Chapter 14

Day 14

＃　＃　＃

Maharun♪：Good morning

Iguchi Keita　：It is already afternoon though

Her LINE message came around noon.

Maharun♪：Eh?

Maharun♪：After all, if I messaged you too fast, you would complain anyway, senpai

Iguchi Keita　：That is…

Maharun♪：You will say ‘Don’t wake me up,’

Maharun♪：Or ‘Don’t disturb my precious sleeping time.’

It was certainly around an hour ever since I woke up, and I couldn’t refute her since I would definitely say that if she really sent me a message while I was sleeping.

The coffee I just drank finally came into effect, and I was finally awake and became motivated.

I was motivated to play games, though. Now then, I’ll do my best to fight the salmons too today.

＊　＊　＊

There was a reason for me to go as far as to contact him at noon.

It wasn’t something like a lunch invite, though.

Maharun♪：Well then, senpai

Maharun♪：This is the long-waited-for「today’s question」time

Iguchi Keita　：I am not waiting for it

Maharun♪：But I am

Iguchi Keita　：Haa

Maharun♪：Well, nevermind that

Maharun♪：Senpai, what are you doing right now?

Usually, when we meet face to face, we would do nothing but to ask each other questions.

Since I couldn’t meet him on weekends, I wanted to know what senpai was doing when he was not with me. I would laugh if he actually said「I was sleeping」, but asking at this kind of time should be okay, right.

Iguchi Keita　：Eh…

Iguchi Keita　：If I talk about it, it will be long…

Iguchi Keita　：I will have to start with background explanation too

What were you actually doing, senpai.

Maharun♪：Please just explain it now

Iguchi Keita　：I am currently on iPad, not my computer

Iguchi Keita　：Are you planning to make me have tendonitis?

Maharun♪：You can just use your computer now

Iguchi Keita　：Don’t wanna

Iguchi Keita　：I don’t want to get up from the sofa

I could imagine the senpai who was looking straight up at his tablet that he held with his stretching arm while lazing around and saying「Don’t wanna moveー」.

What kind of casual clothes would he wear everyday in his house?

Maharun♪：Ah, then, I thought of a great idea

If senpai said that it was troublesome to type, then we could use this LINE function. Well, I usually didn’t use it that much.

Maharun♪：[Maharun♪ started a call.]

＃　＃　＃

「Waiー!?」

I was caught off guard.

Currently, I was relaxing on the couch in the living room.

Yes. In the living room.

It was a holiday today. My father went out for shopping, but my mother was currently sitting nearby.

In other words, what I wanted to say was that my mother would get an inkling of something.

If she found out, she would definitely asked about everything thoroughly no matter what it was, and it would be troublesome.

The specific LINE ringtone began to ring from my phone, which I leave on the floor without any care.

It was too late to stop it from ringing, and my mother quickly noticed it.

「Oh my. Keita, a call?」

「Un, give me a minute.」

Aaah. Well, it can’t be helped.

I go back to my room as I feel my mom’s warm and attentive gaze on my back. After I shut the door and closing the window securely, I covered my head with a futon (to prevent sound leakage), then I finally answered the call.

「Senpai, you’re slooow.」

I wonder if she was trying to imitate one of the destroyer ship voices which was popular a few years ago. 1

「Seriously, don’t just call me so suddenly.」

「By the way, senpai, did you ever have a phone call with a girl?」

A phone call. A phone call, huh.

I could just meet my parents or my family directly so there is usually no need to have a call.

「I don’t think so.」

「Eh, then it means I’m your first one! Yayyy♪」

Talking to this person while I was at home made me feel somewhat unsettled.

Really, modern technology was something troubling too.

「Then, what were you doing, senpai?」

If I talked with a loud voice, my mother would hear our conversation.

I used as quite a voice as I can, and spoke to my smartphone.

「To put it simply, I was looking at 2channel.」2

「2channel?」

「Un.」

「I have never seen it before.」

「I don’t usually see it too, you know.」

「Why… Why did senpai get swallowed in the darkness… Senpai who was very kind to me is now… Please give back senpai now!」

「Er, I’m not falling into the darkness, okay?」

Hiding in a futon and closed my door, I looked like Amaterasu Ō-mikami 3, though.

「Do you know about『Kemono Friends』? You probably know it.」

「Ah, that『Uu, rawr!』4? I watched it before.」

「Wow……」

Where did all of her knowledge come from?

