CH 88

“―Oh, um, Hazakura-kun…I think it’s about time you let go of my hand…”

A few moments after leaving the station, Marin’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment as she spoke to Yō.

This made Yō realize that he was still holding onto Marin’s hand, and he slowly tried to let go.

However―

“Ah! Yō, don’t you dare let go of my hand.”

Unlike Marin, Kasumi squeezed her hand tightly.

She could see that Yō had taken her hand and was determined not to miss such an opportunity.

Yō knew that Kasumi wouldn’t let go of his hand if he did, so he just let go of Marin’s hand.

Then Marin stared at her hand, which had been released.

“…I knew it was good.”

And then, with her cheeks puffed out, she held out her newly freed right hand to Yō.

“No, you don’t have to compete with Kasumi―”

“I just wanted some equality.”

Yō tried to stop Marin, who was clearly conscious of Kasumi’s behavior, but Marin demanded that Yō treat her the same as Kasumi.

“That’s not like you…”

“That’s not what I meant.”

What on earth was different?

Yō didn’t know what the difference was, but he didn’t want to get into a fight with Marin and Kasumi.

So instead, he decided to gently take Marin’s hand.

(I feel like I’m turning into a real sc*mbag…)

Yō’s head hurt from the situation, as if he was some sc*mmy two-timing his girlfriend.

And he felt strangely annoyed with Nagisa, who was smirking next to him.

―But as Yō was distracted by Nagisa’s expression, Marin took an even more unexpected step.

“…………”

“W-What is it now?”

As they walked, Marin came so close that their arms and shoulders almost collided, and Yō was confused by her sudden aggresion.

Then Marin offered her head to Yō.

“You were stroking Kasumi-chan’s head just now, weren’t you? I think she’s trying to tell you that you should also do the same thing for her.”

While Yō was puzzled, the perceptive Nagisa spoke up on behalf of Marin’s actions.

Earlier, Yō had stroked Kasumi’s head at the station.

He had promised that he would do to one of them what he had done to the other, and Marin insisted on her right to do so.

“Akimi-san, I never thought you would do something like that…”

“So that’s why you accepted this promise with a simple flip of the hand. Kasumi-chan is really sly, isn’t she?”

“Yō, Nagisa is trying to pick a fight with me again. Scold her.”

Not missing a word of Kasumi’s monologue, Nagisa gave her a blank stare, and Kasumi tugged at Yō’s clothes and pointed at Nagisa.

She seemed to have decided to blame Nagisa via Yō, since Yō would have scolded her for talking back.

“D*mn, you really are a sneaky one…!”

“Yō, look, Nagisa’s still talking.”

“Kuh, you’re just trying to stir things up…!”

“Hey, if she keeps saying that, I might retort. You don’t mind if I talk back to her right? Come on, scold her if you don’t want that.”

When Kasumi saw that Nagisa was getting frustrated, she immediately got carried away.

She tried to hold back her grinning mouth, trying to get Yō to get angry at Nagisa.

But―

“Kasumi and Nagisa, both of you are the bad ones here.”

Yō then decided to blame them both.

“Why!?”

Naturally, Kasumi was not satisfied and looked up at Yō.

Nagisa, on the other hand, looked at Yō as if to say, “Suck it.”

“No, I wouldn’t be mad at Nagisa if she didn’t have any bad intentions in the first place, but you Kasumi, clearly did.”

“Even though Yō just told us not to argue…!”

“In the end, you still quarreled with her, didn’t you? I just want you and the others to get along.”

This trip was planned ahead so that Kasumi could get along with the other two.

To be more precise, it was a way for her and Marin to get to know each other with Nagisa in between, but in the end, he still wanted everyone to get along on this trip.

So Yō wanted to say that if they fought each other indirectly, they were out of bounds.

“Mou~…”

“Puffing out your cheeks won’t work either.”

“I think that kind of coercion is not good.”

“Not even if you change your tone can change my mind. Besides, it’s good to be friends with someone, right?”

“Yō is not very convincing…”

“Hey now… Well, you’re right, but still…”

Yō himself has been keeping people away from him.

So when he was confronted with that kind of talking, he couldn’t say anything back.

“You can’t just back off there…”

“No, what Kasumi says is also true.”

“You know, if you start talking like that, a lot of things will start to fall apart.”

“I know. So, I’m sorry, but can you please step in for me, Nagisa?”

“―!”

Thinking that Kasumi’s argument was correct, Yō stopped nagging.

Instead, he asked Nagisa to be more understanding.

“I didn’t expect you to give me that look… Ah, mou~! I got it…!”

Nagisa had been dealing with Kasumi as she saw fit, but now that Yō had softened her attitude, she seemed to have decided to face Kasumi sincerely.

After all, Nagisa liked Yō so much that she couldn’t say no when he asked her to do something like this.

“Thank you, Nagisa.”

“You’re usually so rough with me, but you’re so sly at times like this…!”

Yō smiled at Nagisa, but Nagisa complained back, slightly embarrassed.

In response, Yō cowered and turned his attention back to Kasumi.

Then, Kasumi looked slightly unhappy, so he tried to reach for her head again but―.

“―Umm…”

Marin, who was left with her head held out, spoke to him with a shy, upturned look on her cheeks.

Then, with a quick swoop, she presented her head to him again.

It seemed that she was trying to tell him to stroke her.