The Woman Whose Life I Saved Turned out to Be the Mother of the Popular Twin Sisters in My Class - Chapter 12 - It’s Too Early to Have Flowers in Both Hands

Chapter 12 – It’s Too Early to Have Flowers in Both Hands

“Brave Max” is a story of friendship between two people, Rick and Max. Rick is a coward and has a habit of running away, so he is always bullied by his friends. Rick’s father, worried about Rick, created Max. (T/N: Bro, isn’t this Big Hero 6?!)

Max has a high-performance AI inside him, and he can learn many things rapidly. Like that, Rick and Max spend their days together like brothers.

One day, Rick was caught up in a terrorist incident. Max rushed to Rick’s side to help him. He cornered the criminal, but the bomb the criminal used as a last resort was blown up, and Max became a shield to protect Rick.

Rick, who lost Max, fell into depression. However, his memories of Max made him move forward. Finding out that Max was gone, Rick became the target of bullies again, but with the courage he learned from Max in his heart, he decided to stand up to the bullies.

And at the climax, Rick, who had learned to be more confident and brave, returned to Max after the repairs were completed.

“……”

It may be a cliched story, but Rick’s feelings were carefully depicted and Max’s character was comedic and interesting, making it a fun story with laughs and tears.

My eyes welled up when Max protected Rick from the explosion, and tears ran down my cheeks during the reunion scene.

When I glanced at Hikari to see how she was doing…

“Uggh,,,hic, hic…”

She was crying like crazy.

It wasn’t just that her eyes were getting hot or that tears were running down her cheeks, she was sobbing like crazy. She was expressing her emotions to the fullest, without caring about what other people thought.

“A-are you okay?”

“I’m just really moved, seriously.”

Hikari replied, sniffling. When the credits finished and the lights turned on in the theater, people started to walk towards the exit, but everyone seemed to take a while.

“Take this.”

I took out some tissues from my bag and handed them to Hikari. She took them and blew her nose timidly.

Most of the people in the theater had left, and the rest were steadily heading for the exit. It looked like we were the last ones inside.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s go?”

Hikari, who seems to have finally calmed down, slowly stood up. I followed suit.

“How was the movie?”

Hikari, walking next to me, peered intently into my face. Her round eyes sparkled beautifully, and the areas around them were slightly red and swollen. Well, it’s no wonder after she cried so much.

“It was fun. I cried a bit at the end.”

“I know, right!! I cried a bit too!”

“That was definitely more that ‘a bit.’”

When I teased her, Hikari blushed. Her emotions easily show on her face, so I feel at ease being with her.

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed the movie!”

She said, trying to play it off.

After leaving the cinema, we decided to go to a nearby coffee shop. Hikari had done her research beforehand, so we had no trouble finding the coffee shop.

“Yuri-chan recommended this place the other day, so I wanted to try it.”

“Yuri-chan?”

Who’s this girl with a name that sounds like she’s into cute things? I tilted my head in confusion, and Hikari looked at me like she couldn’t believe it.

“She’s our classmate, you know?”

“I barely remember the guys’ names, let alone the girls’. How could I know that?”

“But you knew my name, right?”

She looked into my face.

Her confused face made it seem like she was genuinely curious.

“The Kotobuki twin sisters are famous. I could at least remember their names.”

“I see!”

She looked like a lightbulb had gone off in her head as she opened the café door.

I could hear a cling sound as we went inside.

It was a pretty normal café, nothing particularly special. Dimly lit, with soft jazz playing in the background, it had the cozy ambiance you’d expect from a place like this.

Even though it was the weekend, the place wasn’t too crowded, probably because the area is full of cafés, which spread out the customer flow.

“Welcome. Table for two?”

“Yes!”

Hikari answered cheerfully, and the staff led us to our seats. It seems the cafe was about half full. There were no noisy customers, so the atmosphere inside the shop was quite calm.

“I heard the shortcake here is delicious.”

“Really? Then I’ll order the shortcake.”

“In that case, I’ll have the chocolate cake.”

“Huh, why?”

“Eh?”

When I retorted, Hikari made a question mark above her head.

“The recommendation is shortcake, so normally you’d order the shortcake.”

“Eh, but Ao is already ordering the shortcake.”

“Huh?”

“Hmm?”

Wait, why does it feel like we’re not on the same page here? Am I the one being weird?

“Do you not like shortcake?”

“No. I like it. In fact, I love it.”

I thought she didn’t like it, but it seems that’s not the case.

So, with the current flow, it would be normal to order shortcake.

I ordered the shortcake, so she ordered chocolate cake. And it’s not that she doesn’t like shortcakes, she loves them, in fact.

“I don’t get it. Can you explain?”

“Explain what?”

When I said that, Hikari tilted her head in confusion. I had made it an issue on my own, so her reaction was perfectly reasonable.

“Why aren’t you ordering the shortcake?”

“Well, because Ao is already ordering it.”

“And why is that a reason?”

“We’ll have twice as much fun if we order different things instead of the same thing, right?”

“Ah, I see.”

So she wanted to share.

I don’t often go out to eat with other people, so I never thought of it like that in the first place.

I do eat with Hibino sometimes, but we only order what we like and don’t interfere with each other.

I tend to base my expectations on that.

“Excuse me——”

“There’s a call button here.”

◇

After watching the movie and chatting away at the coffee shop, it was already past five o’clock.

As the sky darkened at this hour, it reminded me that winter was approaching.

Thinking it might not be good to stay too long, we left the café. Since today’s plans had been completely left up to Hikari, I turned to her for the next move.

“What are we going to do now? Are we calling it a day?”

“Well, you see…”

Hikari checked the time on her watch.

Even though it wasn’t that she couldn’t read the time, for some reason, she looked a bit troubled.

She hummed to herself, and then, after seemingly deciding something, she nodded to herself with determination.

“Since it’s already this time, why don’t we have dinner——”

“——That’s not what we promised.”

Yuzuki suddenly appeared, interrupting Hikari.

Huh, I thought she had gone home?

“Yuzuki?”

Hikari let out a surprised cry and took a few steps back. She seemed quite shaken up.

“We both decided on the time for our date, didn’t we? If you have dinner with Ao-kun now, it’s obviously going to go over.”

Hikari was frightened by Yuzuki’s intense expression and tone of voice. As for me, I could only watch without being able to say a single word.

“N-no, it’s not like that! I just thought since Yuzuki had already left, no one would know if I extended the time a bit!”

“Nothing about that is okay! I won’t allow you to sneak ahead!”

“Ee~~ehh?”

Even as they said that, I couldn’t help but laugh at the atmosphere of their relationship.

“I thought it was suspicious when you let me go first. So you were planning something like this. I was right to follow you.”

Yuzuki naturally confessed that she was stalking Hikari and me.

“You were watching us the whole time?!”

“From a distance, yes.”

“You can’t do things like that!”

“You’re not one to talk!”

The sisters’ quarrel seemed to be escalating, so I finally decided to intervene.

“You shouldn’t argue here.”

They both looked back at me when I said that. Their eyes were sparkling, and they looked somewhat expectant.

That’s why, I told them, “Let’s call it a day for now.”

“Isn’t this the part where we go for dinner together as three!?”

“That’s what I thought too!”

I understood why they were both surprised and disappointed, but honestly, having dinner with both of them after all this would be exhausting.

I was already worn out from doing something so out of the ordinary today.

“Let’s save that for another time.”

◇

T/N: Dem, MC playing it slow…