It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 3 - 5 - Who Confessed to Who?

Who Confessed to Who?

“Eh——-, so you recently started going out together?”

“Un, don’t speak about it too much with other people, okay?”

Natsuki answered Sakurako’s question honestly.

Naoto and Natsuki gave up on keeping their relationship a secret form Aki and Sakurako.

“You don’t want mayonnaise on yours, right?”

Natsuki confirmed with Naoto what toppings to put while putting the finishing touches on his okonomiyaki.

“Yup, thanks. It’s not like I don’t like topping on my okonomiyaki, though.”

Naoto replied while feeling embarrassed about his unbalanced diet.

“It looks like you’re already quite used to going out with other, though.”

“Were not used to it yet.”

Natsuki cut up a small slice of Naoto’s okonomiyaki, and passed it to him in a small plate.

“So, who confessed to who?”

Sakurako alternatingly looked at their face.

“Hm……?”

Naoto thought. Did I properly confess to her?

When he looked at Natsuki, she also looked like frantically going through her memories.

“Am I the one who did it?”

“Maybe I did.”

The two of them didn’t know themselves.

“No way, both of you don’t know who did it? Then how did the two of you end up going out?”

Sakurako excitedly asked.

“Well, its……”

Naoto, who is asked, is having trouble choosing his words. He found it hard to tell them that time when she told him she’d do anything for him, nor the time she told him to kiss her of he really loves her. In addition, he could not decide if he should talk about the time Natsuki has cystitis in front of Iida.

“I was called by Oshida-san, and she told me ‘I know that you like me’, or something like that.”

Naoto said while leaving out the details.

“What the heck, Natsuki you knew?”

Sakurako leaned forward.

“A bit, I heard him talking about how he ‘Fell in love with her’, or something like that.”

Natsuki, like Naoto, made a very general explanation.

“E—–h, I’m jealous, that’s youth for you. Then, what was your thought about it?”

Sakurako’s eyes were sparkling.

“I was happy.”

Natsuki bashfully said.

“During that time, were you already in love with him?”

This time, it was Aki who asked.

“Yup. I’m already deep in love with him.

That day, we just went our separate ways, but I already want to see him, so I came back to meet with him without telling him, then waited outside the restaurant. That’s when I heard him speaking with his co-worker about it.”

“Then, wouldn’t it be possible that the two of you fell in love with each other at about the same time?

Natsuki, when was the time that you clearly felt that you’re in love with him?”

Sakurako happily asked.

“Er……um, I don’t know myself. We’ve been neighbors for a long time, after all.”

“Un”

Sakurako and Aki both nodded.

Iida, surprised,

“I don’t know anything about that, though.”

He said.

“We just learned about it recently as well, that they’ve been neighbors since first grade.”

When Sakurako explained,

“Eh?! Haven’t we met before when were middle schoolers? Whenever we would play card games underneath the apartment complex, I would sometimes walk around picking up our card whenever the wind scattered them, right?”

Iida asked Natsuki.

Natsuki tried to remember,

“So that person was Iida-kun. How nostalgic, that did happen, didn’t it?”

She smiled.

“One of those cards that got scattered that time is now worth around 20,000.”

Naoto told Iida.

“Wasn’t it 30,000 yen?”

Natsuki corrected him.

“Right, it’s now worth 30,000. If that card got blown pretty far that day, it would have been dangerous.”

Naoto revised what he said.

Iida smiled,

“That’s rad. You should give me a 1% share on that.”

After saying that,

“Sorry we went off-topic. Let’s return to what we’re talking about before.”

He apologized.

“What were we talking about again?”

Said Sakurako.

“About how they’ve been neighbors for a long time, it went off topic when I said ‘I don’t know anything about that, though.’”

“Ah right, right, we’re talking about when they started having feelings for each other, right? But Iida-kun, it’s impressive that you remembered that.”

Sakurako told Iida.

“The conversation also piqued my attention, that’s why.”

“I don’t really plan on saying something amazing like that, now I find it difficult to say.”

Natsuki said while feeling embarrassed.

“It’s alright, say it. Morita-kun’s interested in it as well, aren’t you?”

Sakurako seek Naoto’s agreement.

