My Beautiful Childhood Friend Is Working in a Maid Cafe For Some Reason - Chapter 36

“Okay, good night.”

I closed the door while watching Yukina enter the room.

Ah, finally, the little monster is gone from the house.

Even though I managed to deal with the cockroach, Yukina kept insisting on staying over today. But I was so tired that I kept telling her to go home.

For once, Yukina unusually obeyed. I worried that it might snow tomorrow, but she probably saw how exhausted I looked. She said, “I’ll go home today…” with a disappointed tone.

“I didn’t expect her to say something like that…”

I muttered this in the now quiet living room, as if a storm had passed.

“Well, whatever. Tomorrow’s problems will be dealt with by tomorrow’s me. I’m tired today, so I’ll just take a shower and go to sleep.”

I went to my room to get ready for a shower.

And then—

“Huh? Where did I put it?”

One of the underwear I had taken out was missing.

I wondered if I had put it somewhere else and searched the closet, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

“Did I throw it away on garbage day the other day?”

Losing one pair of underwear wasn’t a big deal.

I didn’t worry about it and took a shower before going to bed.

The long, long holiday had finally come to an end.

—

I forced myself out of bed, still not fully recovered, and made my way to the classroom. I usually enter through the back door, but today was different. I walked to the front door and entered from there.

Then—

“Hi, Himemiya-san. Good morning.”

I greeted Yukina, who was right there.

At that moment, a murmur ran through the classroom.

Of course. Until now, I had never exchanged any words… let alone greetings, so it was no surprise that everyone was curious why I suddenly greeted Yukina.

However, Yukina, without showing any sign of concern, sat down and gave a slight, fake smile, looking up at me.

“Good morning, Oyama-kun.”

Yukina simply replied with that.

I didn’t say anything in return. I silently headed to my seat.

‘What was he trying to do?’

That’s what my classmates must have been thinking.

I want to say to them:

Don’t worry. I don’t understand it either. Rather, someone please tell me what I was trying to do.

“Hey, Himemiya, what’s up with Oyama?”

On my way to my seat, a boy asked Yukina about me. I’m sorry that he remembered my name, but I don’t remember his. However, I can tell who he is just by his voice. He sits next to Yukina and often talks to her.

“I think he just wanted to say hello,” Yukina replied, maintaining her usual cool demeanor with everyone but me.

“What! ‘He just wanted to say hello?’ You were the one who told me to do this! ‘From now on, greet her every day at school!'”

I, of course, don’t want to have conversations with Yukina at school, let alone greetings.

It’s bad enough that strange rumors have already started, even though they were fading… Doing this is like digging my own grave.

What if more strange rumors start circulating…?

I was anxious about that but felt I couldn’t refuse.

Yukina didn’t say that greetings were an order.

Instead, she said she would publicly announce that she saw me naked if I didn’t greet her.

There was no way I could refuse such a strong threat. I felt like it would really affect me if she said that.

“Well… oh, good morning, Himemiya-san.”

The boy next to me, who hadn’t greeted her yet, gave a casual response while greeting Yukina. I heard Yukina simply return his “Good morning.”

Greeting is a common and normal action.

However, the difficulty of this normal action skyrockets just by doing it with Yukina. It’s absurd.

“Hey, Yusuke. What’s going on suddenly? Have you gotten closer to Yukina-chan?”

When I approached my seat, Haru, who had witnessed the whole thing, asked in surprise.

I answered while sitting down.

“Since when were Yukina and I dating?”

It’s ridiculous to say that Yukina and I were dating. We have a relationship as childhood friends, but there’s no romantic involvement, and there won’t be in the future.

“Sorry, but what was that all about?”

“What do you mean by ‘what’? It was just a greeting, right?”

“A greeting… that you never did before?”

When asked that, I didn’t know how to respond. I couldn’t come up with a good answer.

In the end, I simply said, “Just a mood.” There really wasn’t any such mood, though.

“A mood, huh… Well, if it makes Yukina-chan and your relationship a little better, that’s a good thing.”

“Relationship? As I said before, there are no fights or bad blood.”

“I know that. But, even though you’re childhood friends, people around you want to see you two get along like before.”

Well, recently we have been talking quite a bit… We spent the night together the day before yesterday… although nothing inappropriate happened.

Haru, who didn’t know that, was looking at me with a serious expression. It seemed like he was being sincere, not just teasing like before.

“…Haru, you’re really a good guy.”

“W-What’s with that all of a sudden! Compliments won’t get you anything!”

Haru blushed.

Haru’s embarrassed squirming was honestly a bit uncomfortable.

Still, I felt happy to have such a good friend.

“Seriously, I want you and Yukina-chan to be able to have normal conversations.”

“…Well, if the mood is right.”

“And eventually, I’d like you two to start dating and go on double dates.”

…Let me correct what I said earlier. Haru isn’t a good guy.

“I take back what I said earlier. You’re annoying.”

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want to do double dates?”

“Impossible. If you want that, go find some couples and do it with them.”

“Geez, all I want is to have a double date with you and Yukina-chan…”

Maybe Haru just wants to hang out with Yukina and me like before.

But why double dates?

That idea is absurd.

Although Haru is smart, he sometimes says things that don’t make sense.

Well, maybe it’s okay to hang out with just the three of us from time to time, even if not double dates.

I thought this as I looked at Yukina, who was nodding with her usual fake smile at the boy who was still talking to her.