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

I Like Nat-chan the Most

Natsuki told Makoto about the details of what happened back then.

“What, so you really just pushed her down, but didn’t go through with it.”

Makoto, hearing Natsuki’s story, said in a state of relief.

“Yup. When he understood that I didn’t really like it, he apologized, saying he won’t do it again. Until our moms came back, he gently embraced me the whole time.”

“Thank goodness. Now that sounds like the Morita-kun I know. Morita-kun is really cute like that, you know.”

Makoto looked at Naoto’s direction and laughed.

“Take good care of Natsuki-san, you hear?”

“Would I be capable of taking care of you?”

Naoto asked Natsuki.

“Hmm— well……. Right now, you really treating me kindly, after all. Unlike in the past, you tell me that you like me.”

“He didn’t tell you that in the past?”

Makoto asked with a displeased expression.

“Once I learned that the meaning of my like and Natsuki’s like basically differed somewhere, I abstained from saying it freely. On times such as when Natsuki’s crying or when she’s mad, I’ll say it to brighten up her mood. But that like might’ve been just as friends.”

“What’s with that? You liked her too, didn’t you, Morita-kun?”

“Lots of my memories back then are already vague, so I don’t understand them clearly, but on the earliest ties we started kissing each other, at the beginning, I thought that if Natsuki was happy doing it, then I won’t mind trying to do it with her. Whenever I end up making Natsuki cry, when I kissed her and talk about marriage, her mood got better, that might’ve been how I felt about it.

We weren’t really going out with each other back then. From friends, we started kissing, then jumped to being engaged to each other. Even on the latter times that we kissed, I would just kiss Natsuki because it felt good kissing her, I have no idea whether Natsuki also liked it or not.”

“That’s awful!”

Makoto unconsciously said.

Naoto panicked,

“No, but, Natsuki would always initiate the kiss in the beginning willy-nilly.”

He explained to Makoto.

This tie it was Natsuki who panicked.

“Isn’t saying I did it willy-nilly going a little too far?! Didn’t I say ‘Let’s kiss’ first?”

“Is that so? How did I reply?”

“You said ‘Why?’, probably.”

“Then?”

“I answered ‘Isn’t it okay? We both want to, anyway.’”

“As I thought, it was forced. How did it suddenly end up that way??”

“A day before that, a boy from Nao-kun’s class in grade school threw trash in the park. When I told him that littering is bad, he replied with something like ‘Wouldn’t it be all fine if you pick up all the trash in the park?’, and it became a fight. It seemed like I got ostracized from the group. But when the other boys said ‘Let’s go over there’, only Nao-kun remained to accompany me. When you did that, the others even told you ‘Don’t you forget about this tomorrow.’

After we arrived home, I asked Nao-kun why he remained with me, and he answered ‘I like Nat-chan the most, Nat-chan is kind, you’re always there by my side, so I want to play with Nat-chan.’ I was really glad, thinking that that’s how much you like me.

Some days after that, while we’re solving a jigsaw puzzle, and when you face came close to mine, I suddenly thought if I should give you a kiss. When I asked you if you like me, you answered ‘I like you a lot’, so I said ‘If two people like each other, they kiss’, then I kissed you.”

“At that time, I don’t think that my like was not the romantic one, though”

“But you did say that when we’re together, your heart beats fast, didn’t you?”

“Well, isn’t it obvious that would happen?”

“Then, that means you’ve already awakened to your romatic feelings at that time.”

“No, it’s possible to have your heart beat fast even if you didn’t love the other person, right?”

“I’ve already confirmed that as well. Haven’t you told me that ‘Other girls have never made your heart beat fast’?!”

“That’s because other people have never made my heart beat fast.”

“Then that just means your heart beat fast because you were in love with me, right?”

“No, that was because of how Natsuki normally did things……

Like when Natsuki had us touch a cactus, while she was removing the cactus thorns that got lodged in my hand after the deed, my heart was beating fast, but that was not a romantic situation, right?”

“What’s with the cactus thorns? Sounds like an interesting story.”

Makoto looked at Naoto with anticipation.

“Natsuki was really mean, you know.

Even though I said, ‘It would hurt if we touch it, that’s dangerous, she deliberately touched the cactus. Then saying ‘It’s alright, try touching it’, she tricked me into touching it.’ When I tried caressing it, I felt something wrong with my palm, when I turned my hand to look at it, about a hundred thorns got lodged in my palm!

