My extroverted girlfriend has zero sense of boundaries — Is It really wrong to take her home right after we meet? - Episode 10
♠
At the station, Ayano had joined up, carrying several paper bags as if she was returning from shopping.
They faced each other, but for some reason it felt awkward.『It’s about time』, Kyousuke hurried toward the ticket gate and boarded the train straight away. With the day, time, and all the conditions for congestion perfectly in place, there was no chance of getting a seat.
‘…T-too close…!’
Pushed by the crowd and forced toward the edge, Kyousuke stood with his back against the wall.
Right in front of him was Ayano. Because something he could not possibly stare at loomed directly before his eyes, he lowered his gaze, his cheeks burning with embarrassment.
“Hey… Fujimura.”
With a hushed, almost whispered voice in his ear, Kyousuke’s shoulders jerked in surprise.
“The girl you were with… who is she?”
“…Shijima-san. You know, from our class.”
“Eh. Why?”
This was the same girl who even remembered Kyousuke. There was no way she would not know Shijima Sayo.
That was precisely why she must have wondered. Two people who seemed to have no connection whatsoever, being together.
What should he do?
Since he was planning a surprise, he could not tell the truth. But he also had no idea how to cover it up in a way that would make her accept it.
He could invent some relationship, like saying she was his girlfriend or a childhood friend, and escape that way, but in the worst case that would bring trouble to the other side. That was something he absolutely had to avoid.
“…Y-you’re one to talk, why were you in a place like that? Could it be, you were following me?”
She might have just happened to be there, planning to talk to him, but gave up because he was with someone else. That was most likely the case, but what mattered now was diverting the subject. The actual content of the question did not matter.
“Eh…? Ah, um…”
When he glanced up at her face, Ayano’s expression quietly betrayed her fluster.
Why would she need to let her gaze wander? Tilting his head slightly, Kyousuke saw Ayano say with a forced strength in her tone,『I-it was just coincidence!』
On Ayano’s porcelain-white skin, a faint tint of autumn seeped in. Her lips, bitten in embarrassment, showed no sign of opening. The source of that heat was entirely beyond his grasp, but Kyousuke let out a small sigh of relief for now.
“But, you know…”
“You know?”
“About me, like… you were talking, right?”
She muttered, mumbling slightly as if stumbling over her words. She must have been referring to when Sayo had asked him if he liked or disliked her.
“Fujimura-sa… You were watching me, weren’t you?”
“I noticed you were there.”
“…When you said you wanted to treasure me, was that true?”
Though Kyousuke’s eyes had already dropped, not reflecting Ayano’s current expression, it was easy to imagine she was burning with shyness. Kyousuke felt the same way too.
There had been no lie in those words, but being asked once more like this was rather painful. If he had the courage to raise his face now, he would probably be able to convey his feelings more directly.
“…Mm, mmh.”
The words that spilled out after mustering all the strength he could from his throat left Kyousuke sinking deeply.
Yes, that was all he had wanted to say. Yet the sound that slipped out was so unbearably disgusting that he desperately wished the noise of the train’s movement would drown it out.
“Then… just tell me one thing. Do you like me or do you hate me?”
She must not have heard Kyousuke’s reply. Instead, she threw that question at him, and he reflexively lifted his head, thinking, what the hell is she saying?
What he saw was a face embarrassed yet serious. Those deep-sea-colored eyes looked as if they would never let him escape.
The handle of the paper bag filled with chocolate sweets grew damp with the hot sweat seeping into it.
“Normally, that won’t do.”
With his retreat blocked, Kyousuke ground his teeth together. His head was filled only with the question of why she needed him to say it aloud.
As a friend, Ayano was more than charming enough, and given the choice between liking or hating, there was no way he would choose the latter. You do not become friends with someone you dislike.
“I’ll say it too, so when I do, Fujimura, you say it as well.”
That whisper was so faint it might vanish with a breath, but to Kyousuke it struck like a bolt of lightning.
Her breath, heavier than air, fell onto the crown of his head, trailing past the back of his head and ears down to his toes. The sound of his own heartbeat was unbearably loud in his ears.
Above his head, he thought he felt Ayano slightly part her lips.
Kyousuke repeated short breaths while staring at her slender legs.
“S-stop it!”
He tugged at the sleeve of her clothes, pleading.
“Even if you don’t say it, I-I know. If it’s not just my misunderstanding, then I already know…!”
