Chapter 03: There were various things, but the frappe was delicious

Parents––family matters––were topics Daikichi Sakoda did not want to discuss. About five years ago, his parents died in an accident, and his grandparents, too, passed away from illness—one a year before and the other three years prior.

The only living relative was his uncle… in other words, Sazanka Tsubaki’s father, though he was not someone Daikichi could rely on.

“Daichan-senpai?”

“Sorry. I was just lost in thought.”

Daikichi understood that, in the eyes of most, his circumstances were heavy. Precisely for that reason, he did not want to talk about them.

There might be people with similar backgrounds if you looked around, but without a doubt, they were in the minority.

Not many can simply brush off a heavy topic when it comes up unexpectedly, and besides, Daikichi wanted to avoid having that matter pried into—after all, it was connected to the reason he watched over Sakurazaki.

“Geez, when you’re talking with a girl, you shouldn’t be thinking about anything except her.”

“Sorry about that. Well… my parents aren’t at home. They’re somewhere I can’t see them right away.”

“Huh? Really?”

“….”

“Maybe overseas or something?”

“Yeah, that’s right. At least, they’re not in Japan. That’s why I live alone in an apartment.”

While watching Sakurazaki beam at the thought of living alone, Daikichi felt guilty for having hidden the truth.

Moreover, if she sensed his true feelings, the reason behind his lie would be lost; so, holding back his desire to reveal his inner turmoil, he forced a gentle smile to cover it up.

Then, as if by some strange quirk of human nature, his guilt seemed to lessen just a little, drawn along by that sudden, feigned smile.

“Whoa, living alone is amazing! I’m so envious…! But, oh, so Daichan-senpai lives alone, huh…”

“Well, if you call it unusual, maybe it is. At our school, if a student’s family were more proper, they wouldn’t leave them on their own—they’d probably even hire someone like a housekeeper.”

“I had a friend when I entered our school who lived in a big house with a housekeeper!”

“Yeah. Anyway, I don’t have any of that. My life is pretty ordinary.”

There was no falsehood in saying he led an ordinary life, yet Daikichi did have a modest inheritance left by his parents.

Of course, being a minor meant that a guardian managed it; however, having earned a certain degree of trust, he was allowed to use it freely.

Still, he kept his life as modest as possible, feeling that spending freely would dishonor his late parents.

“Well, even if you knew every detail about my life, it wouldn’t be that interesting.”

“Not at all. I’m interested!”

“You don’t need to be interested. …By the way, staying here in the store might disturb the shop or the other customers, so you’d better settle the bill quickly.”

Dodging the torrent of affection Sakurazaki was forcefully directing at him, Daikichi urged her to check out. Sakurazaki gave him a look that seemed to say, “Isn’t it fine?” but then, as if a sudden idea had struck her, she brightened.

“Oh, I see, that’s right.”

“You’ve really become understanding. That’s good.”

“I’ve always been pretty understanding, you know? I just thought talking while standing must be tiring.”

“Whatever. Just finish your shopping quickly—”

—After that, Daikichi was about to suggest that they disband and head home when, before he could finish, Sakurazaki interjected with another proposal.

“—Let’s go have a drink at a stylish little place. That way, we can relax and chat at our leisure.”

Daikichi was rendered speechless by Sakurazaki’s assertiveness, his mouth half open as he froze. Seeing him like that, Sakurazaki turned her face aside, her cheeks blazing with heat and turning bright red.

“Daichan-senpai is a baby, so I have to take care of him, don’t I?”

“……”

“Babubabu, Daichan-senpai.”

“……”

“What’s the matter, I wonder?”

“No……”

At Hanakumori Sakurazaki’s impudent teasing, Daikichi Sakoda couldn’t help but get annoyed; yet, for a fleeting moment, he also felt a strange charm in her mannerisms.

Sakurazaki’s chest, noticeable even beneath her uniform, was well-developed—if one judged solely on that, she would conventionally appear to be an adult woman.

However, her stature was somewhat shorter than that of her peers, and her large eyes produced a complex effect that imbued her with an innocence beyond her years.

