When I brought my childhood friend back home after a long time, she suddenly started undressing and said, "I want you to hold me..."

As I held Aoi, who was crying in my chest, and by the time he noticed, the fireworks show was already over.

Well, I’m sure the old lady who gave us the tickets would also be happy that we became a couple.

“…”

I was driving the car and we were heading back to the inn, but it was very quiet inside.

There was no reason for the awkward silence, but for some reason, I could not speak. It might be because my focus was on driving on the night road, but even so, I kept my calm.

The night radio echoes in the car, and the moonlight illuminates the road. Because of the tradition, the car was illuminated by the electric light at a certain rhythm, and each time, Aoi’s indescribable expression was reflected in my eyes.

She seemed to be thinking about something as she looked at the scenery outside without blinking. What will she do next, or is it about the future of the two of them — I was troubled by problems that I could not think of.

However, it still feels strange to maintain silence after all, so I spoke to break the uncomfortable silence.

“We’re dating…”

“Un…”

When I said that, Aoi looked back at me as if she was stunned. Thinking that it must have sounded bad, I tried to redo it, but she laughed and replied.

“What are you talking about now?”

“…Well.”

“Yes, we are dating.”

To my pitiful expression, Aoi said a little pretentiously.

“Somehow, I don’t feel it at all…”

“Hmm, is that so?”

“Yeah, I don’t believe we are really dating…”

“Well, I don’t feel that way, but… is there anything that dissatisfies you?”

“No, no! I don’t have any dissatisfaction or anything. It’s just that I feel like nothing has changed just because we’ve become a couple from childhood friends… Like, there’s no change? “

“Do you want a change?”

“Well, no… That’s not what I mean.”

“… Geez, what? Be clear.”

“Well, I don’t know either, but… well, how do we… how should we approach each other in the future?”

To my pitiful words while asking this, she had a surprised look on her face again.

I don’t want to approach her differently from before either. Of course, I like her usual cute self.

But like Aoi, this was my first time in love. I was not popular during high school either. I didn’t have the energy to brush off a confession so easily.

That’s why I didn’t know what to do when I started dating. If I had been in a proper relationship earlier, I wouldn’t be feeling this way now, and so I was now regretting it. I couldn’t hide the fact that I feel miserable, even though I know it’s pitiful.

Although I answered, I don’t know how to end the conversation, and with that alone I felt miserable.

‘… Damn it.’

But when she said that, I realized that she was right.

At first, I didn’t understand the meaning of dating at all. I wasn’t particularly close to the person who confessed to me, and I only saw the surface and talked a little, and then I was confessed to.

It was somehow weird to have this happen every day.

But I want to sincerely face her feelings and think about various things. Like, what will happen when we become a couple.

Marriage is vaguely understood, but what about the future? What about our life? I don’t know anything about it, and I’m not good at imagining it either.

I felt like a fool who is only good at surface relationships, and I also felt like I was not worthy of Aoi.

“I’m sorry, Aoi. I’m not good at this kind of thing like love, so… I’m sorry.”

I apologized, while lowering my head.

“Well, what about being a couple?”

If you ask me that, the answer is ambiguous and I don’t know.

But that also blew away immediately after I met my childhood friend who grew up. I felt destiny. It’s not like the effects of fortune-telling or luck were not there.

But from the moment I saw her.

I was captivated.

I fell in love with her right there.

The noisy past has already disappeared, and I was calm, yet emotionally rich, and even her face looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Not as a childhood friend, but as the opposite sex and a lover.

I thought it was nice.

Thanks to being able to think that, I understood it somehow.

Aoi turned around and leaned her elbow on the window, and looked outside as she said,

“It’s okay to be the same as before.”

“The same as before?”

“Yeah. I mean… I fell in love with Sho’s usual self. There’s no need to think about changing something from now on, not at all.”

There was a moment of silence, and I smiled.

“Oh, that’s right.”

“Yes, I want it to be the same as before.”

“Thank you.”

Feeling a little relieved by the casual words of my girlfriend, I continued to drive for a while.

Again, the silence continued inside the car, and when I glanced sideways with curiosity, I saw Aoi’s expression reflected in the window for a moment, illuminated by the street lamp. Despite her serious face when she was insisting before, now she looked embarrassed for some reason.

So I opened his mouth again.

“But, you know…”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t think we would go on dates or anything like that if things stayed the way they are now.”

I grinned mischievously and muttered meaningfully.

But Aoi, surprised by those words, immediately turned to me and shouted sadly.

“–Why!!”

“Well, because you said you were okay with things staying the way they are.”

“Th-that’s not–I, I didn’t mean…”

“I thought it was because you said it was okay, and there’s no helping it. Personally, I was

thinking of doing something like what you suggested.”

“Th-that’s not… I-I’m sorry!! It’s a lie! It’s not like that!”