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

That’s Definitely Mutual Love

“Well then. I wonder if this inconsiderate human brought out drinks for Nat-chan here.”

While taking of her shoes at the entrance, Naoto’s mother teased her son.

“More importantly, what took you so long?”

Naoto complained in a sulky behavior.

“After you left, I thought of a good idea, so I returned to the supermarket. Since it’s been a while since Nat-chan came to our home, I came up with the idea to make our diner sukiyaki.”

“And what would you do if Oshida-san has already ate something on the way home?”

“Of course, I will make it after asking Nat-chan if she’s hungry.”

Natsuki smiled while listening to their conversation.

As I thought, he’s mom would really be coming home soon. Even if he pretends to be a bad guy, Morita-kun’s not scary at all.

“Ara?!”

Seeing the shopping bag neatly folded in the table, Naoto’s mother was exaggeratedly glad.

“You put all our groceries on the fridge, didn’t you Nat-chan?! My son would never do such a thing, after all.”

“Together with Morita-kun, the two of us put the groceries in.”

“Eeh—- is that true?! Maybe if Nat-chan’s here, this son of mine will do a bit of the house chores. Do come here sometimes—-”

“Is it alright?”

“He does nothing but play games and read manga in the house when there’s no school, so if you feel like it, take him outside sometimes, Nat-chan.”

Naoto who was listening to their conversation, kept quiet and made a beeline to the restroom. The conversation has become embarrassing for Naoto, so he escaped before he’s brought into it.

Naoto’s mother, who saw him walking in a bad mood, heaved a sigh.

“That kid, he doesn’t say anything, right? I’m sorry. It’s not like I’m scolding him or anything, but he just became silent. He also doesn’t talk at all usually.”

Hearing that, Natsuki was surprised.

“Morita-kun has been talking about lots of things since earlier. Like there’s apparently a molester in the apartments so I need to be careful——”

“Yes, yes, that’s true! Days before, the police and a girl came to our home. I was so shocked that such a thing happened. What’s more, that girl is a student. Even though I told him that since Nat-chan has also become very cute, will she be alright, he just ignored me, he ignored me!”

“Morita-kun told me that I should be careful around guys since I became cute, he was really worried about me.”

“Ara, really?! As I thought, he really treasures Nat-chan.

Just knowing that makes me feel better.”

“I don’t know if that’s him treasuring me or not, though.”

Said Natsuki, feeling pain in her chest.

“He treasures you, surely. Id it’s alright with you, you can use him as a bodyguard when you’re walking to school.

——Nat-chan, how about dinner? Can you eat?”

“I’m kinda hungry right now. I haven’t eaten anything after lunch at school.”

“Then, I’ll be preparing sukiyaki immediately, just wait.”

“Can I help with anything?”

“It’s alright, it’s alright, just go hang around. Auntie here is already happy just being able to eat with Nat-chan.”

Naoto’s mother said,

“You know my son, if Nat-chan’s the one to serve the food while telling him ‘You need to eat these as well’, then even he will eat tofu without complaining.”

And then laughed.

“Really, his attitude’s very different after all.”

“If it’s in the present, I don’t know whether he’ll properly eat it though.”

“He’ll definitely eat it. I’ll kick him out of the house otherwise.”

“Eeh—, I feel too bad for him.”

“——Then, Naoto’s mom teased me, saying ‘Nat-chan, don’t pick him up and feed him anything. He’ll stick to you if you do.’”

Natsuki, reminiscing about the past until that point, drank her coffee and took a breather.

“Uwa—-, listening to all that made my heart throb. It looks like Morita-kun’s mom knew about everything.”

Sakurako, absorbed in listening to the story of Natsuki’s past, completely forgot about her love consultation.

“I wonder, but it wouldn’t be strange if she found out about it. For the meantime I did as Nao-kun’s mom said and hanged around the house, and until the sukiyaki’s ready me and Nao-kun played video games that we used to play together in the past.

There saved data was still there, with the female character named ‘Natsuki’, moreover it’s equipped with the best equipment in the game, that I unconsciously asked about it.”

“Aren’t you being loved.”

“It not like that, it seems like equipment for female characters have higher stats in the game. Like, the dress was the strongest armor and such. He hurriedly explained that there are also towns where only male characters get damaged, and that only males are susceptible to charm attacks. Even way before, when his mom asked him about it, he used the same explanation, so even though I know it’s bad to laugh at him, I was so happy that I ended up doing so anyway.”

“Aah, yeah that’s how he is—-. Before, I also had a lively conversation like that with Morita-kun. Both me and Morita-kun, whenever we play video games where you can choose the gender of the character for the first time, we select female characters.”

“I already forgot such a basic thing, so it became too awkward that he panicked. I said that our moms did ask the same thing in the past, then immediately apologized. All while laughing, though.”

“Even though it’s a basic thing, you wouldn’t know about it until you play the game continuously, and even if you knew about it, you can forget about it.”

