The Woman Whose Life I Saved Turned out to Be the Mother of the Popular Twin Sisters in My Class

Chapter 18 – Appearance Is Important

I met Hibino in middle school. We went to the same middle school, but the third year was when we started to get to know each other.

I’ve never been the type of person to make a lot of friends, and I was content with having a few close, strong bonds.

So, when I was separated from my close friends during the class shuffle in the third year, I quickly found myself alone. Among the classmates who were noisily chatting away, there was one other person, like me, who seemed bored, watching the others.

That was Hibino Sumomo.

But even so, I didn’t make an effort to talk to her. I wasn’t particularly troubled by being alone, and I still had people to talk to, even if we weren’t close.

However, it seemed Hibino didn’t think the same way as me, and about two weeks into the start of our third year, she spoke to me.

“Don’t you have any friends, Kirishima?”

How rude, I thought.

But strangely enough, I didn’t have a bad impression of her. I concluded that she was probably someone who spoke what she thought.

“As you can see.”

The fact that I was eating lunch alone during the break said it all. So I responded with that, affirming her observation.

“Right? That’s why I decided to talk to you.”

As she said that, Hibino sat down in the empty seat in front of me and spread out her lunch on my desk as if it was the most natural thing to do.

Her lunch was a vegetarian lunch back then, just like now, and the sight was a shock to me. I said “What kind of lunch is that?” before I could say “Don’t sit down without permission.”

“I’m vegetarian. Or maybe a fruitarian, too.”

“I’ve never heard of a fruitarian.”

“It’s not that I don’t like meat, I just love vegetables and fruit.”

“I see.”

With that, I missed my chance to point out that she had started eating with me uninvited, and we ended up chatting casually while we ate that day.

The next day, she did the same thing.

It wasn’t that I felt uncomfortable. In fact, I found it fun, so I decided to accept Hibino’s company.

That said, I still wanted to clear up the question of why she had suddenly approached me. So, at the end of that month, I decided to ask her.

To be honest, seeing as she was able to talk normally with me, even though she had never spoken to me before, it didn’t seem like she lacked communication skills. That’s why I was surprised that she was a loner.

“Why did you approach me that day?”

“Why? Because I wanted to be friends with you. Should I have had another reason?”

After school, Hibino and I would walk home together halfway, so by that time, it had become normal for us to go home together.

“I could probably survive on my own, but it would be inconvenient sometimes. So I thought I’d make at least one friend. And I ended up choosing Kirishima, who was also a loner.”

“In that case, wouldn’t it have been better to go with someone of the same sex rather than the opposite sex?”

“Getting along with other girls is a lot more troublesome than you think, Kirishima. That’s exactly why I haven’t made any friends.”

I’ve heard that relationships with girls are troublesome in many ways, but I don’t know how troublesome it really is.

I asked Hibino, but she didn’t answer. She brushed it off with some casual joke, so I didn’t mention it any further.

From then on, we spent the next year as friends.

When I was deciding which school to apply to before the entrance exams, I decided to apply to Omaku High School, which my homeroom teacher recommended.

“Where are you going, Kirishima?”

“Omaku High School. It’s supposed to be good. What about you, Hibino?”

“If Kirishima’s going there, I’ll go there too.”

“Is it really okay to choose so casually? You could aim for a school with a higher difficulty level.”

Hibino was much smarter than me. I knew that because she always helped me study before tests.

“If I leave Kirishima, I’ll have to make new friends and build a new relationship from scratch. That’s a hassle. I can study anywhere, but I can only be with Kirishima at that school.”

“Don’t say that with a straight face.”

Just like that, Hibino and I entered the same high school, and we’ve been here ever since.

“That’s how it went, more or less.”

I ended up talking for quite a long time.

Goto-san kept cutting my hair while she was listening, and worked briskly. By the time I finished talking, she was almost done.

As for Hikari, she nodded with a serious look on her face as she listened to me. I couldn’t tell from her expression how she felt.

“Given that, I wonder why the two of you haven’t started dating. It seems strange to me.”

