CH 11

Two weeks after the day we revealed Suzuka and I were going out with each other.

Having been called by Tanaka, I headed to the back of the school building.

When I arrived, I saw that not only Tanaka, but also Kaneda-san and Suzuka were there. 

It was a reunion of only those of us who had had various circumstances between us.

The first to speak out were Tanaka and Kaneda-san.

“We… Started going out.”

“Hm?”

“Eh?”

Suzuka and I had expressions on our faces that betrayed what we did not understand.

That too is to be expected, for this made no sense in the least.

“Truth is, well, after that incident…”

It was Kaneda-san who spoke and told the reason why they began to go out.

That reason was that, after we made our revelation, the two of them exchanged their complaints, and that became the spark which, to their surprise, led them to grow closer.

It was but a short period of 2 weeks, but it was all that was left of our time as high schoolers. 

The two of them would be attending different universities.

They didn’t want to become estranged with each other.

With those reasons, they apparently managed to make up their minds and began dating.

“I’ve got to give you guys our thanks. If you guys hadn’t been here, I wouldn’t have been able to date Miki.”

“Yeah. Had the two of you not been here, Tanaka-cchi and I wouldn’t have been bound together. Honestly, I guess this is what ‘having my utmost gratitude’ is for.”

“…Uh, yeah.”

“I, I see.”

How to say this? Because of the unexpected developments, our minds couldn’t properly think.

Why? How was it that the two before us ended up in that kind of relationship?

“Also, sorry. You guys didn’t actually want to tell us that you’d started dating, right? And yet we made you say it. But still, we’re truly thankful. Because it was thanks to your brave revelation that I was able to date Miki!”

“Yeah, that’s right! Our biggest thanks to you two, Suzuka and Yuuki.”

Suzuka and I were left flabbergasted at the two of them who became lovers at blinding speed.

No, well… Not that they could beat us in speed, though.

The two who only just started to date made a proposal to us.

“And that’s how, thanks to you guys, we managed to date each other. That’s why, as thanks, we called you to this place in order to invite you to a double date.”

Tanaka said a pretty crazy thing there.

The two of us whose thought processing couldn’t keep up any longer ended up giving an automatic response.

“Y-yeah.”

“U-Uhuh.”

No sooner did he hear our response than Tanaka, without a moment’s pause, replied.

“Then! Let’s go downtown after this. Let me treat you to something!”

“Suzuka, I’ll also be treating you, ok?”

Simply letting ourselves go with the flow, the 4 of us headed for downtown.

Walking at the front were Tanaka and Kaneda-san.

Erm, how to say it? They were quite the passionate couple. They were walking at the front all while holding hands.

(TL Note: Lewd~)

“S-so, th-that’s what real lovers are like.”

“Y-yeah.”

They made it crystal clear for us to understand that what we had been doing until now was nothing more than something close to pretending to be lovers.

After all, in the midst of this cold, they are holding each other’s hand, not even trying to keep their hands in their warm pockets. You can’t call that anything other than being passionately in love with each other.

“Say, guys. Even though you’re dating, you’re not going to at least hold hands?”

“Sheesh, come on, Tanaka-cchi. There are also couples who don’t hold hands, you know?”

Having felt like they had rejected Suzuka’s and my relation, both Suzuka and I held hands as if to replicate the two’s fervent hand hold.

“Inside of the pocket’s better after all.”

“Yeah, it’s cold.”

We were hopelessly bad at things like holding hands on the outside.

Even so, seeing the two in front of us, we couldn’t help feeling like we had not been acting like real lovers until now. So we endured it and held hands.

We were supposed to be an entourage of 4 people marching through downtown.

However, what if you looked with proper attention?

Were the two at the front not in their own little world alone, almost as if we were not here next to them?

“Th-that’s what lovers are like…”

“W-we may have gotten to like each other, but we still haven’t even reached the status of lovers.”

As we were having that conversation in a low voice so as not to be heard by the two in front, those two stopped before a store that sold what looked like some tasty imagawayaki.

“Hey, you guys! Is it fine if I treat you to these?”

“Are you okay with this too, Suzuka?”

It would seem that the two who started dating thanks to us would buy us imagawayaki.

If anything, this is a strange sensation for us who feel like we’re the ones who did them wrong.

Both of us accepted our imagawayaki, a sweet bean one for me and a custard one for Suzuka.

Regardless of there being relatively few people here downtown, eating while walking was still poor manners.

So we decided to eat our imagawayaki in a corner a slight distance from the store.

“Tanaka-cchi. I wanna eat that!”

“Hm, guess it can’t be helped.”

He took the custard flavored imagawayaki he himself was eating and carried it over to Kaneda-san’s mouth.

And Tanaka being how he was, he had Kaneda-san take her sweet bean stuffed imagawayaki and feed it directly to his mouth.

In the face of those two, how did we fare?

Like any normal person, we split our imagawayaki in half and shared them with each other.

“Were we supposed to share it like that too?”

“W-were we? Isn’t that simply them being lovebirds?”

(TL Note: Is this cringe or is it sweet?)

As we quietly watched the two of them, Kaneda-san scooped some sweet bean paste smudged on Tanaka’s mouth with her fingers. 

And then, she moved that finger with the sweet bean paste over to her mouth and ate it.

“It was a shame to waste it, so I ate it. Tee hee?”

“You say that, but you too have a lot of custard smeared all around your mouth. Here, I’ll wipe it for you, so turn your face over this way.”

The always popular among the girls Tanaka took a tissue from his pocket and, ever so gently and softly, wiped Kaneda-san’s face.

Tanaka and Kaneda-san then noticed us, staring at that spectacle silently, dumbfounded. 

“Something wrong, guys?”

“Is something wrong, you two?”

They directed worried voices at us.

And, well…

There’s no way we could tell them that we discovered we weren’t even remotely close to lovers, so the two of us glossed over it.

“Nothing at all.”

“No, nothing.”

Though we had just agreed that we had a mutual love, we were made to understand that we were still far from full-fledged lovers.

The couple, Tanaka and Kaneda-san, walked ahead of us.

Despite us being a married couple, compared to them, we’re still far far away from anything of the sort.

And so, the four of us continued to march around downtown for more or less 1 hour.

Determining it was a good amount of time, we decided to say our goodbyes.

The station near which we entertained ourselves this time was the one closest for Tanaka and Kaneda-san.

Just as we thought of getting on the train after watching the two of them, who didn’t need to ride on it, go their own separate ways back to their own homes, it happened.

“Tanaka-cchi. My kiss~.”

“Oh boy, I guess it can’t be helped.”

In front of all the people present, they exchanged a quick kiss.

After that, looking reluctant, the two of them walked their own separate paths.

“Well, that’s most definitely them being lovey-dovey lovebirds.”

“Yeah, that is most certainly them being lovey-dovey lovebirds.”

Even so, they are fellow lovers.

Kissing may be a normal thing, but.

“Thinking of it, you and I haven’t kissed yet, right? In spite of it, we’re already married. Isn’t it weird?”

“You said it. I did think that we should grow closer slowly and calmly at our own pace, but now I think that maybe if we kept going like this, we’d never reach the goal in our lives. Well, if you mean reaching the goal, we kind of already reached it though.”

Having been shown just what lovers are anew, Suzuka and I were left with a singular sensation. 

(TL Note: Sugar~ Sweet sweet sugar~)