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

Talking About Naoto While He’s Away

Naoto, who normally walks in the back whenever he’s in a group, was currently walking in front of the group with Iida.

On the token games floor which he is extremely familiar with, even Naoto, who has no sense of direction, will surely not get lost on his way.

“Iida, you still have quite a lot of tokens deposited?”

Naoto asked Iida who was beside him.

“I do. I might even have more compared to you.”

Iida answered with seemingly high self-confidence.

Naoto, who thought that he’ll be more at ease reserving seats for others by himself,

“Then, I’ll scout out the games that 4 players can play.”

Said to Iida before parting with him.

“OK—–”

Iida went to withdraw tokens. When Iida called them over, Sakurako and Aki also went with him.

“What should I do?”

Natsuki asked Naoto.

“Since there’s a cut-off time, it would be better withdrawing tokens once. Also, we should withdraw Natsuki’s tokens, by using both our tokens, Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san will get their rounds of tokens faster.”

Said Naoto.

“Then I’ll go do that.”

“’Kay.”

Naoto saw Natsuki off, then looked for game cabinets that allows four players. He cannot find one with chairs that was in good condition, so he just chose one with chairs he thought were in the least-worst condition then took a seat.

It took Naoto a considerably long time going around, so when he took a seed, Iida, who has withdrawn his tokens, was already arriving to where Naoto was, then took a seat, Iida was alone when he arrived. Sakurako and Aki went to Natsuki who was withdrawing her tokens, and by the time Iida arrived, the tree girls were still there.

“Then I’ll also go withdraw my tokens.”

When Naoto said that,

“Somehow, it feels like it’s been many months since we had this exchange, right?”

Iida smiled.

“Morita-kun’s taking long, huh.”

Aki said while playing a token game.

“It looks like the machine is either clogged or has a breakdown. That one’s been out of order many times.”

Iida said while looking at the situation.

When Naoto returned,

“It looks like the machine is broken, it will take a long while to fix that, so I’ll just go play the free games.”

He said.

“Got it, once you’ve returned, switch places with me.”

Iida replied.

With that, he briskly went down the stairs.

Natsuki, who’s lost in thought whether to go with Naoto or stay, was in a position midway between standing and sitting, so Sakurako,

“Hey. Earlier, Morita told us about how you two used to eat together during Christmas and New Year’s, right? How did you become that close with Morita-kun?”

Asked of Iida, which made Natsuki return to her seat. Natsuki was immediately interested on what Sakurako’s question.

“I suck at explaining, but is that okay with you?”

When Iida asked, the three girls nodded.

“Well then, e—-r, where should I start?

At the start, we’re not really close. That guy absolutely doesn’t go to the school grounds during school breaks, after all. Until halfway through middle school, he’s only friendly with the girls, but he’s relatively harmless so I don’t like him nor hate him. You could say were strangers to each other.

Then, during middle school, I had a crush on someone in my class. She has a very cute face, throughout the school year she’s the only one with a fan club. During our field trip, in the evening when we were talking about the girls we have a crush on, even though many of us including me did not join, six people said that they have a crush on that girl, that’s how popular she was. Ah—- I can’t explain it as well as Morita. In any case she was really popular.”

Iida leisurely started talking about his memory of the past.

“One day, the girl that I have a crush on, suddenly stood up in the middle of class, she staggeringly approached the teacher, then, what do you call that, the teacher’s podium? That desk thing, around there, she suddenly fell down crouching, it caused a commotion in the classroom. Even though I was very sleepy at the time, that event suddenly made me lose my drowsiness. I haven’t been surprised like that before in my life, really.”

Natsuki remembered that event when the Onee-san from Naoto’s part-time job fell down.

“She left the classroom in that state, whether she went to the Nurse’s office or she went to the restroom, I don’t really know, but her one of her friends took her belongings and brought it to the Nurse’s office or somewhere, so maybe she left early for home.

Then, when I saw what happened to the girl that I like, even I thought that if I could take her place I would, or that why did that happened to her and not to me instead, the other guys were really indifferent to her situation acting like its none of their concern at all. ‘Weren’t all of you douchebags her self-proclaimed fans that are always adoring her?’ I felt so irritated.

Then, while thinking ‘Do these douchebags really love her?’ I took a look around the room, then right at the very back, one person has a face so pale, tightly gripping his fist, his body shaking so much and his eyes overflowing with tears.”

“Did that person happen to be Morita-kun?”

Aki asked.

Iida was surprised,

“Amazing, how did you know?!”

He replied.

“Because, you’re telling us the story of how you and Morita-kun became friends, and Morita-kun looks like the type to cry in that situation.”

