Iida complained.

“Iida, for thirty minutes, tell the girls some entertaining story so Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san won’t get bored.”

Saying that, Naoto closed his eyes, and once again use Natsuki’s lap as a pillow.

“There’s no way I can do such a thing! Don’t sleep, you bastard!”

“Just do a rapid-fire successive storytelling.”

“No way I can do that!”

“For the first story, how about the time during our field trip of how you were startled when the bus guide stopped you, only to return something you dropped.”

“That would only take up five minutes! And you already spoiled the ending of the story!”

“Goodnight, Natsuki. Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san, goodnight as well.”

“Where’s my goodnight?!”

“I felt like I’m going to have a nightmare if I bid you goodnight too……”

“As if such a thing will happen!”

“Really, today was fun……”

“This guy’s seriously going to sleep. Calling others to his house then going to sleep, this guy’s getting his way too much.”

“He really fell asleep.”

Natsuki said while looking at Naoto’s sleeping face.

“Well, even when we were still at the okonomiyaki shop, he told me how ‘My throat is parched’ or ‘I’m exhausted’, but even so, he still listened to my request and went with me to the arcade. He’s already at his limit.”

Iida, who until Naoto slept tried to be a nuisance by speaking out aloud, expressed his appreciation in a now low voice.

“So that was not actually Morita-kun’s idea, huh?”

“I was the one who really wanted to go. Morita is anxious around people, so he was tired and really wanted to go home. It’s just that when I begged him, he brought up the idea in my place.”

“I was probably the one who made him anxious the most, right?”

Sakurako worried.

“He might be anxious, but I think he has some trust in Hirose-san and Ninomiya-san. If not, I think he would not be able to invite you to his room to consult about something, nor will he able to sleep in front of you for that matter. When I first entered this room, it was just when we became friends.”

Iida explained with consideration.

In response to Iida’s statement ‘this room’,

“Ah, that’s right.

Hey, hey! Iida-kun, do know where the pervy books are hidden in this room?”

Natsuki asked.

“Eh?”

Iida, not quite understanding the question, replied back with a question.

“When we were grade schoolers, it was hidden in the bottom here. But I couldn’t find it anywhere.”

Natsuki pulled out the bottommost drawer in the study desk and showed them a hollow space in it.

“Ah—– I don’t know. We haven’t really talked about that.”

“I see—………. Did he throw away those books?”

“Aren’t there many who view it on their smartphones nowadays?”

Iida spoke without thinking about it beforehand.

Sakurako became suspicious of the way Iida vividly described ‘those who view it from smartphones’,

“Iida-kun, are you one of those who view it on their smartphones?”

She teased him.

“Eh, why?!”

“Ah, he pitched. He views them on his smartphone.”

“No, anyone will pitch if someone asked them that. It’s not like I’m embarrassed of reading them from both media.”

“But eighty to ninety percent of boys do it, right?”

Said Aki in a calm manner.

“Nao-kun also does it many times. I already put it away, but there were many tissues in this room’s trash bin. I thought that garbage bin being here would be awkward, so I hurriedly cleaned it and replaced the bin.

It was not the case when I went here yesterday, that would mean he did it many times last night.”

“Is it okay to tell us that kind of info?”

“Eh, I shouldn’t have? But Nao-kun always calls me in his room like it’s alright for it to be there.”

“Maybe he just thought no one will find out what’s in there?”

“Then let’s ask him once he wakes up. Will he get mad? Will he forgive me if I ask?”

“It might be too embarrassing for him.”

“Doesn’t fellow boys notice such things?”

Sakurako ask Iida, the only other guy in the room.

“Haven’t noticed it even once. I’m not the kind of guy who pays attention to a trash bin.”

Iida honestly answered.

“Then, Morita-kun doesn’t think anyone will notice as well.”

“How should I put it, Sakurako, wasn’t your way of asking since earlier sexual harassment?”

“Eh——-?! I’m not the only one doing it!”

“We’re on the seiso side after all.”

Aki said, tapping Natsuki’s shoulders.

“I am very seiso myself, I’ll have you know. If anything, Natsuki’s the one who shouldn’t be seiso anymore.

Sakurako grinned while looking at Natsuki.

“Eh, I’m seiso, you know. I’m seiso.”

Natsuki replied, blushing.

“But once Morita-kun push you down and tell you ‘I want to see your lewd expressions no matter what. It’s okay to mess you up, right?’, you’ll show your lewd expressions to him, weren’t you?”

“I’ll do no such thing.”