Naoto’s attention was also focused on Natsuki but in a different way,

“I um, don’t mind not knowing about it if Oshida-san finds it hard to say.”

He was concerned for her.

However, Sakurako,

“See? He said he’ll break up with you if you don’t say it.”

Said while ignoring Naoto’s reply. Natsuki, who was taking a drink at the time, choked when she heard that.

“Mu—-……. It’s because you said something completely different.”

Natsuki, whose coughing has finally subsided, complained to Sakurako.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just that I want you to hurry up and say it. It’s okay, isn’t it, just tell us.”

Sakurako was still pressing Natsuki even while apologizing.

“Er, so—……My first love was Morita-kun during our grade school years.

However, I wasn’t able to feel the same with other people in the following years, so when Morita-kun became friendly with me once again, I was very happy. He is the same kind person as before.

That’s why maybe, it was at that time when I immediately fell in love with him again.”

“Eh, then you’ve always been in love with him?”

“It’s really only when he took care of me when I started thinking a lot about Morita-kun, so I wouldn’t say I’ve always felt that way towards him.”

“Then, then, when you were both assigned in the same class during the start of our second year, what did you feel?”

“I thought of taking that opportunity to become close with him again. But it’s just as friends, okay?

“That explanation of planning on being friends is a bit unlikely, you know. Because even after half a year has passed since you declared of ‘taking that opportunity to become close with him again’, you really haven’t done anything to accomplish that, right? If you really wanted to be friends with him, Natsuki should’ve been eager and started talking to him earlier!

You weren’t able to do that because you already have feelings for him at that time, isn’t that it?”

Sakurako arbitrarily decided that that’s the case.

Naoto thought to himself that it’s not that simple. Before, when I forced Natsuki to play doctor, her fear was immeasurable. Even she wanted to call on me, it would’ve taken a lot of courage.

“Eh—…….is that so? What do you think? Is that it?”

Natsuki, who doesn’t understand her own feelings, asked Naoto who was grasping for answers himself. Naoto, who met eyes with Natsuki, saw that she’s looking at him with fondness, it made him very ashamed of his past self.

“I didn’t feel that way at all. I felt that she hated me or that she was avoiding me.”

Naoto answered.

“How did it you come to that conclusion?!”

Sakurako asked without a thought.

“Well, unlike in the past, she stopped holding hands with me, she stopped embracing me, she also stopped saying how much she loves me, on the other hand, she also stopped carefreely picking on me. I thought that she already hated me so much that she wanted nothing to do with me.”

“What do you mean by carefreely picking on you?”

Sakurako reacted to the words that she can’t just ignore.

“I, bullied him for a period of time. Like, disturbing him whenever he’s playing.”

Natsuki explained.

“Ah—– so that’s why Morita-kun ended up like this.”

“That’s wrong, he was already like this from the beginning. It’s not my fault. Isn’t that right, Morita-kun?”

Natsuki asked for Naoto’s agreement.

“Natsuki’s threatening him—-! So this is how you pick on Morita-kun, I feel bad for him——.”

Sakurako was having fun teasing Natsuki.

“For your information, during the time between our grade school and high school years, I haven’t bullied him even once.”

Denied Natsuki.

“Then, what about the time during middle school? During the time you were picking up their cards, what did the two of you thought of each other?”

Asked Sakurako.

“I think we really haven’t talk too much when we were middle schoolers. Whenever she picked up our cards for us, I keep thinking ‘Uwaa, she might be angry.’”

Naoto answered.

“I would feel happy on the few times that we were able to speak with each other, but I always get nervous while greeting him. Morita-kun won’t greet me back, after all.”

Sakurako couldn’t understand the two’s relationship at that period of their lives.

“What the heck’s with that?! Does that kind of thing even happen?”

Aki, whose turn it is to ask questions for a bit,

“First of all, you two, why were you hiding the fact that you knew each other since way back?”

Asked.

“Because no one asked me.”

“I, thought that if I acted like we’re friends after all this time, that I might just be a nuisance to Oshida-san.”

“You two, it’s impressive how you were able to become lovers with that outlook.”

Sakurako astonishingly said.

“Thank you very much.”

For some reason, Naoto said his gratitude while blushing, so the other four couldn’t help but laugh.