Saying that, Aki laughed.

Natsuki also imagined Naoto’s appearance at that time.

Iida also laughed,

“Well, that’s how it was. When I saw him, I though Morita was seriously in love with that person.

Well, returning back to my story, the one thing I’m secretly worried about, though it was truly pathetic, was the pet bottle the person that I have a crush on left when she went home early that day. Our middle school allowed students to bring in pet bottles, but when her friend took her things to the Nurse’s office, they only took the ones on her desk. Her seat was by the window, so her pet bottle was left by the window.

I was standing watch at it to make sure no one steals it. At the time, I thought I won’t be allowing any of those flippant douchebags have it on my watch. I might seem like a creep though.”

He continued his story.

“It’s okay, I fully get it. Even I got mad just listening at your story.”

Said Sakurako. Sakurako was already feeling like cheering on past Iida.

“Classes ended without anything happening, but for some reason, Morita is saying still showing no signs of preparing to go home. Then I thought ‘Could it be, this guy is worried about her pet bottle?’, so I waited until only the two of us remained in the room before asking him. When I did, he told me that that was the case. Then we agreed throwing it together, with threw the pet bottles contents, even washed the mouth of the bottle, before flattening and throwing it in the bin.

Maybe, that was the first time I had a long talk with Morita. When I said ‘I was extremely surprised with what happened today’, Morita went, ‘I thought I’m fine with dying if that’s what it takes, so in exchange please let that person live, I seriously thought that.’ ‘I got you, those other guys were weird.’”

“Both of you were so cool!”

Sakurako has already become an ally of the duo’s past selves.

“We were cool until that part, after that we became perverts.

While we’re on the way home, Morita suddenly said, ‘I’m really glad Iida kkn was with me back there.’, I asked ‘Haa? How come?’ Until then, we were not really that close after all.

Then, ‘If Iida-kun was not there and I’m all alone, I might not be able to throw that away. I might’ve given in to the temptation and drink from it.’, that what he said that with a serious face. So I said ‘Me too, if I was alone, I might’ve drunk all of its contents.’, when he heard that, that guy laughed hard. After that, I decided by myself to call us the pervert bros, that’s how we became friends.”

“If it was that much then you were such cute perverts.”

Sakurako gave a vague affirmation.

“Is that so?”

Being called cute, Iida blushed.

“What happened to that person you have a crush on?”

Asked Aki.

“Well, about that, it seemed like there were other people other than me who saw Morita crying at the time, so they found out that Morita has a crush on that person. Maybe it was due to that confusion that followed the spreading of that rumor, or maybe it was because I at the time I also panicked for ten minutes, there also spread rumor that the guy the person I had a crush on have feelings for might be me.”

“Uwa—……….”

Just hearing that story made Sakurako feel pain.

“Of course, I wanted to confess to that person, but when I saw how Morita felt that day, I understood that he loved that person, if not just as, then much more than I did, so I wanted him to confess his feelings to that person first. That’s why I told him ‘I won’t confess to her until you do it first.’, I somewhat forced him into doing it.

Then, while I was waiting for him to come back after confessing to her. It seemed like she told him ‘I have feelings for Iida-kun, though.’, so Morita replied ‘I know, but since I love you I felt like I have to tell you somehow.’, when she heard that, she told him ‘Even though you knew what my answer would be, are you stupid?! Since Iida-kun is your friend, he might decide to support you going out with me, if that happens, it would make it hard for me to be his girlfriend now, won’t it?!’

Are you kidding me?! I thought.”

“That was so mean! What the heck?!”

Sakurako got mad as if she was the one experiencing it.

“With that I lost my temper, I told Morita how I will go to where that girl was and yell ‘Don’t screw with me, you bitch!’ right on her face right there and then’, but then Morita stopped me, saying ‘We both love that person just the same, and that person might really be in love with Iida-kun. Maybe her condition is still bad, weakening her emotionally. While keeping in mind how worried you were when she left early that day, please just spend the day at your home thinking about things from her perspective.’

I more or less thought about it in my own way, but no matter how I went about it, I couldn’t really understand what that woman was thinking when she did that, so I concluded that I couldn’t forgive her no matter what. If there is some other person the you really like, that’s all the more reason you shouldn’t call another person confessing their feelings for you stupid, that one thing that shouldn’t be said, right?

Of course, she might be so beautiful, she has experienced being confessed to hell and back many times, or maybe she still felt under the weather that a love confession seemed like an annoyance to her, but I thought that if that’s the case, it was definitely strange of her to show such a blatant attitude.”

“Isn’t it? I thought so too. Morita-kun is too kind for his own good.”

