Volume 4 - CH 6

“Hey, hey, Yuzurun and Arisa-chan… Yuzurun, did you get a sunburn?”

“Sort of.”

Yuzuru replied lightly and took out a souvenir from a paper bag.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you… Hmm. Macadamia nut chocolates. That’s a little simple.”

“I wish you could say it was a safe choice.”

Yuzuru then handed out the boxes of chocolates to his friends who were already at school – Chiharu, Soichiro, Hijiri, and Tenka.

Finally, he handed the box to Arisa.

“Here you go, Arisa.”

“Thank you very much”

Arisa happily accepted the box of chocolates.

…Yuzuru looked away slightly when he saw her breasts, which were slightly distorted from being pressed against the box.

“But macadamia nuts huh… It’s kind of overlapping.”

Saying this, Soichiro stood up and took out a box from a paper bag he was carrying.

He then handed it to Yuzuru and Arisa.

“Thank you… Were you in Hawaii again this year?”

“Yeah.”

The Satake family goes to Hawaii every spring.

…His family has enough children to make one baseball team.

Surely it will be a lively trip.

“And now for Yukishiro-san.”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

Next, Soichiro handed the box to Arisa.

As she thanks him… Soichiro stared at Arisa.

“What’s wrong?”

Arisa tilted her head in confusion.

Then Soichiro asked her.

“Can I call you Arisa-san from now on?”

“Sure, I don’t particularly mind, but…”

Arisa gave him a look of ‘What’s going on all of a sudden?‘.

“No, I mean.. Yukishiro-san is going to become Takasegawa-san right?.”

For a moment, Arisa did not seem to understand Soichiro’s words.

However, after a few moments of delay, her face turned bright red.

“Th-that’s…”

“Since the way of addressing you is going to change in the future, I thought I might as well do it now… What do you think?”

“By all means! Please do that.!!!”

Arisa said excitedly, nodding her head with a wobble.

Then, in a whisper, she muttered, “Arisa Takasegawa… Arisa Takasegawa…” and grinned.

Yuzuru looked at such Arisa with an indescribably subtle feeling.

…His fiancée has been turned into a sorry child

“Hm, Kohon… I have a souvenir for you as well.”

Ayaka coughed and took out a doll-like object from a paper bag and handed it to Yuzuru.

“…What’s this?”

“Matryoshka. It is a typical Russian souvenir. Don’t you know anything about that?” (TN:Matryoshka : A kind of doll.)

“That’s not it… What kind of matryoshka is this?”

“As you can see, it’s President Putin”.

Well, as it turned out, Matryoshka’s face was not unlike Putin’s in appearance.　

And since it was a matryoshka, there must be other dolls inside.

“Yeltsin, Gorbachev, Brezhnev, Khrushchev, Stalin, Lenin… I see.”

Was it just a fun toy?

Whether it was just a fun toy or a Russian joke about how the outside changes but the inside stay the same, Yuzuru couldn’t decide.

“A calendar for you, Arisa-chan.”

“…Thank you very much.”

With a very subtle look on her face, Arisa accepted the gift from Ayaka.

That’s natural. 

There are only a few high school girls who are honestly overjoyed to receive a Putin calendar.

“How is it, Arisa-chan? Do you feel anything?”

“Um… what do you mean?”

“Something like the Russian soul. You have Russian roots, right?”

“I hate to say it, but I was born and raised in Japan…”

Ayaka laughed happily at Arisa’s reply, although nobody could tell what was so funny.

She then took out a small box from a paper bag.

“Here, chocolate… This is a normal one, no jokes.”

“It’s quite simple.”

“Call it a safe choice.”

When it comes to souvenirs from overseas trips, chocolates are the norm.

It’s hard to go bad, and it never misses as a choice.

And so it was Yuzuru, Ayaka, and Soichiro who went on a trip abroad during the spring vacation.

Chiharu seemed to have gone to a hot spring during her trip within Japan and bought some steamed buns as a souvenir.

Tenka and Hijiri didn’t seem to have taken any particular trip.

“Russia was… cold, but the salmon roe was delicious.”

After the exchange of souvenirs, the conversation naturally turned to a discussion of memories.

Hijiri asked Ayaka.

“How… do you eat salmon roe in Russia?”

“It’s served on bread. Unlike in Japan, it is not marinated in soy sauce, but salt. The salmon roe on the bread is delicious with vodka…”

“…vodka?”

Arisa reacted to Ayaka’s comment.

“In Russia, you can drink alcohol at the age of 16?”

“Who knows? But even if it’s forbidden, no Russian is going to obey it.”

If there are any who do, they would be spies for the West!

She laughed happily as she recalled what her Russian guide told her.

“Oi, Ayaka… Don’t talk too loudly. This is not a year-end party or a New Year’s party, it’s a school.”

“Yes, yes.”

Taking Soichiro’s advice, Ayaka made a “zip your mouth” gesture.

Arisa, on the other hand, had an indescribable expression on her face.

She is a serious girl, so she probably wanted to say, “Don’t drink“.

(..Next year, what should I do?)

In the Takasegawa family, alcohol is served as a matter of course at year-end and New Year’s parties.

Yuzuru has been drinking too.

And… next year, Arisa, who became Yuzuru’s fiancée, and Naoki Amagi will certainly be invited.

I don’t want to make Arisa angry…

I wonder if Arisa would ever drink?

Although Yuzuru thought about it, he tried not to think about it right now because it would be discussed later.

“I’ve heard that traveling abroad makes you miss Japanese food, is that true?”

Tenka inquired.

It seemed that she had never traveled abroad before.

“Ah, that’s true. When I go abroad, I usually bring cup noodles and rice balls.”

Chiharu answered Tenka’s question.

The Uenishi family seems to prefer domestic travel to foreign travel, but they do travel abroad on occasion.

“I, you see… wanted to eat salmon eggs on top of a bowl of rice, so I stopped by Tsukiji when I got back to Japan.” (TN: Tsukiji is a place famous for fish market)

“….just how much did you spend on the food?”

Soichiro made a dumbfounded face at Ayaka.

“The taste is just so different. The bread is good, but I think rice is better… What did you eat first when you came back to Japan, Yuzurun?”

“I went to Ichiran.” (TN: Ichiran is a restaurant chain in Japan)

Ayumi insisted on eating ramen as soon as she got home.

It was late in the day and the only place she could get in right away was Ichiran.

“The Takasegawa family slurping at Ichiran on their way back from New Caledonia…”

“It’s surreal.”

“Shut up. It’s good because it’s good.”

And then, Yuzuru’s clothes were tugged twice.

The one who pulled it was Arisa.

“What’s up?”

“Please take me to a ramen restaurant sometimes.”

Yuzuru remembered that she had said she had never been there before.

He patted Arisa’s head lightly.

“Yeah, we should go together sometime soon.”

Then Arisa smiled happily.

She’s so cute, Yuzuru thought, inwardly smitten.