“Nao-kun also said the same thing to me. But if you ask my opinion, forgetting the things in the game that the two of us played to the finish is embarrassing. He said all sorts of things like ‘It would be better putting all the good equipment to Nat-chan’ while we’re side-by-side, how did I forget that?”

“You shouldn’t be too worried about things like that. Gamers themselves understand that ordinary people see them as out of common sense. Even I have things that I can only ask or talk about with Morita-kun. Like when I was curious on how the order of important items changes depending on the order they are obtained, so I secretly asked him about it.”

“So it’s like that. You’re indeed knowledgeable when it comes to video games, Sakurako. It seems like Iida-kun’s into video games as well.”

“About that, do you think I’ll get closer to Iida-kun if we play card games?”

“Ah— I see, with that, you can talk to each other while playing.”

“That’s right. It’s possible with games like trump cards.”

“Can you also play card games, Sakurako?”

“I haven’t played card games before, but there’s a video game that Morita-kun lent me that’s a combination of card games and board games, and I really liked it.”

“Ah, I might know what game it is. It’s the one with the stylish-looking dice, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Why do you know about it?”

“I somewhat got interested in what the winning rate in the game is, so to investigate, I would leave a match on auto. When I know that I’ll be going to my room, I will leave the game console and my smartphone on auto and let them play something.”

“That kind of leaving the game on auto, I also do that before I go to take a bath!”

“It seems like Iida-kun’s doing it as well. I heard that he doesn’t miss starting the game in the middle of class.”

“Is that so?! By any chance, doesn’t mine and Iida-kun’s hobbies perfectly match? We both like game arcades as well after all.”

“Sakurako and Iida-kun have a good affinity. I mean we should return to Sakurako’s consultation.”

“I can’t, I can’t, I’m too curious about Morita-kun’s tofu that I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. Finish telling that story first.”

“Is the story about the tofu that important?!”

“Rather than tofu, it’s about sukiyaki, right? Doesn’t sukiyaki sound’s kinda couple-ish?”

“When we ate sukiyaki, well, it’s the as always with me eating on the seat beside Nao-kun. It was delicious.”

“Did Morita-kun eat your tofu?”

“Yeah, he ate all of it. But well, he said that he likes meat so he just wanted to eat them first, and that it’s not like he hates tofu, so even though his mom would serve it to him, it seemed like he properly eats tofu while complaining.”

“But Morita-kun did not complain when he ate Natsuki’s tofu, right? That’s cute of him.”

“He didn’t say any complaints, but he was silent the whole time when he received it. I worried if he will hate me if I give him lots of tofu, so while trembling, I added more and more tofu.

Whenever I serve him tofu together with the meat while asking ‘Is this much alright?’, Nao-kun would embarrassingly nod his head. And then when his plate’s empty I would refill it once more, and the scene before repeated. Even when serving him seconds of rice. He was munching so much I worried if it’s alright for him to eat that much. I was so surprised when his stomach grew big.

When I worried about his stomach, Nao-kun, taking the opportunity when his mom stood up and walked away from the table to secretly tell me ‘Thank you’ in a small voice. We didn’t meet each other’s eyes, but Nao-kun was red to his ears. I felt that I might fall in love with him again.”

“Rather than might be falling in love, that’s definitely already mutual love. If a confession happened that day, then you would’ve been going out since that time.”

“You wouldn’t know about that.”

“I’m telling you, I know!”

“He didn’t tell me he likes me, so it might just be him being kind.”

“Why—? In Morita-kun’s case, isn’t he very easy to read? Just by hearing about it, it’s so obvious that he really cares about you.”

“Then, how about if I say ‘Promising to eat with Iida-kun on his birthday, there’s definitely mutual love between the two of you’?”

“You wouldn’t know about that.”

“See?! You also said ‘You wouldn’t know about that.’”

“If I was like Natsuki back then, who was told lots of things like I’m cute or he’s worried about me or thank you, then I would already get that it was mutual love.”

“Then, if Iida-kun tells you that you’re cute, or he’s worried about you, or thank you, would you go out with him?”

“I wouldn’t go as far as go out with him, but from the next day onwards I will talk to him lots.”

“Really—?”

“When I reasonably know that he likes me, I’m planning to be considerably aggressive. It’ll all be fine if I take the opportunity when we’ve become close to make him like me.”

“I see. Although when I tried to do that when I was a kid, I ended up being pushed down.”

“That is true. I’m sorry.”

“Sakurako has nothing to apologize for, though. The both of us might’ve become weak-willed. I was truly happy when he ran for me and worried about me, after that, I regained a bit of my confidence.

I routinely tried to tell him in places like the elevator that I’ve been following what Morita-kun said, so he don’t need to worry about me.

However, he would only say I’m sorry or thank you, so we weren’t able to talk lots like we did back in his place.”

“But I bet Morita-kun’s happy hearing that from you.”