“Eh—— poor guy——-”

“In the first place, he won’t tell me such things. He even told me before that he’s not after my body.”

“But it’s a fact that he had a large number of used tissues in his trash, right? Wouldn’t it be bad if someone seduces him while he’s turned on?”

“He promised me he will never ever cheat on me!

Nao-kun told me ‘My parents told me if I ever cheated on you I will not be served food in the house anymore and they’ll have me resign from my part-time work’, so we’re perfectly fine.”

“Ah—– about that, maybe he said that knowing that even if he cheated on you, it will be fine as long as his parents don’t learn about it.”

Sakurako fanned Natsuki’s anxiety for her amusement.

“That’s not what he meant!”

“As I thought, Sakurako’s not seiso after all. Her mind’s always on the gutter.”

Aki jokingly disparaged Sakurako.

“Aki, you’re so mean!

Iida-kun, who do you think is the most unseiso among the five of us?”

“That, would be me, I think.”

“Ah——, Sakurako pressured him again to say it.”

“I did not pressure him, I just asked him!”

“Iida-kun, it would be better if so said Sakurako’s not seiso.

“Well, I really think Hirose-sans is seiso. She even made me okonomiyaki.”

“I am, right?! Did y’all hear that?! I am super seiso.”

“I don’t think a seiso person will say ‘Did y’all hear that?’”

Iida, surrounded by the three girls, spent the time with mixed feelings of embarrassment, happiness and curiosity.

“Heave, ho.”

Natsuki pulled her lap from Naoto’s head, and in its place put a pillow.

“He doesn’t wake up even if you move his head?”

“I don’t really know, but it looks like he doesn’t get easily woken up that much.”

“Wait one moment. Why doesthe supposedly seiso Natsuki know that Morita-kun doesn’t easily wake up? You shouldn’t have knowledge of stuff like that.”

Sakurako voiced her suspicion.

“That way of thinking’s unbecoming of a seiso girl, Sakurako. They’re neighbor’s, so it might just be a case of Natsuki going to his room to wake him up every morning.”

Aki pointed out.

“Ah—, the idea didn’t even occur to me. Did I perhaps just said something really embarrassing?”

“You’ve been vigorously saying such things since earlier. Iida-kun’s favorable impression of you might have just took a nosedive.”

“Eh—-?! Then, let’s guess which message was wrtitten the person they had a crush on. The one who guesses correctly between us is seiso.”

While saying that, Sakurako opened the yearbook, and turned it on the page where that person wrote.

“Wow, that’s one amazing autograph.”

Aki was surprised with the amount of characters written.

“More like, the handwriting’s poor. And these characters are huge. The things written here also looks idiotic.”

Seeing the writing that can fittingly be called a graffiti, which is accompanied by an equally messy drawing, Sakurako frowned.

“Ah, the page behind it has messages written by girls. It seems that one contains those written by boys.”

The girls’ autographs were all written clearly with small, cute characters, so there are twice as many girls who wrote in it compared to the boys.

“This is impossible, there’s no way we can find the correct one.”

Sakurako, looking at the page with the girls’ messages, immediately gave up.

“There’s a lot of comments saying ‘Eat something’.”

“There are also lots of comments about height and physical condition.”

“Eh? Right now, Morita-kun looks normal, doesn’t he? Was he such a short person?”

“Morita-kun doesn’t really like the school cafeteria’s lunch, he immediately vomits them out. He was shorter than me and very skinny, he will often have a bout of headache, when we had a swimming class on a cold day, since he really doesn’t have an ounce of fat in his body, his teeth were rattling and his body was shaking.

Compared to that, when we entered high school, he suddenly grew taller. His physical condition also seemed to have become better, he even said that the school cafeteria’s food is awesome.”

“Hee——–”

“But because he’s being reminded of the difficulties he had due to having a weak body, even to this day whenever he sees a person in poor condition, he couldn’t help but worry about them. He even helped an oneechan vomiting on a street before.”

“Ah, then Natsuki, you let your body’s condition worsen on purpose!”

“I didn’t do it on purpose! I didn’t even know those things about him.”

“Why didn’t you know?”

“Because, I really haven’t seen him eating school lunch. I was busy nibbling on my lunch that I really haven’t taken a look at Nao-kun.”

“So there are also things about him that Natsuki doesn’t know of, huh.”

“That’s obvious. I don’t even know yet all of the foods he likes or dislikes.”

“Then, you also have no idea of the type of person he likes?”