“Who knows? I don’t really know either, but maybe it’s because we’re comfortable with things as they are now.”

“Don’t you want to date Hibino-san, Ao?”

“Hmm…”

I thought about it.

I get along well with Hibino. I think I’m probably the most open with her outside of my family.

I like her.

That’s for sure.

But it’s not more or less than that.

As I was thinking about this, I glanced at Hikari.

The kind of heart-pounding feeling I get around Hikari or Yuzuki isn’t something I feel for Hibino.

Maybe we’ve become so close that we don’t think of each other in that way anymore. And I think that’s why it feels so comfortable with her.

“I don’t want to go out with her, but I do hope we can stay friends forever.”

When I said that, Goto-san chuckled.

Huh, was there something funny about what I just said?

Goto-san seemed to notice my gaze and apologized lightly, saying, “Sorry~”

“I asked Sumomo-chan the same thing before. Like why she’s not going out with Kirishima-kun.”

“Oh…”

I gave an ambiguous nod.

Goto-san continued speaking, sounding amused.

“And she said something similar. It was so amusing. You two really are on the same wavelength.”

“That’s kind of embarrassing.”

“It’s a beautiful friendship. You don’t see much of that when you’re an adult, so it’s dazzling. But be careful, those kinds of relationships can turn into… ‘friends with benefits.’”

“Let’s just keep it as a nice friendship story, okay?”

I was surprised to hear the word “friends with benefits” come out of a beautiful woman’s mouth, but I decided to just make a small retort.

“Friends with benefits…?”

Hikari looked at me and Goto-san with a confused look on her face. It seems like she doesn’t understand what “friends with benefits” mean.

“What’s that?”

Hikari asked curiously.

I couldn’t bring myself to say that it’s basically sex friends.

I made eye contact with Goto-san, hoping that the adult woman would somehow deceive her.

However, she just winked back at me. I guess she’s leaving it up to me.

“Friends with benefits mean… supportive friends, yes, that’s it. A relationship where friends support each other.”

It was a close call halfway through, but I managed to pull it off nicely. Judging by Hikari’s reaction of “Oh, I see!”, I’d say it was a success.

“Then I’d like to be your friend with benefits, too, Ao!”

“Don’t ever say that in front of other people, okay!!”

Maybe it was Goto-san’s communication skill, but my first time at the hair salon ended in a flash. It was such a normal time that I felt silly for being nervous in the first place.

◇

As expected from a hair salon, the quality of the finished result was completely different from a 1,000 yen haircut.

It was quite expensive, but it’s not so bad once in a while.

Goto-san gave me her business card and said, “If you come again, please ask for me. I’d like to talk to you some more.”

“You look great,” Hikari said with a smile as she looked at me after the haircut.

When I looked in the mirror, I looked like a different person. But it was all thanks to Goto-san’s styling skills, so by tomorrow I’ll probably be back to my usual self.

“Yeah, I guess. Feels weird, like I’m someone else.”

“But it’s a problem.”

Hmm, for some reason Hikari groaned with a complicated look on her face.

“Huh, why?”

What’s the problem with me being like this?

“If Ao becomes cool, he’ll become popular with the girls. There’s already Yuzuki, who’s a very strong rival, so it would be a problem if I had any more rivals.”

“What am I supposed to say to that? Besides, looks alone aren’t going to change how people think of me.”

“No no. That’s not true. Appearance is important.”

“But Hikari didn’t choose me for my looks, did she?”

“Hmm, maybe. I think what’s inside is most important, but that doesn’t mean appearance doesn’t matter.”

“I see.”

Well, at that time, I was in my anti-introvert mode produced by Shuka, so maybe I was seen in a better light than usual.

We talked like that for a while, and then Hikari suddenly looked at me with a look on her face as if she had just thought of something.

“Since we’ve come all this way, why don’t we make a little detour?”

“It’s because my hair’s all styled, right?”

“Yes! I know I’m being selfish, but I just want to admire Ao’s incredibly cool look a little longer. Is that okay?”

“…Well.”

I guess she had a point.