Perhaps for Ayano, confessing whether she liked or disliked him as a friend was something simple.
But for Kyousuke, it was different. No matter if it was only as a friend, once the feelings directed at him were made clear, he was not confident he could keep interacting with her as before.
If she liked him, he would only become anxious about not wanting to be hated.
If she hated him, he would surely give up.
If that was the case, then ambiguity was fine. Grey was fine.
“…So, you know already.”
With a slightly sulky voice, she slowly wrapped her free arm around Kyousuke’s back. Her slender fingers traced gently across his back, sliding up his neck to the back of his head.
“H-hey, wait—”
“I’m just being pushed from behind.”
Even so, he wanted to protest that this position was strange, but his mouth was blocked by her clothes. Whether it was perfume or her natural scent, or perhaps both, the sweet fragrance sent his consciousness drifting.
“…Me too.”
Neither the surrounding clamor nor the screech of the train reached him anymore. His eardrums blocked everything out, letting in only her voice.
“I also… understand your feelings, Fujimura. …Though maybe it’s just a misunderstanding.”
Squeeze. The hand on the back of his head tightened with faint warmth, yet also weakness. The slight trembling he felt, Kyousuke thought, must have been because she lacked confidence in what she was saying.
It had happened before.
The day after he had saved Ayano from Toujou, when she invited him to the cafeteria. Back then too, Ayano had worn a very uncertain expression.
Always giving off an air of confidence, almost never letting her smile fade.
And yet, that fragility she showed from time to time… where on earth did it come from?
Gently, Kyousuke slipped his arm around her back.
So lightly it was almost imperceptible, as if barely touching her at all. For now, this distance was enough. Any closer, and the embarrassment would overwhelm him.
But Ayano seemed to notice, and above his head, he thought he heard her chuckle softly.
♥
After getting off the train, she headed straight to the restroom.
Standing in front of the mirror, she realized the redness had yet to fade from her cheeks. Remembering the feel of Kyousuke’s hair lingering on her palm, she took a deep breath in and exhaled.
“Thank gooooooodness…!”
She had followed Kyousuke around and doubted his relationship with Sayo.
Looking back on it, it was such a blatantly foolish act it could not even serve as a funny story but she was truly relieved it had not been that girl.
‘If he had someone he was dating, it would’ve been harder to invite him out to play. That’s all this relief is about.’
Even Ayano herself was not sure who she was trying to convince, but she told herself that, nodding firmly.
‘Maybe I should have invited him to dinner.’
She would be parting with Kyousuke soon.
Even though they had managed to meet during the holiday, that made it feel somewhat lonely.
But on his end, he had family waiting at home with a meal prepared. To make him contact them and say food was unnecessary just for her sake would feel selfish, and if he declined by saying he would eat at home, it would hurt.
Better to leave it for another time. Today, she had to enjoy what little time was left, or it would be a waste.
She reapplied her gloss and stared into the mirror to check for anything out of place.
Her bangs did not seem to sit right, but she could not tell exactly what was wrong. Since Kyousuke was waiting outside, she could not spend much time, so she quickly fixed it with a hand comb.
“…Huh?”
The moment she noticed the anomaly, she felt the heat drain from her entire body.
Her favorite earrings.
The one on the left ear had vanished.
♠
While waiting for Ayano to come out of the restroom, Kyousuke distracted himself by casually skimming through some news on his smartphone.
The fact that Ayano had pulled him close because she was pushed from behind, and that he had responded by slipping his arm around her back, now struck him with crushing embarrassment.
Maybe she really had been pushed and ended up in that position out of necessity. But what about him? In that spot, in that posture, there had been absolutely no need for him to reach out and touch her.
‘Wh-what should I do…?’
What if she thought he was disgusting? What if she accused him of harassment?
Even as those anxieties whipped through his mind, another, more convenient thought gave birth to a faint voice—she had not seemed to dislike it.
Indeed, she had not resisted. Even when pressed against him, she had not looked displeased. The feel of her hand on his head, the warmth that had covered his face, had both been comforting.
‘…What the hell am I thinking!’
Gross fantasies swelled up inside him, and he shook his head to chase them away. He pinched his cheek to discipline himself, to stop the looseness of his mouth from betraying him.
He could not afford to misunderstand. He could not afford to hope. He was just a friend, nothing more.
“Ah.”
Ayano came out of the restroom.
He started to call out to her, but swallowed his words.
