Vol 2 Chapter 10 (1/2)
10: A New Step is Mayhem
”Iain you’ve really shown yourself off”
Kaoru said, su yesterday’s commotion
I was eating my bento, while Kaoru ate sweet bread
Today it was just like the usual lunch break —yesterday, I ended up going to the hospital and afterwards I went to bed right away so I couldn’twhile, I had a bento from the convenience store The taste was just passable, but as expected, the money is best spent in other ways
”So hurt a lot recently”
Kaoru stared at the big band-aid in my face and smiled
To be honest, h it hurt a ton when I was being punched, my condition was ht in front of the train station Maybe theblack knew the proper technique to not overdo it when punching people, as expected of a professional
The news later leaked to the disciplinary coh ere cross-exah to skip over the entire incident We even didn’t get any reprimands or questions from the staff room It seems like Mana —or more accurately: Masuzu’s father, stretched his hand and arranged so behind the scenes with the school
What kind of father is he?
But if he could give up the idea of calling Masuzu back, whatever it was, that was just fine
”Oh, Eita, there was so I wanted to ask you”
”Huh?”
”The tilish question before exams, 'let’s restore our bonds from the past', have you solved it?”
Unconsciously, I was startled with surprise
”Ah, right, ulish teacher, Kishi+wada-sensei for help, and he taught me”
”Really? That’s good”
Even though I nearly said it carelessly, Kaoru seemed to not notice
”I thought it sounded like so out of a love letter Did the question come out of a romantic novel?”
”Ah, right, I actually think that was the case”
”If the love letter cairlfriend, that'd be le it would have been fine, however, for a while there, you have got a girlfriend”
”[] Yeah”
He hasn't realized it right?
Kaoru?
I wiped my sith a handkerchief as I said:
”B-But when the tiht? I just have to irlfriend now'”
”Hmm? Will it really work as easy as that?”
”Why not?”
Kaoru licked his finger to clean off bread jam
”A childhood friend, or an ex girlfriend, they wouldn't siive up”
”[]”
”Even if you have a girlfriend, if they truly possess sincere feelings, they won’t give up Rather, they would try their hardest to restore their bonds, right? Girls are stubborn —It’s ht?”
I wiped and wiped, but my sweat dripped incessantly
”D-D-Don’t say such scary things”
”Scary? That English question? It’s very unlike the nu like that before exams”
Kaoru laughed and used his straw to drink strawberry milk
Recently I feel Kaoru’s been really hard to deal with
If evenme, then I don’t have any moment of peace at all!
♦
That day after school——
I ith Masuzu for shopping in town
Because we had to re-purchase the volumes of 'JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures' that were uilty party,
Whatever, there wasn’t anything I could do about it—
”Hey, Masuzu, it seems like there aren’t any in tankoubon[1] for the bunkoban version instead?”
”[]”
Masuzu-san, for a while now you have not said a thing
Why is that?
Even ere in class, other than the things that were unavoidable and absolutely necessary, she didn’t say a thing
She can't possibly be that angry about the JoJo issue, right?
We wandered through three bookstores nearby, but eren’t able to buy the volumes that anted JoJo was a series that had been popular for more than two decades, so it was very difficult to find the first few volumes in local bookstores
Later we took a longer trip to the big, ed to buy them all
Around eight o’clock in the evening, ere sitting on the deserted bus car on the way back——
”Certainly, right now you have been extremely noisy”
In the double seat, next to me, Masuzu finally spoke
Her tone was barbed, as expected it did look like she was really angry
”What do you mean by noisy?”
”If one enrages the Natsukawa family, one can never tell what it will lead to You, and Harusaki-san too, like to s too much”
Ehhh, so with Mana?
If that was the issue, then I had decided o
”About the circumstances in your household, I really don't care”
”What was that?”
”I don’t knohat secrets you keep to yourself, but I hate splitting up with you just like that, that’s all”
Exactly
Of course we have secrets We are 'fakes' after all
So the — is hoant to face ourselves about that
And hoant to see each other
Masuzu reh:
”Fro to use honorifics”
”Huh?”
”When we’re in front of others, we can be fake lovers Other than this, I’ll still treat you coldly, do you understand, Eita?”
Woah, does that ue now?
You can treat me more and more unreasonably too[2] !
”Aah, do as you please”
”Why aren’t you angry? Why aren’t you saying 'Why did you leave out the honorifics'?”
”It ance, forced and headstrong ways of doing things fits you perfectly, Masuzu”
”Fool Such ih you are just a fake”
After talking, Masuzu leaned her head against my chest
Like that tiainst me several times
Masuzu see out some 'Hnnn' as she rubbed back and forth, her silver hair swaying Did that mean that my chest was popular?
”H-Huh? Shouldn’t we be pretending we’re lovers only in front of others?”
”Of course not, this is— this is a JoJo reference”
”Eh? Which part? What volume is this from?”
”[]”
Strange? She didn’t answer immediately?
About JoJo, this girl should know everything
”Four times”
”Huh?”
”This nored four of my JoJo references that I came up with much difficulty”
”Did I? When was that? What kind of references?”
As I finished, Masuzu ied with a triumphant smile and said:
”Hmph, as expected you didn’t notice Since you’re my boyfriend, you need to further increase your JoJo-power Understand, Eita?”
”Tch! What's with that arrogance”
”'That arrogance' would be yours, especially with that standoffish reply? After all, I hold your Weak Point'Note! Understand your position now!”
Masuzu snuggled her head against my chest
What's with this girl?
It felt subtly different from what she normally did to tease and make fun of me——
”Understand? From now on, there will only be one person in your eyes”
”Okay, okay After all, you’re irlfriend'”
”And I’ll be the only one you’ll be this gentle with”
”Yeah”
”Don’t be having fun with soirl”
”—Err, Wait a minute!”
”What?”
”You really want to shackle me up to that extent?”
Masuzu said with sharp eyes:
”Originally boyfriends are like this, right? In the beginning, I was really naïve Initially it was Harusaki Chiwa, after that even Akishi+no Hih you are y, you’re way too popular with girls, Eita”
Tch, You are the one who has no right to preach about that to someone else
”But I’m merely a 'boyfriend'fake?”
”Idiot, because you are an i itself”
”[]”
Hnng
I had nothing to say in reply
Somehow, I felt that such sentence had so
”If you don’t even know that, you’re really stupid, stupid, stupid”
Before we arrived at the bus stop, Masuzu called me 'stupid' fifteen times
As for the number of times she rubbed me with her face —I couldn’t even count
♦
The next
I waited in front of my house at the usual time to meet up with Chiwa
Ever since we agreed on it before exaether every day I felt like my mental state returned to what it was like in elementary school
”Hey, Ei-kun, did you end up buying 'JyoJyo'?”
Chiwa asked as she walked besides me
”Even though ent to a place rather far ae bought all the ones I trashed during that commotion, you see?”
I lifted up the paper bag in my hands for her to look into Inside, there were twelve voluht yesterday
”You went alone with Natsukawa?”
”That's right”
”Nothing happened, right?”
”That's right”
”Why did you just 'pause'? Ei-kun?”
Chiwa’s eyes became very sharp
Fro! That's just too perceptive!
I ignored the cold sweat on my back and said:
”Nothing, it was really as it sounds We merely just went to buy JoJo, and that’s all”
”Really? It was only the two of you and you didn’t ress?”
”Nothing, nothing at all”
It shouldn’t be called progress, it was more like it worsened Masuzu even announced that 'fro and first name you!'
Well, that face-rubbing certainly had me a little concerned