Sakurazaki effortlessly gave boys the impression of being teased by a child with an adult body, though she herself was likely unaware of it; it was, in effect, her so-called bewitching allure.

Her impertinence—void of malice—was evident in both her expression and manner of speaking, causing even Daikichi, who always remained mindful of proper boundaries, to have his heart skip a beat from time to time.

Moreover, the root of Sakurazaki’s bewitching charm lay in her unawareness of the proper distance between the sexes; her innocent girlish nature was unmistakable to everyone. In fact, though Daikichi remained oblivious, boys across all grades were often drawn to her, some even setting their sights on her.

However, since Sakurazaki was a special scholarship student—meaning she came from an ordinary family—many boys worried that even if they managed to start dating her, they wouldn’t gain their relatives’ approval, and so they kept their distance.

Perhaps that was why Sakurazaki’s friends showed a peculiar interest in Daikichi, often hinting at pushing the two closer together—they were keenly aware of the situation.

Some even saw Daikichi as a brave senpai who had clumsily overcome the barrier that most of the school’s boys could not surmount.

Yet, Daikichi remained unaware of how he was perceived; he was simply oblivious to the way others saw him.

That is why he didn’t initially notice how he appeared in Sakurazaki’s eyes.

Well, considering Daikichi’s true feelings, his circumstances, and, above all, the reasons he still kept regarding Sakurazaki a secret, it was perhaps inevitable…

“Then, let’s set off~!”

“……Oh dear.”

Yielding to Sakurazaki’s insistence, Daikichi ended up spending some time with her.

At the stylish snack bar Sakurazaki had chosen, Daikichi passed the time in trivial conversation while wondering when she would eventually tire of it.

When he scooped up the white peach-flavored frappe before him and took a sip, a subtle yet distinctly refreshing sweetness spread across his palate.

It was apparently a summer-only frappe, and with the season having shifted to autumn, it was set to vanish from the menu by tomorrow. Sakurazaki had insistently ordered two servings so they could have one last taste, and, surprisingly, Daikichi found the flavor suited his palate quite well.

However, as expressing his enjoyment would have seemed childish, Daikichi maintained a blank expression.

“Is it good?”

“Ordinary.”

“Oh, you might not know unless you have an adult palate! Daichan-senpai is a baby, so that’s impossible, right!”

“No, I mean it’s ‘ordinary’ in the sense of being plainly delicious.”

“You know, all that ‘if you say this, then say that’ and throwing tantrums—that’s just typical baby behavior.”

“That ‘if you say this, then that’ is something a baby simply can’t manage. They can make sounds, but they don’t engage in sophistry. In essence, infants don’t throw tantrums out of spite—they merely have no other way to communicate their state, I suppose.”

When Daikichi pointed that out calmly, Sakurazaki, perhaps finding his response unamusing, fell into a sullen mood.

“Well, maybe so, but that’s not what I meant…”

“I see. Well, if you know, that’s fine. By the way, how are your studies at school? I think you’re managing them properly, though.”

“That way of bringing up topics—could it be your dad’s style?”

“It’s important.”

“I can manage it just fine. I got in on a special scholarship, after all. If my grades drop, I’ll lose my tuition waiver. I’m not ranked first in my class—someone else is—but I was second in the last term.”

“Well, that’s good then.”

“What about you, Daichan-senpai? You don’t seem all that smart. Hehe.”

Perhaps wanting to get a little revenge, Sakurazaki insisted on implying that Daikichi wasn’t very bright.

Daikichi wasn’t particularly smart, but he wasn’t bad either.

“I’m always somewhere in the middle.”

“That’s the ranking that leaves me most perplexed…”

At that perfectly mediocre middle rank, Sakurazaki wore an indescribably troubled expression.

Her expression clearly betrayed the thought that if his grades were poor, she could say, “See, I told you so,” and if they were good, “You’re smarter than I thought.”

Then, perhaps deciding that this topic wouldn’t lead to a fun conversation, Sakurazaki promptly shifted the subject to Daikichi’s daily life.