Her arms dangled limply, the paper bag in her hands looking ready to slip free at any moment. Her eyes held no strength, shining instead with the pitiful light of a puppy caught in the rain.
“A-are you okay…?”
She was clearly not.
A faint heat glistened in Ayano’s eyes, swelling into large tears that spilled down her cheeks and dropped from her chin onto the ground.
“I… I lost it…”
Her voice came out between sobs and hiccups.
“My earring… one of them, I don’t know where I dropped it…”
Crouching there crying, she reminded him sharply that she was the same age as he was.
Even with her exceptional beauty, even though she seemed more mature than everyone else, even though she earned money in ways that seemed impressive, once the surface was peeled back she was no different from him.
‘So that’s what this is about…’
The one glittering on her right ear was the same as the pair she had worn when they had gone to rent DVDs together.
Back then, she had laughed and said it was her favorite. For her to cry this much over losing one meant it must truly be precious to her.
‘Come to think of it, at the café I had only noticed it was on her right ear.’
Kyousuke’s head was clearer than even he expected.
Calm and steady, he thought about what needed to be done.
“F-for now, you can’t just sit here. Also, use this handkerchief.”
He took Ayano’s arm and all but forced her to stand.
Being sad was no excuse for blocking the restroom entrance. Next, he handed her his handkerchief and urged her to wipe her tears.
“I’ll go ask the station staff. It might not turn up on the train, so let’s retrace the places we went today, just in case.”
“…Eh?”
“Maybe someone turned it in to a shop, or if it fell on the street, they might have handed it to the police box. Even if not, we still might be able to find it ourselves.”
I thought to myself what a terrible comfort that was.
If it were a phone or a wallet, that would be one thing, but if I picked up a single earring on the side of the road, I would never bother bringing it to the police box. Besides, something that small would hardly catch anyone’s eye. The chances of finding it were close to zero but I could not believe that simply offering her empty words of comfort without doing anything was the right thing to do.
It was something important to Ayano.
I could stroke her back and speak gently after we had searched with all our strength.
We rested until Ayano had calmed down somewhat, then immediately boarded the train heading back.
Though her tears had stopped, the depth of her dejection was abnormal. Her expression, like the flame of a candle about to be snuffed out, made me anxious just to look at her.
She must have known as well. That the chance of finding it was as close to zero as could be.
“The station staff said they’d look too. Until it’s found, I’ll help you search.”
“…Yeah.”
I tried putting on a show of bravado to improve the atmosphere, but her sunken voice never rose to the surface.
We got off the train and retraced our path. We stopped by a police box on the way but came up empty, then wandered through the neon-lit streets, staring at the ground as we went.
The sky gradually shifted into night, and the number of tipsy passersby increased.
My phone vibrated several times in my pocket, most likely messages from my parents, but I deliberately ignored them for now.
“It’s fine already. It’s getting dark…”
“We’ve barely searched at all.”
“We’re not going to find it anyway. …Besides, I don’t want to waste your time, Fujimura.”
Her slightly trembling voice must have been because she had resigned herself to the inevitable.
Kyousuke suddenly stopped walking. Not noticing, Ayano took two more steps before stopping and turning back to ask, “What is it?”
“It’s not a waste.”
The lingering chill of late spring blew through the gaps in the crowd.
“I-I really… hate seeing Sasagawa-san cry!”
His words would not come out right. He cursed his tongue for stumbling over them.
“I’ll keep looking no matter how many hours it takes. This is just my own self-satisfaction, so if anything, I feel bad making you go along with it…”
He felt like only his emotions were rushing out of his throat, unable to arrange them into anything coherent.
It was not as if he was trying to say something complicated.
‘That said… what am I going to do about this…’
He said『no matter how many hours』but the truth was they could not stay out indefinitely. Two or three more hours would be fine, but past that the police would probably detain them.
Maybe if he pretended to be Ayano’s younger brother, they could avoid it. From the outside, they might pass for a college-aged sister and a middle school-aged brother.
No, no, Kyousuke shook his head. Why was he thinking only about what to do if they were detained?
First, they needed to go to the department store and ask about lost items. Then visit each shop they had stopped at today, and search the streets thoroughly. Just imagining it was enough to make him feel faint.
“…Hm?”
Buzzz—the long vibration told him a call had come in to his pocket.
If it were just a message that would be one thing, but ignoring a phone call felt improper. When he pulled it out and looked at the screen, the caller was Sayo.
