It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 4 - 11 - Wordplay

Wordplay

“Are you alright?”

It was Naoto’s voice.

It was different from the voice Haruka heard from him the first time they met each other, it’s the voice of a guy who has gone through puberty, but for Haruka at that moment, the voice she’s hearing was kind.

Haruka laughed with her face looking a bit tired.

“My heart’s still beating a bit fast, but it looks like I’m fine now. Thank heavens, I thought I would be able to touch you. It just came into my mind.”

“I’m surprised, but I’m glad to be your strength.”

“When you said that it’s as long as a 700-page manuscript, I received a shock. I just thought that if I’m not able to shake hands with this person, then it’ll be impossible for me to do so with others.”

“Based on my intuition, it’s not really that much different from when I’m playing around.

While I’m working my part time job, I run a pedometer game in my smartphone, but when there’s nothing to do, there really is nothing to do. As a result of finding out ways to stave boredom without using my smartphone, I came up with the idea of constructing novels in my mind in the middle of work.”

While hiding his embarrassment, Naoto emphasized the thing he do when he wanted to amuse himself.

“No, 700 pages really makes an impact. Even I’m surprised. In my case, even if I’m writing a five-page book report on a manuscript paper, I end up thinking on how I can make it longer.”

“I’m surprised too!”

Makoto had the same opinion as Iida.

“Your reactions are excessively huge, it’s somewhat different from when I told Natsuki about it, so I feel embarrassed right now.”

Naoto said while looking at Natsuki.

“Eh?! I haven’t heard anything about you writing a novel?!”

Natsuki hurriedly told Naoto.

“Didn’t I tell you last week that my hobbies are ‘video games, manga and novels’?”

“I thought you’re talking about reading! There’s no hint there that you’re talking about writing.”

“So that really is the case, huh——. Ninomiya-san told me earlier that you won’t be getting that I’m writing with the way I told you about it.”

“It’s only Aki who you told about it in detail——. For some reason, I thought that you were really close yesterday.”

“I didn’t tell her about it. While my attention was focused on the hot takoyaki, she just saw it on my smartphone screen by coincidence. Even I had no idea that Ninomiya-san is reading my novels.”

“Is that the truth?”

“If we’ve been friends for a longer time, then I would’ve consulted her about Natsuki. Even with the question of whether Natsuki has a boyfriend or not, I would’ve asked Ninomiya-san about that instead.”

“Ah—– is that so? Nao-kun’s face was really red during that time. Your expression that time said that you don’t know I don’t have a boyfriend.”

Remembering Naoto’s face at that time, Natsuki laughed.

“Natsuki, what did you tell him when he asked if you have a boyfriend? Did you tell Morita-kun that you like him?”

Sakurako, with immense curiosity, asked Natsuki.

“I didn’t tell him that. I just normally told him ‘I don’t have a boyfriend.’”

“Eh—–…… So, what did you say when you heard her answer, Morita-kun.”

“I said ‘I’m glad’. I really felt relieved.”

Naoto answered while smiling.

“Then, what did you do next, Natsuki?”

“What was it again? It’s like, I didn’t say anything after that.

Maybe, I said that we were getting off topic or something.”

“Wasn’t that awkward, Morita-kun?”

Sakurako, who’s been asking with a grin on her face until that point, made a serious face.

Naoto laughed.

“No, we just returned to what we were really talking about, it all felt just like a dream. I thought that it’s might be possible for us to be friends if she doesn’t have a boyfriend, it made me happy.”

“What would you have done if she told you that she has a boyfriend?”

“What would I have done, that’s the first thing I did back then.

I told her if she already has a boyfriend, if he’s making her do things despite her illness, that she should not see her boyfriend in a while.”

“What if Natsuki said something like ‘You’re very nagging’?”

“That night, I had a dream that’s pretty similar to that.

A dream where Natsuki hangs out with the people who said lots of mean things to me. At the middle school that Natsuki went to, there were many boys from my grade school that I didn’t want to see, so I specifically chose to go to a middle school far from home since I want to avoid Natsuki’s middle school. There were lots of guys I don’t like commuting to school nearby, after all.

Because of that, there’s a high chance that Natsuki might be going out with one of those guys, so I got jealous by myself, and they started manifesting as dreams.

