Vol 1 Chapter 2 – A Typhoon Stopped the Trains, So Let Me Stay Over【Volume 1: The Road to Romance】

After learning that Shino was surprisingly genuine, Sandai found — gradually, without quite meaning to — that the stares bothered him less.

Part of it was simply getting used to being talked about. Part of it was the particular freedom of having no friends to lose. When you’re already at the bottom, there isn’t much further to fall.

But in exchange, he’d found himself with a new problem: somewhere along the way, the mechanical pencil jabs had started back up.

(…W-well. She’ll get bored again eventually. Just endure it.)

He pressed his lips into a thin line and reaffirmed his strategy — ignore it, wait it out, same as before.

He’d overheard enough to understand that Shino wasn’t a bad person. That much he accepted. But understanding someone wasn’t the same as wanting to get closer to them.

They came from different worlds. That hadn’t changed. Given that reality, the natural state between them was silence — not conversation. That was the conclusion he kept returning to, and he intended to act accordingly.

And yet, as though mocking his resolve, Shino showed no signs of stopping.

By the time he was fairly certain she was leaving marks, he finally decided that ignoring her wasn’t going to work — she’d need actual words. He turned around.

Shino was looking at him with an expression that was, unmistakably, a little lonely.

The words died somewhere on the way out.

“W-what’s with that face…”

“…I’ve been waiting.”

“Waiting for… what?”

“Hmph.”

She turned away, cheeks puffed out.

Sandai tilted his head, genuinely baffled. Then, barely above a whisper, she murmured:

“I left a note and everything. …Whatever.”

He didn’t quite catch it. She’d spoken too quietly.

But from that point on, the mechanical pencil jabs stopped entirely.

☆

With Shino’s poking campaign over, Sandai’s days began returning to their usual shape. Less contact between them meant less material for everyone else to work with, and the surrounding interest faded as gradually as it had arrived.

Things were settling, moving in the direction he’d wanted.

There was just one thing that lingered.

Why had she looked so lonely?

It caught at something small in the back of his mind. Though, to be fair — he hadn’t done anything particularly cruel to her. He hadn’t done anything at all.

“Gals are incomprehensible. …Then again, they always were a different species to me. No point thinking about it.”

He let himself steep in the feeling of having encountered alien life, came home, and got to work — same as always.

An hour passed. Then two. By the time he surfaced, it was past nine.

Time for a break. He stood, brewed a cup of coffee, and flipped the TV on without any real intention — just noise, just something to look at while he rested.

The newscaster’s expression stopped him.

“A typhoon is rapidly approaching. A direct hit is expected within the next two hours, and the Japan Meteorological Agency is urging all residents to avoid unnecessary travel. In response to the developing situation, train services have been suspended early, with the last departures running at 8:30 PM tonight.”

Sandai glanced toward the window. The rain was coming down hard now, the wind pressing against the glass in long, uneven gusts. So it was real.

Then — the intercom buzzed.

“A delivery? …I don’t remember scheduling anything for tonight. And even if I had, no courier’s going to show up while a typhoon is barreling in. So who on earth—”

He made his way to the door, still muttering, and pulled it open.

Shino stood in the hallway, completely soaked through, and sneezed.

“S-sorry. My shift ended, and I was about to head home, but the trains stopped because of the typhoon, so, um — c-can I stay tonight…?”

It appeared the late-night delivery was not, in fact, a package.

It was a beautiful gal.

The sheer abruptness of this development pulled Sandai’s face into something between a wince and a grimace — but he couldn’t exactly leave a drenched girl standing in a hallway.

“Get in,” he said, and stepped aside.