It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~

It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 3 - 4 - Our First Okonomiyaki

Our First Okonomiyaki

The school entrance ceremony. Since morning, Naoto was excited about the okonomiyaki lunch he promised to do with Natsuki today. However currently, Naoto’s face looked like he’s in trouble while his mind was full of worries.

After the entrance ceremony,

“I’m sorry—–. While we were talking about food, I accidentally talked about the okonomiyaki shop to Aki and Sakurako without thinking, and now they also plan on going there today. If they go there casually, we might bump into them. What should we do?”

What happened was Natsuki consulted with Naoto about the problem on the hallway.

“Natsu…no, Oshida-san, did you tell them that you will not be going?”

Naoto, with the feeling of winter vacation still lingering in him, was close to calling her Natsuki. He panicked and looked around, and breathed a sigh of relief after seeing that no one was listening.

“I don’t know what to do, so I ended up answering that I might be able to go with, so the situation is that they might be waiting for me. We made the arrangement to eat together first, so Morita-kun would want only the two of us eating together, right?”

That’s was what Naoto was currently worried about.

“Hmmm, those two are good people, so I don’t really mind…… but going there with the four of us poses different problems.”

After thinking for a bit,

“How about inviting Iida so that there would be five of us? Even though Iida helped as back during New Year’s Day, I haven’t found an opportunity to treat him to lunch. I want to treat him to okonomiyaki.

If we go with the five of us, the number of problems will decrease, so it might be the better course of action.”

He suggested, then he started tinkering with his smartphone.

“Is Iida-kun available today?”

“He already replied that he’s okay with it. It said ‘I really want to chow on some okonomiyaki. It’s been many years since I last ate’ on his reply.”

Naoto purposely left out the part of the message which said ‘If we’re going with three girls, it’s okay if you don’t treat me. On the contrary, definitely let me pay. If you don’t let me, I would be ashamed.’

Natsuki smiled after hearing it,

“Then, I’ll ask Aki and Sakurako discreetly.”

Saying that, she went inside the classroom and head to where Aki and Sakurako were.

Naoto returned to his own seat, looking at the three girls while worrying on what they were talking about, looking like the topic of the conversation became about Naoto, Aki and Sakurako suddenly waved their hands at him. Naoto politely smiled and was barely able to lightly bowed his head at them.

As I thought, maybe I would feel more at ease if it was just the two of us. While Naoto was thinking about that, Iida arrive just outside of the classroom, feeling relieved that he finally has someone to talk to, Naoto went out into the hallway.

“Um, they’re those people by the far end.”

Naoto explained.

“Eh, those people there? Ain’t they a bunch of cuties?”

Iida let out his surprise in a low voice.

“Idiot, the heck are you saying? Don’t you dare say something weird, you hear?”

“With those people, I’d be too nervous to say anything though.”

“Even I’m nervous myself. There’s nothing I can do about it, you know.”

“Why did they decide to go have fun with us though? If they want, they can find anyone else.”

“No, it just became that way because of the flow of their conversation, for the two of them, we might as well be a nuisance. That’s why the good thing to do is just to stay silent.”

“Got it.”

However, Naoto forgot something. Iida cannot keep his mouth shut even if the fate of the world rests on it.

Five high-schoolers clinked their glasses inside an okonomiyaki restaurant.

“Then, cheers! Now that that’s out of the way, will someone be so kind as to make me okonomiyaki? I suck at it after all.”

Iida said, full of energy.

“Ah, Sakurako’s very good at it! Right?”

Aki said.

“If you’re okay with me failing at it, then I’ll try making it.”

Sakurako replied.

“Of course, of course! No matter how much you failed at it, I’ll still eat it, definitely!”

Iida proclaimed,

“So, you’re Ninomiya Aki-san, Hirose Sakurako-san and Oshida Natsuki-san, right?

I have a hard-to-memorize name but I’ll still introduce myself to you, I’m Iida Kazuyasu. You can call me Iida, though my friends will call me Kazuyasu if they find it pronouncing Iida too difficult which is perfectly fine by me as well.”

Iida decided to do over his self-introduction.

“Kazuyasu’s a bit of an unusual name, isn’t it?”

Said Sakurako. Naoto felt like she did it for the sake of having someone respond to Iida.

“That much is right. On that point, having a name like Naoto is super unfair. For the most part, you really don’t know the meaning behind the name Kazuyasu, right? Hirose-san, for example, is as beautiful as cherry blossoms, see?”

