It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 3 - 11 - On the Fall of Last Year

On the Fall of Last Year

          “Iida-kun, what do you think of that person right now?”

Sakurako, who had lost interest in the seiso competition, suddenly asked.

“Right now? Right now, I don’t really know.”

“If she really is a kind person as Morita-kun says, what will you do? Do you plan to talk it out with her?”

“In the first place, I don’t even know what to make up of someone who can say ‘Are you stupid?!’ when confessed to actually being a good person. Is that really possible?”

“There might’ve been some misunderstanding, or she just happen to say something cruel without meaning to. Didn’t she apologize to Morita-kun when they met?”

“Wasn’t that supposed to still be a secret?”

Aki interrupted in panic.

Sakurako, having no idea of what Aki’s pertaining to,

“What is?”

Asked back carefreely.

“That, the fact that Morita-kun and that person met.”

Aki told Sakurako in a low voice so Iida wouldn’t hear.

“Eh? Iida-kun, you don’t know?”

“About what?”

Asked Iida.

“Because… In the first place, we all went here in Morita-kun’s home cause when he told us that he and that person met after their graduation ceremony, we wanted to hear more details about it, right?”

“No, Morita-kun wanted to consult with us about something that he cannot tell Iida-kun, so he wanted us to come to his room to talk about it, after that’s when Iida-kun returned to the tokens corner—–”

Aki put in order the series of events that happened.

“Ah! That’s right, this might become troublesome!”

“What is?”

Iida, curious about Sakurako’s words, asked.

“Sorry, it’s nothing. It was just my misunderstanding”

“Didn’t you say something strange earlier?”

“Crap, he heard about that. Uuuuu—- what should I do? Morita-kun might get angry at me.”

Iida, seeing Sakurako panicking,

“I don’t really understand, but I just happened to hear it, so there should be no problem, right? If it’ll get you in trouble, I can pretend that I didn’t hear anything, how about that?”

He suggested.

“Uwa, thank you so much. But it would be good to think about what to do next. It seems like the person Iida-kun had a crush on might be a good person.”

“About what to do next?”

“Whether you will meet with her or not.”

“I might not.”

“Is it alright not meeting her?”

“Well, it’s already been two years. It would only be awkward if we meet now.”

“Have you completely got over her?”

“I don’t know.”

“If you still don’t know if you’re still in love with her or not, I think it would be a good idea to see her.”

“Well—–……… she might end up hating me.”

“Not wanting her to hate you means you might still be having feelings for her”

“Eh—……?”

“We won’t really know until we heard Morita-kun’s story, though. Is there someone else you have a crush on?”

“No. I don’t have.”

“Then, wouldn’t it be good if you try meeting her to sort out your feelings?”

Being strongly persuaded into meeting that person, Iida was shaken, for some reason he felt a bit disappointed,

“Then, um, if I happened to be rejected, would you make me okonomiyaki once more? I’ll treat you to it as well.”

“Isn’t it weird for the rejected person to be the one treating? If you get dumped, I’ll be the one to treat you to okonomiyaki.”

“You serious?”

“I’m serious. That’s why you should think about it.”

“Somehow, I’m super happy.”

“Do you like okonomiyaki that much?”

“No, I meant because of Hirose-san’s thoughtfulness. Not only Hirose-san, but the four of you are superbly kind. It might sound weird, but I learned a lot from you guys today.”

“I was surprised by Morita-kun myself. Iida-kun is in another class, so I don’t really know how you behave normally, but we’re in the same class as Morita-kun so I always see him. He really acts differently when he’s with Natsuki. How should I say this, whenever it’s anything that concerns Natsuki, he becomes somewhat manly.”

“I was surprised that he’s able to be honest about the time he almost did a sexual assault. Normally, a guy would not be able to tell others about it especially in front of girls.”

“That was amazing, ain’t it? I felt something like a thud.”

“What did he say?”

Natsuki, curious as to what Naoto told them, asked.

“That day, he was really looking forward to Natsuki’s regular hugs, but you were late to come that day, so he was being impatient. So when Natsuki finally went to his house, his mind became filled with weird thoughts. He deeply regretted what he did so much, he was lost on how to apologize.”

“Is that what he said?! If that’s the case, he should’ve just told me ‘I’ll be waiting’ or ‘I want to see you as soon as possible’!”

“Even if you tell me that… What you experienced do seem quite frightening, though.”

“Did you say something?”

Naoto, who woke up because of Natsuki’s loud voice, asked.

“Were just talking how everyone hates Nao-kun for being scary.”

Natsuki, on purpose, said with a cold tone.

“I’m scary? I’m sorry, I’ll do my best to not be frightening, so……..”

While rubbing his eyes, Naoto apologized, still half-asleep. Seeing him in such a state, far from being frightening, Aki and Sakurako couldn’t help but laugh.

“How long did I sleep?”

“About an hour?”

Naoto felt relieved by Natsuki’s answer,

“Is everyone still okay, timewise?”

He asked.

“Still fine, here.”

“I’m okay.”

Sakurako and Aki answered, respectively.

“Then, erm—-, it’s about this message….”

Naoto pointed with his finger.

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

“Ah—–, so it’s this person!”

Sakurako, who guessed wrong, was vexed.

Naoto, who didn’t notice Sakurako’s vexation,

“This one. This part that says ‘Let’s keep each other posted’, felt strange to me. Normally, after graduating middle school, we wouldn’t be meeting again, right?”

He continued.

“It does seem strange.”

Sakurako agreed.

“Maybe during class reunions, or coming-of-age ceremony.”

Aki raised some cases while still thinking.

