It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 4 - 16 - How Should I Say it to Natsuki and The Others?

How Should I Say it to Natsuki and The Others?

          “——Hello. This is Hirose.”

“Eh, it’s Hirose-san? Is Morita not there?”

Iida had something that he wanted to talk about with Naoto, so he was taken aback.

“Morita-kun might have to be on another call, so in the meantime, he told me answer any call that would come from you. I’m sorry. Should I call him over?”

Iida, whom Sakurako just apologized to, panicked.

“Aah, I don’t mean it like that. I’m sorry, I just want to check what’s happening there.”

“I understand that, but I just felt I should apologize.”

“As I thought, I’m scary, right? I should fix this part of my personality. There’s a lot of guys like me, so maybe that’s a reason why there’re a lot of people with fear of men, aren’t there?”

“You’re not scary, I’m alright. You’re kind when you talk to me, after all.”

“Is that so, somehow it feels like Morita’s exuding less pressure, though. He was able to shook hands with Tachibana-san after all.”

“Morita-kun is, well, someone who’s able say he respects someone.”

“Not being able to is what’s normal, though. That would be impossible for me.”

Sakurako, thinking that Iida sounds cheerful, became curious.

“Weren’t you able to say something like that to Haruka-san while you’re escorting her home?”

“I wouldn’t! I only ended up talking about boring stuff. Like how I was surprised when I saw the trash bins in high school looked high class, things like that. Also, of as you can guess, things about Morita. She said she’s looking forward to reading his novel. She’s really expecting much of it so I thought it might be bad for him, so do tell him asap.”

“Got it.”

Sakurako was happy that Iida entrusted her with doing something for him. She immediately wrote a memo on her own smartphone, and showed it to Naoto. After making a troubled face, Naoto whispered something to Aki who was still talking with Hatsumi on the phone. It looked like he was asking her to do him a favor.

Sakurako thought that it’s fine if she talked a bit more, so she felt a bit relieved.

“——However, I see——. I thought that, perhaps, you’ve changed you mind and decided to confess your feelings though, Iida-kun.”

Sakurako, in order to hide her anxiety, acted cheerful.

“No, not in the slightest. In truth, I’m still not sure of my own feelings, it feels like if I confessed to her while I’m at this state, it’ll only be rude to her.

However, she went out of her way to bring her graduation yearbook out from her house. Then she told me to write a message on her yearbook, so I took the chance she gave me.”

Sakurako didn’t talk about Naoto telling Hatsumi through a message about the graduation yearbook.

“What did you write?”

“I couldn’t think of anything to write—–! If I haven’t had casual talk with Morita where I told him thing like ‘I wanted to write something on her yearbook, too’, and ‘What did you write on her’s?’, I might’ve made Tachibana-san wait too long a time, definitely.

I asked Tachibana-san if ‘Let’s get along from here on as well’ is alright, then I wrote it in hiragana.”

“In hiragana?”

“Well, wouldn’t writing it in kanji be anxiety inducing? Even if its grammatically correct, I feel that there’s something wrong with it.”

“So nothing’s in kanji?”

“Yeah, everything’s in hiragana. I thought I could do either way, but I’m using a sign pen. If I got a kanji wrong, Tachibana-san might go back inside her house to get a correction fluid. That would feel unpleasant, so I decided not to make any blunders.”

“Ah—, that’s reasonable—-.”

A laugh naturally escaped from Sakurako’s mouth. She couldn’t help it since talking about mundane stuff with Iida felt fun for her.

While talking on the phone, Sakurako sorted out her feelings.

If Iida-kun’s speaking carefreely like this, that must mean that they had parted ways with Haruka-san and are on the way to the station. If that is so, then he should be walking with Nagatomo-san. If the call gets drawn-out with just making small talk, it would be rude to Nagatomo-san. If it’s the usual me, I would be considerate of Nagatomo-san, and would have already asked the main point of the call. However, right now, as much as possible, I don’t want to do that.

