CH 9

Looking at His True Nature Alone

Translated by HamletJr

Edited by HamletJr

“…Haaah.”

That day, Shizuna began her morning in gloomy spirits. Needless to say, the cause was her phone call with Ryuichi yesterday. It was their first phone call since Shizuna had exchanged contact information with Ryuichi, and she had felt very nervous up until she pressed the dial button… Then, the call went through, and when she heard his voice, Shizuna felt a warmth flood her heart.

However, just as the call was about to end, a woman’s voice came through… That voice still lingered in Shizuna’s mind in the form of her depressed mood.

“…Haaah.”

As she let out her umpteenth sigh that day, the question of how Ryuichi and the woman spent last night constantly weighed on her mind. She didn’t know why it bothered her so much; after all, he’d already told her from the get go: that he had relations with many women.

“…My chest ached a little at the time, too.”

It wasn’t as if she’d thought nothing of Ryuichi affirming the rumors; back then, she just hadn’t witnessed it in person, so she didn’t really feel it. But this incident, as evident by her reaction, really weighed on Shizuna’s mind.

“…He called her ‘Chisa’, didn’t he? I wonder if that’s the woman he’s still seeing.”

Naturally, thinking about it alone wouldn’t give her any answers, but spacing out like what she was doing probably wasn’t a good idea either, since she’d failed to notice the approach of a person behind her.

“Shizuna!”

“Kyah?!”

She heard a familiar voice calling out to her from behind before she was suddenly hugged by them. The hug itself was light, but it was abrupt enough to surprise Shizuna.

“Sohei-kun?”

“Yup, that’s me. G’morning, Shizuna.”

“…Good morning.”

The one who’d clung to her back was Sohei. Shizuna thought back to how they used to do this to each other all the time in the past. Of course, they didn’t do that anymore now that they were in high school, but seeing Sohei like this now made her think that he really hasn’t changed between then and now.

“You don’t seem to be in a good mood. Did you…not like it?”

“…No, it’s not that. I just thought it was embarrassing.”

Shizuna lied to him. Yes, she’d said she didn’t dislike it, but in reality, she did just a little bit. Part of the blame lied with her for not noticing it earlier due to her being distracted by her thoughts, but even then, why had he decided to just hug a girl without warning?

“…Actually, yes, I did dislike it. Sohei-kun, we’re high school students now, aren’t we? Besides, we have our differences in gender to consider, so we shouldn’t do this kind of thing anymore.”

“…Okay.”

In the end, Shizuna changed her mind and decided to speak up, reprimanding him firmly. Although her tone wasn’t harsh, Sohei seemed to be quite shocked to hear his childhood friend Shizuna say she didn’t like it.

“Shizuna, you’re…”

“What?”

“…Actually, never mind. I’ll see you at school.”

Leaving those few words behind, Sohei took off and ran ahead of her. Maybe I went a little overboard, Shizuna thought. But then, she thought back to the past where sometimes, she too would cling on Sohei. They had always been together since way back, and to Shizuna, Sohei was her precious childhood friend, so she hoped that would always remain the same now and in the future.

“I still remember how we used to say we would marry each other. How nostalgic. But in the end, it’s only a promise made by children. I hope Sohei-kun and I can each find our own significant other who feels right for us.”

When Shizuna thought about who hers would be, he was the first person to come to her mind. Yes, he, who’d saved Shizuna with his large, bulky body—

“Oh, that you, Rindo? What’re you doin’ here?”

“…Fuah?!”

The owner of the voice who’d stopped Shizuna from falling into her fantasies was, in a sense, the owner of the voice she wanted to hear, but also a person who, if she met now, would be very troubling.

“S-Shishido-kun?”

“Yo.”

Shizuna wasn’t happy when she saw that Ryuichi looked exactly the same as usual, unlike herself, who was stressing over what happened last night. She wanted an outlet to vent her feelings, so she bonked Ryuichi’s chest over and over.

“…What’s up with you?”

“Sorry. I just had the urge to do this… Muuu.”