When I think back at it calmly, it didn’t really hurt that much, but for the child me saw lots of cactus thorns sticking in my hand it was a frightening scene, I suddenly cried ‘It huuurts!’ Because of Natsuki, I became afraid of thorns.”

“I already said I’m sorry for that. I was not expecting you to go and grab it, after all.”

“It was because Natsuki said it’s alright…… even so lots of thorns were packed in this part, I had to keep my hands open wide, it felt like I would lose that hand.”

Naoto showed Natsuki the palm of one of his hands, and pointed at it with the other.

While looking at that hand,

“What happened with those thorns?”

Makoto asked with worry.

“While telling him ‘I’m sorry’, I pulled them out with a tweezer. But my hands were shaking while pulling out the thorns. Those cactus thorns have barbs, so when I pull on them, the skin where they were buried got pulled as well, and when I finally plucked them out, there’s a feeling of something snapping, it looked like it really hurt. I kept worrying on what should I do if some fragments of the thorns got left in his hand, that I wound up crying.”

“It would definitely make you cry in that situation, it was scary, after all.”

“On the other hand, Natsuki crying made me not to. So I said ‘My hand still hurt, so don’t touch it’, then proceeded to tickle her with both of my hands.”

“That’s right! This guy, knowing that I won’t be able to fight back because I’m worried for his hand, started to tickle me!”

“It was because Natsuki’s crying, I was just thinking of making you laugh.”

“Was that really the case?”

“Really. Even now, that’s my way of thinking.

I’m always thinking that from now on, every time Natsuki cries, I want to make you laugh. That why until Natsuki gets tired of it, please stay by my side.”

“Wha……. I’m fine with that, but it’s embarrassing, though.”

“Sorry, I just said something weird, haven’t I? Somewhat, if it’s about this thing, I didn’t really want to lie about it. When Natsuki eventually laughed back then, it made me so happy.

It might be because of that moment that I was able to say things like I like you or I’ll marry you whenever Natsuki’s crying. Would you forgive me for that?”

“I won’t forgive you. Liar. I won’t believe you anymore. If I told Nao-kun I reeeaaly hate you……., what would you do?”

“Eh……. That would make me cry, though.”

“If you ever act unfaithful to me, I will tell you that much.”

“I won’t do something like that.”

“Then, do a pinky promise later.”

“Pinky promise, that sounds really childhood friend-ish, more like, that’s really cute. It looks like you’ve done it a lot of times.”

Makoto smiled.

“We did a lot, but the promises we made back then were a bit meaningless, you know. Even Natsuki couldn’t be counted on keeping her promises in the past.”

“Is that so?”

“You know, while Natsuki was pulling out the thorns from my hand, she was really apologetic, saying ‘From now on, even if you hurt me, I won’t get mad and say it hurts, so please forgive me’, even so, in reality, whenever I end up hurting her, she would get mad at me for being hurt.”

“Because it really hurt! I would act like that in reflex.”

“What did he do to you? Was it really that painful?”

Makoto innocently asked Natsuki.

“Er……”

Natsuki, in a bind of how to answer the question, looked at Naoto.

“Don’t tell me, he didn’t bruise your body, did he, Natsuki-san?”

Makoto became flustered.

Naoto laughed.

“No, it’s not like I intentionally hurt Natsuki.

You know, when we were little, when she takes a bath, Natsuki would scratch her back with the faucet. I looked like she was really bothered with her scab itching, that she allowed me to remove it, but I botched it and blood came out.

When she told me it hurts, I was worried at first, but then I remembered, ‘Huh, speaking of, before she said……’ then when I told her ‘Didn’t you say that you won’t say it hurts before?’, somehow, we found it funny that the two of us ended up laughing.

Just like that, I tickled her in the back, then she turned around to get back at me, that act lifted her clothes and I ended up seeing her belly button, I suddenly felt that I’m doing something bad. At that moment, my heart was beating quiet fast as well.”

“What, so it’s just something like that. That’s kinda cute.”

“At any rate, having fun playing together—, telling me how she loves me each and every time—, and flirting in a cute way…… That would surely make any boy’s heart throb.”

“It really will! Although I’m a girl, I can say it will make a boy’s heart throb.”

