Hasumi Kana’s Side (3) (2)
“Huh? Was that… Shuhei-kun? I didn’t just imagine it… did I?”
I drew in a deep breath, then slowly peeked out—just enough to glance again at the place where I’d seen him.
With all the gaudy signs cluttering up the red-light district, it’s the perfect place for secretly spying without being noticed.
And when I looked again—there he was. Shuhei-kun. No doubt about it.
There was some distance between us, but I’m with him every day. There’s no way I’d mistake someone else for him.
Standing in front of a love hotel so flamboyant it looked like a medieval castle, Shuhei-kun was deep in conversation with a beautiful, older foreign woman. She wore a striking, high-quality cosplay outfit that looked like a white ceremonial robe—something out of a fantasy priesthood.
And not only that—
“They seem… really close. I mean, the way they’re talking—it’s like they’ve known each other for years. How does someone even get that close to an older foreign woman…?”
Shuhei-kun was interacting with her more intimately than with anyone else at school.
Even more than when he’s with me—
I couldn’t take my eyes off the two of them.
A part of me knew I was doing something wrong, spying like this.
But the urge to know… was stronger.
I needed to know what kind of relationship Shuhei-kun had with that beautiful woman.
I wanted—desperately wanted—some kind of proof that there was nothing between them.
But as I kept watching, the two of them entered the love hotel.
It even looked like Shuhei-kun gently—yet firmly—guided her in, his hand at her back.
“So… it really is that kind of relationship…”
The kind of relationship where you enter a love hotel together—lovers.
“I see…”
Suddenly, everything made sense.
“The way Shuhei-kun came back after summer break like a completely different person—it was because of her.”
He must’ve met her overseas during summer vacation.
There was this absurd rumor going around—that he’d joined a French mercenary unit and fought terrorists in the Middle East.
I laughed it off at the time, but… maybe it wasn’t as far from the truth as I thought.
Whatever happened abroad, something with that woman changed Shuhei-kun—deeply and irreversibly.
And she, too—she must’ve felt something for him. Enough to follow him all the way to Japan.
“Ah, b-but maybe I’ve got it all wrong? Maybe there’s a special reason they went in there or something?”
I mean, there could be a reason—a specific, innocent reason—for a young man and woman to go into a love hotel… right?
Not that a normal high school girl like me could come up with what that might be!
My thoughts were in total disarray, but clinging to any hope I could find, I pulled out my phone and messaged Shuhei-kun on LINE.
[Did you make it in time? Meeting your parents or something?]
Asking him who he was with felt way too forward—totally out of line.
But even so, I couldn’t shake the need to know who that beautiful woman was, and what she meant to him.
My desire—my desperation—had completely overpowered my sense of right and wrong.
After a while, a reply came from Shuhei-kun.
[Yeah, I was with my parents.]
—The moment I read those words, everything clicked into place.
I had no choice but to see it for what it was.