Chapter 103 - It's an Incident!
(1)
Airi is shaking my body.
"Wake up already, Da~rling♡"
Da~rling?
Yes, I must be dreaming.
Let me sleep a little longer.
"I said wake up~"
Come to think of it, today was a day off.
A newlywed, a holiday morning, my wife acting spoiled.
Well, it's only natural to feel lust.
It's a dream, so it's fine.
I wrap my arm around Airi's waist and pull her close.
"Wa-wait, you can't do that~"
Airi says, though she doesn't seem to mind at all.
"It's a holiday, so it's fine, right?"
"There's no way that's fine, you blockhead!"
Kanna punches me.
Kanna?
When I open my eyes, there was me hugging Airi, Airi looking entranced, and Kanna standing there with her arms crossed in a menacing pose.
"Flirting so boldly right in front of me. Stop being half-asleep already!"
While a headache still lingers, I trace back my memories.
If I recall, we entered the consecutive holidays and decided to stay at Airi's house to study...
Airi's parents aren't home.
I look at the clock.
It pointed to 11 o'clock.
Kanna had already arrived and started studying with Airi.
Unable to stand seeing me not waking up at all, Airi woke me up.
After that, I'm conscious.
It wasn't a dream.
"If someone is called 'Da~rling♡', anyone would think it's a dream, right?"
"So if I call you that, you'll flirt with me?"
Airi looks happy.
Just how positive is she?
"That's why I told you to stop. This guy is technically a man, you know,"
Kanna says with an exasperated face.
"Yep, I'll do it when it's just the two of us♪"
It's no use, she's not listening to anyone.
It was soon time for lunch.
Airi stands up from her seat.
"Lunch, huh. I'll help too,"
Kanna also stands up.
"Kanna-san is a guest, so it's fine. Toya-kun, help me♪"
Am I not a guest too?
"Toya-kun, are you the kind of person who makes his wife do everything?"
I don't remember becoming a husband yet.
Well, I have no objection to helping, though.
I get up, follow Airi, and stand in the kitchen.
Kanna followed as well.
"You could have just kept studying,"
Airi says.
"No, I thought I'd like to see how Toya works,"
Kanna says with a smirk.
"Doesn't Makoto-kun help with the cooking?"
Airi asks while cutting vegetables.
"He does help, but he'll cling to me halfway through and do whatever he wants, so it actually becomes a hindrance, and I end up telling him to just wait quietly at the table."
Makoto... were you that kind of character?
Seeing me stunned, Kanna smiled brightly.
"I told you, didn't I? In front of me, he's just an idiot and a pervert."
The curry pilaf, with a spicy curry flavor that whets the appetite, is completed.
The three of us eat it and comment that it's delicious.
"Airi, you can handle anything,"
Kanna says.
"I'll work even harder tomorrow♪"
Airi says.
"Seconds♪"
I say.
"Wait until snack time! I made a large portion anyway!"
I got scolded.
Study resumed from the afternoon.
For now, it starts with finishing the homework.
After that, resolving weak areas.
Airi... doesn't have any.
Kanna has Math B.
Since Kanna was good at foreign languages, I solve problems while being taught by her.
Kanna asks Airi a question, but...
"You can tell just by looking at that... hmm, that part is the distributive law of scalar multiplication..."
Airi seems to be bad at teaching people.
When evening comes, Kanna begins packing her things.
It seems to be time for her part-time job.
"Well, see you tomorrow."
"Kanna, review today's parts once more when you get home."
"If I'm not too tired from work to sleep, I'll do it."
Saying that, Kanna left the house.
"Well, shall we prepare dinner too?"
Airi says, heading toward the kitchen.
"What are you making?"
"Omelets... ah, we're out of eggs."
"I'll go buy some."
"I'm coming too~"
And so, the two of us go shopping at the supermarket.
Naturally, it wouldn't end with just eggs.
We have to buy juice or we'll get thirsty.
"I have barley tea ready..."
We have to buy snacks too.
"...I'm glad I came along after all."
Airi returns the snacks I put in the basket back to the display shelf.
"Mental labor makes you hungry!?"
"There's no way that's true!"
Goodbye, snacks.
On the way back, we go up a slope.
A couple we saw at the store... or maybe a married couple?
They were shopping while judging products in the same way.
Airi looked at them enviously.
Those two were going home by car, though.
Among them, there were people going home holding hands.
Airi looks at that enviously.
What needs to be done is already decided, right?
Holding the heavy bags in one hand, I take Airi's hand.
Airi is surprised.
However, that expression soon changes into a gentle smile.
"I'm glad I came along after all."
That's good.
"I feel like I can say it now. 'Someday I will be there with you'..."
Airi suddenly started speaking.
"Lyrics from something?"
Airi shook her head.
"I learned it in English class. I thought it was a very lovely sentence..."
"Someday I will be there with you," huh...
Indeed, I can promise it now, that in the future I will be with Airi.
"It was also written like this: 'Because praying alone won't reach, let's take a step now to go toward the dream of the future someday'... I wonder if we've been able to take that step?"
"We've taken it. At least I've taken it. Believing that there is something."
When I respond, Airi wears a full smile.
"Take me with you too. I think if I don't go now, I'll end up crying later. I'd hate that."
"I'll always be with you."
I'm not letting go of her hand.
