Chapter 20: The Secret Garden (Kanae’s Point of View)
After school, I headed to the student council room, even though I couldn’t shake the worry I felt over how down Yuki-kun had looked.
Azaka-senpai, Rinka-chan, and Chris-chan were already waiting for me, and the conversation began right away.
“Sorry for calling you in so suddenly. I’ll get straight to the point. We’ve received reports that you were seen kissing Yukiya-kun inside the school building during today’s break.”
“Hngh!? K-kissing!?”
I didn’t do anything that nice with Yuki-kun!
“It was apparently on the stair landing…”
“Ah, ahh! That wasn’t a kiss! We were just blowing on it, fuu fuu…!”
At my frantic explanation, Rinka-chan and Chris-chan reacted immediately.
“Fuu fuu?”
“What’s that?”
With six eyes fixed on me, I confessed everything. Starting with Yuki-kun’s confession two days ago, then the “fuu fuu” incident, all the other ways I’d been approaching Yuki-kun, and the regrets and honest feelings I was carrying right now.
“Kanae-senpai, what are you doing…”
“Th-that’s amazing, Kanae…”
“You’re quite the type, huh. No, actually, you’re pretty bold.”
The four of us all ended up blushing.
“Still, it seems there was no coercion from Yukiya-kun.”
“Eh, coercion!? There was nothing like that! Yuki-kun would never do that!”
I hurriedly denied it. Then Rinka-chan grinned.
“Right? If anything, Kanae-senpai’s the one pushing hard.”
“Are you going to confess?”
Chris-chan asked seriously. Of course, I really wanted to.
“I want to, but… I don’t know what I should do, given my current position…”
“Hmm, I suppose you do need some kind of trigger.”
“Or you could just keep pushing and let it all collapse naturally.”
“Will Yukiya-san collapse?”
At Rinka-chan’s outrageous comment, Chris-chan tilted her head.
“I couldn’t do it, but Kanae-senpai could easily!”
Huh? You couldn’t do it…?
“Tehe~ To be honest, at first I was interested in Yukiya-senpai.”
Seeing Rinka-chan smile shyly, my eyes went wide.
“W-why…?”
“Well, when I first enrolled, I got hit on and surrounded by a group of delinquents, and the one who saved me was Yukiya-senpai.”
“Huh? But when you confessed to my brother, you said my brother was the one who saved you…?”
Chris-chan voiced her doubt.
“Well, Souta-senpai was striking a weird pose and threatening them from the side, so it wasn’t a lie. But the one the delinquents were actually scared of was Yukiya-senpai.”
That’s true. Yuki-kun has a strong presence. In class, he’s even called the Armored Titan.
“Hey now, didn’t you say you passed out and don’t remember?”
Azaka-senpai shot back.
“Ehehe, I was actually conscious. I mean, otherwise, how would I know who saved me?”
“But you also said you ‘heard about it later’ during your confession…”
“Come on, there’s no way someone would conveniently witness it and tell me later. Honestly, that was just a pretense for the confession. And Souta-senpai acts like he was the one who saved me too, so if that makes him feel good, then that’s fine. So it evens out!”
Rinka-chan is kind of incredible.
“So yeah, at first I was interested in Yukiya-senpai, but he likes Kanae-senpai way too much.”
“Uhehe.”
My face ended up grinning. The sense of superiority was intense.
“W-well, then I thought maybe I’d look at the other Souta-senpai, and it turned out he’s actually pretty handsome. So I guess that’s how I fell for him?”
Rinka-chan said it casually.
“Heh heh, that’s an impure motive. To be honest, a large part of my affection also started from Souta-kun’s unexpectedly good looks, but now I value his abilities as well. In that case, I’m clearly the winner of the battle for Souta-kun!”
Azaka-senpai smiled boldly.
“Ehh, isn’t one reason for liking someone enough? And Souta-senpai’s always moving his gaze back and forth between my face and chest, so I think my values probably match his better.”
Rinka-chan might be younger, but she might actually be pretty mature.
“Besides, Azaka-senpai, you originally tried to recruit Yukiya-senpai into the student council, right?”
What!? That’s not something you can just brush off!
“Well, yes. Yukiya-kun has connections because of his club activities, and he has many acquaintances even in my grade. He was even recommended by former student council members who’d already graduated. I was quite persistent in recruiting him back then.”
But in the end, Yuki-kun turned it down because he had soccer club. I really wanted to pat him on the head for that.
“Oh, by the way, when you confessed to my brother, you said you ‘learned about him through a junior.’ Could it be…?”
Chris-chan asked.
“Indeed. Since Yukiya-kun couldn’t join, I asked him to introduce someone he recommended. That’s how Souta-kun came about. Honestly, without Yukiya-kun’s introduction, I’d never have met someone as solitary as Souta-kun, right?”
That’s true. Souta-kun’s always been a bit shy and didn’t have many friends, so if there was anyone who could introduce him, it’d probably be Yuki-kun or me.
Actually, because of that, back in elementary and middle school, I ended up acting like a go-between, getting asked by all kinds of girls for advice or introductions to Souta-kun…
“But with Souta-senpai, didn’t you have a really hard time recruiting him?”
“No, maybe because Yukiya-kun had already talked to him, Souta-kun actually came back through Yukiya-kun with conditions. He specified the school rooftop as the recruitment place and errand duty as his role. After about ten minutes of persuasion, he agreed.”
Azaka-senpai tilted her head, wondering what those conditions were about.
“To be honest, he had some issues with communication, but he turned out to be good at clerical work, so he’s a big help now.”
A lot of things were getting exposed.
In the midst of all that, our gazes naturally turned to Chris-chan.
“Me? It’s not really a secret, but when I first came here, I quoted a line from a novel my brother likes to get closer to him, since he was wary of me.”
Chris-chan put a finger to her head and thought, like, um… what was it again…
“Ah, yes. I think it was ‘because we made a promise long ago.’”
How did she even use a line like that?
“When I said, ‘Please get along with me,’ my brother asked, ‘That’s fine, but why do you want to get along with me?’ So I quoted that line and imitated the heroine from the story. After that, I was able to get closer to my brother.”
With Chris-chan’s family circumstances, her school, home, and even country all changing, she must’ve been that desperate.
“By the way, what’s imitating the heroine like?”
Rinka-chan asked.
“Walking to school while linking arms and speaking words of affection. The same thing Rinka-san and Azaka-senpai do to my brother every morning.”
So that’s what that meant.
“I see. I thought you might also be interested in Souta-kun…”
“Even if we’re only siblings by law, ethically and religiously, that’s impossible for me.”
Chris-chan said it flatly.
“Well then, I guess everyone’s secrets are out now.”
“Whew, this turned into an unexpected confession session.”
“But we couldn’t let only Kanae-san be the one to talk.”
Just as I was feeling a little moved by how kind everyone was, a phone rang right then.
“Ah, it’s… Yuki-kun!”
I was so happy to see the name on the screen that I said it out loud.
Of course, Azaka-senpai, Rinka-chan, and Chris-chan all heard, and they looked at me with knowing, gentle smiles.
To hide how hot my face was getting, I turned my back to the three of them.
“Ah, hello, Yuki-kun? Are you done with club activities?”
Completely in heart-mark mode, I happily answered Yuki-kun’s call.
Not knowing that the very next moment, I’d be plunged into a despair that made all the blood drain from my face…