When Sakurako said that, Natsuki felt glad.

When Iida heard that,

“Right? That’s why I told him ‘As I thought, I can’t forgive her. That’ll be asking for the impossible.’ In response Morita profusely apologized to me.”

He said.

“Why?!”

Sakurako was surprised once more.

“I don’t really understand it quite well, but he told me ‘If only I didn’t cause a fuss by saying something unnecessary, you might’ve been going out with her right now. If you got together, you might’ve been happy right now.’ So I made it clear to him ‘There’s no way I would be happy sticking with that trash bitch who only has her appearance to show.’

Then, I also apologized to him, saying ‘If there’s someone who needs to apologize, it should be me since I’m the one who forced you to confess.’ But that guy, he didn’t blame me at all, he just went ‘I went and confessed to her of my own volition, not because you forced me to. With that I was glad that I was able to confess.’ He won’t even let me apologize to him, even when I told him to punch me at least once to make up for it, he wouldn’t do it.”

“Gee—-z, Morita-kun why, just why?”

“Then, I told him to at least let me treat him to dinner after school, so we agreed to meet at a gyudon shop, I went home and went riding my bicycle but I till arrived late, when I arrived, the guy’s surrounded by two policemen. It seemed like he was sitting on a flower bed-like place in front of the gyudon shop while crying, and someone saw it thinking he was ill or got hurt somewhere so they reported it to a nearby police outpost.

Policeman or no, talking to strangers is the number one thing that Morita hates doing, right? Being that it was all my fault for arriving late that it all happened, I apologized to him again. And while I’m apologizing just like that, we decided that then, let’s go to the arcade, we ended up hanging out more after that, things kept going just like that until we come to the present. That’s about it, I think.”

“I always thought that you two are really close friends, so that’s what happened between the two of you, huh. So then, did the two of you decided going to the same high school?”

“Yeah. My parents actually enrolled me to an all-boys high school by then, but Morita was having none of it.

He told me ‘I absolutely will not go to an all-boys school. There’re only boys in there, you know? Just look at the boys in our class. Even though they can easily say how they love one person, as soon as that person leave early due to collapsing in class, they quickly acted like it didn’t happen and even had fun with each other, now think two times of those and zero girls, I don’t want to be in that kind of class.’

He said that with such confidence, he made me feel like not going to an all-boys school after that. I’m actually also irritated with the boys in our class, and attending a class in only boys might make my lifestyle unbalanced.

When I told my parents that I’m going with my strait-laced friend and that I’ll be serious in my studies, they changed the high school they’re enrolling me to our school. ……Well, that’s what I thought when we entered high school, but since then, I haven’t really been serious about studying.”

Iida laughed while looking embarrassed, so the other three were caught up in it and laughed as well.

“I couldn’t remember what you looked like but then, but when we started high school, didn’t the two of you used to go to school together?”

Natsuki asked Iida.

“Right, right. Morita told me he can’t quite memorize the way to school, so at the start we arrived and left school together. While doing that we talked about different things like how we’re thankful there were girls in our class, or how we’re glad not enrolling to an all-boys school. About how there were many cute girls, but that we shouldn’t be deceived by looks again.

Then Morita all went ‘This time I’ll properly look on what’s inside, but I want to fall in love once again with a person that I will willingly sacrifice my own well-being if it meant they will stay lively and well. On that day, when evening came, I arrogantly thought that I was definitely the best guy to take care of that person, so while my parents were away, I shouted <I’m going to protect you!> once while in the bath. I thought that something must’ve been wrong with my head back then.’, so I told him ‘Then the next person you’ll fall in love with must be awesome, they’ll definitely be protected.’, then laughed, from that they onwards, it had been my routine for a while to ask him ‘Have you decided on who you will protect?’”

“——Ah, Morita-kun has returned.”

Aki said when she saw Naoto.

“Damn, that guy has the worst timing. And we’re having great fun in here right now too.”

Iida, whom more than being praise, was happier seeing Naoto get praised, wanted them to listen to his reminiscing a bit longer.

Naoto, who’s oblivious to the fact that they’ve been talking about him when he arrived,

“For the time being, I finished playing the free games here.”

He said in a carefree manner.

“Morita-kun, which do you hate more, your stomach being in pain or Natsuki’s stomach being in pain?”

“Of course, Natsuki’s, I mean Natsuki-san’s, no I mean Oshida-san’s. Uwa—- I’m sorry, Oshida-san.”

Naoto panicked and corrected how he called her.

Natsuki, while blushing,

“Gee—! I don’t care anymore, you can just call me Natsuki in front of these people!”