It’s Too Early to be Having Newlywed Syndrome! ~Childhood Friends Who Rekindled their Love for Each Other ~ - 5 - 4 - I Absolutely Won’t Do Anything

I Absolutely Won’t Do Anything

“Now that I think about it, this’ll be my first date, huh—. I’m so nervous, what should I do?”

Sakurako released a sigh once she finished her coffee which has gotten cold. Even the plate of donuts was already being disposed of.

“Iida-kun must also being anxious right now.”

Natsuki, thinking that Sakurako will jump in with her line of thought, said, planning to cheer her up.

“Now, Iida-kun doesn’t even think of this as a date. Woouldn’t he just be thinking ‘This girl is convenient’?”

“Eh, you’ve suddenly become timid. What’s wrong?”

“Because, Iida-kun didn’t even hesitated for a bit. By any chance, might he not be thinking that he’s going shopping alone with me?”

“Eh—, but based from what I heard, it feels like it was very clear that the two of you alone will be choosing what he’ll wear. When Iida was wondering what should he do with his clothes, didn’t Sakurako said that if it’s you, you’re always free, right? Moreover, Iida-kun asked you once if he’s not being a bother.”

Natsuki confirmed.

“But there’s a possibility I’m misunderstanding something. I even misunderstood that ‘egg’ part of ‘egg day’.

——Speaking of, he’s definitely thinking I’m an idiot.”

“Don’t worry, that kind of thing is cute.

Isn’t Iida-kun kind of interested in Sakurako? Giving one’s ok to spend their birthday with one person of the opposite sex, is a considerable thing.”

“Is that so… It looks like Iida-kun’s type are the studious girls like Tachibana-san……”

“Come to think of it, it seems Morita-kun fell in love with Tachibana-san because he’s been under her care, but I wonder if Iida-kun developed feelings for her for the same reason.”

“Those types who likes taking care of others are my total opposite—”

“Aren’t you good at looking after other girls, Sakurako?”

“Right, with other girls. I haven’t fixed a button on a boy’s uniform, I haven’t even folded any guy’s gym uniform.”

“But you’ve made okonomiyaki for one.”

“That’s because I was asked to do so, that’s a bit different. If it’s Tachibana-san, she might’ve noticed without being asked, and happily made him okonomiyaki of her own volition, wouldn’t she? She’ll say something like ‘Since you can’t make one lend me that, this is how you do it.’

I don’t think I had attended to any guys that way. Thinking that way, I couldn’t help but self as outside Iida-kun’s range.”

“But we don’t know if Iida-kun really fell in love with her because of that.”

“Would Morita-kun know the true reason?”

“If you’re really curious about it, should I already send him a message and reveal everything?”

“I think so—…… In the case that anything that can make him fall in love with anyone cannot be found in me, I’ll think of a countermeasure for it.”

“Then, I’m gonna send it to him.”

“Ah, wait. As I thought, I’ll ask him myself once his settled down after that novel business. I might probably ask Morita-kun a lot of questions. That’s something Tachibana-san might do.”

Natsuki thought of Sakurako as being sweet.

“What do you want to know about Iida-kun?”

“For the time being, what clothes should I wear on the day of our clothes-hunting date.”

“I don’t think Nao-kun knows Iida kun-s preferences in girl’s clothing.”

“I still want to ask since I want to know what guy’s generally like with girl’s outfit. Natsuki, how was your first date wearing civvies after growing up?”

“I don’t know if I’ll call it a date, but my first time was when Nao-kun brought me to his part-time job.

But in my case, I always wore casual clothes whenever we we’re playing back when I was a kid, even after that, we would pass each other in our casuals, so compared to Sakurako, I might not be in that much of a pressure. Besides, he instructed me to wear warm clothes so that my stomach wouldn’t get cold, so wearing warm clothing would be good at any rate.”

“That’s right, that’s back when your stomach was still hurting.”

“Yeah. That’s why, because of my cystitis he regulated everything and even made what I eat. Anyhow, he’s kind. I thought that he’s really different compared to when we’re kids. That’s cheating.”

“He wasn’t kind in the past?”

“He was kind, but back then he still couldn’t put it into words. Whenever I cut my finger or have a fever, he would just look at me all bewildered. I knew that he was worried about me, but I have to avoid playing any strenuous games until I completely recovered. And when we want to play together once I recovered, I would basically have to be the one to say so.

Even so, although I’m not completely healed yet, he would hang out with me, but he would also worry a lot. He learned how to prepare meals at his part time job, and was even considerately thought of not putting in yuzu and diluting the soy sauce he put in. The gap between that and during the time he couldn’t do anything was so great. That’s why, it was already the greatest first date we had.”

“I’m envious you got to be treated kindly like that. If that’s the case, then you’re not that much nervous, weren’t you?”

“I was nervous, even before we went, my heart was beating fast. However, I don’t recall it as me being nervous that I might make a blunder. It’s like the feeling you have a day before an on the day of an outing.

Because he was kind to me the day before and even the day before that, I was able to gain back a bit of my self-confidence. He prepared roasted green tea for me, it’s like I’m already being treated like a princess. I was getting excited because of the possibility that we might return to being friends just like in the past.”

“Gee, I wonder why you stopped hanging out for many years when it only took you three days to be friends again.”

“Maybe it really was because I stopped coming to his room. On times like when Nao-kun had a cold, we were able to be on friendly terms with each other. When it was just the two of us on either of our rooms, we were able to be honest with ourselves, you see.”