Iida continued with his smooth talk. Based on what he’s seeing, Naoto thought that Iida’s not nervous at all.

Naoto thought that it was good they invited Iida. If Iida was not here, the atmosphere might have become awkward. As long as he doesn’t talk about anything weird, all will be alright.

Naoto took a glimpse of Natsuki’s friends.

Ninomiya Aki. Naoto doesn’t know anything about her that much, but she doesn’t talk that much during class, she looks like the serious-type. She has a beautiful semi-long straight black hair, giving off an aura of a pure girl.

Whenever Naoto took a meal on his way to work, he ate takoyaki on a takoyaki stall. One time when he ate there, he was called on by Aki. He didn’t notice her at all until then, so he was surprised when she called him that he dropped his takoyaki in a panic, Aki laughed while apologizing.

They really don’t talk to each other that much, so it was a complete mystery to Naoto why she called on him that day, at that time, he made a guess that unlike him, she might be just confident at talking with other people.

Maybe she was just very bored at the time, she sat beside Naoto on the bench of the takoyaki stall. She did buy him two skewers of takoyaki, but Naoto’s the type who can only eat one skewer, so there was a leftover of one skewer.

When he tried giving her the leftover skewer of takoyaki, Aki declined once, but did eat the takoyaki the second time he offered, after eating she returned the skewer to Naoto while saying her thanks.

Even though the garbage bin is near, she wouldn’t throw it in herself, do girls not worry about someone secretly doing an indirect kiss to things they ate on afterwards, Naoto felt insecure.

Back when Natsuki had cystitis, Naoto would see her among the people gathering around Natsuki when he was observing her, but he wonders if she wasn’t actually Natsuki’s closest girlfriend. She doesn’t place herself in front of Natsuki’s desk whenever they have a gathering, but whenever the other’s finished speaking, she would begin talking with Natsuki. Were there other girls beside Natsuki that are having reservations about something, Naoto thought to himself.

He was worried that her affinity with Iida might be a bit bad, but seeing as she’s being amicable right now, Naoto felt relieved.

Hirose Sakurako. She’s also a serious-type girl in her own way like the others, but her lightly dyed hair is split evenly from the center to both sides, widening her forehead, looking at her appearance and personality gives one the impression of a bright and cheerful girl. She also wears her skirt a bit shorter than the others, making Naoto think that she’s the type of person who has high confidence in her appearance.

She has quite the love for video games, she also naturally joins in with the boys’ small gossip, she can change her personality to a frivolous one to some degree.

Via talking with her male friends, Naoto once lent Sakurako a relatively minor video game about collecting love around the world. It seemed like Sakurako wanted to clear it on her own as much as possible, so when she asked Naoto for tips or strategies, he would gladly answer. Talking about how she ‘Needed to return it as soon as possible’, she played the game at a fast pace, and 100% cleared it without looking at walkthrough sites.

Sakurako took a liking to the ending song of that game, so Naoto told her ‘If this is okay with you’, then proceeded to lend her the soundtrack CD for that game, when he did, Sakurako, who even know how second-hand versions of that CD were very expensive, was very happy, she handled it with utmost care. Naoto took a glance at her as a fellow game-lover.

Whenever Natsuki and Sakurako have a conversation, the topic tends to be exercise or fast food and other similar topics where boys can join in on their conversation. Until her cystitis healed up, whenever boys would call on Sakurako and her friends, Naoto would always worry about Natsuki’s stomach.

Naoto tried to gauge Sakurako’s expression, but it doesn’t look like she hated talking with Iida.

——For the meantime, would it be safe to assume that the two of them doesn’t hate eating with us?

Naoto felt relieved for the time being while silently drinking juice.

“I looked at the other customer’s iron plates while going to the drink bar, and it looks like everything’s quite tasty. It was Morita-kun and Iida-kun who told you about this place, right?”

Sakurako asked Natsuki.

“Rather, it was I who found the place, then I told Morita, who told Oshida-san, something like that?”

Iida-kun corrected.

“Hey, hey, are Morita-kun and Natsuki close? Have you heard anything about it?”

Sakurako is immensely curious about it.

“Is it okay if I tell them?”

Iida asked Naoto.

“It’s okay.”

The one who answered was not Naoto, but Sakurako.

“Well, I just want to be on good terms with her.”

Natoto said.

“Kya—–, what will you do, Natsuki?”