The Story of Waking up With My Beautiful Childhood Friend and Realizing We Had Spent the Night Together - Chapter 39.6

Side Story – About the Rumor Damage of Being the Second Cutest Girl in the Year, Part 2

Rain is pounding down. Who would have thought it would start so suddenly.

“Ah… Kashiwagi-san. Do you have a folding umbrella or anything?”

“Eh? Ah… I don’t think so.”

I happened to forget it today of all days.

I should have checked the weather forecast. I regret this morning’s self, but it is too late.

“I see… then, here.”

“Eh?”

“Use this. I will just wait for it to stop somehow.”

He holds out a navy folding umbrella.

It takes me a moment to understand, but I immediately wave my hands.

“N-No! That is too much!”

“It is fine. It is probably just a passing shower.”

“B-But…”

I cannot possibly take it here and leave Amano-kun behind alone.

What to do. As I think, a narrow alley catches my eye.

“Um, Amano-kun.”

“What?”

“Do you have a little time today…?”

“…Eh?”

—And so, the place we head to is.

“—Welcome.”

“Ah, um, for two.”

“Yes. This way please.”

A narrow alley off the school route. Hidden inside is a small Western-style café.

It is my favorite place that I secretly visit.

“Huh… there is a place like this.”

“Yeah. It is in a pretty hard-to-find spot, so I think it is difficult to notice.”

We sit at a table in the back and put down our bags.

Amano-kun looks around the shop with interest… but I am a little too distracted for that.

(This is kind of like a date.)

N-No, no. It is not.

We are just taking shelter from the rain. Yeah, that is all.

I desperately tell myself that and open the menu.

“Ah, Amano-kun. What will you order? Look, the coffee here is good too?”

“Eh? Ah. Um.”

I push the menu at him to cover it up.

He takes it hesitantly, flips through the pages, and…

“…”

“…?”

He glances at me, looks like he is having trouble saying something, and then.

“…Then, cream soda.”

“Eh.”

He mutters that and turns away, looking embarrassed.

Hearing it, I freeze for a moment, and then I cannot help but burst out laughing.

“Pfft, ahaha!”

“Hey, no need to laugh.”

“S-Sorry sorry. I am not making fun of you.”

I put my hands together and wipe the tears that formed at the corners of my eyes.

…I see. He likes sweet things.

Somehow that is cute. My cheeks relax without thinking.

“Then I will have the milk crepe.”

“Yeah. That sounds good.”

“Don’t sulk. I said I’m sorry.”

As we talk like that, the tension eases.

Good. I think we can talk normally now.

I feel relieved when.

“…Kashiwagi-san. Is something wrong?”

He suddenly asks that.

“Eh?”

“No, you seemed a little off today.”

Those words make me freeze.

…Was it that obvious in my attitude?

I am stunned and end up staring at Amano-kun.

“Does it look that way?”

“Well… a little. If you do not want to talk, I will not force you.”

Seeing how I am, Amano-kun is considerate.

I hesitate a little.

And what slips out of my mouth is.

“Amano-kun.”

“Yeah.”

“…If both I and Yukimura-san confessed to you, which one would you date?”

…It is an outrageous bombshell.

“…Huh?”

Amano-kun’s stunned voice.

Hearing it, I snap back to myself.

“Ah, aaaa!? N-No! That is not what I meant!”

“U-Uh, yeah?”

“Um, actually…”

And so I tell Amano-kun everything.

Being called “second place,” “next after Yukimura-san,” “an approachable girl.”

That it hurts just a little.

“…”

“It is something to be grateful for, right? Even second place means I am recognized.”

“…Mm.”

“I know I should not mind it.”

I know it is a luxury problem.

“Second place” is not an insult at all.

It should actually be a compliment.

But…

“Will I… keep being compared to Yukimura-san forever…”

A pathetic voice leaks out.

The feelings I have bottled up these past few months overflow.

There is no point telling Amano-kun this.

—Yukimura Mizuki-san.

Beautiful, cool, good at studies and sports, everything.

Everyone’s object of admiration, wanted by everyone.

Someone I could never match even if I stood on my head.

How long will I be compared to someone like that.

A heavy silence falls over the café.

Ah, why did I end up talking about this.

I cannot lift my bowed face.

Amano-kun must be troubled too.

Thinking that, tears are about to spill when.

“…It is fine.”

“…?”

“You do not have to mind it.”

Amano-kun mutters that.

“Eh…?”

“I do not know about other people… but I think Kashiwagi-san has a lot of charm that even Yukimura-san does not have.”

When I look up, there is a worried face… and somehow a slightly apologetic one.

Amano-kun chooses his words carefully, hesitating several times.

“You always stay until the end for library duty, and you help people who are in trouble. I think that is amazing… and also.”

Saying that, for some reason he holds his head.

He groans a little, then finally looks up.

“…Kashiwagi-san is an amazing beauty in a different way from Yukimura-san. So maybe you do not need to compare yourselves.”

“…!”

He says that with a bright red face, looking truly embarrassed.

…Those words make my cheeks grow hot too.

“Eh, ah…”

I cannot form words properly. It is embarrassing.

But.

“Th-Thank you.”

“…No, sorry. I said something presumptuous.”

I barely manage to say that.

After that, I do not remember what we talked about.

We were both embarrassed and could not talk well, I think.

But talking about each other like that, I felt we got a little closer…

About ten minutes later, our two-person “first date” came to an end.

“—Well, see you tomorrow.”

“Ah, yeah.”

By then, the rain had stopped without us noticing.

We walk to the station without talking much.

But strangely, it did not feel awkward.

We reach the station, and I somehow watch Amano-kun’s back as he heads to a different line.

“Ah, Amano-kun!”

Before I know it, I call out to stop him.

“…?”

He turns around and tilts his head.

I panic and fluster.

“Um… can I invite you again sometime?”

I say what suddenly came to mind.

I thought it would be nice to have tea together like this again.

Now that I think about it, it is embarrassing. An unconscious date invitation.

But Amano-kun opens his eyes slightly.

“…If it is okay with me.”

He scratches his cheek shyly and says that.

“Y-Yeah!”

It makes me happy, and a little embarrassed.

I hurriedly turn my back to Amano-kun and run to the train.

—Thinking back now, this was surely the beginning.

At the time, I was not even aware of my feelings.

But after that, we often had tea together on the way home from library duty.

We started talking about studies, friends, all sorts of things.

It was fun. Before I knew it, I stopped caring about the word “second place.”

I thought that someday I might become the number one for this cute and kind boy.

That was my—Kashiwagi Koto’s first love.