Chapter 14: Pushy, Pushy! (Kanae’s Point of View)
Weddings seem like they cost a ton of money, but if possible, I really want to have one. I wonder how much they actually cost. Huh, three million yen? Th-that’s expensive… Maybe I should start saving now with my allowance or a part-time job. Oh, but we could cut costs with something like a photo wedding and put the rest toward a new place or furniture. But wait, wait. Yuki-kun’s family runs a construction company, so maybe it’d be better to have a proper ceremony because of that? Hmm, I guess that’s something I’d have to talk over with Yuki-kun and his family.
Ever since this morning, I’ve been looking up average wedding costs, and my dizzying fantasies just won’t stop.
The root cause of these painfully embarrassing actions is that “I’ll take responsibility” declaration I forced on Yuki-kun earlier.
I originally said it to compete with that manager girl Yuki-kun was talking to, like I was trying to overwrite her presence. But now I’ve completely blown it out of proportion and have been happily indulging in all kinds of fantasies since morning.
“What did Yuki-kun think about it, I wonder?”
That’s what really matters. Or maybe that’s the only thing that matters.
But there’s no way to know unless I ask Yuki-kun directly, and there’s no way I can ask him something like, “So what did you think?”
“And was Yuki-kun’s cheek okay…?”
I scrubbed it pretty hard with the towel, so it turned a little red.
Back then, I got worried and reached out without thinking, touching Yuki-kun’s cheek. I felt the slightly coarse baby hairs, his hot, sweaty skin so vivid that before I knew it, I traced my own lips with the fingers that had touched him.
Realizing I’d done something perverted again, for what felt like the hundredth time, I buried my face in my desk to hide how hot it was getting.
Ah, my face just keeps getting hotter, my eyes are watering, my mouth’s all slack… I’m definitely making a really pathetic face right now. There’s no way I could let anyone see me like this.
Even so, every now and then I lift my face like I’m coming up for air and glance toward the classroom entrance.
Yuki-kun still isn’t back…
What if Yuki-kun never comes back? That’d totally be my fault. I panicked and got jealous of that manager girl, and then I went and did all that stuff to Yuki-kun. But really, I wasn’t even in a position where I should be doing things like that…
Somehow, even today, my emotions have been all over the place since morning. I’ll have fun fantasizing, then suddenly get embarrassed, then sink into depression…
“Yuki-kun…”
I call his name without thinking, and my face heats up all over again.
But almost like he was answering that whisper, Yuki-kun came back into the classroom right then. Souta-kun was with him too. Did they run into each other in the hallway?
Either way, just seeing Yuki-kun again made me feel so relieved.
I watched, wondering if our eyes might meet again like yesterday. But the moment I thought they did, he suddenly looked away.
Eh… w-why? What’s going on? Yuki-kun…!
Is it because I scrubbed his face too hard with the towel? Or because I said something weird like “I’ll take responsibility”?
Thinking that Yuki-kun might hate me makes my chest hurt so badly I feel like I’m about to cry.
R-right. Souta-kun came in with Yuki-kun, so maybe he knows something…!
With a praying sort of feeling, I called out to Souta-kun, who was sitting diagonally in front of me.
“H-hey, Souta-kun. You came in with Yuki-kun just now, right? How was Yuki-kun acting?”
Souta-kun let out an exasperated sigh.
“Yeah, about that. Kanae, don’t just casually lend Yukiya your towel. Even if you’re childhood friends, Yukiya’s still a guy. And he is a virgin, so he might get the wrong idea and start clinging to you or something, you know?”
Souta-kun sounded kind of angry, and it was a little scary.
But more than that, “virgin” means it’s his first time, right… Yuki-kun too… Yuki-kun’s a virgin…
“Well, I warned him too. But Kanae, if you get too close to Yukiya just because you’re childhood friends, he’ll misunderstand things, so be careful, okay?”
“Th-that’s good… wait, huh? Wh-what do you mean, you warned him…?”
I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.
“I told him it looked like you’ve got someone you’re interested in, so lending him the towel was probably just kindness and nothing more. That kind of thing.”
Whaaat!? Someone I’m interested in? Why would you say that!? If that comes from you, Souta-kun, Yuki-kun’s going to misunderstand even more!
I seriously felt like crying, and I was furious at Souta-kun for doing something like that on his own.
But Souta-kun doesn’t know the whole situation, and the one who’s really at fault is me, for not realizing my own feelings…
Feeling down again, I turned my eyes back toward Yuki-kun.
I want to explain myself…
But Yuki-kun was chatting with a girl at a nearby seat. And we haven’t met eyes at all today. He looked away earlier, and seeing Yuki-kun talking with another girl makes me feel awful.
“Ughh… Yuki-kun…”
Without realizing it, I clenched my teeth as I stared at Yuki-kun and the girl he was talking to.
Thick, black sludge started overflowing in my chest, and with the anxiety and impatience that he might drift farther and farther away, I couldn’t sit still at all.
And yet, class had already started, and I couldn’t go over to Yuki-kun.
Driven to despair by being completely helpless, I kept sneaking looks at the unreachable Yuki-kun while letting that black sludge pile up in my chest.
Because of all that, I think I completely lost control.
“Yuki-kun!”
The moment class ended and break started, I called out to Yuki-kun in a voice I’d normally never be able to use and ran straight over to him.
Everyone in the class was staring at us.
But with everything weighing on me and cornering me on my own, I could only think about Yuki-kun. I grabbed his sleeve so he wouldn’t get away and dragged him over to a quiet stair landing.
“Yuki-kun, over here…”
I pushed Yuki-kun into the corner of the landing and stood in front of him so he couldn’t escape.
Th-this is it. I’m going to do the plan I came up with during class…!
My heart’s pounding like crazy. More than the tension from embarrassment, the fear of being rejected is way stronger.
“Um… I’m sorry about this morning. Is your cheek okay?”
I swallowed down my fear and nerves and placed my hand against Yuki-kun’s cheek.
That responsibility declaration from this morning was, on the surface, about the cheek I’d scrubbed so hard. Using healing his cheek as an excuse, my plan was to keep Yuki-kun tied to me, overwrite other girls, and on top of that, make him aware of me.
Of course, Yuki-kun had no way of knowing any of that. He just stayed perfectly still with a bright red face, letting me do whatever I wanted. Is he embarrassed because of me? If so, that makes me really happy.
“Yuki-kun, can you bend down a bit?”
And the way Yuki-kun’s all spaced out and doing exactly what I say feels really nice…
So I do this.
“Fuu, fuu…”
Puckering my lips slightly like I’m about to kiss him, I blow softly on Yuki-kun’s red cheek.
You blow on cuts and burns too, so this should count as healing, right?
But still, it’s a little… no, actually, it’s really embarrassing. My face is getting hotter and hotter too.
When I peek at Yuki-kun to see how he’s doing, his face is bright red, and he’s even shaking a little.
Hehe… what do I do? Seeing Yuki-kun get embarrassed by the things I do is so much fun.
Getting carried away, I kept blowing on Yuki-kun’s cheek for the entire break, without caring about my own embarrassment.
Eventually, the warning bell rang, and even though it’s a little sad, I pulled my face away from Yuki-kun.
“Ehehe, let’s go back to the classroom.”
Looking at Yuki-kun standing there all spaced out with a bright red face, I couldn’t help grinning from a mix of accomplishment and embarrassment.
“We’re going to eat lunch together today, just like we promised, okay?”
I made sure not to forget to remind him about the lunch promise from yesterday.
I was already looking forward to lunch break.