Chapter 22: Hiding Your Fiancée

TL: lime
ED: Spynine01

“Shiori! Touma’s coming here! Hide!”

After hanging up the phone with Touma, I tell Shiori to go and immediately hide from us, which makes me sound like an asshole who’s currently having an affair and an unexpected visitor suddenly came to our house.

“Why?”

“I’ve told Touma that you’re my fiancée, but I haven’t told him that you’re currently staying with me yet!”

“Uh huh.”

That’s… not much of a reaction…

“Why don’t you just tell him about it?”

“It’s that guy. If I tell him about it, he’ll be amused and get involved with me in a way I don’t like, so it would be a pain in the ass.”

“But where am I going to hide then?”

“――Suu… That’s…”

It’s a 1LDK house, but it is only a house meant for a single person. It was not designed for people to play hide-and-seek in, so there was no reasonable place for her to go and hide.

As I thought about where she could hide, I remembered the few times that Touma had come to my house.

“The bedroom――he’s not going to be visiting the bedroom, so go and stay in the bedroom.”

“Okay.”

Shiori, in a direct contrast to my state of mind, nonchalantly walked into the bedroom with her text and notebooks.

As soon as Shiori entered the bedroom, the intercom rang.

In my heart, I sigh and come to the front door saying “Yes~“.

When I opened the door, I saw Touma in his familiar plain clothes saying, “Sorry. I bought a souvenir.” There I saw him holding a convenience store bag.

But then I looked down and my heart jolted.

This is dangerous… Shiori’s shoes are right out in the open…

“――Uh, uhhhhh! Thanks for getting me souvenirs!”

I snatched the convenience store bag from Touma and lifted it high.

“Yabe! It’s cola! Yabeee!” [ED: Yabe/Yabai is japanese slang that originally means dangerous in a bad situation. In this case however it can be interpreted as oh damn/oh shit/OMG. Source.]

“O-oh… what’s up with you today?”

“No, it’s just that I didn’t have enough sugar in a long time! Agh! Touma is a god!”

After I said that, he adjusted his glasses and said, “Of course I am.”

“C-C’mon. Get up here! Kami-sama!” [ED: Kami-sama is God]

As I said this, I crouch down and move the shoes aside so that they’re no longer in his sight.

“Not bad.”

Touma happily took off his shoes and headed towards the living room.

It looks like I was able to fool him for now. I quickly put Shiori’s shoes in the shoe box.

“By the way, you were making strange noises on the phone earlier, what happened? Did you see a G or something?” [ED: G is Japanese slang for cockroaches. The original word is gokiburi but since it was so disgusting to imagine them, it was further shortened to goki or gokki. However it was still disgusting so they shortened it down even further and turned it into G… yeah that’s quite a ride huh. Source.]

“T-That was just――”

I walked into the living room and was horrified to see Shiori’s uniform and bag casually hanging on the wall-mounted coat rack next to the sofa.

“Ahh――Iron Claw!”

I said and took Touma’s glasses away from him.

This guy’s eyesight is so bad that he can barely see if he doesn’t wear his glasses. [ED: just like me…]

“Ah! Kojiro! What are you doing!”

With Touma no longer in the way, I quickly take Shiori’s uniform and bag and throw them under the sofa like a shortstop in a professional baseball game. (TL: a position in baseball)

I’m sorry about this, Shiori. I’ll pay for the dry cleaning later!

And now that I’m done, I return his glasses back to him.

“No-. After all, your eyes don’t look like the 3, just like they do in manga. After all, a handsome man will still remain a handsome man, right? Yo! Kami-sama!”

“――Something’s really wrong with Kojiro’s spirit today…”

“Oh, is it that? Is it because I’m tired from studying for the test for so long?”

AHAHA-. I said and scratched my head with a wry smile, Touma squeezed his glasses as if he was saying that I was acting very suspiciously.

“More than that. Let’s study. St~ud~y.”

I pulled out a chair from the dining room table and sat Touma down, and he said confidently.

“I told you I came here today to escape from reality, right?”

“How can you say that in such a handsome way?”

“Fu~ It’s alright… ――Kojiro is also done studying, right?

“It doesn’t make sense in your case though. I don’t see the point in studying any more in my case.”

When I say that, his glasses shine and he says, “That’s a line I’d like to say to you too.”

“Then let’s play PES or PBS.”

PES ―― Abbreviation for Pro Evolution Soccer. A full-scale soccer game. (TL:Pro Evolution Soccer, known in Japan as Winning Eleven, is a series of association football simulation video games developed and released annually since 1995. It is developed and published by Konami.)

PBS ―― Abbreviation for Professional Baseball Spirits. A full-scale baseball game. (TL:Pro Yakyuu(Baseball) Spirits is a Japanese baseball sports simulation game series, developed by Pawapuro Productions and published by Konami.)

I usually play RPGs or action games online with Touma, but whenever he comes to my house, I have to choose between these two sports games. The sports games that I play at with my friends at my home locally, are very exciting.

♢

“――Thank you. It was a nice escape from reality.”

“HAHA. Study properly when you get home, okay?”

“I’ll do my best.”

Touma fogged up his glasses and with a little quirk, he left.

When the front door closes, I sigh, “Fuu~”.

I’ve managed to cover it up. Yeah. It was good. Seriously, I’m glad he didn’t see my bedroom.

He said that he was going to escape from reality, so I thought he might say that he was going to stay the night here, but he didn’t go that far and left when it was almost evening.

I felt a little guilty that I had treated my friend so badly today, but I’m sure he could forgive me, he was my best friend after all.

With that in mind, I went to the living room and took out the uniform and bag from under the sofa.

I’m really sorry. As I put the two items back together, something fell from the bag and hit the ground with a slam.

“――Hmm? A student ID card?”

I picked up her student ID card, which she had probably been carrying in her open bag pocket, where it presumably fell out of.

“She’s carrying around a student ID card, is she? I don’t know where mine is…”

As I picked the card up, the front side caught my eye.

It’s personal information, so I shouldn’t really look at it, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the numbers I could see on the page.

“――Shiori… Is it her birthday next week…?