Volume 2 - CH 3.4

25th, the next day.

For the first time in a while, Sandai would be spending a day with hardly any involvement with Shino.

Sandai had gone to his part-time job today, but when he was done with that, he would have nothing to do.

While vaguely thinking what to do, he clocked out and went outside. And immediately after, Hajime came running after him.

“Wait~.”

“What?”

“I was thinking maybe you’re free after this.”

“Do I look like I’m free?”

“Hmm well, you took a day off yesterday, right? And that’s so you could spend the time together with Yuizaki-san, isn’t it?”

“….You could say that.”

“But you came to work today, and you don’t look like you’re in a hurry either, so like I was wondering maybe you don’t have any plans with Yuzaki-san at all.”

Hajime was unexpectedly smart; he splendidly guessed the situation from Sandai’s words and conducts. Not expecting to have it guessed at all, Sandai couldn’t help but be impressed.

“…Oh wow. You’re on the mark.”

“Yay!”

“You sure are unexpectedly smart, Saeki.”

“Fufu.”

“Shino’s also got work today, all day long, and she said she’d go out for dinner with her family at night.”

“Spending the important Eve with a boyfriend, and the Christmas day itself with family or friends; that’s also something fairly common.”

“I see.”

“Yeah. Well, leaving the matter about Yuizaki-san aside for a moment, it’s a rare opportunity, so c’mon, let’s hang out with me a little if you’re free.”

Apparently Hajime was also free today and wanted to hang out with Sandai. Sandai was also thinking about how he should kill time, but…

Somehow feeling like he would be betraying Shino by hanging out with Hajime, Sandai was hesitant.

“I personally don’t mind, but it’s just, I feel like I’m betraying Shino, so how do I say this, I feel bad, you see… because Shino might get angry.”

“Yuizaki-san will get angry even if you just hang out with other people a little? Don’t tell me, she’s the possessive type?”

“It’s because her personality’s like that.”

“But we’re fellow guys, so it’s fine, isn’t it? If she complains about that, then Yuizaki-san’s a little bit too much. There’s no need to restrict you from that.”

Sandai didn’t feel like he was being restricted, but he also could understand that what Hajime said was correct as a common opinion.

Shino’s love was heavy, exactly so.

However, Sandai was dating her on top of knowing that.

“I’ll gratefully accept your point, but as for me, also accepting that part of Shino and supporting her until she mellows out and softens up little by little is what I think a boyfriend’s supposed to do.”

“If you’re acting like you’re only putting up with it like that, you’re gonna end up so exhausted, so what you should do today is hanging out and taking a breather with me!”

“H-Hey, listen to what I—”

“—Strike while the iron is hot!”

Before knowing what was happening, his arm was pulled by Hajime.

Sandai was wavering whether to refuse or not, but he also got the feeling inside him that wouldn’t want to destroy his good relationship with Hajime, thus Sandai decided to accompany him a little.

…I guess occasionally having a day like this is also fine.

Sandai lightly scratched his cheek, and seeing that, Hajime happily smiled.

Fingers small and slender, skin visible fleetingly through gaps in the clothing fresh and youthful, and the smell of shampoo and hand cream faintly drifting…

As for Sandai, he was currently making a face that seemed like it would get him poked in the eyes by Shino if she were to witness it… Well, now putting aside such a trivial thing.

The place Sandai got taken along to was a botanical garden. It was a place he couldn’t really associate with the words hanging out.

“…A botanical garden, huh. I thought for sure you were gonna take me to an amusement park or something.”

“Amusement park? Why did you think so?”

“You seem you would like D*sney’s animation, and I thought you would wanna go to its Land or Sea.”

“I do like D*sney’s animation, and I don’t dislike its Land or Sea either, but I mean, it’s totally gonna be packed today, you know? I don’t wanna wait for like an hour to get on an attraction.”

Certainly, it seemed that it would be crowded with people going there to have fun with families and such.

“I see now. On Christmas, it’ll be crowded since there’s also a lot of people going out with families… is it? And Shino’s going out for dinner with her family, too.”

“That ‘…is it?’ is a kinda weird way of saying it, huh? I believe you’ve got a family even if you’re a self-proclaimed loner bad at socializing, but didn’t you, like, have fun together with yours on Christmas?”

“My parents are busy with work and have always been away from home. That’s why I’ve been having fun on Christmas alone. I played something like Jenga or Game of Life.”