“Who is it?”
“Shijima-san. I wonder why she’s calling directly.”
He stepped off to the side of the road and, frowning, answered, “Hello?”
『Ah, sorry. There’s something I urgently need you to confirm.』
“Eh, confirm?”
『I’m choosing clothes right now. And in the fitting room, I happened to find an earring──』
Kyousuke’s eyes flew open, and he cast a glance at Ayano. Noticing his reaction, a spark of vitality seemed to return to her gaze.
『It looks exactly like the one Ayano-chan said was her favorite… actually, I’m pretty sure it’s the same. I’ll send you a picture, so could you ask her to check? I doubt I’m mistaken, but just in case…』
The call ended with,『Thanks in advance』and soon after a photo arrived. He checked it together with Ayano, and after a few seconds of silence, they looked at each other.
“「「That’s it!」」”
They hurried straight to the apparel shop, where they retrieved the earring that Sayo had entrusted to the staff.
Ayano must have dropped it while trying on clothes after making her purchase there earlier today.
At first she was overjoyed at recovering something so precious, but suddenly her expression clouded.
“Sayo-chan thought this was mine, and that’s why she contacted you, right, Fujimura?”
“Y-yeah.”
“But how did she know it was mine? I’ve never worn it to school, and I’ve never even spoken to Sayo-chan.”
It must have been because she had thrown herself into fan activities, trying harder than anyone to learn everything about Ayano—but of course he could not say that. So he forced a clumsy smile and deflected with, “Who knows.”
Still, there was no hiding it for long. By tomorrow, some kind of contact between them was inevitable.
Do your best, he cheered silently, toward the still-unaware Sayo.
“Fujimura, are you okay on time? Isn’t your family worried?”
The clock was closing in on seven in the evening.
When he checked his phone, there were several messages from his mother. Apparently they had planned to eat out today, and she was furious that her son had neither come home nor contacted her. The final message was punctuated with an angry pig-stamp telling him to just eat whatever was in the fridge.
“…I think I’m okay.”
In middle school, he had been a bit more devoted in everything he did. To be left behind like this now was proof he had become a high schooler.
What worried him more was the chocolate. He was fairly sure it would be fine, but after carrying it around outside for so long, it would not be surprising if it had melted. He needed to get it into the refrigerator soon.
“S-sorry! For crying and getting so depressed… I should have been the one trying hardest to find it!”
“There’s no need to apologize, just don’t lose it again. It must be expensive, right?”
The only reason it was found so quickly was because she happened to drop it in a fitting room, the finder happened to be one of Ayano’s biggest fans, and that person happened to have a connection to Kyousuke. It was a miracle—normally it would never go this way.
“It’s not really that expensive…”
Cradling the earring wrapped in the handkerchief with both hands, she wore a faintly sorrowful smile, her eyes gazing off into the distance.
“This… my mama bought it for me.”
In a voice where tenderness and sadness coexisted, Ayano softly narrowed her eyes.
That gesture, that expression, stirred doubt within Kyousuke’s chest.
Of course, something given by a parent would naturally be precious, but would that alone cause her to fall into such deep despair? That kind of hopelessness was not something so easily displayed.
Which meant—
As he began to sketch out several possibilities in his mind, he stopped himself.
Prying was not good. Unless the person allowed it, stepping into someone’s special circumstances was nothing but rude.
“…Well then, shall we head back?”
He was about to turn on his heel.
But Ayano’s outstretched arm caught his free hand. Her supple fingers intertwined with his palm, pulling him toward her.
By the wall of the department store. On a side path along someone’s way home.
Ayano stared intently at Kyousuke. Sweat beaded between their joined hands, exchanging a damp warmth.
“About whether you like me or not… let’s continue that talk.”
Her grip tightened firmly. As if to never let go, to never let him slip away.
Her eyes shone, her cheeks and ears flushed scarlet. The glossy black hair tucked behind her ear slid free, brushing gently against Kyousuke’s forehead.
“I like you. Fujimura.”
Whispered into his ear, as if meant for no one else, given only to him.
Then, stepping back two, three paces, she smiled shyly and added,『As a friend, of course』.
Ayano: Kin kin kin!!
Kyousuke:Kan kan kan
Ayano: I win
Kyousuke: I don’t know the rules
Ayano: The punishment game is a falling-asleep call, okay
[Voice call 1:45 → 1:49]
Kyousuke: I win
Kyousuke: Good night