「It seems that they changed their director.」

「I’m not sure if it is common to change the director for an anime series, but it should be not that rare, right?」

Everyone will usually think like that, eh.

「Earlier, there was a sudden announcement on Twitter, so it blew up right now.」

「Just because of that?」

「Yeah, just that.」

「Aren’t they stupid?」

「They’re certainly stupid. Including me.」

「What is the connection with 2channel then?」

「Er, everyone on 2chan are gathering information about that.」

Of course I didn’t have the courage to write anything myself. I belonged to the ROM group. ‘Read-Only-Member’.

「I see. Senpai had an unproductive weekend, huh.」

I couldn’t refute that, making me feel troubled.

Well, I wanted to spend it by lazing around anyway.

Today was the weekend. It was also a holiday.

「Even if you said that, how many high school students are actually having productive weekends? Do they even exist?」

「That’s true as well… Anyway, senpai. Why does your voice sound stuffy?」

Ugh. As expected from her, she realized it, huh.

「There is rustling sound as well.」

「Maybe my cell phone is just bad?」

「Senpai, you’re lying. You also stifled your voice ever since before.」

What’s with her. Is she an esper?

「Senpai, where are you right now?」

「Of course at my home.」

「Specifically, at what part of your home?」

「My room.」

「Does your room have a sofa? How gorgeous, senpai.」

「No, there’s none.」

After saying that, I realized I made a mistake.

「Then, senpai was moving place on purpose to accept my call, eh.」

Look, it became like this.

「Why?」

「No, it’s just that my parent is in the living room.」

「Then why, so senpai didn’t want your family to hear your conversation with me?」

「Yeah, that’s true」

Please don’t affirm it out loud, it was embarrassing after all! I didn’t really know why though.

「Anyway, if you will pick up a phone, don’t you want to go to another place so that your voice won’t disturb anyone?」

I forcefully tried to stop my voice from quivering, and I tried to make a rebuttal.

「You can just accept it immediately since you’re at your own home, right?」

Ah.

I never accepted any call, so I didn’t really know.

「Well, either way is fine. I’ll call you from time to time, so please take care of me from now on.」

「I don’t want to take care of you, though.」

「Ehhh, isn’t it okay…」

＊　＊　＊

So he went back to his own room since he didn’t want his family to ask him about me, eh. So senpai was shy about this kind of stuff.

「’nyway, what are you doing there? This is my『today’s question』」

Recently, our usage of「today’s question」towards each other had become somewhat messy, just like this.

Rather than the usage, maybe our agreement itself was already messy.

「I am currently having lunch with my friends♪」

「Ha?」

I could hear senpai’s flustered voice from the other side of my phone.

「Eh, you are letting your friends hear this conversation right now?」

「If I said that I let them hear, what would you do, senpai?」

「…Well, there’s nothing, but…」

Rather than giving up on a strange point, this person was more like the reasonable type after all.

Since senpai already admitted his defeat, let’s stop joking with him now.

「Please be relieved. I just told them that I wanted to wash my hands for a while.」

「Won’t it be even more suspicious if you take too much time?」

「It’s okay. Girls’ washing hands also includes fixing makeup, so it won’t be strange at all.」

「Haa…」

「But then, it will be bad if I don’t return soon too.」

「Then don’t call me in the first place!」

「Isn’t it fine? I’ll see you later then, senpai. Please come to Harajuku Station at 4:30 in the evening tomorrow, okay?♪」

「Ha? Harajuku? What for?」

「Didn’t I say that we would go out yesterday? Well then, see you tomorrow.」

I believed that senpai was the type of person who would complain, yet ended up coming as promised after saying something like ‘a promise is a promise after all’.

＃　＃　＃

The call ended with the uncomfortable distinctive ringing sound in my ears.

Speaking of it, I made a promise to make her not angry anymore yesterday. Is that it?

Why was it at the fashionable town of Harajuku out of all places… Even if she told me to choose clothes for her, it would be impossible for me, okay?

What should I do?

Anyway, I might have no clothes that I could wear to match the stylish atmosphere of Harajuku in the first place.

My main clothing brand was UNIQLO. That should be enough for minimal line.

I also thought before that I would be troubled after facing a situation that was surpassing the minimal line, but it finally got confirmed at this very moment.

Should I go buy it right now? Uhn, but it was really bothersome.

I had no choice but to make do with the clothes in my house.

In the end, it took me three hours to decide which clothes I should wear tomorrow.

The things I knew about my senpai⑭

When it comes to himself, it seems like he easily gets embarrassed.