CH 42

Drowning in You

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

Drowning in You

It was the morning of the day after that.

Normally, I would have stayed in the futon a little longer, but today my eyes were strangely clear and I had no desire to stay in the futon.

To be honest, I didn’t think I would be able to get such a good night’s sleep.

Not long ago…before I went to the pool, I might not have been able to get a good night’s sleep. I thought I would be in agony right before getting into bed, not knowing how to face Kazemiya, but as you could tell, the result was as follows.

I fell asleep without much trouble and was able to greet the morning refreshed.

(It’s strange even for me…)

How should I face Kazemiya?

I did not know that yet—but somehow I felt I could have interacted with her normally. I didn’t know why.

After washing my face and looking at my face in the washbasin mirror, I thought I understood the reason.

“…Ah, I see. That’s how it is.”

I had a clear idea of what I needed to do.

***

“…I couldn’t sleep.”

Only today, my wake-up time hit an all-time low.

To be precise, I had woken up earlier, but I didn’t have the courage to get out of the futon, and before I knew it, an hour had passed.

No, but, it was about time… I had to get up.

I couldn’t stay in bed all night at someone else’s house, especially at Narumi’s house.

I couldn’t even help Kotomi with the chores today. Students were on summer break, but it was a weekday on the calendar, so I guess Narumi’s dad was already at work…Narumi’s mom was at home because she had a job as a writer…What should I do? Maybe it was because I gave a full report to Kotomi yesterday. Now when I see Narumi’s mom’s face or something, it reminded me of how many times I’d kissed her son.

Uhhh~~~~…I don’t want to get up. But I still have to get up. As expected, I feel too bad for not getting up…

Fighting a whirlwind of awkwardness and embarrassment in my mind, I dressed and washed my face a little slower than usual, took three deep breaths in secret, and then headed for the living room.

“Good morning.”

The first person to greet me was Kotomi-chan…wait no, it was Narumi.

The moment I saw Narumi’s face, the memory of yesterday’s kiss came back to me at once, and at the same time, I was not at peace because of my confusion about our current relationship, which had lost the label of ‘friend’.

“…..Good, morning.”

The greeting was a bit more stuffy than usual. I hope he didn’t think I was weird…

But there was no way I could be calm in this situation……

“…H-huh? Where’s Kotomi-chan?”

“She’s staying at a friend’s house since this morning. She’ll be back tomorrow evening.”

“I-I see.”

A friend’s house? Why was it that I feel like it had something to do with the “reference book”?

“What about your mom? Is she working right now?”

“She went out to cover a new work. She’ll be back tomorrow afternoon. Oh, and my father has some urgent work at the office, so he won’t be home until tomorrow night.”

“Ehh. I see…”

I should calm down first. The awkwardness was probably just me feeling one-sided.

Calm down, drink some water, and calmly sort out the situation.

Let’s see, Kotomi-chan was away until tomorrow for a sleepover, Narumi’s Mom was away until tomorrow for novel research, and Narumi’s Dad was away until tomorrow for an urgent job…In other words, for the whole day today, there would be only me and NARUMI in this house, so…

…only me and Narumi?

“Eh…so…it’s just the two of us?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Narumi said it so smoothly as if it was nothing.

…Eh. Wait a minute. How can he be so nonchalant?

After all, we did so many things yesterday…and the fact that it was just the two of us, and the memories of yesterday, it was hard for me to be normal.

Even my face was so hot. Maybe it was redder than I had ever been.

“I know you haven’t had much time to relax since you suddenly had to stay at my house. You can relax today.”

Instead of being relaxed, I was rather stiff.

I mean, Narumi seemed like he felt like it was really nothing. It was as if all those kisses yesterday had never happened.

(Let’s pretend it never happened…I guess.)

It was some kind of mistake. It was just a blunder. I did it in the heat of the moment.

Even now, I was the only one who felt this sweet tingling heat on my lips.

I was just getting excited on my own and thinking about things on my own.

(…I feel like such an idiot.)

I told the whole story when I reported to Kotomi-chan, and the trigger was that I slipped up.

Even though I let my mouth slip, I think I was originally… hyped.