“B-By yourself?”

“By myself.”

“…I feel like I’ve asked something I shouldn’t. Sorry.”

“It’s gonna be a damage to my spirit if you try to be considerate like that.”

His childhood was a bygone past. That was why he concluded that there was no meaning in thinking anything about that time.

That said, when remembering his child self with a dripping snot on the verge of tears playing, there would be a lot of damage.

“I’m really sorry.”

“It’s already in the past now. It doesn’t bother me in any way.”

“Somehow you look like you’re pretending to be tough, though…”

“That’s not true. We’re now done with this topic.”

Sandai was really not thinking of anything about it. Though, it apparently looked differently to Hajime’s eyes, and he looked somewhat apologetic.

However, with Sandai killing off the topic, Hajime just went with peering at Sandai with a glance for a moment and stopped bringing up the topic, perhaps having judged going further would only cause troubles.

When they entered the botanical garden, there were a large number of flowers of various colors. It seemed the control of temperature and humidity was thorough, as there were also sections where flowers that would only bloom in summer showing off their beautiful petals.

“You know, flowers are just cleansing to the heart, aren’t they…”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right. I mean, they’re pretty, they smell nice, and it feels like there’s lots of oxygen to boot!”

“I think the oxygen part’s just your imagination, you know?”

“Eh?”

“Plants do photosynthesis, but they require carbon dioxide for photosynthesis in the first place, and it’ll also be bad for plants when there’s excess oxygen. In a botanical garden, it’s possible that they’re filling in carbon dioxide in the middle of the day like now instead for photosynthesis.”

“…”

“I’ll go ahead and say it, but looking at the bigger picture, the aggregate amount of oxygen on Earth is not something that’ll change easily. You know that earth is rotating, right?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“The Earth is rotating from the west to east. What comes out from that are westerlies and easterlies. These two winds will always blow as long as the Earth’s gyration doesn’t stop. This ‘will always blow’ is the point.”

“O-Ooh…”

“Mainly through these two atmospheric circulation, both the oxygen produced from photosynthesis at day in one area and the carbon dioxide produced from plants breathing at night in one area…”

“Stop talking like we’re having a class at school~!”

Hajime repeatedly hit Sandai’s shoulders.

“W-Well, it’s like stuff taught in science class in middle school. It’s not like it’s a topic that difficult either.”

“I’m saying this is not the time and place to talk about stuff like that. Are you doing it on purpose? You can talk about a laxer topic, you know? Fujiwara-kun.”

A laxer topic, it was difficult for Sandai, though…

When he was with Shino, he could also have that kind of talk, but Hajime was different from Shino.

Even if Sandai were to also use the way he would treat Shino, who was his girlfriend, it would definitely be weird. You could say it was a difficulty too high to ask of a loner who had never made a friend of the same sex.

However, it was also true that the only thing he could use as reference was his interactions with Shino, and there was also the saying that the proof was in the pudding.

Only once, Sandai decided to try to think of and act towards Hajime as if he was Shino.

…If I come here together with Shino… right, I probably would think I would like to see her looking happy.

While murmuring, Sandai walked around while searching. And then he spotted a kiosk immediately after, so he thought of getting some kind of present.

“You’re going to the kiosk? Is there something you wanna get?”

“Kinda. Wait for me.”

“Okaaay.”

Sandai entered the kiosk alone.

Cut flowers, food products, accessories… It was a kiosk with an unexpectedly abundant assortment, but he ignored bulky stuff, and things that seemed like it would trouble the other party after giving it to them.

For example cut flowers; they looked good, but the care afterwards would be a trouble.

Food products were better to some extent, but still, a lot of it had bulky boxes, so going home with it would be difficult.

“…Accessories left, huh.”

Sandai zeroed in on accessories and looked through all kinds of it. There were hairpin, earring, necklace, ring and so on.

It wasn’t well-built by any means, and it was also inexpensive for the price, ranging from several hundred yen to several thousand yen. It was truly various items you would expect to find in a kiosk. Perhaps calling it something like a toy one would buy as a gift for children would be an easy-to-understand description.

In regards to whether he would give any of these to Shino… he probably wouldn’t, but it was unnecessary to make the treatment exactly the same either.