“I wonder. Even though I kept giving him hints that I don’t have a boyfriend, it didn’t get through to him. When I got cystitis, he even asked me if I have one.”

“Well, you didn’t actually spell out that you didn’t have a boyfriend.”

“But still, wanting to ask me directly about it he called me to his room, and when I arrived, I was asked with a serious face, it’s not surprising I would think that it might be a confession. After that, he earnestly said that if I have a boyfriend, it might easily worsen my cystitis so I have to be careful.

I was already embarrassed by that point. Immediately being nice to me when I became ill, such a thing’s so unfair.”

“That will make one embarrassed.”

“Right? Because Nao-kun was so worried about me that he looked up aobut lots of things, it will make me weirdly expect something, right? I became somewhat frustrated.”

“Why?!”

“Because, he made my heart throb for three day straight, I thought that it was bad for me.

Nao-kun said that he’s ear hurt, so I gave him a lap pillow and cleaned his ear. I also took that opportunity to invite him to Christmas.

When I took the initiative, we were able to talk a lot, in an instant, I was able to return the same atmosphere as that time when we played with each other. Feeling like I remembered how to get the hang of it, my heart was breathing fast while I’m relieved at the same time.”

“I somehow kinda get that and I kinda don’t.

But then at that stage, he confessed to you and you decided to go out with him, right, Natsuki?”

“Yeah”

“As I thought, it was definitely mutual love. Even Morita-kun must’ve fallen for you way before, probably.”

“It was different until after he saw Haruka-san at the train station, though. It seems like he saw her sparkling.”

“Even at that time, it’s not like his heart doesn’t beat fast when he sees Natsuki’s face as well, so if you used some seduction techniques back then, it looks like he would easily fall for you.

Those things are quite common. If I think a person likes me then it’s okay for me to kiss him…… or something like that.”

“You said seduction techniques, I’m incapable of those.”

“When I heard of Natsuki’s escapades in the past, I think you can do it though.”

“If it’s easy as you say, then Sakurako should do it to Iida-kun. Tell him to think of you as a hug pillow in place of Haruka-san and ask him to hug you.”

“So lewwd! Impossible, I can’t do it, it will only trouble Iida-kun. Iida-kun is so pure that he didn’t drink on Haruka-san’s pet bottle after all.”

“So it’s not that you can’t do it since you’re afraid, huh?”

“Because, if it’s as much as a kiss, I would want it. I also want us to sleep next to each other.”

“This Sakurako who couldn’t make a boyfriend just because of that, seemed like a totally different person——.”

“Isn’t Natsuki the one who’s more awful here? It’s not like I didn’t hang out with a group with both boys and girls.”

“Now that you say it, that might be true……”

Natsuki thought back on her own pat while blushing.

“But you know—, the reason why Natsuki didn’t hang out with guys was because Morita-kun told you to be careful around them right? Even though I would’ve helped you avoid contact with them if you just told me about it.”

“It’s guys themselves that I don’t like that much, so I didn’t hang out with them even back in middle school.

Ah— however, I wonder if I became vigilant around guys and girls going to karaoke together because Nao-kun told me about it. And it was just before summer vacation when he told me about those things, so it was a very good time for that to happen since I’ve been wanting to turn down invitations to go to the pool and such.”

“It’s very unpleasant to be invited to the pool by someone who’s not really very close with, right? It’s alright if they have ulterior motive, but they should make the efforts first to get close to someone before inviting them.”

“That’s right. Such a thing is so bothersome, so I would tell them they need to greet my dad at least once first or he’ll be strict to them.”

“That’s actually the easiest thing to do. If they’re really serious about being friends, then they should be able to at least greet our dads.”

“But sometimes, there are people who would really go ahead with it.”

“So they do exist.”

“To be honest, I would also be troubled if someone went ahead greeting my father when we’re not even close, so I refused their invitation, thinking that unless it’s a really serious person, I would just get furious.”

“That’s what happens when it’s not a person you’re interested in. So in the end, no one was able to greet your dad, huh?”

“Nao-kun’s always greeted my father many times back when we were kids, so whenever a guy asks about it, I would just say ‘Morita-kun always greets my dad, so I hang out with Morita-kun’.”

“Isn’t it cheating to count that in?”

“Is that so? I can just honestly say from now on that ‘I can’t hang out with other guys since my boyfriend will be mad’, anyway.”

“I’m so jealous— I want to say that too. I want to say ‘My boyfriend is the jealous type, so sorry’.”

“That’s why, you should just go out with Iida-kun.”

“You’re right. Since it can’t be helped, maybe I’ll just go out with Iida-kun.”

“I think Iida-kun prefers girls who are honest.”

“……I want to go out with him. I like Iida-kun.”

“Yup, very cute.”

Sakurako looked downwards in embarrassment.

“Uuh, even if Natsuki calls me cute……”

“For our strategy, you must make Iida-kun call you cute.”

“Impossible, Iida-kun doesn’t look like the type of person to say that.”