When I Brought The Lost Little Girl To Her House, The One Who Came Out Of The Front Door Was The Most Beautiful Girl In The Grade. - Chapter 75

After parting ways with Souta, when I arrived home, Mom had prepared dinner.

“Huh? Did I tell her I was coming?”

I had mentioned that I was going out, but I didn’t say anything about coming back for dinner.

And she had finished making dinner at the exact right time.

A pleasant aroma wafted from the kitchen.

“Welcome back, Yuusei. I made stew for tonight.”

“How did you know I’d be coming home for dinner today?”

“Huh? Why… um…”

As I asked that, Mom had a puzzled expression on her face.

But she probably didn’t know herself in the end. Maybe she got tired of thinking about it or just didn’t care, but she said, “I just had a feeling.”

“Well, whatever. Thanks.”

I sincerely thanked her.

While eating the stew she had made, she asked me about what I did today. As I talked, my phone buzzed.

I thought it might be from either Mihara or Souta. But somewhere in my heart, I secretly hoped it would be Ayano.

With that expectation in mind, I looked at my phone and found a message from Ayano.

Yet, I didn’t read the message just yet. I left it unread and continued enjoying my meal.

“Yuusei, why are you grinning at your phone? Stop playing with your phone and eat.”

Mom scolded me for fiddling with my phone, but I couldn’t help but be curious.

I wanted to know what it said, even if it was something trivial. Just hearing from her made me happy.

Although, I didn’t think Ayano would send something trivial…

“Thank you for the meal.”

Once I finished eating, I washed the spoon and plate I used, then headed back to my room.

And there, I finally read the content of the message that had arrived earlier.

“It’s about the sleepover, but can Natsuno come too?”

“Somehow, when I brought up the sleepover, she said she wants to come along, and when I told her she can’t, she started crying…”

The content of the message was about Natsuno. With Natsuno, it was hard to tell whether she was genuinely crying or putting on an act to make me feel sorry for her.

It wasn’t a big deal to me, but I wondered if Natsuno would enjoy it. Even though she has an older sister, I’m older and a guy…

No, maybe she actually wants to play with me…

With those thoughts in mind, I was about to reply to Ayano with, “Does Natsuno want to play with me?” when another message arrived.

“Apparently, Natsuno wants to meet your older sister. Can that happen? Sorry if I’m being selfish.”

Dangerous, dangerous. This message brought me back to my senses. Until then, I’d been acting strangely cheerful.

“Hmm, I wonder.”

I finished the conversation with a sense of melancholy. It ended rather abruptly, and I felt a bit sad about that.

Feeling that I didn’t want it to end like this, I was about to press the call button.

As my trembling finger hovered over the button, I pressed it.

Then, Ayano picked up the phone right away. I hadn’t expected her to answer so quickly, which made me even more nervous.

In terms of sensation, it was like when the teacher usually points to the students in order but then suddenly points to you for no apparent reason.

It was just that this teacher was Ayano.

“H-Hello?”

Moreover, I was so nervous that my voice cracked.

What am I doing… I hid my face behind my hands in front of my phone.

“Hehe, are you nervous?”

“Well, a little…”

“I’m nervous too, actually.”

Surprisingly, my voice was trembling more than I had anticipated. When I heard her voice, strangely enough, I felt relieved.

Not only me but Ayano was also nervous about talking on the phone with me, and I felt a connection because of that.

“By the way, isn’t Ayano answering the phone pretty quickly?”

“W-Well, that’s because… I wanted to call you too…”

“Huh, really?”

“What’s the point of lying?”

Yeah, I guess there’s no need to lie… Hearing from Ayano that she had intended to call me made me happy.

After that, as we talked about today and our plans for New Year’s Eve, I found myself feeling more amused than nervous.

Ayano was talking just like how we usually chat at school and elsewhere.

“Oh, look at this picture~”

She said that, and the picture she sent had some doodles on a printout.

“What’s this?”

“Which one is better?”

There were three drawings. I could tell that two of them were of cats. One of them was really well done; it looked like something the Art Club might have drawn. The second one had a cute vibe to it.

“I can tell that 1 and 2 are cats.”

“So, what about 3?”

“An unidentified creature.”

“That’s mean! All three are cute kitties!”

“All three?”

As I questioned that, she seemed to have sensed it even through the phone and said, “That’s so mean!” to me.

“Could it be, Ayano… the one on the far left in the first drawing, did you draw it?”

“…I’m going to bed.”

“Huh, oh…”

“I said I’m going to bed!”

With that, she hung up. That creature that looked like an unidentified creature… Did Ayano draw it? But if she had drawn it with such effort, it was undeniably adorable.

Looking at the clock, it was almost midnight.

“…I guess I’ll go to bed now.”

I dimmed the lights in my room, lost in the remnants of the phone call, and got into bed, drifting into sleep.