It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 4 - 4 - I Want to Be Honest

I Want to Be Honest

“I don’t like salmon skin, so if it’s alright, will you have mine?”

“Is it alright? Thanks.”

Naoto, who received salmon skin from Natsuki, while feeling happy about Aki’s proposal, transferred the salmon skin to his meal.

In the farthest table in the school cafeteria, the five members who were together yesterday started eating lunch.

“Today’s quite lavish, huh.”

Naoto happily took a bite of the salmon skin.

“Dude, you’re really cheerful today. I don’t really have that much appetite right now.”

Iida sighed while chewing on his favorite karaage.

“Iida, is that alright?”

“What is?”

“I’m asking if you’ll be alright meeting up today if you don’t eat that much because you don’t have an appetite.”

“Today?! So that talk about meeting up today was a sure thing?”

“It’s still not a sure thing, but it would be good preparing for today with that mindset.”

Said Naoto.

“Somehow, I don’t really think that it would be today.”

“If I can, I really want to do it today. I want to settle it as soon as possible to allay Oshida-san’s worries.”

“Aah, so it would be a bother to Oshida-san if we don’t do it sooner, huh. I completely forgot about that, sorry.”

Iida apologized to Natsuki.

“I’m not really in that much of a hurry, but Morita-kun’s been really eager since early this morning.”

Natsuki said with a smile.

“Yesterday, because of a headache I couldn’t sleep, so I used the time to think about a lot of things, but I came to the conclusion that there’s no meaning in putting it off for later. So, I decided to put all my spirit into it like what you’re seeing right now.

While our morale is still high because of the girls cheering for us, we should settle this with a bang. Based from my experience, leaving something like this for later isn’t good, you will only lose the courage to do it.”

Naoto expressed his most cherished opinion.

“That you can’t sleep because of headache, is that caused by some worries?”

Aki asked Naoto.

“No, when I looked it up, it looks like it was caused by dehydration. Yesterday when I woke up from my nap, I haven’t rehydrated at all, then when I cried in that condition, I lost much water in my body. When it came morning and right now, my head didn’t hurt at all.”

“Well, dehydration is possible in that case.”

Iida, remembering the manner at which Naoto cried, was in agreement.

“Of course, there may be a possibility that my headache was brought about by worries, so for me, I would really like to settle this as soon as possible. If Iida’s in, I want us to make our move today.”

Seeing how Naoto, in a rare moment, clearly talked about his opinion, made Iida want to come to grips with his feelings.

“I understand. I also think it’s better if we do it that way.”

“So then, Nagatomo-san who is Mori-san’s, ah—- Mori-san is that person we’ve been talking about, okay? Nagatomo-san is the person who always appeared to be Mori-san’s closest friend, so I sent her a message, but it looked like using smartphone during class is strictly prohibited in Mori-san’s school.”

Naoto started explaining while looking at his smartphone.

“No, it’s not like our school allows us to use smartphones during class.”

Iida interjected.

“Yeah, but at her school, it looked like just the vibration from a smartphone that one forgot to turn off is enough to be made to write a reflection essay. After a year and a half, it became a serious routine for everyone to turn off their smartphones, it seems.

There’s that, but it looks like Mori-san hasn’t responded back to her yet. Either way, we should also ask some details from Nagatomo-san, right? Like if Mori-san already have a boyfriend or what.”

“Or rather, doing that makes everything proceed faster.”

Iida replied looking like he’s smiling, but no one returned back even something of a gesture. However, knowing that their silence was born from kindness and sympathy, Iida felt his chest burning up.

“……So then, on the way home, we’re going to rendezvous with Nagatomo-san, so I want everyone to come as well.”

Naoto asked.

“Eh? Asking that much would certainly be a bother to everyone, ain’t it? Where are we going to meet her?”

“We are to assemble at the school gate. Nagatomo-san goes to the neighboring high school after all.”

“She’s attending that school? Haven’t seen her though.”

“It might be because your school times are fundamentally different. Sometimes, our schedules line up. After I got a bit familiar with the road to school and Iida stopped going to school with me, I’ve come across Nagatomo-san many times, so I had her walk the road to school with me so I won’t get lost.

That time I told her ‘Yesterday, I was late going home so it was already dark on the way, my smartphone was also out of battery, when I got lost on the way, it suddenly rained. Due to that, I have a cold right now, so I’ll walk a little farther form you so that you won’t get it.’, so she gave me her contact info, telling me to contact her whenever I’m in trouble.

However, just by not meeting her for a while, I completely forgot what Nagatomo-san looked like. Whenever I see someone that looked like her, I have already memorized the way to school, so from then on, I had never approached her. It was also my first time reaching out to her through her contact info, so I had no idea what she really looks like. do you remember, Iida?”

“No, what should we do?”

“In the first place, you do know how to get there, right?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t know.”

“Thought so, then we might have some trouble the moment we meet up. I wouldn’t recognize her if she got taller. If a person who looks like her shows up, Iida, you call out to them, hit or miss.”

