The Nurse’s Office Angel Only Acts Sweet to Me Again Today ~ I Was Kind to a Beautiful Girl Who Goes to the Nurse’s Office and She Became Attached to Me ~

Chapter 16: The Angel’s Smug Face, Time for a Stroll

The next day.

Yesterday, my little suggestion had gone through, and we’d decided on a spot for our two-person time, so after school the following day, we arrived at the station closest to our high school.

“Today… Mom put an IC card in my smartphone for me.”

Yukino showed off the transit IC card on her phone with a smug look, then passed through the automatic gate in an obvious show.

“Doya…”

It was hard to believe this came from someone who’d been such an iron mask before—her smug face, with her nose in the air and eyes narrowed as if she were poking the heavens.

“Th-that’s amazing, Yukino… (that smug face of yours)”

“Fufun.”

When I praised her, she got happy and snorted roughly through her nose.

“Still, you seem totally prepared today.”

“Yeah… super perfect.”

It wasn’t just the IC card—Yukino was all geared up for walking today, and instead of her usual loafers, she wore shiny white sneakers.

What we were about to do was a stroll, not a run, though…

“Um, those sneakers are super shiny, huh?”

“These are great, right? Great, right?”

Yukino boasted right away, cutting in eagerly.

Whoa, her energy’s high today…

“Did you maybe buy them just for today?”

“Yeah…! Brand-new sneakers.”

Brand-new, huh.

Yukino’s sharp vocabulary was alive and well today too.

“Mom said… boys walk fast, so she got me new ones to make sure I can keep up properly. So I wouldn’t trouble you, Nukumori.”

“H-huh…”

Yukino’s mom was so proper and reliable, but… she paid attention to the tiniest, unnecessary details.

Even if I walked slow, I wouldn’t see it as a bother.

“But Nukumori… last time we went out, you matched your steps to mine.”

“Huh?”

“I walk slow, but you’re always right next to me. So I figured… you were matching to me.”

“Well, maybe I did that time, but you don’t need to speed up because of it, so don’t worry too much.”

“…Th-thanks. Nukumori… you’re kind.”

Yukino murmured with a small smile.

I hadn’t really thought about matching steps—it was just that Yukino’s stride was unusually small, so I naturally adjusted.

Plus, who’d ever rush ahead and leave Yukino behind?

So I didn’t think it was anything worth thanking.

“Nukumori, the train’s here.”

“O-okay, let’s go then.”

Yukino and I boarded the train from the station near our high school.

We rode a few stops and arrived just past 4 p.m. at Gotokuji Station on the subway.

“Yesterday you said we’d walk a fun route around Gotokuji… so where are we headed?”

Good question. “Actually, for today’s two-person time… we’re walking ‘Yanaka Yanese’.”

“Yanese…?”

“Yanaka Yanese is the overall name for the route that goes through Yanaka, Gotokuji, and Sendagi in Tokyo.”

“Yanaka? Gotokuji? Sendagi?”

“Ah, starting from there, huh.”

Yukino had never even ridden a train before, so it wasn’t weird if she didn’t know about that stuff.

“Yanaka, Gotokuji, and Sendagi are spots where you can enjoy nostalgic old-town vibes, just like Asakusa last time. The Yanaka Ginza shopping street is especially famous for its food stalls—”

“Food stalls…!”

Yukino reacted hard to the words “food stalls.”

Hey, hey… you’re not planning to show off that bottomless stomach again, are you?

“Food stalls are the finale treat, okay? You’d just get tired if you ate the whole time.”

“Finale treat… got it.”

Maybe because it was something to look forward to, Yukino snorted roughly again.

Her obsession with food is intense… that rumor I heard before about Yukino being a picky eater was way off.

“Anyway, back to it—we’re at one part of ‘Yanaka Yanese’ right now, Gotokuji, right?”

“Yeah, Gotokuji… chuu-chuu?”

“Is that waiting for me to say ‘that’s a rat’—?”

Yukino nodded with an “ehehe,” looking embarrassed.

She got all cutesy out of nowhere…

“First, we’ll head toward Sendagi Station from here. There’s a shrine along the way, so let’s stop there.”

“Shrine… I like them. I pray to the gods a lot.”

“Wh-what do you mean you pray a lot?”

“For my sickness to get better soon… I go to the local shrine often.”

“Oh, that’s why…”

“But even though I always ask, it never gets better.”

