Volume 2 - CH 3.2

Sandai and Shino also left, disappearing into the wave of students leaving school in unison.

They had their part-time jobs today as well, but the starting time was as usual. In other words, they got about several hours of free time, so they decided to enjoy a carefree, stroll date.

They passed the time randomly walking around town, or catching whatever prize that caught their eyes at a crane game in an arcade.

“Why’re you only aiming for sweets prizes like that? C’mon, like, get the kitty and doggy stuffed toy over there.”

“Getting a stuffed toy is fine and all, but where do you wanna put them? Stuffs like that surprisingly take up space.”

“We can just put it at your place, right? There’s a lot of spare space there.”

“My apartment is unexpectedly small. If you keep on leaving stuff there nonstop, the entire place will immediately get buried. That reminds me… I feel like lately your daily necessities at home have been gradually increasing, though.”

Sandai purposefully hadn’t touched on the subject until now, but Shino lately had started leaving her stuff at his home.

At first he had only thought something along the lines of, did she just forget it by accident? but since she had started to leave obvious daily necessities such as shampoo, hair treatment, conditioner, shower gel and so on, it had turned into, this is definitely not something she forgot.

“You noticed…?”

“I noticed.”

“So you noticed…”

Seeing Shino’s reaction, it seemed she had done it on purpose, but…

Although it was assortments brimming full with wanting to sleep over, Sandai had only ever allowed that on that one day when the typhoon had hit, and he basically had no intention of letting Shino stay the night.

What was in his head was about Shino’s parents.

He knew that Shino had the confidence to pull off a good excuse, and actually Shino had easily gotten away with it during that typhoon.

However, Sandai felt that such a way of doing things wasn’t all right.

He understood he was keeping up appearances, but precisely because he loved her that he wouldn’t want to not take it seriously. Precisely because he wouldn’t want to not take it seriously that he would go greet Shino’s parents before going on a trip together.

“I’ll let you know, but I’m not gonna let you stay the night at my place so often like that.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Because your parents will get worried. Even if you make up some lie, it probably would turn into a disaster if that got found out.”

“I think it’s gonna be fine, though.”

“I’m going to greet your parents before the trip, but I don’t want it to get found out before that, even if it’s unlikely. I want them to think that I’m a decent boyfriend. I want to get your parents approval, and have our relationship also supported by them.”

“Feeling like you’re thoroughly thinking about marriage too, no?”

Shino’s expression looked half teasing and half serious.

Shino knew the answer, but she would like him to put it in words to confirm it; this kind of asking a question was Shino’s own way to indirectly achieve that.

But as far as his feelings were concerned, it was already firm. So Sandai didn’t get perturbed from getting asked indirectly now.

“…If possible, I’d like to go as far as marrying you. You’re number one for me, and I want to be the number one for you, too. It’s because I think marriage is the contract that’ll give form to stuff like that.” 

At Sandai’s brazen declaration without even a shred of feeling embarrassed, Shino smiled contentedly.

“You’re responsible for your words, okay?”

“You’re right.”

“Fufu, I’m really happy that you put it into words like that.”

“If I repeat saying something like this again and again, wouldn’t you get used to it, and it stops resonating with you sooner or later?”

“That’s not true, you know? It just makes me wanna hear it again and again, and if you stop, I guess it’s gonna make me worried instead~. I’d wonder if you’re really cherishing me even now, if you love me. So, I’d hate it if you don’t reassure me by doing it regularly.”

It is very important to put things into words.

However, the frequency and the timing of it also depends on each person. At times, it can also create cracks due to some changes in the environment or in the heart.

That was why Sandai tried to find out how much does Shino want right now? from her nonchalant words and actions.

From how Shino was replying just now, it didn’t seem to be that different from before, so he understood that she wanted the same lovey-doveyness as before.

“Speaking of which, you didn’t forget what day tomorrow is, did you? I mean, you sometimes leave out the important things.”

Tomorrow would be the 24th and Christmas Eve.

It would be the day where they would stay together all day, which Sandai had promised Shino, and he, too, had taken a day-off from his part-time job like her.

Komaki had frowned on him when he had requested for the day-off, but she had yielded after he had brought out the promise with Shino, his girlfriend.

It was a time period where it was easy to lose manpower regardless of the busyness, and so Komaki probably would like to secure personnel if possible, but even so, Sandai would like to prioritize Shino.

Speaking of which, Hajime had happened to be present when this had been taking place. Although Hajimed had said “Just who’s more important, me or your girlfriend?” with his cheeks inflated… this had probably been the usual joke, Sandai had regretfully ignored it.

“…Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We promised to stay together, didn’t we?”

“Yeah.”

The longer the relationship continues, the more the guy will tend to make light of promises. They would take advantage of the girl in such forms: this should be good enough or I’m sure she’ll understand and such.

However, Sandai had a nature slightly different from normal guys, so he didn’t really have such a tendency.

His loner-bad-at-socializing side brought about a strong influence, sending him in the direction of wanting to keep promises more the closer the relationship got.

He would like to maintain the relationship he had managed to painstakingly get, and naturally thought of not wanting to let down the other party.

This kind of aspect in Sandai was one of the charms lacking in those outgoing.

To put into words, outgoing people, who would easily build personal relationships, often have connections with a lot of people, but if looked from another perspective, it makes them tend to neglect each and every one of them.