“No way! Aren’t you the one who’s close to her, Morita?”

“I’m not good at striking up conversation with girls.”

“This whole operation’s your idea, man.”

“Iida, you always looked fine striking up conversations, right? Somehow, yesterday and today as well, my impression of you has changed.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you!”

Seeing the banter between Naoto and Iida, the girls sitting with them laughed. In the middle of their conversation, Iida’s appetite flared up, that he completely ate up his karaage set meal.

Afterschool. In front of the school gate. As the two high schools’ schedule for students to go home overlapped, the way to the train station was full of students.

“If we can just properly greet them, we might be able to be friends with any people here.”

Naoto muttered while staring at the skirts of the female students. When she heard that, Aki laughed, so Naoto thought that where he’s looking at got fund out, then he became a little embarrassed.

While worrying on how to rephrase his earlier statement, Naoto received a message.

“Ah, she said she can see us.”

Said Naoto, then stopped leaning at the school gate.

It was because the person who they planned to meet, Nagatomo Makoto, found them first before the other way around.

“Where?”

Natsuki asked Naoto.

“I don’t really know because of my poor eyesight. In the meantime, it’s the shortest person around, if she didn’t grow any taller. That’s why if there are any people in front of her, we won’t be able to see her.”

Naoto answered while storing his smartphone.

At that time, Iida found Makoto.

“Ah, I see her. She’s just as short as back then. Yes, yes, that appearance, that way of walking like she’ll fall down at any moment. That person’s always near her for the most part, so it was easy to spot Mori-san during places like on the way home from school.”

“Morimori, long time no see——!”

Makoto, who’s still a distance from them, said in a loud voice, so every other person around looked at her direction.

“Now that I remember, she would sometimes speak in a loud voice, right?”

Iida muttered in a low voice.

“It always put me at ease whenever I hear her loud voice. Whenever someone finds me talking with her, it doesn’t make me feel embarrassed, after all.”

Said Naoto, floated a smile, and approached Makoto.

“Uwa—, Morimori you grew rea—-lly ta—ll! You traitor!”

Makoto said while looking up at Naoto’s face, placed her hand on her head to measure her height, and compared it to Naoto.

“Stand straight. Ueeh, huge……”

“Before I knew it, I somehow grew taller. Not enough to be in the average, though.”

Naoto was happy, but feeling embarrassed  at being overjoyed about his height in front of Natsuki, so he restrained himself from showing it.

“That’s really awesome, though. You did say you’ve been eating a lot of food from your school cafeteria. So it really was a problem with your diet, huh.”

“Well, the hashed potatoes are really delicious.”

“I’m so jealous—-. Would I have grown taller If went to your school instead?

Er, are these the people you asked advice from?”

Makoto saw the four people behind Naoto.

“Somehow, that person looked like that weird person called Iida, he’s always in a frenzy, so you should avoid talking to him that much.”

“The hell did you say, you shorty?!”

Iida, who had been nervous due to nervousness, opened his mouth as expected.

“Ahaha, of course I know you, Iida-kun.”

Makoto laughed hard, so Naoto calmed down a bit.

That’s right, Iida-san was supposed to be the person that Mori-san likes, so I suppose she would remember at least what Iida-kun’s appearance.

“That’s not it, were his friends.”

“The two of them are friends who I asked advice for what we’re going to talk about right now and…… this person is a very important person tome, right now we’re going out with each other.”

Naoto felt embarrassed using the word girlfriend in front of his old friend.

“Eh—- your girlfriend?! Even though you said you wouldn’t be able to make a girlfriend in your lifetime!”

“Well, it’s just that I became aware of my own feeling or rather…”

“Fuaa—– I’m jealous. I also want to have a boyfriend.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend?”

“I don’t have. I feel like no one really wants to be my partner. Same as before, the guys are always teasing me because of my height.”

“Maybe, that’s because those guys wanted to talk with Nagatomo-san. Haven’t you got invited to a date or something?”

“None at all. No one would like to go out with someone like me, after all.”

“That’s unusual. You’re really cute, though.”

“Haa?! What in the world are you saying?!”

Makoto was used to being called cute by girls, but that was the first time a guy called her as such.

“I really like short people, though. Everyone just doesn’t have a discerning eye. From our time in middle school, I used to think with wonder ‘Nagatomo-san is just as cute as Mori-san, though.’”

“Is it okay to say such a thing in front of your girlfriend?”

Hearing Naoto’s words, Makoto unconsciously worried.

“I don’t know, but if she does get mad at me then I won’t be doing it again starting tomorrow.

Until yesterday, I’ve been checking each and every expression this person makes, but I totally can’t really understand what I’m doing right or what I’m doing wrong. It’s really bothersome thinking to myself ‘Is it okay to say this?’ each time.

Even me meeting Mori-san was this person’s idea. I reached out to my common sense, and ended up thinking how could I do such a thing as meeting the person I had a crush before.