“And then, I believe this happened far later after we started kissing each other, when Natsuki told me that she wanted to hear the beating of my heart, then proceeded to lift up my shirt. It felt embarrassing to have her hear my heartbeat, that my heart ended up beating fast.

Afterwards, I also told Natsuki that I want to hear her heartbeat as well. She was quite embarrassed that she wouldn’t even allow me to hear it on top of her clothes, that Natsuki was really cute, at the start I acted a bit stubborn and kept asking her, Natsuki with a bothered expression made my heart beat fast too.”

“Somehow, just hearing all that made the throbbing of my heart fast as well.”

“Right? I’ve experienced being like that a lot of times.

Ever since I started feeling that way, every day my heart kept beating fast, that gradually, I felt guilty telling her that I love her. The thought of my love being as great as Natsuki’s love for me never crossed my mind, you see.

Hearing that she loves me, kissing and embracing each other when were alone, and being able to do a bit of pervy stuff, any guy would have their heart beat fast.

Actually, since recently the beating of my heart towards Natsuki have romantic undertones in it. Just seeing her makes me happy, I worry whenever she’s sick or injured, when she’s doing her best, I always cheer her on in my mind, I think of things that will make me at least helpful to her. It was the same throbbing of the heart that I had back when I saw Tachibana-san.

In the past, my feelings of love were a more self-centered one.”

“But didn’t you love her as a woman even just a little bit?”

“Of course, in my own way as a child, I really loved her. However, I love her even more now, so it feels like the love I felt for her back then wasn’t romantic in nature.”

“Wouldn’t it be fine if you considered what you felt as a child real love and what you feel right now as super real love? Isn’t it possible?”

“But if I do that, wouldn’t it look like I have been in love with her the whole time?”

“But that’s actually the case, isn’t it?”

“No wouldn’t that be too embarrassing?

Even though we finally got into the same high school, while thinking ‘Getting excited just by seeing Natsuki all grown up this cute. I’m unworthy of calling out to Natsuki at this rate.’, my heart kept beating fast at the sight of her back, it almost made me cry every day, you know.”

“That’s definitely love!”

“Hmmm, is that really so? Because of Tachibana-san telling me ‘Are you stupid?’ when I confessed to her, I was afraid of facing Natsuki. Even if Natsuki would strike a conversation with me, the feeling that she might be hating me in reality couldn’t be erased from my mind.”

“So it’s Haruka’s fault!”

“I’m not really faulting Tachibana-san for this, but I’m wondering if it would’ve been better if I gathered my courage much earlier. If I reached out to Nagatomo-san via a message, I might’ve learned of Tachibana-san’s fear of men, and I might’ve mended my friendship with Natsuki at an earlier stage.

At any rate I like girls more than hanging out with guys, so I shouldn’t have been afraid of talking with girls, ain’t that right?”

“That’s right—. You’re not afraid of me, right?”

“I would think there’s would virtually no one who would be afraid of Nagatomo-san.”

“Ah—-, you’re making fun of me since you’re the only one who gets to grow taller!”

“No, I just understand that you’re kind and that you’re good at taking care of others. Back when you gave me your contact info when I was lost, you were like an older sister. If I wasn’t able to message Nagatomo-san, I wouldn’t have been able to meet with Tachibana-san.”

“Eh, you’re having me take the credit for that?”

“Yeah, because that’s really how it happened. Me and Iida really owe you big time. Right?”

“Yeah, I also told her that earlier. It’s really a miracle that Nagatomo-san happened to be going at the neighboring high school.”

Said Iida.

“Eh? Speaking of, we’re friends right, Iida?”

“What are you suddenly on about?”

“We’re friends right, Iida?”

“Dude, you’re scaring me, why are you asking me that way?”

“No, it’s just that I don’t have any guy friends. Natsuki was actually worried about it, and made a promise to me before this, you see. If I ever made friends with a guy, for just one day, she would act like a wife and make me food and sleep together with me.

Iida, you’re totally my friend, right?”

“We’re not friends.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it would be frustrating to call you my friend.”

“Don’t tell me, Iida who’s also known as the eloquent Iida-kun is being jealous right now?”

“Being jealous is already a given! I’m really envious!”

Natsuki was happily listening to Naoto’s conversation with the others.

“Would you really act as his wife for one day?”

Sakurako asked Natsuki, clearly interested.

“Eh—…… It would be embarrassing though.”

Natsuki shyly looked down.

Sakurako sat beside Natsuki while grinning,