“Yeah”

“If that’s the case then I don’t really get it.  ……Ah, isn’t this one suspicious? ‘Thank you for accompanying me in getting back the thing that I lost.’”

“How did the person they had a crush on write again? Isn’t it something that will make you think she might be a good person after all?”

“I’m sure he said she wrote ‘Something favorable’.”

“Wait one moment. She’s cute enough to have her own fan club, so we should also look at the class roster!”

The three, in frightening seriousness, began to investigate the photos of each students, which made Iida unable to utter a single silly remark.

“If we’re looking for someone cute, it should be these girls, right?”

The three looked at the photos and messages of the girls many times, and even took the trouble of copying the massages on a paper, while doing this and that, thirty minutes had passed. Only ten candidates were left on their list.

‘We’ve spent two years together, right? It was fun. May you grow taller in high school.’

‘A lot of things happened, huh. It was rough, wasn’t it, ufufu. Take care.’

‘You should also eat your vegetables. Let’s keep each other posted. Take care.’

‘That person was cute, right? We might be going to different high schools, but don’t forget do your best at everything.’

‘Thank you for being friends with me. When the two of us got lost during our second-year field trip, it was a bit fun. Eat well and take care of your body!’

‘You won’t grow up if you don’t eat, so eat lots so that you’ll grow up, okay?’

‘These past three years, we were quite the shorties, weren’t we…….? Let’s get taller in high school! I won’t be giving up as well!’

‘We’ve spent two years in the same class, but you’re really hard to figure out, frankly speaking. Do your best from here on as well.’

‘I’ve been in your care for this past year. You should properly eat more!! Do your best even in high school!!’

‘We’re in the same class in first year and third year, right? It seems like we took first and second place in regularly getting flu and motion sickness. Let’s get healthier in high school.’

“Is she in one of these?”

Sakurako asked Iida.

“She is.”

“As I thought, she’s one of these girls.”

“Eh—- who might it be?”

“They all have cute handwritings, everyone looks like a good person, and everyone looks like they have some deep relation to him.”

“More like, even bringing them down to ten, aren’t there too many signed messages from girls? The allotted page for them got crowded too much, that they even took up spots on the page that’s supposed for male students. Back when I was in middle school, I only remember two guys asking to write on my yearbook. Was your yearbook look also like this, Iida-kun?”

“I might have zero girls. And only five guys, I guess?”

“I thought that might be the case.”

“Morita was really kind even to the girls that are not cute, so his considerably popular with the girls. At any rate he did not change his attitude with each of them.”

“I get that. A guy who changes his attitude depending in the cuteness of the girl will just get hated.”

“Because of his short stature, he kinda sucked at cleaning the classroom. Whenever the girl on class duty is of short stature as well, he will ask another girl to help erase the higher parts of the board. He also needed help when posting calligraphies.

Girls tend to go help each other out, right? So, the job got easier when three or four girls help out Morita.”

“Ah—ah—, that thing does happen. For instance, guys can carry a projector all by themselves, while in case of girls, we require four people to carry a projector so even those who are not in class duty help out.”

“Even when Morita became aversive of girls as a result of being dumped, the girls became even more supportive of Morita, supporting him and cheering him up, that thing continued all through our graduation. Even his yearbook, they took turns carrying it by themselves, until no one knows where it ended up. When he went to the toilet to pass the time, it got finally returned to him.”

“That would mean it’s not the girl who wrote it was rough, but cheer up.”

“Then, isn’t this girl who was a shorty for three years kinda suspicious? It looks like they’re close friends, after all.”

“The sickly person is also suspicious. It guess they became friends by talking with each other in the nurse’s office.”

“Who do you think is it, Natsuki?”

“Hmmm, when the person they had a crush on fell ill, both Nao-kun and Iida-kun were really surprised, right? It’s highly probable that that person was usually in good health.”

Natsuki, from her experience when Naoto was worried about her, was thinking of whom will make Naoto the most worried when they fall ill.

“Ah— that’s right. I completely forgot about that.”

“Besides, if it’s a person who always gets a cold or flu, I think it would be easy to talk to them even if they are sick.”

“Right, then it’s not this person who always gets sick either! How’s that, Iida-kun?”

“Yup, not her.”

“Alright, seiso point, get!”

Sakurako, who loves games, gave herself a point.

“What’s with that. Did something begin?”

“Or rather, it was Natsuki who guessed it.”

Aki pointed out.

“The one who reports it to Iida gets the point. I’m leading with one point.”

Sakurako was in a good mood.

“There’s no way such cowardice is how a seiso behaves.”

Aki was astonished.