CH 64

―Later that night.

Hasumi contacted me to apologize for what happened today.

She was about to head to my house, but I persuaded her otherwise and headed to her house instead.

Going out at night would’ve been dangerous for her, after all.

When I arrived in front of the Hasumi bookstore, I found Hasumi waiting for me outside her house.

“Ritsuki… F-First things first, why don’t you come to my room?”

“Hey, hey, you shouldn’t invite a boy over to your room at night. Your father would kill me.”

“T-True… Next time, I’ll call you over when my parents aren’t home.”

The airheaded Hasumi replied with that response.

No, that’s not what you should be worried about.

Well, I guess I don’t even deserve any sort of vigilance in her eyes.

After we had our usual exchange, tears welled up in Hasumi’s eyes.

Then, she bowed deeply to me.

“―I-I’m sorry! I felt embarrassed, and I was scared of being scorned by others once again, so I couldn’t say anything… I’ll make sure to clear up Shiorin and the others’ misunderstanding properly next time…! After all, I was the one who brought those books of my own accord!”

I handed Hasumi a handkerchief as tears streamed down her face.

“No, it’s fine, Hasumi. You had good intentions, and you tried to hand me the books stealthily, did you not? And yet, it was my fault that those books fell in front of Asamiya-san and her friends. There is no need for you to lose face, Hasumi. Besides, this was all my fault to begin with.”

“B-But―!”

“Ritsuki, Hasumi!”

As we were in the middle of our conversation, Rinka suddenly came running over to us in her pajamas.

Surprised, Hasumi and I called out to the panting Rinka.

“Rinka, why are you here?!”

“When I checked Zely, I saw the two of you here. So I quickly made my way here too.”

Oh right, Zely was a location-sharing app.

She probably thought that me and Hasumi being together meant that we were discussing today’s incident.

“But still, don’t just waltz over in your pajamas! Here, this is my bad so put this on!”

“Ritsuki’s… jacket?!”

I pulled my jacket over her shoulders, and Rinka put her arms through its sleeves as she started sniffing its scent.

Eh, I’m sorry. Does it smell bad?

I’ve also seen Akane sniffing my clothes before too… It must be the body odor that comes with puberty; I’ll have to be more careful.

Also, if she’s in her pajamas, that means she was already about to head to bed, huh. How early; it’s only 8:30 PM.

She’s been called a “leader of delinquents” and stuff like that, but she isn’t delinquent-like at all.