You’re Always Too Straightforward
When Yuuki looked out from the car, they had arrived at a place where the sea was visible.
This was near a certain hot spring town, the very one Yume and Kyousuke had discussed and chosen yesterday.
“Yuuki-kun, have you ever been around here before?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“I see. I haven’t been here often enough to guide anyone either, so I’m looking forward to it.”
“I see.”
Checking the rearview mirror, Kyousuke saw Yuuki, as always, gazing out the window and answering coldly. Without showing the slightest concern, he simply kept driving.
“Yuuki-kun, since it’s a rare trip, let’s enjoy it together.”
“I hope we can enjoy it.”
“That’s right.”
Undeterred by Yuuki’s cold response, Yume went on talking to him.
Yuuki’s mechanical attitude and Yume’s slow, drawn-out way of speaking clashed so badly it hardly felt like a real conversation. But for Yume, what mattered more than the conversation itself was the fact that Yuuki was here, and so she kept speaking.
“Haah, I’m exhausted. We really went to a lot of places, didn’t we? And it was lucky that we got a room. We should thank whoever canceled.”
From morning until evening, Yuuki and the others had toured the hot spring town, and now they had arrived at the inn they had reserved the night before.
Because it was a weekday and there had been a cancellation, they managed to stay at a fairly nice inn. Yume happily looked around the room’s interior.
It was a Japanese-style room with a calm atmosphere, complete with an enclosed veranda where you could gaze outside. Yume sat down in that spot.
“Hey, Yuuki-kun. The seat across from me is open, you know?”
Saying that, Yume pointed at the seat.
Yuuki guessed she wanted him to sit there, but instead he bluntly cut her off with “No way,” and sat down across from Kyousuke in the floor chair.
“Well, that’s fine too.”
Pretending not to mind, Yume fiddled with her phone, though she kept sneaking glances at Yuuki and then back at her screen again and again.
Watching this, Kyousuke stood up.
“Yume, Yuuki-kun. I’m going to look around the inn for a while, so you two take your time together.”
With that, Kyousuke left the room without waiting for a reply.
Silence filled the space, until Yume, of course, broke it.
“Yuuki-kun, did you enjoy the trip today?”
Yuuki hesitated over how to answer her question.
Saying he hadn’t enjoyed it would be rude. Even though he had been dragged along, he had borrowed clothes from Kyousuke and was having his lodging paid for as well.
But ever since something inside him had shattered completely, just being around Yume was enough to sour his mood.
So Yuuki answered like this.
“It was refreshing.”
“I see. Then I’m glad.”
Yuuki had never been here before, and until now, whenever he went on dates with women, he had always made all the plans himself and done his utmost to make sure his partner enjoyed herself. Simply tagging along was something he had almost never experienced.
That was why Yuuki answered that it was refreshing.
Smiling at his response, Yume looked out at the scenery and spoke again.
“Yuuki-kun, you’re not good with me, are you?”
“That’s right.”
To Yuuki’s answer, she only replied, “I see,” and continued.
“That’s fine. Even if you’re not good with me. But I don’t dislike you, Yuuki-kun. In fact, I think I like you.”
Yume said it as if it were nothing.
“I see.”
Yuuki gave only that reply, and silence fell once more.
“That’s why I’ll always stay by your side, Yuuki-kun.”
Yume let those words slip quietly.
Yuuki reacted to them, turning a cold gaze toward her.
“I don’t care. I’ve heard that line enough. I honestly don’t care at all. There isn’t a single person who can actually keep that promise.”
Even to Yuuki’s words, sharp and cold like icicles, Yume responded as if it were nothing.
“I see. Then I’ll be the first one.”
At Yume’s endlessly carefree attitude, Yuuki pressed her further.
“You say that, but how are you going to explain it?”
He asked the question indifferently, showing no interest at all.
“Hmm, I probably can’t explain it right now. I’ll just have to keep proving it by staying by your side forever from now on. So you don’t have to trust me until you die, Yuuki-kun. It will only be proven after you die.”
Yume said it as if it were only natural. Then she added something carefree: “But, hmm, I’d rather be the one sent off. So I want to die first.”
Until now, Yuuki had always been told things like “we’ll always be together” or “trust me,” but it was the first time someone had told him, like Yume, that he didn’t have to trust them.
Yet because of the part of him that had already broken, he couldn’t process those words properly. They only caused an error inside him, leaving him unable to digest them.
As Yuuki froze up, unable to speak, Kyousuke returned.
“Welcome back, Dad. Can we buy souvenirs inside the inn?”
“We’ve already bought plenty of souvenirs, so it should be fine. More importantly, the garden inside the inn was beautiful.”
“Oh, maybe I’ll go later then.”
While Yume and Kyousuke carried on their conversation, Yuuki still couldn’t swallow her words. He tried to reply but nothing would come out.
Even after they ate dinner, took a bath, and were about to go to bed, that did not change.