The Case of My Unknown Childhood Friend Who Became My Girlfriend Without Me Even Knowing It - Chapter 3 - A Taste of Always

Chapter 3 – A Taste of Always

Anyone who has reached puberty knows that a girlfriend is a person with whom you are in a relationship.

This would not be called so anymore if they were not so close that they could not be compared to people who greet each other with a “long time no see”.

I like you.

I love you.

Please go out with me.

Confessions can take many forms, but a relationship can only be established when you tell someone how you like them and they accept it.

Of course, I don’t have that kind of close relationship with any girl.

And yet…

Pin-pon

In the morning.

Someone came for me.

“……”

Looking out of the peephole, there was the lens-distorted image of Sakatoki Aya.

Standing in uniform, she was fidgeting and holding her school bag.

Of course, I’m not going to greet her.

It was still early, so I walked quietly down the corridor, trying not to make any sound from my footsteps and go back to my room.

Gacha

The front door was unlocked.

“Good morning Kanata-kun, if you are here, please answer me~”

“Whoa! W-What are you doing opening the front door without permission?”

“Like I told you before, I have the key. Hey, why didn’t you open the door for me?”

“I-I wouldn’t normally greet a prowler who comes into someone’s house without permission!”

“Without permission? That’s strange. I got Mother‘s consent.”

“D-Don’t lie to me. My parents aren’t insane enough to give a key to a complete stranger.”

“That’s of course. They wouldn’t do that to a complete stranger.”

“I-If that’s the case–”

“Because I’m good friends with Mother.”

She grinned a bit.

I smiled wryly.

“G-Good friends? No, that’s impossible.”

“Why? Why is it impossible?”

“B-Because we never talked about it.”

“You just didn’t, did you? If you’re so suspicious, why don’t you ask?”

Sakatoki took off her shoes without permission while saying that, and quickly went up to my apartment.

Ignoring my flinch, she now opened the fridge in the corridor.

“Oh, you’re not cooking for yourself. This is no good, Kanata-kun. I was going to cook breakfast for you today.”

“D-Don’t look in people’s fridges without permission! No, no, before that.”

“Come on now, just call her.”

Suddenly…

With a straight face, she looked up at me.

Her eyes were distant. The inner part of her eyes was cloudy.

“I-I got it… For now, just don’t do anything. Just wait.”

“Yes~. ‘Just wait’, that’s so manly and cool.”

“……”

She immediately smiles at me.

Puzzled by her changing facial expressions, I made a phone call with my trembling hand…

“…Hello, Mom? It’s me.”

“What’s with you, Kanata, this early in the morning?”

“No, no. I want to ask you something. Do you know Sakatoki Aya?”

I’m stunned that I’m not much different from those in my class, asking this question to my parents.

But if my mom says she doesn’t know her, that’s the end of it.

I will call the police, take back my key, and if she still persists, file a damage report.

“What are you talking about, Aya-chan, right? She called me yesterday too. She’s a really nice girl for letting me know how you’re doing because you don’t contact me at all.”

“…No way…”

“I’ve given her the keys to your room and I’ve asked her to take care of you. But that doesn’t mean you should bother her. You’ve got to take care of yourself so she doesn’t run away.”

“…What are you talking about, Mom? Hey, explain to me.”

“Well then, I’m preparing breakfast for your father, so I’m hanging up now. Give my regards to Aya-chan.”

Clack.

The phone went dead.

“…What is going on?”

“Hey, your mother and I are good friends, right?”

“No, no, wait. This is a mistake.”

“Then how? How can it be wrong? Are you saying your mother is crazy?”

“T-That’s not it, but…”

“Fufu, a couple who is officially approved by their parents is kind of like a married couple. Kyaa~ What are you talking about, me?”

“……”

The beautiful girl, with her cheeks slightly tinted with vermilion, is embarrassed.

But even so, I didn’t recognise her from the past.

We definitely met for the first time yesterday.

It was only a day before yesterday that I would call our passing each other on the breakwater an encounter.

What the hell is going on…?

“Hey, Kanata-kun, we don’t have any food today, let’s go to the convenience store and buy some bread. I want to eat a sandwich.”

“…I have no appetite.”

“Eh? You have to eat, don’t you? You’re growing up and you have to eat right, especially breakfast.”

“…Yeah, you’re…right.”

I was already in a state of shock.

Blurredly gazing at the mysterious girl who was frolicking in front of me as if she were my girlfriend, I was unable to accept the reality of the situation.

The next thing I knew, I was changing into my uniform without her prompting and we were leaving the room together.

Sakatoki was the one who locked the door. She looked very happy as she laughed and said, “We look like a married couple.”

When going down the stairs…

I wonder if I could die if I slipped down from here.

Maybe I’m lost in another world right now and if I hit my head, I can go back to the world I came from.

That’s all I think about.

But all I could do was think.

Eventually, I arrived at the convenience store.

With Sakatoki, a girl I don’t know, a childhood friend who is saying she’s my girlfriend.

“Welcome!”

It was the same shopkeeper’s voice as usual.

But there was something distinctly different.

“Hey, Kanata-kun, you always drink black coffee, don’t you? You’re so mature. I wonder if I can drink it too.”

There she is, next to me.

I don’t even know when we met or how long we’ve been together.

But she seems to know me. She even knows that I buy coffee here every day.

“…Are you perhaps…a stalker?”

I asked her as she happily picked up my usual choice of black canned coffee and café au lait from the drinks corner.

No, I probably don’t even have to ask.

But I had to.

I wanted to ask and make sure I hadn’t gone crazy or wandered into a parallel universe.

But…

“…Why do you say that? That’s terrible of you, Kanata-kun…”

She started crying.

She crumbled to her knees, dropping a can of coffee she hadn’t even bought onto the floor with a clang.

“O-Oi…”

“Even though I’m Kanata-kun’s girlfriend…and I’m happy just to shop with him and go to school together… Why? Why are you being so mean to me…? I don’t like this… I hate it…”

“W-Wait a minute, there are people here.”

“Huuu~, Huuu~…”

“……”

She was on the verge of breaking down, crying.

The shopkeeper looked worried.

Other customers also gave me the cold look.

….Damn it, I have to start all over again.

“I-I’m sorry, it’s not like that. No, I’m just thinking, how do you know what I like? That’s why.”

“…Then, no more saying terrible things, okay?”

“Eh, um, yes.”

Her eyes were red.

Her face also turned a little red.

She looked at me anxiously with her big tear-stained eyes.

It was lovely.

I was so moved by how cute she was.

I should say I did. But I made a mistake.

I couldn’t help but give a curt response.

For some reason, I knew I shouldn’t have done anything terrible to this girl.

It even made me think that.

“Well, I guess that makes up for it. Let’s take the coffee to the cash register together, okay?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Ehehe, Kanata-kun, you’re really sweet after all.”

“……”

I picked up the fallen can of coffee.

I took it straight to the cash register and she was beside me.

“Don’t you have to buy fried chicken today?”

At that moment…

She said so happily.

Yesterday I bought some fried chicken here.

That was before she transferred. Before we knew each other, of course.

Eventually, I look at the black coffee handed to me by the waiter and think.

She’s a stalker, after all.

She must have been watching me from somewhere yesterday.

“What’s wrong? Hey, please give me my café au lait~”

“Ah, yeah.”

Wiping away the cold sweat, I realized again that she is a bad person.

However, it’s not a good idea to provoke the situation because it’s dangerous.

Once level-headed, I sipped my coffee…

However, it didn’t taste like coffee at all.