The Beautiful Girl Who Asked Me to Pretend to Be Her Boyfriend Didn’t Want to Break up With Me for Some Reason - Chapter 59

Chapter 59: …Like Love?

Third day of my visit home.

As usual, I saw my dad off to work and had breakfast, then spent a slow and relaxed morning.

There were no particular plans until the evening.

At night, I had decided to go to the local summer festival.

It was quite a big event, and there would even be fireworks at the end.

Since Shirafuji and Tansui would be changing into yukatas, I would basically be free until the afternoon.

I was wondering how to spend my time until then.

“Hakuto, I have a small favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Could you show me some old photo albums?”

Out of nowhere, Shirafuji asked me that.

“…Mom and Tansui didn’t put you up to this, did they?”

“Nobody told me anything. I just got curious after hearing some stories about your past.”

Shirafuji asked with slightly narrowed eyes.

Since I’d been talking about myself a lot since coming home, it made sense that she’d get curious.

But… albums, huh.

I didn’t have any good memories of elementary or middle school, and I wasn’t exactly in a position to show them off.

“Do you really want to see them?”

“I’d like to, yes. But I also understand if you don’t want to show them, so I won’t force you.”

“…Well, I guess it’s fine if it’s you. I don’t think you’d spread it around or take pictures to show someone else. But I’m telling you, it’s nothing interesting.”

“That’s fine. I just want to know more about you.”

“Got it. The albums… where did I put them?”

Relying on my vague memory, I searched through my storage.

Surprisingly, I found them pretty quickly.

I pulled out two albums, one from elementary school and one from middle school, then brought them back and handed them to Shirafuji.

“Thank you. I wonder what Hakuto was like as a kid. I’m really looking forward to it.”

“It’s nothing special.”

Shirafuji started with the elementary school album.

What was I like as a kid again?

All I remember is that people avoided me because they thought I was scary, just like now.

I didn’t have any fun memories. I spent all my time alone.

…Compared to that, I really am lucky now.

“Here you are, Hakuto. You’re small, but I can still see a resemblance in your features and overall vibe.”

“Yeah. Not exactly the most playful kid for my age, though.”

There weren’t many pictures of me.

The photographer probably thought I wasn’t worth capturing.

One of the few photos was from a sports event.

Shirafuji found it, smiled, and gently ran her fingertip over the tiny version of me in the picture.

Then she looked up at me, comparing me to the photo, nodding to herself.

“It’s obvious, but seeing that you had a small, childhood phase too is kind of touching.”

“I shot up all of a sudden in the upper grades. That picture’s probably from first or second grade.”

“We could check by comparing it with your graduation photos.”

Shirafuji flipped through the pages.

But the album was mostly filled with pictures of my classmates laughing together.

I remembered some of the events, but it felt like I was looking at them from an outsider’s perspective.

The next picture with me in it was the group photo from graduation.

I had already grown taller and filled out a bit. My spot was at the very end.

That was just because we were arranged by height from the center outward… probably.

Even without that, the edge suited me best back then.

“There you are, Hakuto. Do you remember how tall you were at this point?”

“Hmm… I think I was around 170 cm. I grew a bit more in middle school to reach my current height.”

“A crazy growth spurt. If you had joined a sport like basketball, where height matters, wouldn’t you have been unstoppable?”

“No way. Especially in team sports. Height is important, but trust and teamwork matter more.”

If I’d had the social skills for that, I would’ve made some friends, scary face or not.

Not that I’d call myself social now either.

We moved on to the middle school album, but there were even fewer pictures of me.

Same reasons as elementary school. Plus, I stopped going to school at one point.

I wasn’t really upset about it, but looking back now, I did feel a little lonely.

“By the time you graduated middle school, you don’t look too different from now. But… I think your expression is a bit softer these days.”

“That’s thanks to you. You taught me things I didn’t have back then.”

“…Like love?”

“Trust. Though… I’ll admit there’s some affection too.”

With my family’s support, I managed to return to school and graduate, but my distrust of others hadn’t really changed.

The only thing that changed was my mindset.

Expecting things from others was pointless. The most important thing was not losing sight of myself.

“…Hakuto. Let’s make sure to take lots of photos for your high school album. I want to keep memories, and my album was probably similar to yours.”

“You won’t have a choice. People are going to take your picture whether you like it or not. I’m not sure if I’ll be in any. I don’t look good in photos.”

“It’s meaningless if you’re not in them. …In that case, let’s take one now.”

Shirafuji quickly pulled out her phone and opened the camera app.

She leaned against me and switched to the front camera.

“Alright, smile.”

“You can’t just tell me to smile out of nowhere.”

“Then just stay as you are. I’m taking it. Three, two, one—”

Before I was ready, she finished the countdown and took the shot.

In the picture, Shirafuji was smiling faintly, while I had a slightly bewildered, grumpy expression.

…Maybe I’m just fundamentally bad at being photographed.

“Hehe. This is a great picture. I should set it as my wallpaper.”

She looked so satisfied that I couldn’t bring myself to argue.

And before I knew it, she had already set it as her wallpaper, showing me the screen with a pleased expression.