I kissed a boy I liked. I thought our feelings were tied together.

But it was just a misunderstanding.

“Kazemiya? What’s wrong?”

“…Mhm. It’s nothing. I’m just a little sleepy.”

“I see. I see you woke up later than usual today.”

“I think I was tired because I hadn’t been to the pool in a while. On the contrary, it’s rare, I think you are up earlier than usual today, Narumi.”

“Yeah. I slept well last night for some reason.”

I knew it. I was the only one who got excited on my own…

“Kazemiya, let’s have breakfast at a family restaurant. I haven’t eaten yet, so let’s go together.”

“I don’t mind…but why?”

“That’s…just for my convenience..”

“Convenience? I don’t remember if there was some kind of campaign at the family restaurant…”

I had visited the restaurant several times even after the summer vacation, and I checked the website and SNS frequently, but there was nothing new there. If I had to say, I would say that there was a summer-only menu or something like that, but I didn’t remember them offering anything in the morning.

“It’s not like that. It’s just that I have something I want to talk to you about. I thought a family restaurant would be better.”

“Hmm…?”

At any rate, we both finished getting ready and headed to our usual family restaurant on foot.

Even though it was summer vacation, today was a weekday, and the place was sparsely populated, probably due to the time of morning. We sit down at our usual seats and order morning breakfast for both of us. By the way, we both ordered scrambled eggs.

Talk at a family restaurant. What is it… a confirmation that we were just friends?

…Ah, not good. I was imagining it myself, and I felt myself getting depressed.

“…So, what did you want to talk about?”

Ugh. I guess the way I said this was a bit harsh.

…It might have sounded unpleasant.

“Yesterday.”

Throb. My heartbeat thumped nervously.

The air conditioner was supposed to be on, but I was sweating.

“It was fun at the pool, no?”

Why was he blabbering on about it? …I know. I didn’t want him to touch it.

I didn’t want to hear the obvious answer.

“We kissed.”

“………That’s right.”

I didn’t want to hear the obvious answer from Narumi’s mouth.

I couldn’t go back to being friends now. Because I like him. I couldn’t pretend that kiss never happened.

“I know. I’m sorry. That was just me getting excited and misunderstanding. That’s why…”

So what? So what am I trying to say?

“…It’s not a misunderstanding.”

“…….Huh?”

I couldn’t help but ask back at the one word I suspected my own convenient auditory hallucination.

“It wasn’t a misunderstanding, and it wasn’t you getting all worked up all by yourself.”

Narumi looked me straight in the eye and gave me straight words.

“Then…why did you kiss me…?”

“…It’s because I like you. Kazemiya Kohaku.”

I had no room to doubt my hallucination or auditory hallucination this time, as he looked straight at me and gave me that one word.

“I don’t want to give you to anyone else. I want to make you mine and mine alone. I became so in love with the person called Kazemiya Kohaku that the feelings inside of me overflowed.”

Words overflow from Narumi. I was so overwhelmed by the flood of sweet words that I couldn’t even take a breath. My heart was drowning at the person named Narumi Kouta.

“I’m sorry I didn’t put it into words properly. But it was not your misunderstanding. I like Kazemiya, and I’m helplessly in love with this person called Kazemiya Kohaku.”

“………….!”

….No. Not good. This is not good.

My face was hot. My heart was pounding. I was probably bright red right now. Embarrassingly so.

“…Are you sure you are okay with me?”

“I want you, Kazemiya.”

“…Really?”

“I can’t think of anyone else but you.”

“…Stop saying that.”

Now I was kicked out of my house.

My mom didn’t even look at me.

The reality was always hard, and I was just a kid.

But still. No matter what time of the day—Narumi always gave me a happy reality.

“…I’m so happy, I don’t know what’s going on.”

It was always Narumi Kouta who took my hand, ran away with me, and took me to a happy reality.

“Rather, would you be okay with me?”

“…Of course, I can’t think of anyone else but you, Narumi.”

I started to cry. I couldn’t stop sobbing.

“…Stupid. You’re really stupid. Take responsibility. I’m already so…drowned in you that there’s nothing I can do about it.”