My Beautiful Childhood Friend Is Working in a Maid Cafe For Some Reason - Chapter 106

“Yuu-kun. Let’s go.”

When we arrived at the venue, Yukina took my hand and pulled me around to various stalls.

The venue was filled with rows of stalls, and just as many people, making it crowded.

Tadokoro and Akiba had disappeared somewhere.

“We’re going to make Akiba-senpai treat us to a bunch of stuff~”

That’s what they said, so they probably went off with his wallet. Oops, no, it wasn’t the wallet, it was Akiba himself. Poor guy.

There was still plenty of time before the fireworks started, which meant we had time to wander around the stalls.

“Yuu-kun, where should we go?”

“Anywhere is fine. Let’s go wherever you want.”

“Then, I want to eat shaved ice.”

“Got it.”

And so, we headed to the shaved ice stall.

I got a Blue Hawaii flavor, and Yukina got a strawberry flavor. We sat on a bench nearby to eat. Shaved ice on a hot day is great. The only problem is that it makes you even thirstier afterward.

“Ah, Yuu-kun, your tongue’s turned blue.”

“Seriously? Well, the flavor’s pretty strong.”

“How about mine?”

Yukina stuck out her small tongue. It was red from the strawberry syrup.

“Red.”

“I see~. Oh, can I have a bite of yours, Yuu-kun?”

Yukina took a bite of my shaved ice with her spoon.

“Hmm, this one’s good too. Hey, how’s my tongue now?”

Once again, Yukina stuck out her little tongue. This time, it was a mix of blue and red.

“It’s changed color.”

“Really? Then here, Yuu-kun, have a bite.”

She scooped some of her shaved ice and held it out to me on a spoon.

“Here, say ah~.”

I’ve lost track of how many times she’s done this. Although I’ve gotten a bit more used to it, I still hesitate.

But it’s shaved ice. If I don’t eat quickly, it might drip onto Yukina’s exposed skin or her pretty white dress.

I opened my mouth and took the bite.

Then—

“Eh!?”

Yukina let out a surprised sound.

When I looked at her, wondering what was up, her ears were bright red.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing!”

She said that and shoved more shaved ice into her mouth.

If you eat it that fast, you’ll get an ice cream headache. I was thinking that when—

“Ouch. It’s freezing… It hurts.”

Just as I expected, Yukina clutched her head and curled up.

“You silly… You know that happens if you don’t eat slowly, right?”

“But, it’s because of you, Yuu-kun. It’s your fault!”

She gave me a tearful look.

I don’t know why, but seeing her like that made her seem unbearably cute. Still, I didn’t understand how her wolfing down shaved ice was my fault, so I couldn’t just sit there thinking she was adorable.

“What did I do?”

“Ugh, never mind.”

Yukina stubbornly refused to explain. Since she kept her mouth shut, I decided not to press further.

After we finished the shaved ice, Yukina, who had returned to normal, and I wandered around the stalls.

Most of the stalls we checked out were food stalls—yakisoba, grilled corn, castella cakes, crepes, takoyaki. There were so many that it was hard to decide which one to go to.

But Yukina went to every single one. Without hesitation. At this rate, I thought she might even conquer them all. And at nearly every stall, the friendly old men gave her extra portions, saying she was cute.

Despite that, Yukina ate everything happily, with a content smile.

“You eat so much but never seem to gain weight.”

“Yuu-kun, it’s not nice to mention weight to a girl.”

“It’s fine because you’re not fat. If anything, you’re thin.”

Looking at her arms and legs, I couldn’t help but think she could use a little more weight.

“Don’t stare at me like that… It’s embarrassing.”

“Oh, sorry. By the way, Yukina, where did you get that dress?”

“Huh? D-do you think it looks strange?”

“No, not at all. Like I said earlier, it suits you. You look cute.”

—I almost said, “I could stare at you forever,” but I couldn’t. It felt embarrassing, and saying something that cheesy made my skin crawl.

But it was the truth. I wanted to keep watching her until my eyes dried out and I started tearing up.

“It’s just… I was curious why you suddenly wore it.”

“Well, since it’s a festival, I thought I’d dress up. And, I wanted to surprise you, Yuu-kun.”

“… Somehow, that just made you even cuter.”

“Huh?”

“Ah, no, never mind.”

“You can’t fool me~ I heard you.”

I didn’t know what to say. But seeing Yukina’s happy smile made everything worth it. Even though I was embarrassed, her smile made up for it all.

After stuffing ourselves, Yukina said she wanted to move around a bit, so we went to a ring toss stall.

Honestly, playing ring toss as a high schooler made me self-conscious, but I tried not to care. After all, the key to these kinds of things is enjoying the moment.

Besides, everyone’s attention wasn’t on me but on the beautiful girl next to me.

Everyone was watching Yukina with warm smiles as she happily tossed the rings.

“Ah, I missed!”

To be honest, anyone watching Yukina would think she’s not very skilled at these kinds of things. She’s clumsy, after all. I’m not much better, but at least I’m more coordinated than her… I think.

That’s why she’s terrible at ring toss.

She missed with all five of her rings. Even little kids can manage to hook at least one if they aim for the closest target. But Yukina, for some reason, aimed for the farthest one with an inexplicable amount of confidence.

“It’s okay. Come on, little lady, give it another try.”

Once again, the friendly stall owner let Yukina try for free. No matter how many times she missed, he kept letting her go again.

I realized then—being a cute girl has its perks.

It was sweet of him to keep giving her chances, but Yukina missed every single time.

At this point, I couldn’t stand watching anymore.

I grabbed Yukina’s hand.

“Y-Yuu-kun!?”

“Alright, focus properly.”

“O-okay.”

“Breathe slowly… Deep breaths.”

Yukina took a small breath, and I positioned her so she could aim for the farthest target.

“Now gently, toss it softly.”

“Okay.”

When I let go of her arm, she tossed the ring as I instructed.

The ring soared gracefully through the air and landed on the farthest peg.

Yukina turned to me, beaming.

Her smile looked like a child who had finally managed to do something on their own for the first time.

“Congrats…”

Before I could finish, a round of applause erupted. “Congratulations! Congratulations!” came from a crowd that had gathered without us noticing. The stall owner even had tears in his eyes.

I almost thought, “Are you her dad?”

Realizing how much attention she had drawn, Yukina blushed and fidgeted shyly.

Despite unintentionally attracting everyone’s attention, Yukina wasn’t the type to enjoy being in the spotlight.

So she hid behind me, poking her head out just enough to give a small bow.

“Pick any prize you want from the box,” the stall owner said, offering a box of prizes. Yukina, feeling shy about all the chances she’d been given, hesitated.

Since I’d won easily before Yukina, I ended up choosing a prize alone…

But there wasn’t really anything I wanted.

I rummaged through the box until I found something that caught my eye and chose it.

The stall owner gave me a knowing smirk, but I ignored it and left as if nothing had happened.