“I don’t know what she was thinking when she wrote this, but if in her mind, she’s still thinking of the statement ‘Are you an idiot?!’, then she wouldn’t be able to write something like this, right? Rather than that case, it felt like she really is okay if we meet again.

If she really wanted to say something out of formality’s sake, and she was really thinking about not wanting me to attend any of our class reunions, then she wouldn’t go out of her way to write something like this.

That’s why, its either she doesn’t hate me, or she just wrote it for the sake of having something to write here.”

“Hmm hmm. If it’s not those then, it’ll be hard to explain why she wrote that.”

Sakurako agreed with Naoto’s point.

Aki noticed the heart mark in the message,

“But for something that she wrote just for the sake of it, she sure made an effort putting two heart marks in her message.”

She pointed out.

“Ah, I also wanted to ask about that. Do girls put heart marks in messages aimed at someone they hate so much?”

“I don’t put it on messages to those who I don’t want misunderstanding it. I only put it on people who I like a bit, in the minimum. Especially if its handwritten, in my case, I write as I think, so if it’s to someone I hate, I absolutely won’t put a heart mark in it.”

Aki clearly declared.

“I didn’t really give it a thought that much, but I might probably not put one either. Wait one moment, I’ll take a look at my smartphone.”

Saying that, Sakurako started tapping in her smartphone.

“Ah—-, I might be plainly different. If it’s to someone I don’t like, it’s like this.”

She showed her smartphone screen to Naoto.

While Naoto was taking a peek at Sakurako’s smartphone, Natsuki re-examined the messages on the yearbook and counted the number of heart marks. There were thirty-one heart marks and numerous kind messages. There were also lots of messages that one would think were consoling messages to someone whose love ended up being unrequited. All of that pointed to one conclusion: even at that very moment, lots of people were concerned for Naoto.

While worried that she wasn’t able to do something during a troubling time in Naoto’s life, she looked at the messages with a complicated feeling.

“Un, thank you. As I thought, there are times where heart marks and the like can contain hidden meanings, that writing one to someone you hate just feels weird, huh.”

Naoto, who had looked at Aki and Sakurako’s smartphone messages, said.

“Right? That’s just weird. Since it will be the last day, there’s no need to take your time to asking someone to exchange messages on a yearbook, I can’t agree with it.”

Sakurako also arrived at the same conclusion.

“That’s why I think Iida-kun should confirm, or at least talk with this person once. This person might be a good person after all. That’s all I wanted to tell you, Iida.”

Naoto told Iida.

“Is that all?”

Iida asked unconsciously.

“Yeah.”

“You could’ve just told me that in under a minute.”

“Sorry, when I was about to tell Iida about it, I just felt really sleepy.”

“If you just did something to fight off your sleepiness and explained it to me before you fell asleep, then I would’ve consulted with everyone while you’re asleep.”

Iida complained without thinking.

“Or rather, I thought you would understand what I’m trying to say if you just read her message. You should’ve then consulted with them while I’m asleep.”

“Well, they somehow started a competition on who will be able to guess who that person we had a crush on is.”

“Eh? What happened to your stand-up comedy?”

“I didn’t do it!”

“Ah—– so such a thing’s hard for Iida, huh. So he wasn’t able to take this opportunity, huh.”

“Aren’t you a bit harsh today, dude?”

While Naoto and Iida were talking, Aki and Sakurako confirmed the portrait photo of that person and got very excited.

“Ah, she’s cuter in this club photo.”

“She looks very cute in this one.”

“If were basing on this, then she really has a good personality.”

“Ah, this one where she’s doing this on her hair, isn’t it cute as well?”

“Hii, so cute!”

“You just let out a weird voice just now, Sakurako.”

“No one heard that, no one heard that.”

“It’s so obvious that they will hear you.”

“Then, let’s change the topic. Morita-kun, between Natsuki and this person, who do you thing is cuter?”

Thinking of teasing Natsuki, Sakurako asked Naoto.

“I don’t know who’s cuter, but I’m overwhelmingly on Natsuki’s side.”

“Uwa, overwhelmingly, huh.”

“From the start, I didn’t really fell in love with that person just because of her face. I like her, that’s why she’s cute. At first, I didn’t really think she was cute. I did think of her as a kind person, though.

When I saw Natsuki in high school, I felt like she has become extremely cute. Whenever I think that her face is nearing my line of sight, I keep thinking of what should I do, in the end I wasn’t able to talk to her at all. Natsuki’s the only one who made me end up like that.

It’s fundamentally different thing from my inability to start a conversation with strangers, it’s also different from me getting nervous in the company of Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san. I might have been smitten just by her face. If that is the case, then I apologize for falling in love just because of your face. I just want to tell you that.”

Saying that, Naoto apologized to Natsuki.

“I don’t think you fell in love with her just because of her face. If you didn’t love Natsuki herself, you wouldn’t have than everything you did until now.”

Aki kindly said.

“Is that so? Then I’m glad if that’s the case.”

Naoto, while getting embarrassed, felt happy.

“As I thought, weren’t you in love with Natsuki for a long time?”

For some reason, that’s the opinion Sakurako came up to.

“To tell you the truth, I also thought a bit about whether I love Natsuki as a person. However, on the fall of last year, the moment I saw the person I had a crush on back in middle school, I completely realized that I do love that person very much.”

“Last year’s fall was quite recent.”

Iida said without thinking.

Naoto quietly took a glance at Natsuki who’s feeling unpleasant. Natsuki felt like her chest was tightening up, but she did her best to force out a smile.

Naoto steeled his resolve, then started talking,

“On that day, I——”