When I told Iida that I can’t go to meet her, this person told me something to the effect of ‘Wouldn’t it be good meeting her? Can you live the rest of your life with that resolve?’, I was really surprised.”

“Eeh—-! Mi-, Ms. Girlfriend is amazing!”

“Something like that happened, so today since this morning, I’ve been trying speaking what’s on my mind without any heed. If I did say something I shouldn’t have, I will be scolded a lot, then forgiven about it once I reflected on it, I think. That’s why I just honestly said you’re cute since that’s what’s on my mind.

But, well, Natsuki already knows I like shorter people than me, and even if I try to hide it, she already knows almost anything about how I interact with you. She seems to have known about a lot.”

“Eh, is it true that you already know?”

Makoto thoughtlessly asked Natsuki.

“I’m still on the stage of checking his mannerisms whenever he interacts with other people, so I only really know just a little.

For example, whenever I think he’s looking at other girls I would purposely glare at him, then when our eyes meet up, he always gets surprised. But when he’s looking at guys, or looking at the scenery, he doesn’t get surprised.”

“So that was on purpose? I was really scared that time. I was only thinking things like how I want to see Natsuki in whatever that girl was wearing.”

Naoto tried to remember that time, and protested to Natsuki.

“Though isn’t it unusual how you were gazing on girls with shorter height too much?”

“That’s just your imagination. Certainly, whenever I’m alone I often look at them, but when I’m with Natsuki, I only keep it in mind to only keep my eyes on you. Besides, as far as I’m concerned, in terms of attractiveness, only few girls can match up to Natsuki. Even during break time, my gaze is always at Natsuki. I swear.

Next time you think that I’m looking at another girl, try asking me about it, I’ll definitely tell you the reason I’m looking.”

Seeing how Naoto said it looking all confident, Natsuki ended up blushing.

Makoto had a surprised look on her face,

“Was Morita-kun really looking at shorter girls that much? But you haven’t gazed at me even once, right?”

“Well, in case of the middle schooler me, I would be in trouble if Mori-san found out, so I’ve been looking at Nagatomo-san from the back. I was also paying attention to be discreet so I won’t be caught.

There were quite a lot of guys who’re into short but energetic girls, I think. It’s really encouraging, or rather, they’re cheerfulness can be contagious. Iida’s also quite short, so he also likes short girls.”

“You too, Iida-kun?”

Makoto stared at Iida.

Iida looked away from Makoto’s stare,

“No, well, um, I do like them. Morita, you’ve really been vigorously talking right now, huh.”

He answered shyly.

“That because even though Nagatomo-san is really cute, it’s would be kinda wasted if she lost her confidence because of having the wrong idea. Mori-san and Nagatomo-san are important friends to me, so I want them to be in a happy kind of romance. Actually, if only I’ve said it honestly like this at that time, Iida could’ve easily been able to ask love advice from Nagatomo-san.

We, the two of us boys only kept talking about gloomy stuff, wasn’t it such a waste of time?”

“Really—–, even though Iida-kun could’ve asked me for advice—–! I thought that you were thinking of me as a hindrance, Iida-kun.”

“That’s easily said than done though. At that time, for the two of us, saying it honestly was such a big deal.”

Iida complained to Makoto.

“Why? Am I scary?”

Asked Makoto. Sakurako laughed imagining Iida being scared of Makoto.

Iida blushed from being laughed at by Sakurako,

“You’re not scary, it’s just embarrassing.”

“Me too, even in this day, I’m still getting embarrassed, but these people, for the most part, they’re tolerant of whatever we say, you know. If they don’t like what I said, they tell me they don’t like it.

The girls act more mature than guys, right? There were many times in girls asked me with kindness, ‘Morita-kun, is the someone you have feelings for?’ I embarrassingly pretended I don’t have someone I like, and in the end, it was us who lost. From now on, we need to be honest to girls. If we get dumped because of it, then there’s nothing we can do about it.”

“That might be the case, but aren’t you changing yourself too drastically today, dude?”

“Well, I kinda felt like it today. I’m really eager, you know. Yesterday, when Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san listened to my story, I was really happy. Ah, this person here is Ninomiya-san, and this is Hirose-san. They’re also good people.”

Naoto introduced the two of them to Makoto,

“I’ve really made more progress talking with Ninomiya-san and Hirose-san for just one hour, than talking with Iida for two years. Whenever I play with Iida, there’s no progress.”

He smiled while looking at Iida.

“It hurts that you only say the honest things!”

Iida lamented.

“You’ll do your best, won’t you?”

Makoto took the effort to stand on tiptoes to pat Iida on the head.

“……Er, yeah, I’ll do my best. I’ll be honest.”

Iida replied, looking happy.

“Ah— Iida’s amazing. Natsuki, after this, pat me lots on the head please!”

Naoto, looking envious, entreated Natsuki.

“Your voice is too loud!”

She happily told Naoto, then pressed down his head.

“Today’s Morita is the strongest I’ve seen this guy.”

After Iida said that, everyone laughed.