She immediately stopped hitting him, but her heart remained unsatisfied. Seeing Shizuna’s cheeks puffed out, Ryuichi sighed before he continued walking. Naturally, Shizuna paced alongside him.

“Hey. Are you seriously going to walk with me?”

“Of course. But don’t worry, we’ll split partway through. After all, I’m sure you’d prefer it that way, right?”

“Yeah.”

One might’ve thought that going to school together wouldn’t be something that big of a deal. However, high school was fundamentally a sensitive period for teenagers, so just by seeing a boy and girl walking together, they would immediately start making baseless speculations about them.

“…Hey, Shishido-kun.”

“What?”

Shizuna turned to look at Ryuichi, who was walking right next to her, while he stared ahead without looking at Shizuna. Unlike Shizuna, who wore her uniform neatly and seriously, Ryuichi commonly wore his uniform messily with all its buttons open.

…His muscles are seriously so cool ♪

This thought inadvertently slipped its way into Shizuna’s mind. She shook her head repeatedly to rid the thought before cutting straight into yesterday’s events.

“Why did you cut the call short yesterday…?”

“Oh, that. You see, Chisa… a college student came to my home. She just got done with a drinking party, and man, it made my place reek of the stuff.”

“Oh… I see.”

Is she his girlfriend? Shizuna innocently wondered.

“Is she your girlfriend?”

“Nah. We’ve just known each other for a while so we meet up occasionally.”

“…I see.”

Shizuna felt relieved when she heard that she wasn’t his girlfriend. However, it would be a while before she realized what this relief of hers meant. In the meantime, Ryuichi continued.

“Well, she’s not my girlfriend…but we are close enough to do those sorts of things.”

“……”

Shizuna wasn’t so childish so as to not know what “those sorts of things” implied. Shizuna felt a prickle of pain rather than embarrassment at the thought. She glanced up at Ryuichi, who was still the same as usual, and felt like an idiot for stressing about the matter so much.

“So does that mean…”

The words she was about to say were words she would have never uttered if she were calm. But they never left her mouth, because Ryuichi reached his arm out toward her.

“Rindo.”

“Wha―”

Ryuichi grabbed Shizuna by her arm and forcefully brought her into his embrace. Her face touched his chest, and she could directly feel the hardness of his pecs and abs. Her cheeks suddenly began to heat up, and that heat distracted her so much that she didn’t notice her lower abdomen throbbing.

“S-Shishido-kun…?”

“Don’t space out while you’re walking. You were so close to hitting him, y’know?”

“Huh?”

Shizuna looked at where Ryuichi was looking and saw an old man walking with a cane. If he hadn’t done what he did, she very well might have bumped into him, and it would have been a disaster if he had fallen over. The reason Ryuichi held Shizuna close to him was simply to keep her from bumping into the old man.

“…Thank you, Shishido-kun.”

“No need to thank me. Nothing happened, and that’s all that matters.”

He patted her head gently. Shizuna felt like she was being treated like a child, but for some reason she couldn’t tell him to stop. In fact, she even wanted him to do more; not to mention the fact that she’d felt overjoyed when he hugged her earlier. Shizuna felt an undeniable warmth and excitement from Ryuichi that she had never felt when she was with Sohei.

“C’mon, let’s get going.”

“Okay.”

Ryuichi started walking again, and Shizuna followed suit beside him. Soon, she and Ryuichi would have to part ways and head to school separately. If only this time could last a little longer… Shizuna wished in her heart.

Under normal circumstances, Shizuna and Sohei would’ve gotten together as a couple. That was how it’d worked in the original manga, yet a single change alone had caused things to deviate so drastically from its course.

However, that change was by no means caused by bad intentions. The future that Ryuichi, who had regained his memories, had brought onto himself was purely caused by Shizuna. She wasn’t being manipulated, let alone being forcibly caused to have feelings for him. She was genuinely looking at Ryuichi.

She was looking at the changed Ryuichi’s true nature; nothing more, nothing less.