Pondering a bit, Sandai decided on a hairpin with a fresh-looking white flower work. Acting fast to buy after deciding on it, he quickly paid the bill and returned to Hajime.

“Welcome back. What did you buy?”

“I went to buy this. I’ll give it to you, Saeki. We’ve come all the way here together, so I thought of giving something to remember, you see.”

Sandai went and put the hair pin on Hajime’s hair.

“This is… a pin?”

Hajime was surprised and looked alternatingly between Sandai and the hairpin while repeatedly blinking; looking troubled at how to response with the sudden present, so to say

“You didn’t go buy a souvenir for Yuizaki-san, or anything like that?”

“Nah, when giving a present to Shino, I’m thinking it’s better to choose it together if possible. It’s best to ask the person in question what she wants, and well, it’s also my own way of reflecting.”

“Reflecting…? Ah, could it be the underwear present you said before? I see, you spent the Eve together with Yuizaki-san, so that means you’ve given it? How was her reaction?”

Hajime knew about the underwear Christmas present because Sandai had ended up asking Hajime about it.

At that time, Sandai had gotten encouraged by Hajime that it would probably be fine.

And it would be pretty unfair to not tell the result, thus Sandai honestly went and told Hajime.

“…She wasn’t that into it.”

“I see, I see. She wasn’t into it, I see. And so it went fine like I said.”

“You’re right. It was like you said… Really, thank you.”

“No no no, don’t mention it.”

Hajime joined his hands together behind his back, suddenly turned around 180 degrees to the right, and began to walk. And Sandai went and followed after Hajime with light steps.

Afterwards, after more or less looking around inside the botanical garden, they killed some time downtown. When they noticed, it was already dusk.

“Nng… that was fun!”

“It was fun for me, too. Something like this is the first for me, so I felt it’s all the more so.”

Spending time with Hajime had a different kind of fun than when together with Shino. Sandai thought, that the fun of spending time together with a friend surely must feel like this.

As he thought so, the feeling of wanting to become proper friends with Hajime welled up.

Had it been someone outgoing or a partygoer, they probably would realize that they were already friends, but as for Sandai who was clueless in that area, he decided to put it into words.

“Hey… so.”

“Hmm?”

“Umm… so.”

“Is there something you wanna say? It’s already getting dark and time to head home, so I’d love it if you quickly say it if you’ve got anything to say.”

Please be my friend—it was only a few words, but it couldn’t easily come out when it was time to put it into words.

“…Don’t fret. I’m not gonna get mad even if it’s anything weird, you know? ‘Cause you see, I’m someone broad-minded.”

Sandai felt like he had gotten the last push with that, so he made up his mind.

“Please be my frie—”

However, a wind blew right when he had said that much. It was a wind with a good force to it, and that wind simultaneously pulled up Hajime’s jacket and the shirt under.

In that moment, the flow of time was like a slow motion. And then, when Hajime’s chest was almost completely visible—

“—My-My eyes! My eyes!”

For some reason, he got poked in the eyes by Hajime. Thanks to that, Sandai wounded up rolling around on the ground in pain.

“W-Why did you poke my…”

“Well, I just thought it was kinda dangerous just now.”

“Dangerous? W-What was?”

“‘Cause it was almost visible.”

“Almost visible? It certainly felt that way, but we’re fellow guys and… like when changing clothes, you would invite me to do it together, wouldn’t you… I would refuse, but…”

“About that, I thought you’re someone who would refuse, so I’ve just been teasing you with that, though,” Hajime talked softly as if murmuring.

As Sandai was still suffering from the pain in his eyes, he couldn’t catch what Hajime was talking in a low voice, even if Sandai tried to.

It was only after several minutes that the pain finally subsided.

“T-That hurt.”

“Sorry. Was on reflex.”

“On reflex…”

“That’s why sorry. That aside, I didn’t fully hear it but I could tell what it was. Even if you don’t say something like that, we’re already friends, you know?”

Sandai’s eyes were still hazy, but even so, he could just tell that Hajime with the setting sun behind his back was happily smiling.

It was only Sandai who thought that they still weren’t friends. Hajime had thought from earlier that they were friends.

When Sandai realized that, he suddenly lost strength somehow.

“See you later,” Hajime said and waved his hand.

Sandai waved back with a wry smile and saw off Hajime walking away.

Nevertheless, just what Hajime could’ve murmured earlier?

The mystery of a femboy deepened.