“So there were some days where you’re on good terms with each other just like when he got a cold, right?

I think it would’ve been good if you took the opportunity to be flirty with each other again on the next day after those instances.”

“The bar has become too high in terms of going to each other’s room without any business in mind. It felt like freely coming to hang out and play together was not a proper reason anymore.”

“I do somehow understand where you’re coming from since I also don’t play that much with my friends from grade school and middle school. But it’s still a mystery how you got so estranged like that even though you’re neighbors in the same apartment complex.”

“Seeing each other for a while is a must, you see. Even Nao-kun gets nervous when we ride the elevator together.”

“Why?”

“It seems like he couldn’t help but see me as cute. When he looks at my shoulder, he remembers the times we embraced each other, when he looks at my lips, he remembers the times we kissed, and when he looks at my head, he remembers the times he patted me……something like that.”

Natsuki talked while recalling Naoto’s words, but as expected, she left out the part where he said ‘When I look at your chest, I remember what happened at Health Land’.

“Morita-kun do always say how Natsuki is very cute. Maybe being apart from each other once has made him aware of your cuteness.

Were those times rough for you, Natsuki?”

“It’s not really that rough back during middle school. In the first place, I don’t see him that much back then. I think I had the roughest time in our first year of high school, in a sense that even though we can see each other he didn’t get himself involved with me. We do run into each other sometimes, after all.”

“So it was not during the second year of high school.”

“We are on the same class in second year, after all, so we would speak to each other sometimes. Even if I became a bit uneasy, talking to him for a short time made me happy knowing that he might not be a case of him disliking me.

Aah, so he has a friend, he’s still bad at physical ed and good at Japanese and math, I was able to learn things about him. Also that he has no girlfriend.”

“You were aiming for him all those times? Rather than an unrequited love, didn’t you say your feelings for Morita-kun calmed down for a time?”

“It did, but I was keeping an eye at Nao-kun. Some strange girl might take advantage of him and use him as her piggy bank.”

“That doesn’t sound like your feelings calmed down at all.”

“It did calm down—. At least compared to our first year in high school.”

“How worse is it back in first year?”

“Back in first year, since he’s presence is near even though I can’t usually talk to him, I was feeling insecure. It was because I have no idea whether Nao-kun has made some friends or not. Whenever our eyes met in the hallway and he ignored it, I would immediately be anxious.”

“So he ignored you, huh?”

“Calling it being ignored might be too much, but that’s mean, right?”

“I wouldn’t call it mean, but if Morita-kun ignored me in the hallway, even I would lose self-confidence.”

“Right? It will make you lose self-confidence. I wouldn’t be able to go to his room hang out with him like that.”

“Yeah, that might be impossible. It would make me enter unrequited love mode as well.”

“I was in very great unrequited love mode. It was not good for my heart—”

“So he didn’t treat you kindly for that long, huh.”

“My first year was really rough. Maybe I’ll tease Nao-kun with the story of my first year in high school once I’m home.

Ah, but he was really kind to me that time I forgot the key to our apartment. He would extremely treat me like a girl. That might be the first time I was treated like that.”

“E—h, what’s that, what’s that?! What was that thing done to you for the time?!”

Sakurako leaned forward.

Natsuki was startled because of Sakurako was fiercely interested,

“I-, it’s not really that big of a deal.”

“Fine by me, so spill the beans already.”

Sakurako pressed further in her excitement.

“Erm, I called my mom to tell her that I forgot our key, so my mom called Nao-kun’s mom, until Nao-kun learned of it. Even though Nao-kun was shopping with his mom, he ran home while carrying the goods they bought from the supermarket. Even though he hates running, he did so as fast as he could.

And then, Nao-kun acted strangely. When he went out of the elevator, he pretended to be calm while walking leisurely, but he was breathing heavily. Even in the case that I didn’t saw him do it, it was obvious that he ran in his state.

When I told him ‘I saw you running from the window’, he said ‘Why were you looking?’ then laughed embarrassingly.

While taking his luggage in one hand I laughed, saying ‘It’s not like you need to run on the way here’, he said ‘Right now, it’s really dangerous for a girl to be alone in the apartment’s hallways. I heard there was a molester hanging about by the elevator. The police even came to our home to ask about it, they even woke me up from my sleep. They said it was a short guy, so I was ruled out.’”

“So Nao-kun ran because he’s worried about you.”

“I also thought that too, so I asked him ‘You were worried about me?’, he asked back ‘Are you grossed out that I feel worried for you?’, so I answered ‘I’m not grossed out, I’m very happy in fact.’”

“That’s quite the good mood.”

“Then, while getting the orientation of key wrong in his hurrying, Nao-kun told me ‘You might be feeling in danger with me as well, but I absolutely won’t do anything to you so you don’t need to be worried, my mother is also on the way home.’, doing his utmost to express that, he let me in their home. I thought that he must’ve been thinking of a way to invite me in their home without acting nervous while running to the apartment. I ended up grinning.”

“I love developments like that very much.”

“Right? I love those things as well.”

“But isn’t that a bit disappointing for you, Natsuki? That you’re time together alone was only short.”

Natsuki disagreed while smiling.

“Not really. Nao-kun’s mother took quite a while to return home. That’s why we were able to talk a lot. At that time it was not coffee but black tea, but we were facing each other and drinking it just like what we’re doing right now——”