A person has only so much available time and capacity; as long as those outgoing stay outgoing, no matter if it is consciously or unconsciously, they have no choice but to neglect someone. Of course, there are also the aspects of being cheerful and approachable on a fundamental level, so it absolutely doesn’t mean that they’re bad people, however…

Leaving a comparison between a loner and an outgoing person aside, it was now time for their part-time job in the meanwhile.

It went on as usual from there.

Done with work earlier, Sandai went to pick Shino up, spent alone time together in his apartment, and went on to walk Shino all the way to the station’s platform.

“Well then, see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. I’ll take the first train, so pick me up, please~.”

“Got it. I’ll wake up early and wait for you on the platform.”

“I’ll get mad if you oversleep and come late, okay?”

“Today I’ll go to sleep early.”

When Shino jumped into the railroad car, the door closed together with a psssh sound. And then immediately after, “Ah!” Shino seemed to have remembered something, and she hurriedly knock-knocked the window to get Sandai’s attention.

“~~~~!”

What’s Shino trying to tell me?

When Sandai titled his head, Shino closed her eyes and stuck out her lips.

It was an urging for a kiss.

Ah… that reminds me, we haven’t had a goodbye kiss.

Sandai hurriedly gave a kiss through the window.

The feeling of the cold windowpane cooled down his hastiness.

When Sandai opened his eyes after doing it for about two or three seconds, Shino was pointing at him and laughing.

“What? Huh? Why’re you laughing?”

Sandai had not the slightest idea of what was happening. Though, he immediately realized the reason for Shino’s laugh. Shino laughed after seeing Sandai pressing his lips against the windowpane.

It was so unbearably embarrassing, making Sandai’s face as hot as fire. However, as the train promptly began to move, separating him from Shino, he started to regain his calmness somewhat.

Nevertheless, that wasn’t the end of it, since the image Shino sent him a few minutes later made him embarrassed once again.

Shino had sent Sandai the portrait photo of him pressing his lips against the train’s windowpane.

Seeing the photo, he understood that that was certainly a face that could end up causing laughter, but… it was nothing to laugh at for the concerned party.

Furthermore, although unclear whether Sandai would ever know, Shino decided to save and cherish this image, and would later on kiss the image in times of loneliness or sadness. After all, it was her important boyfriend’s endearing photo with which she could cheer herself up.

That said, for Sandai who didn’t know that, it was simply an embarrassing photo, so he sent multiple short texts and forcibly pushed the photo up so he wouldn’t be able to see it.

>What’re you fretting about? Lol

>I just thought it’s a terrible face.

>It’s your own face, right~.

>I didn’t wanna take a straight look at my own grossness.

Sandai expressed his feelings concisely, and then Shino continuously sent a sticker expressing big laughter. Now that it got to this, Sandai would get laughed at regardless of what he would say, so—

>Good night.

—he sent such a text and forcibly ended the conversation.

After all, it was possible it would crack her up more in some way the more he tried to gloss it over.

“I feel like she’s kept getting one over on me, I guess I’ll have the tables turned on her someday…”

Having decided to take Shino’s funny face photo given the opportunity, Sandai took a bath a little early and hit the bed without waiting to watch late-night anime like usual, since he mustn’t oversleep tomorrow.

Next morning.

Sandai woke up around the time the sun still hadn’t risen.

He did feel like he had woken up a little too early, but since it was much better than oversleeping, he went to change, got ready, and headed to the station at a brisk pace. On the way there, he remembered that he still hadn’t had breakfast and went into a convenience store to buy some sweet bread and ate it.

When he checked the time on his phone, there was about two hours to spare before the train Shino would get on would arrive, so for the time being, he killed time at a 24-hour karaoke just for one hour, and after that, he killed time by having a stroll at the business district. 

There were still many stores not open, probably because it was early morning.

There were also shops replaced with another one without him noticing, as well as signboards he had never seen before every now and then.

He usually wouldn’t really take much notice of it, but the city was changing every day little by little and was completely different when compared to several months ago.

Though, somehow Sandai thought: that life was surely the same as this ever changing city. Some kind of change was happening every day, but that was happening little by little, so you wouldn’t notice. 

Change is not a bad thing.

Even Sandai himself, compared to the early days of the relationship with Shino, had changed to a degree.

As for whether he could make that a good change or turning that into a bad change, it was up to the person himself.

“Oops, I guess it’s time.”

It was now the time for Shino’s train to arrive, so he entered the station’s premises.

“Uwh, so cold…”

The train station’s platform in winter would often feel colder than the air temperature, but why? He somehow felt that the white breath he exhaled was thicker than usual.

Sandai bought a warm drink from the vending machine and drank it little by little. Since Shino’s train arrived immediately after, he drank it up in one go and put the empty can in the recycling bin.

The current time was earlier than the rush hour, so the railroad cars were pretty much empty. He also immediately spotted Shino.

“Morning!” Shino was full of energy. He could tell from that alone that she had been looking forward to this day. “It’s cold in the morning, so let’s hold hands.”

“Yeah.”

The two held hands and began to walk unhurriedly.

It was the 24th of December. Christmas Eve. The once-a-year sacred day began, where at night lovers would whisper their love in unison.