When I asked Natsuki ‘Am I not good enough for you?’, she got mad at me. She told me ‘Doing such a thing, are you an idiot?’, then she punched me in the stomach, and in front of my eyes, she got along with the guys that I hate. When I woke up, I’m drenched in so much sweat and tears, and the first thing that came to my mind was what should I do if Natsuki thought of me stinking of sweat. I thought, uwaa, I might have really fallen in love with her, and I lost appetite to eat anything.”

“Don’t make me do weird things in your dreams.”

Natsuki said, astonished.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Naoto apologized, smiling.

Natsuki wanted to teased him a bit.

“Even though guys are pretty scary, there’s no way I would be able to bet that close with guys from my middle school now, would I?”

“I deeply apologize……”

Naoto apologized, this time in a small voice.

“Were you also scared of guys, Natsuki-san?”

Makoto unexpectedly asked.

“That’s because of the ‘cruel betrayal’ written on the essay that I did to her, right?”

Naoto answered in place of Natsuki.

‘Speaking of, what does ‘cruel betrayal’ mean? Was it like in manga when a character says ‘I don’t really like that guy at all’?”

Makoto, not thinking a bit that the issue was serious, said smiling.

“When I was still a grade schooler, I don’t really understand that much yet about what love is. But I wanted to do something that feel good with Natsuki. Even though we weren’t going out, I pushed her down.”

“You shouldn’t do that!”

Makoto, sporting a rare indignant expression, reproached Naoto.

“I’m sorry”

“Really—-! You’re lucky that Haruka-san’s a kind person. You shouldn’t do such mean things again, okay?”

“Un. I regret what I did.”

Natsuki, who saw the dispirited Naoto, pitied him,

“Back, then, I was really clingy to Nao-kun, so I’m as much to blame for it happening. Besides, if I really hated it, I should’ve told him to stop immediately, and since he apologized a lot to me after that, my fear of Nao-kun has dissipated.”

Haruka took interest in Natsuki’s circumstances,

“When you became close again with Morita-kun, how did it feel?”

She asked.

“Let’s see, at first, as I thought, I was nervous when I came to his room. It’s because I was afraid of being pushed down by a person I have no feelings for. I did all the grumbling and complaining while Nao-kun kept being reserved, and we weren’t able to have lively exchanges just like in the past that well. Instead, we became too conscious of each other that we weren’t able to talk to each other, it was rally unbalanced.

However, ever since I happened to eavesdrop on him saying how much he loves me, I found him blushing very cute, my heart was beating fast in a good way, even if we don’t exchange words, I was happy. And I’ve been gazing at him on purpose.

Since I heard him saying that he doesn’t want to confess his feelings for me until I get better, and also how he wants to be closer to me, I’ve been talking to him a lot and coming to his room a lot. I was still afraid of being touched when we’re at home but outside, we were holding hands a lot. One time, on a cold day, while Nao-kun was sneezing in his room, I asked him ‘Do you want to share with me?’, while inviting him inside the blanked that I borrowed, but he refused. Even though he wanted to become closer to me, that he held back from approaching me for my sake, it made me happy. After that, I became even more relaxed, and we began holding hands even at his home.

Just like that, everything proceeded gradually.”

“Gradually, huh.”

“However, it might’ve only taken a blink of an eye for me to put my trust in him. In my case, it’s because we were originally close in the first place.

I was very glad that I happen to know that he has feelings for me. If not, maybe I would be afraid on moments when he doesn’t say anything.”

“He’s scary when he doesn’t speak, right?”

“Really scary. I was really lucky that I happened to eavesdrop on him.”

Naoto became worried of his awareness having lots of openings.

“Somehow, when I think about it, it looks like information about me keeps getting leaked. Natsuki learned that I love her through eavesdropping, while Ninomiya-san found out about me writing novels through stealing a glance at my phone. I don’t really care that much if information about me gets known by others, but if I don’t want it to be a bother to Natsuki then I have to be aware of my surroundings, right? If someone took a sneak photo of me playing with Natsuki in secret, it would be troublesome.”

“Eavesdropping – stealing a glance – sneak photo, the connection of those words through a theme, that word usage is really like a novelist.”

Makoto excitedly looked at Naoto.

Naoto found Makoto being interested in something about him unusual,

“Is that so? There’s also surreptitious reading, sneaking a bite, all of those words exude sneakiness or stealth.”

He spoke.

Natsuki, hearing Naoto’s wording by theme just then, remembered the wordplay he did back at New Years.