Yukino said it with the biggest sigh I’d ever heard from her.

Whoa, heavy… she’s like a totally different person from the one chirping “chuu-chuu” a second ago.

“Y-Yukino! I know your sickness is tough, but you’re out with me today to help cure it, right?”

“Y-yeah… Mom and Sano-sensei both said maybe going out with you, Nukumori, could fix it.”

“Right? So let’s cure it together. We can borrow some power from the gods too.”

I talked to the downcast Yukino like I was advising her.

Then Yukino…

“…God, huh.”

“Huh?”

“You’re… a god, Nukumori.”

“How’d you get there!”

“So does that make me a Nukumori cult follower?”

“Don’t just start some weird religion on your own! And don’t join anything that sketchy!”

Yukino laughed “fufu” like she was having fun.

I almost got made into the cult leader there.

“Nukumori, you’re super funny.”

I got hit with “super funny.”

No, you’re the funny one, Yukino.

“Alright, let’s get walking then.”

“Yeah… diet… I’ll do my best.”

Before we left, she’d insisted it wasn’t about dieting, but now she admitted it casually and started walking.

Well, whatever.

✳︎✳︎

We walked side by side along the main road from Gotokuji Station toward Sendagi Station.

Cars zipped by here, so we always had to watch our backs.

“This main road has tons of apartments and shops…”

“Yeah. There are some spots that look good for food stalls, but wanna eat, Yukino?”

“Muu… meanie.”

When I half-joked, Yukino puffed out one cheek and got mad.

Looks like the diet thing is for real.

“You say that, but you should just get all chubby yourself, Nukumori.”

“Ah—sorry, but thanks to my skinny parents’ genes, I don’t gain weight easy.”

“No such thing. Everyone gets fat. That’s nature’s way. Destiny, written as ‘sadame’.”

“You’re saying it all poetic, but the content’s way too harsh.”

But Yukino was already too skinny to begin with, so I didn’t think she needed to worry about gaining…

“Sigh… I wish I only gained it in my chest…”

That’s the gripe every girl in the country has, I bet. No clue on my end.

“Nukumori… you always stare at Sano-sensei’s boobs, but do you like them big?”

“Why do you assume I’m constantly ogling Sano-sensei’s chest?”

“You do… it’s a fact.”

“I don’t!”

“You do… with super lewd eyes.”

“What’re super lewd eyes!?”

Yukino seemed to notice stuff around her more than I thought (o-okay… gotta be careful from now on).

Sure, I’m a teenage guy, so those huge ones catch my eye.

Sano-sensei might be a mess inside, but she’s a beauty on the outside.

“…Nukumori, you’re a perv. The worst.”

Now Yukino puffed both cheeks and treated me like a punching bag, landing weak little punches on my shoulder over and over.

“Wh-what if I was looking at Sano-sensei’s boobs—why would that make you mad, Yukino!”

“It makes me feel like I lost.”

“Huh? Lost?”

“…I’m the rep for the normal-size faction, so I live that way.”

Yukino stared off into the distance, all wistful.

Yukino’s chest was decently big for her height, I thought… but yeah, she couldn’t beat that first-year PE teacher’s massive no-bra jugs.

So basically that? The normal-size faction sees big ones as the enemy?

“Yukino, you have some surprisingly high-maintenance sides, huh?”

“Muu…! Punch punch!”

Yukino started doing boxer exercises while walking (aimed at me), like some roadwork routine.

I’m more worried about her narcolepsy stamina running out than anything.

Chatting about nothing important like that made the walk feel surprisingly quick, and before I knew it, the bright red torii gate of the shrine we’d aimed for in Gotokuji came into view.

We stopped and looked up at the vivid torii.

“Big torii… what’s this place? It’s got tons of trees, like a little forest…”

“This is Gotokuji Shrine. The buildings here are colorful, the nature’s lush, and it’s a quiet spot. Oh, and cats show up sometimes?”

“Kitty…! I wanna pet it!”

“Probably a stray, so no touching… but it’d be nice if we saw one?”

“Hmph!”

Yukino seemed to like cats.

Well, she kinda acted like one herself.

We bowed once in front of the torii, then entered the shrine and slowly walked the stone path surrounded by trees.

“Huh? There’s a bunch of torii over there…?”

“Ah, that’s Otome Inari Shrine.”

“Otome?”