“——But Iida-kun, you sound a lot cheerful than when we were at the family restaurant, so I thought that it might’ve went well for you.”

“No, I considerably bungled up. Until we parted ways with Tachibana-san, I wasn’t even able to talk to Nagatomo-san that well. I actually messaged Morita about that.”

“I actually know about that.

That’s right. Morita-kun called a girl on the phone just now, and while explaining to her about Health Land, he called you his best friend.”

“You serious?”

“He told the girl that it may be the last tie his best friend and his first love my be seeing each other, so he definitely wanted to make it a success for you. That’s why you need to do your best, Iida-kun, you hear?

Morita-kun got too absorbed in talking about it, that he forgot the main reason that he called that girl to begin with. That made me laugh.”

“Eh— seriously—? Why did he say such a thing, that guy can really do stuff.”

“Also, did you know that the sea urchin that Morita-kun gave you during your middle school field trip was supposed to be a present for Natsuki?”

“Uwa, is that so?! I thought it was strange!”

“Are there sea urchins on the shore? It would be dangerous if you happen to step on one, right?”

“Nah, no idea. While I was thinking why the girls are gathering behind a rocky area, they’re saying that I came to catch the sea urchin. I thought, were the girls the ones to find it first? If it’s us guys, well immediately be shouting, ‘Let’s eat i—-t! Let’s eat i—t!’”

“Iida-kun ate it, right?”

“The lifeguard person who’s also acting as our guide opened it for us. He even explained things to us, it seems like sea urchins have an upper part and a lower part. It was quite interesting. Morita made a disgusted face when he looked at its insides, though.”

“Morita-kun doesn’t like sea urchins as a food, right?”

“When I told him how about you go eat it, he told me he doesn’t want to. While covering his mouth, he said ‘It looks unappetizing just like natto’. That’s why I told him, ‘Isn’t it just the color?’ and laughed.

Ah, Nagatomo-san’s also laughing.”

Hearing Iida laugh, Sakurako smiled.

“That’s amusing. Did you immediately eat the sea urchin on the spot?”

“We washed the insides lightly in water—— or rather, it was washed for me—– then I immediately ate it. It was really good.”

“Eh— that’s wild—”

Sakurako thought to apologize to Natsuki and the others later.

Right now, without getting to the main topic by bringing up other topics on purpose, I’m planning on prolonging my time speaking with Iida-kun as much as possible. Even though it would also trouble Natsuki and the others if I keep delaying going to the main topic at hand, I couldn’t help myself.

I can’t stay like this.

“——Somehow, because I’m bad at explaining things, our conversation went all over the place, what’s everyone’s status there right now?”

To Iida’s words, Sakurako felt an aching in her heart.

“It’s not Iida’s fault, I’m sorry. It’s because I got too absorbed in our conversation.

Right now, everyone’s sitting on chairs in front of the station. It seems like the other call already ended, so it fairly looks like they have nothing to do.”

“Is that so? Um, listen, it might inconvenience you all, but it’ll still take a while for us to get there—— eh, still ten minutes? Did we talk that long? Sorry, sorry—— Er, it looks like it’ll take us ten minutes.

Nah, what should we do? My belly’s empty and my throat is dry, so if we have time, I wanted invite everyone to dinner, my treat. But if it’s ten minutes, how will it be?

Scratch it, I’ll just leave it to Morita. If it’s Morita, once he gets hungry, he’ll charge into a restaurant without restraint.”

“Got it, I’ll tell them.”

“Please. Then, bye now. ……Is it weird ending the call with bye now even though we’ll still be meeting after a short while? Should I have said see you?

I’m used to just abruptly ending the call or saying ‘bye now’ whenever I talk to Morita on the phone, so I don’t know a way to end a call without sounding scary.”

“How about, see you later?”

“Right?! See you later doesn’t sound scary. See you later.”

Sakurako can’t help but think Iida-kun is very cute right now.

“Yeah, see you later—”

Now then, how should I say it to Natsuki and the others?