“You’re writing novels, so that’s the reason you know lots of words with ruin or destroy, huh. What did you tell me again, that you would ‘ruin my appearance’, right?”

(TL note: ruining one’s appearance is a Japanese idiom meaning making one smile. For full explanation relating to this, refer to Part 2 chapter 3)

“Ruining appearance?”

Makoto made a face like she heard something mysterious.

“When I searched the meaning of that phrase one more time, I found out that the range of its meaning is narrower than just ‘smile’. In short, it means something to the extent of grinning, maybe?”

Naoto corrected.

“So you’ve studied a lot of such things?”

Makoto was in awe.

“It’s not as exaggerated as studying about it, but I’m doing it because it’s my interest. It’s like when a person who likes music memorizes the lyrics of a song, or a person who likes video games memorizing spells and such, it’s just the same as those.”

“However, doing more than just memorizing those, and using them in conversations and novels is amazing.”

It might be because she took a great liking to it, but Makoto proceeded to praise Naoto to high heavens.

“Not really, ruining one’s appearance, is a rare phrase that many doesn’t know it’s meaning, it’s just useless knowledge. There are lots of useless words that one won’t normally use that I memorized.”

Saying that, Naoto looked at Natsuki, then he remembered the other word for cystitis.

“——That’s right, Nagatomo-san, do you know about ‘newlywed syndrome’? Also, about ‘honeymoon syndrome’ or such.”

“What’s that? Something like May fever?”

“It’s a bit different, I think. ‘Newlywed syndrome’ or ‘honeymoon syndrome’ actually causes illness or disease. Based on some ways of thinking, love is the root cause of both. It might be charming or romantic in nature.”

“I wonder. If it’s romantic, then that means it’s not caused by a lover’s quarrel, right?”

“That’s right. Even though a couple are intimate with each other, that in itself is the reason.”

“Eh—–? If we’re talking about honeymoon then—…… does that mean, like, having the wrong ring size, and because of that, the blood circulation becomes worse on the finger?”

“Your example might be similar to that. Forcing one’s self to do something against better judgment, being too considerate of their partner, just like those things.”

“Like not being able to sleep because it requires them to remove their make-up?”

“Something like that.”

“Being worried about snoring that they can’t sleep!”

“That’s much closer to ‘newlywed syndrome’. With ‘honeymoon syndrome’ you’ll still be able to sleep, but the result of doing that would not be good.”

“They can’t sleep in the pillow provided to them?”

“Hmmm, Nagatomo-san might not be good at imagining things. How should I put this, if it’s just how it looks like, I can show you hear right now the cause of ‘honeymoon syndrome’.”

“Do it, do it.”

“Let’s see, think of me and Natsuki as a married couple, then like this…… right now, were in a sofa, so there is this back rest on the way, but think of this this as a bed, and us as newlyweds sleeping on it lying on our sides.”

Saying that, Naoto had Natsuki use both his arms as pillow to rest her head on.

“Arm pillow?”

“If I let this arm pillow for the rest of the night?”

“It’ll hurt?”

“Even though the couple led different lives until that point, in their newlywed lives, the guy would offer his arms as pillow every night. Even his arms become numb and painful, he finds it hard to tell his wife, so he would endure it instead. What do you think will happen then?”

“His arms will become extremely numb!”

“That’s right. After that it will feel numb for a whole month.”

“Eh—! Isn’t he enduring it too much?”

“That just shows that there are many newlyweds who endure and hold themselves back.”

“Eh—, but do they really have to go that far?”

“Amazing, isn’t it, even I was surprised by it. The way of thinking of people with ‘newlywed syndrome’ is kinda similar. They would end up enduring it too much. It’s just that in the case of ‘newlywed syndrome’, it’s the woman who ends up enduring something.”

“The woman ends up enduring?”

“There are also guys who find it hard to speak up in this case. Nagatomo-san might also find saying the answer to me in person difficult as well. That’s why, how about you think about it with Tachibana-san on your way home?”

“I’ll do that! Somehow, it feels like a quiz show, I’m getting excited. Do you know any other interesting words?”

“I don’t know if it’s interesting, but if it’s the same naming, there’s also ‘Valentine’s syndrome’ it also involves someone pushing themselves too much, one could say.”

“I don’t know about honeymoon,  but since she’s in a girls high school, we can guess what it is without any hints, I even exchanged chocolates with Haruka last year.”

Makoto said, full of confidence…… ten minutes later, with a frustrated look, she demanded for a hint.