CH 8

I left the classroom as soon as all classes and homeroom were over. It only took 2 seconds. No one left the classroom faster than me. 

Yumika was following behind me at some distance. Does that mean we’re going home together………

When we were out of the school building, Yumika ran up to me and stood next to me. 

“You want to come home with me?”

“Yeah, but will it be bad??”

“I don’t mind, but if someone sees us, they might start some strange rumors. And you haven’t announced that we’re twins.” 

“I don’t care anyway, a hated person like me will have weird rumors even if I don’t do anything.”

Yumika is open and honest. Well, I’m not the type to care what people say about me. 

“Are we going home already?”

“I intend to.”

Since we’re already here, could you show me around the station?”

“Okay.”

She’s surprisingly proactive about inviting me. I thought she liked to go out alone, but she wants me to show her around.

She was rejecting her classmates’ boys, and instead of rejecting me too, she was approaching me aggressively.

It made me happy to feel like I’m special to Yumika. 

“I thought you liked being alone more, but you surprisingly refuse to be alone.”

“I like being alone. But now I’m thinking of getting closer to you.”

“Is that what you want?” 

“We are identical twins, rare twins of the opposite s*x. Normally, we’d spent our entire lives together in close proximity. But we’ve been separated for a long time now. We are twins and the distance between us is a little unsettling. So I want to spend as much time with you as possible to make up for all the time we’ve spent apart.”

It was quite a bold statement, but I am honestly happy to hear such a thing from someone as beautiful as Yumika. 

We must have unique emotional issues due to their unusual position as twins.

“Is Sakiya different?”

“I feel the same way. I want to know more about Yumika.”

“Then there’s no problem.”

I’m somewhat unsettled, too. Whether that’s because we don’t understand each other yet or for yet another reason I don’t know…

“Wait, are you sure you want me to call you by your first name? We call each other by our last names outside, right?”

I called her “Yumika” too, but we aren’t home yet, even though we’ve left school.

“Rule Change: Call each other by name when you are alone outside or at school.”

“Roger.”

Yumika decided to change the rule, as she was still not used to being called by her last name even though she is a twin.

After that, there was no particular conversation, and we quietly walked to the station.

A three-minute walk was all it took to reach the downtown area in front of the station.

Here, Saitama-Shintoshin Station is connected to a large shopping mall, making it a large-scale facility. The Super Arena, where live concerts and performances are held, is located at the opposite entrance, and high-rise buildings are also in disarray.

As the name suggests, the station had a near-future feel. There are plenty of parks and rest areas, and there were a lot of students from the Shintoshin high school we attended. (Tl/n: here ‘Shintoshin’ or 新都心 means new urban center) 

“I’ve been down to the station once, but once again it’s really 

awesome……  Saitama, it’s on par with Tokyo.”

“I’ve gotten used to it by now, so I think this is normal. But I guess it really is on an amazing level from the perspective of the people of Gifu Prefecture.”

Yumika felt like she was in Tokyo, albeit in Saitama. My heart seems to be dancing a little.

“Let’s hurry into the shopping mall.”

“There’s no need to rush. The mall won’t run away.”

“Don’t treat me like a child.”

Yumika glared at me when I made a slight remark. Even though we were twins, going to the shopping mall with a beautiful woman I wasn’t familiar with felt like a date.

“What a …… beautifully built place, and there’s a movie theater and a big electronics store in the annex.”

Yumika walks through the mall, scurrying around and looking at the stores, worried that she might bump into someone.

“If there’s a shop you want to stop by, you can go in.”

“Yeah. I’m interested in everything, so I’ll choose carefully.”

Around me, I could see student couples walking hand in hand and housewives with children.

I wonder if we look like a couple to people around us……

Yumika had entered the general store, so I followed her.

“You want an air freshener?”

“Yeah. There isn’t one in my room.”

Yumika was rummaging through the products in the air freshener section.

“Come to think of it, Sakiya wears perfume that smells like soap, right?”

“Aa, it’s weak though.”

“I didn’t use it today, but I usually wear perfume in that scent too.”

Apparently, we even shared the same taste in perfume scent. After all, we are twins, which meant we had the same tastes and preferred the same scents.

“Maybe that’s why I naturally feel at ease when I’m around Sakiya.”

“In that case, I guess I’ll calm down when I’m with Yumika from now on, too.”

“That’s right… Twins really are a perfect match for each other.”

Yumika picked up an air freshener that smelled like soap. The pattern was different, but it smelled the same as the one I use in my room.

The smell of soap was soothing because it’s clean. She really was the same germaphobe, so she probably preferred the smell of cleanliness.

“Should I pay?”

“You don’t need to. Why should Sakiya pay for my shopping?”

“Later on Twitter, someone wrote, the guy who went shopping with me, didn’t treat me, and wrote something like that ‘Japanese boys are done for’, I don’t want to cause trouble for all the Japanese boys because of me”

“Only a few misunderstood women do that.”

I was perplexed because I rarely have the opportunity to go shopping with women, but I guess it was an unnecessary worry.

“Should I carry that?”

Yumika finished shopping. 

Now that I have her baggage, I came forward with it. I didn’t want to go shopping, but Yumika still wants to do so, and having all the baggage would just get in the way. 

“You don’t have to. Why should I let you carry it when I bought it for myself?”

“Later on Twitter, someone wrote, the guy who went shopping with me didn’t even carry my bags and had me, a woman, carry them the whole time, and wrote something like “Japanese guys are seriously the end of the world.” I don’t want to cause all Japanese guys to be labeled as the end of the world just because of me..”

“Like-I-Said, only a few misunderstood girls do that. You’re so prejudiced.” 

Yumika retorted in an exasperated tone.

“I’ve never really gone shopping with girls before. I don’t want to make any mistakes and avoid the twin hating me when I finally see her again. So I have to be careful.” 

“……..Don’t worry, I won’t hate Sakiya for stupid reasons like that. Besides, I’ve never gone shopping with anyone other than my father. I’m worried a boy will hate me if I take him around like this.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not that small of a man.”

“That’s the way it is. I don’t mind those little things either. You also don’t have to worry about it.”

Smiling, Yumika said she didn’t mind. I felt a little embarrassed when I saw that kind expression on her face, which she did not show to others.

Then I continued shopping with Yumika. I was just following Yumika, but I was having a great time. 

A desire to get closer to her, to touch her, welled up inside me, but I controlled myself, thinking it was wrong.

We are twins, not lovers…….