Chapter 12: Friend

Chapter 12: Friend

After finishing lunch, Yuki, who was not busy with anything, did the same as Yui next to him and took out his cell phone.

By the way, the exchange just before may have completely offended Yui, or perhaps it was because she was staring at her cell phone. While she was swiping her fingers on the screen, the aura of not talking to her was amazing.

As soon as I turned on my phone, I received LINE messages.

[T/N: The raws don’t actually mention anything about LINE, I just substituted it for ‘call app’ since it’s pretty popular in Japan]

When I launched the app, several messages appeared in a long line, as if they had accumulated.

‘Have you eaten, Yuki-kun?’

‘Are you asleep?’

‘FOOOOOOOOOOO!’

It was all from Miina, but I’m not surprised.

The phone itself is almost exclusive to Miina.

‘Today’s school lunch was a disaster! A bunch of little green trees!’

The little green tree is apparently broccoli.

I sent her a message saying, ‘I ate a bento today. It was delicious.’ and got a reply immediately.

‘That’s not fair. Miina want’s to eat your bento too!’

‘There’s spinach and stuff in it.’

‘No thank you.’

This feeling is like they’re looking at their phones in real time over there too.

‘The school doesn’t allow people to bring their phones in, but they’re all doing it in secret!’ Miina insisted.

I thought she had stopped taking it wither her since it was found and confiscated once a long time ago and returned halfheartedly, but she hasn’t learned her lesson.

‘Why do you have your phone today?’

‘I’m in the bathroom. There’s no way they can find it.’

This statement makes me worry every single time.

I wonder what on earth she’s doing alone in the bathroom during lunch break.

‘My friends…’

‘Dufufu.’

‘No, not dufufu.’

I already know what to expect when she sends me a line like this.

Yesterday she said ‘I’ll do my best to make friends’ with a good face. [T/N: Miina is precious…]

‘So about Yuki-kun’s girlfriend.’ [T/

‘Dufufu.’

‘Don’t be silly.’

I was just trying to get back at her, but she’s hard on people.

That’s a bit of a tall order, but it’s impossible to get away all of a sudden.

‘There’s no way I’m going to get a girlfriend overnight like that. What are you doing in the bathroom?’

‘I love you, Yuki-kun.’

A series of heart-marks suddenly appear on my screen and I try to cover it up with all my might.

I was going to finish up as I was bad at dealing with her when she’s like that when Yui, who had been unhappily silent, suddenly spoke to me.

“Narito-kun, what are you doing? Playing a game?”

“No, I’m just on Line.” [T/N: Huh, it does mention Line.]

I thought she was in a bad mood, but she seemed normal.

However, Yui glanced at the phone in Yuki’s hand, which was a bit worrisome for him.

“Eh, hehhhh~~”

“What?”

“Well, I didn’t think that you did that sort of thing, Narito-kun.”

“Yeah, I don’t.”

“But you’re doing it.”

I don’t message anyone other than Miina.

I just respond to it because it’s sent to me one way.

Even Miina doesn’t send them every day at this time, and it really just happens to be a coincidence. There are only a small number of people he added in the first place.

Keitaro is the only one other that his family registered, but he doesn’t text much, perhaps because he knows that the response will be slow.

“It’s just a coincidence.”

“Well, it’s a coincidence that you seem to be enthusiastic about.”

Yuki didn’t care about Line one way or another, but Yui was very persistent.

It’s a mystery to me why she was so persistent. It’s not like I have anything to feel guilty about, so I just tell her.

“I’m just messaging my sister.”

“Ah, you’re sister. I see~.”

Yui nodded exaggeratedly a few times.

She seemed to have been convinced of something now, but did that mean that he should meekly Line with his sister?

‘What are you doing, Yuki-kun? Where are your friends?’

In the meantime, Miina fought back.

I was a little unsure how to respond to her.

“Ehhh… I want to Line with Narito-kun too….”

“What?”

I thought I had heard wrong and looked at Yui.

Yui hurriedly waved her hand as if to excuse herself.

“No, no, no. That’s not it. This is the game, okay? It’s part of the game, okay?”

“What?”

I’m starting to get confused.

This may be the teasing game, but the person saying it was already a bit frantic.

As I looked at her suspicously, Yui, who averted her eyes slightly, gave an awkward smile.

“Mmmm. Shall we exchange Line IDs then?”

There’s no excuse exchanging Line IDs with a teasing person.

But the fact that Yuki only had a single acquaintance’s ID from school was pretty bad.

Does Miina have any friends? But this is a case where he shouldn’t be saying that, because he doesn’t have a good friend either.

If Miina ran into him, she’ll say, ‘You don’t have any friends, Yuki-kun, so it’s okay! And it gives you the perfect chance to try again!’

I’d like to have a friend-like address, even if I was being teased.

This is exactly the kind of offer I was looking for, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it.

“Hey, were you being serious?”

“Well, I’d like to trade IDs.”

“Eh?”

Then Yui, who had been behaving strangely until then, said, “Hmm~? I can’t help it if you say so!” and suddenly became excited.

She was smiling and started to operate her phone in a very happy manner.

On the other hand, Yuki managed to register her ID, taking a little time, “How do I do that?”, and then a new icon was added.

It had a picture of a cat and the name ‘Yui’.

(Yui… that’s her first name.)

As I check my precious friend, Yui asks while looking at her phone.

“Is it okay that this is your real name?”

“Eh? What?”

She was curious about the fact that he was registered as Narito Yuki.

To be honest, he wasn’t sure, but he said it’s okay, I’ll get used to it.

“Yuki is your first name, isn’t it?”

“Un.”

“I see. So it’s Yuki-kun.”

Saying that, Yui had a mysterious smug look on her face.

When Yuki couldn’t help but blink his eyes, Yui quickly leaned forward to look into his face.

“Hmmm? What’s wrong? You don’t mind if I call you by your first name, do you?”

“Well…”

“What? Could it be, Yuki-kun, that you’re embarrassed?”

And a massive grin.

Or rather, when Yui offered to exchange Ids, her attitude was very big and he was laughing the entire time.

(Well, it’s started.)

There would be no embarrassment in being called by his name.

While thinking that, Yuki replied without losing his expression.

“So maybe I should call you by your first name too?”

“Eh?”

“Yui-san.”

When I called her that, Yui said, “Eh?” and froze with her mouth open.

She didn’t move a bit.

“Yui-chan?”

I tried to call out to her, but she still didn’t move, so I waved my hand in front of her.

Then, in no time at all, the blood began to flow to Yui’s face, and the flow of time finally returned.

“O-oh, c-come on, that’s not your character, is it?”

“Then, just Yui.”

As he said that, Yui froze again.

This time, as their eyes met, once again, Yui’s complexion started to change red, and finally, she suddenly stood up silently.

And then, without saying anything, she turned away and left the classroom at a fast pace.

(…Hmmm… did that make her angry?

She’s surprisingly difficult to read. [T/N: No, no she’s not. Kiss her already.]

But since I said her name myself, I could say that I had it coming.

As I was looking at the empty seat where Yui was, my phone vibrated again and I received another message.

‘Hey, how many friends do you have, Yuki-kun?’

‘Two.’

‘Mmmm… not bad, Yuki-kun.’

I’m glad.

Yuki was relieved.