Because it's an encounter born from a miracle of a distant day.
(2)
The library.
I had come to study together with Emi.
The reason I chose the library is that my family is noisy at home, making it impossible to study.
We studied quietly for a while, but Emi spoke to me.
"Isshy? Have you decided on your path?"
"Hmm? I intend to go to the local University, though?"
"Which faculty?"
"Faculty of Economics."
"I see..."
Emi was spinning her pen, seemingly deep in thought.
"There's no need to match the faculty..."
"Eh?"
"I'll make the local University mine too. Though the faculty is different."
I don't think there's a need to match the University either.
"Couldn't you go to a better University, Emi?"
I threw a question at Emi.
Then Emi says.
"Why did Isshy choose the local University?"
"I don't have enough leeway to go to a private one, and I'm anxious about leaving my hometown."
"Because I'm anxious about being apart from Isshy... is that reason unsatisfactory?"
"It's not unsatisfactory, but..."
Is it okay to decide one's future for a reason like that?
"It's okay, there's a faculty I want to go to at the local University too."
Emi dismissed my concern.
"I see."
"We can spend our campus life together then."
Within Emi, it seems it's already decided that both I and Emi will pass.
"I don't know if I'll pass, you know?"
"The local University should be a breeze."
But, it's a national/public one, for the record, right?
"I thought you'd aim for something like Kyushu University?"
"I'm anxious about leaving my hometown."
She probably thinks I'm a hopeless guy who can't separate from his parents.
"Are you anxious about leaving your parents' side?"
"Well, yeah, I'd have to look for a part-time job and all."
"Isn't that the same even in your hometown?"
"At least I won't go hungry, right?"
I'll probably be called a parasite living off my parents.
"If the two of us live together, I think we can earn enough for living expenses? I'll work a part-time job too."
She was thinking about such things.
"I hadn't thought as far as cohabitation."
"We can cohabitate in your hometown too, you know?"
Emi smiles mischievously.
"...as far as."
"Eh?"
Emi asks back.
"I won't be allowed to cohabitate until we get married."
I thought to myself that I'm quite the mama's boy.
"Won't you consider marrying me?"
Emi giggles.
"...I think few people think that far as high school students."
I won't say there are none.
At least one couple seems to be thinking about it.
"But you told me at karaoke, didn't you? 'We'll be together until the world ends'..."
Emi is the only woman in the whole world who would take that as a proposal.
"Has Isshy ever fallen in love with someone else?"
"No way... there's no way someone like me could get a girlfriend."
"I see... the first time I fell in love, only you were there."
"?"
"A tiny heart awakened by kindness, but I wanted to meet you, so I'm touching you like this."
Saying that, Emi's hand is touching my hand.
"I've said it before... the trigger doesn't matter. Because that was love. What comes after is what's important. I'll be with Isshy forever."
I'm telling you, this is a library.
It's not a place to talk about romance.
The hand that Emi is touching is hot.
My palm is sweaty.
The sweat from my palm is soaking into the textbook.
"Sh-shall we stop here for today?"
"What does that mean?"
"Eh? Ah, no, I mean let's stop studying here..."
"I see, that's fine. What will you do after this?"
Go home.
A situation where I can't say those words.
While I'm troubled, Emi speaks as if to say she's nailed it!
"You haven't thought of anywhere, right? Then, I know a good place...? A special place where we can study and relax."
...If we're studying, the library is fine.
I wonder where this special place is?
(3)
After finishing dinner, I took a bath and studied with Airi.
Airi's parents aren't home.
Even if they were, the situation probably wouldn't change.
Since I'm recognized by both parents.
In such a setting, young lovers in a closed room.
Two hands touching as they reach for an eraser.
Gazing into each other's eyes.
And then...
I graduated from such romances long ago.
Still, Airi must be expecting something.
We are studying with our bodies pressed together, like when we met before.
And yet, if I try to put my arm around her shoulder.
"We're studying!"
I'm pushed away.
In a sense, it's torture.
Even I, who possess the absolute time known as Sage Time, occasionally feel lust.
She is in a position where shoulder and shoulder touch, there's a faint scent of shampoo, and when I look next to me, her cheeks are flushed.
When she looks this way, she smiles brightly.
"It's no longer just romance, it's love."
If a girl who has said that to me does something like that, let any guy who doesn't feel lust come out!
Around the time the clock pointed to 0:00, high-quality music and a narration with a calm tone flow from the FM radio we were playing.
"Alright, that's it for today~"
Finally, I'm released.
Thinking that, before I can pull Airi close, Airi leans against me first.
Closing my eyes, I listen to the wonderful BGM and savor the atmosphere.
Around 1:00, when that program ends, we were inside the bed.
Airi turns off the lights, accepting me into the futon.
I fall asleep while hugging such an Airi.
Around 6:00 AM, Airi shakes me awake.
Today is still a holiday, right?
Let me sleep.
"If you don't get ready quickly, Kanna-san will be here."
Ah, that's right.
Clothes... I guess room wear is fine.
I just check that I have no bedhead and get ready.
After eating breakfast, while I'm studying a step ahead, Kanna arrives.
While the three of us are studying, my smartphone rings.
It's a message from someone.
It's from Ishihara-kun.
I look at the message.
"What should I do... I did it."
Did what?
"I hurt Emi..."
The three of us look at each other's faces.
What happened?