Volume 1 - CH 2.4

After finishing lunch, I leave the restaurant to go to my next location, riding the hotel elevator with Misono. Misono has been looking at me with a dissatisfied expression ever since we left the restaurant. Such an expression is also cute.

However, before I am told, I put my hand on my chest and think about it, but I have no idea why she has such an expression on her face. I think the atmosphere of the restaurant and the food tasted good, and Misono told me so, too. I gave her a window seat, and I even paid the bill when she wasn’t looking. I can’t find anything wrong with it. I was almost running away from reality in the name of delusion, thinking that I had done a surprisingly perfect job.

“Makimura-senpai. Thank you for the meal.”

As we leave the hotel, Misono thanks me with a polite bow, but there is still a slight hint of dissatisfaction on her face as she raises her head. I finally notice Misono, whose words and actions are mismatched with her facial expressions, when I see her take out her wallet from a small white bag slung over her shoulder.

“I’m not taking it.”

“But!”

This girl was that kind of girl. Misono, who wanted to pay for even a strawberry mousse that cost only a few hundred yen, must have been feeling more sorry than dissatisfied that I had paid for the lunch we had just had.

“Let’s talk while we walk for now.”

“Yes…….”

Despite my urging, Misono’s steps were heavy and her expression dark. Unlike her dissatisfied expression, I can’t say that her current face is cute. Well, her face itself is cute, but…

“You really don’t have to worry about it.”

“No, I can’t. I’m the one who asked you to have a meal with me—”

“I am the one who decided on the restaurant.”

“But……”

I think she is a very disciplined girl. If I use Misono as my standard, I feel like I’m going to get hurt someday in a relationship with a woman. No, I don’t think I can go to the point of getting hurt.

“But, if you keep treating me like this, I won’t be able to ask you to go out with me again.”

“Eh?”

I was distracted by my nonsense, and what reached me was a word I had never imagined.

“Let me see, um……maybe I’m being conceited, but……can I assume that you want to go out with me again?”

“Yes. That’s right……ah.”

Misono, who had said it clearly while looking straight at me, turned her gaze away. I could tell from the gradually changing color of her neat face that her words were her true feelings, which spilled out unintentionally. The straightforwardness of her words made me feel happy and embarrassed.

“Well, thank you, I guess?”

“Please, forget it……I beg you.”

“Sorry. I think it’s impossible.”

I walked side by side for a while in silence with Misono, who looked like her face was about to burst into flames. I probably would have had a similar look on my face.

“Makimura-senpai.”

Misono was the one who broke the silence that lasted about three minutes.

“I think it’s not good to be treated all the time. Um, not to mention the next one, too.”

In the latter part of her words, she was pouring vermillion again on her face when the heat had finally receded. I found such a state of the disciplined Misono so cute that I had to resist the urge to grin at her face.

“I understand. But, please be patient with me today. Next time, we’ll, uh, we’ll figure out what to do together.”

Although it was originally Misono’s idea, I did not think I could talk myself into another promise with a girl I had only met for about two weeks. However, I couldn’t let the junior girl treat me to a meal, so I said, “Let’s think about it together,” which I thought was a fine play.

“Such words are unfair. Next time, it will be my turn to treat you. Absolutely.”

After making a sulky expression with her red cheeks, Misono smiled and held out her little finger.

“Uh, you mean that thing?

“Maybe, yes.”

The so-called little finger promise. Misono’s face is still red as she sticks out her finger.

“If you are embarrassed, you don’t have to do—”

“No. If you don’t promise properly, Makimura-senpai will try to treat me again for a reason. I’m sure.”

I am completely seen through. Am I that easy to understand?

“Then……promise.”

“Yes. Next time, I’ll choose the place.”

The moment our right little fingers touched, Misono squinted her eyes with a slight tickle and looked up at me with a bashful smile. I felt as if I might break it if I put too much pressure on it, but Misono’s thin little finger was strangely soft, and combined with her gaze, it made my heart beat like a drum.

It takes about 20 minutes to walk to Joshi Park north of the station.While I was giving her some useful information about the campus and the surrounding area, we came to a place where the park was in sight.

“It’s a lot more crowded than I thought it would be.”

I had expected to see many families and couples since it was a holiday, but I thought there would still be enough room for a leisurely stroll. However, when I saw the crowd in front of me, I felt that was not going to be the case.

“Looks like there’s a gourmet event going on. I should have checked. Sorry.”

“Ah-. I didn’t check it out either, so don’t worry about it.”

It was my fault, too, because I was so busy checking out the food that I only thought of this event as a random stroll.

I’m so busy checking out the food that I didn’t think of this as anything more than a random stroll.

“Let’s go and have a look around. We can have something to eat as a snack, or even if not, we can just take a walk and have a look around.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

However, it seemed that today’s gourmet event was all about food stalls, and there was almost nothing that we, who had just finished lunch, would consider eating. Furthermore, there were so many people that I almost lost Misono when I tried to go for a walk, and there were no benches or even shade trees to sit on when I wanted to take a short rest. In the end, we gave up and headed out of the park.

“I’m sorry. Although Makimura-senpai took me to a nice restaurant, I…..”

Since it was Misono who originally wanted to come to Joshi Park, she feels much more responsible. I wonder what I should say to her. If she were the kind of girl who would not mind if I told her not to worry about it, she would not feel so responsible in the first place. So, instead of consoling her, I decided to try a different approach.

“Well, let’s let bygones be bygones on this one matter in exchange for one thing.”

I held up my index finger and showed it to her, and Misono turned toward me and leaned forward. So close.

“I’ll do anything.”

The temptation of terribly seductive words came at me to blow my initial words out of the water. Don’t worry, I’m calm, it’s okay, it’s okay.

“Don’t worry about this.”

Misono blinked her big eyes and tried to open her mouth—

“The first time is a memorable experience. Right? I don’t want you to have a gloomy look on your face when I’m the one who accompanies you, so smile, smile.”

I preceded it by borrowing Misono’s words. After I finished saying it, I made a gesture of pushing up the corners of my own mouth with both index fingers. Today will surely remain deep in my memory. Misono’s smile, her sultry face, the way she looked at me in frustration, all of it. I just don’t want to leave a dark face there.

“Makimura-senpai……”

Misono smiles a little, holding her mouth after she utters a mumble. Although a little awkwardness remains, the expression she is showing me now is one I want to keep in my memory.

“As I thought, Makimura-senpai is……”

“What?”

“………it’s a secret.”

I don’t know what Misono was going to say, as she put her index finger to her mouth in a bashful manner. But I am sure that the expression on her face will remain in my memory today.

After that, at Misono’s request, we wandered through the back streets of the city and returned to the station. She said it was a substitute for the walk she could not take in the park. However, the walk to the park was enjoyable enough, so it was not a replacement, but rather an additional enjoyment.

After that, I took the bus back to the university area, a little earlier than planned, and dropped Misono off at home before going home myself.

And after a while, when I had cooled down a bit, I remembered what I had said today and wanted to die, so I ran away to drink.