Chapter 15
―Me : I'll be there soon. [Read]
―Arai : Got it. I'll be ready.
―Me : (rabbit nodding emoji)
I checked Arai's message one last time, then slipped my smartphone into my pocket.
Then I glanced to the side at Kaede, who was standing beside me.
“Miss, how long are you going to keep that up?”
“B-but I'm nervous….”
“Sigh.”
Just as she said, Kaede was having trouble keeping her nerves in check. Her trembling hand pressed to her chest and her flushed face were proof enough.
Kaede. You hopeless thing.
“I don't understand why you're so nervous. You weren't nervous at the café last time, were you?”
“Nagi! That's different. This time we're at a different place!”
Kaede narrowed her pretty eyes and glared at me. Her puffed-out cheeks were an added bonus.
‘She's cute. …She is cute, but—’
Her expression reminded me of a kitten sulking over some trivial grievance. I gave Kaede a quick once-over, then let out another deep sigh.
“Sigh.”
“W-what? Why have you been sighing like that?”
“Because—”
I paused, then gazed at Kaede, my feelings plain in my eyes. After a brief silence, I finished what I'd been saying.
“It's frustrating to see you, Miss, getting so nervous just because you're visiting a classmate's house.”
“Eek—!”
Unlike our last meeting at a café, this time we'd arranged to meet at Arai's house.
Arai had cautiously suggested his home as the meeting place. According to him, his younger sister, Yuki, had something she wanted to show me.
…Honestly, it made me uncomfortable.
Our first meeting had been at a café, and now we were going straight to his house. Considering how close we were and all the other circumstances, it felt like we'd skipped a few steps along the way.
But what could I do?
A ten-year-old girl wanted to show me something, after all.
I wasn't heartless. I had no choice but to agree.
“Miss, haven't I told you again and again? Arai's parents are away at the moment. So the situation you're worried about—a sort of meeting-the-parents—isn't going to happen.”
“M-meeting the parents!!”
“Ah….”
The word seemed to conjure a particular image in Kaede's mind. She bowed her head, her face turning even redder.
From where I stood, she was so red she might as well have been a tomato.
“………Hngh.”
Watching Kaede like that, I let out a groan before I could stop myself.
To calm my jumbled feelings, I raised my left hand and rubbed my face. I was holding the cake we'd brought as a housewarming gift in my right.
A cake custom-ordered from a top-tier chef and delivered first thing in the morning, no less.
“Ngh.”
A 100,000-yen cake as a housewarming gift? What on earth was that about?
Even taking into account that Kaede's affection for Arai had influenced her choice of gift, this was honestly too much.
It might have been different if the recipient were rich, too, but Arai's family was just an ordinary middle-class family.
If I were Arai, I'd be sweating bullets from the pressure the moment I received such an expensive cake.
It was the kind of gift that would obviously throw his everyday life into turmoil.
‘…That's why I tried so hard to talk her out of it.’
She'd insisted we had to show proper appreciation and hadn't listened to a word I said. …Sigh.
‘At the very least, I need to make sure Arai doesn't find out how much the cake cost.’
It would obviously be poison to their relationship if Arai started trembling under the pressure.
…And besides, I didn't particularly want to see him like that.
Anyway,
“Miss, it's time to come back to your senses.”
As we walked along together, I stopped, making Kaede stop in her tracks as well.
We'd reached our destination: Arai's house.
“We've arrived, Miss. This is Arai's house.”
“Since everyone's named Arai, this is my chance to call him Shota—Ah! W-what did you just say, Nagi?”
After I spoke, Kaede, who'd been mumbling under her breath, snapped back to attention. It was a mix of adorable and pathetic.
Unfortunately, the latter seemed to outweigh the former.
“I said we've arrived. That's the house where Arai's family lives.”
With that, I pointed at the house in front of us. It had white brick walls and a dark-blue roof—a typical middle-class home.
“T-that's Arai's house!?”
“…Sigh.”
She was covering her mouth like a little girl. I shook my head, then stepped in front of Kaede with a broad stride.
“I'll ring the doorbell, then. Please get your expression under control. If you keep wearing that silly, lovestruck grin, Arai might look at you funny.”
“O-okay!”
I gave her a mild warning, and at last she straightened up and composed herself.
‘That worked well.’
If something similar happens again, I should use Arai as leverage next time. That should get her to respond just as quickly as she did now.
――Ding-dong!
After exchanging one last glance with Kaede, I pressed the doorbell. Its loud chime rang out around us.
“――――!”
As we waited, we heard voices from inside the house, mixed with the thudding of hurried footsteps.
They were too far away for me to make out what they were saying, but the commotion in their voices made it clear they were in quite a hurry.
I figured that, like Kaede, Arai was nervous about having a girl over at his house.
I guess the heroine and the protagonist really are a pair. Their reactions are so similar.
Clunk. Creak—.
I listened to the footsteps drawing closer, and before long the door in front of us opened.
“Y-you're here!? Takamine, and…Mochizuki.”
“Hi.”
“H-hello.”
Arai appeared as soon as the door opened. He was dressed somewhere between loungewear and going-out clothes. It seemed he'd put some thought into what to wear since Kaede and I were visiting.
I waved at him as he came out. Kaede followed with a greeting of her own, her head slightly bowed in embarrassment.
Sigh. Kaede……
I had a lot I wanted to say, but for now, I'd hold back. I couldn't let the mood sink.
“Did we get here a little early?”
“No. You came right on time.”
“…Good. That's a relief.”
Judging by how out of breath he was, he'd clearly been busy tidying up the house. Hmm, should I pretend I hadn't noticed?
“Here. This is a housewarming gift. For the record, Kaede picked it out, so thank her.”
“A gift?”
“That's right. A gift.”
I held out the cake I was carrying. At my words, Arai looked back and forth between the cake and Kaede.
“Oh. Thanks…Mochizuki.”
Just as my arms were starting to ache, Arai accepted the cake.
He thanked her in a quiet voice.
“D-don't mention it. You invited us, so it's only natural to bring something.”
Kaede answered Arai right away.
Their eyes met.
“Still, thank you.”
“…Yeah.”
The atmosphere was warm, yet somehow awkward. Things seemed to be going well. To gauge the situation, I looked back and forth between them.
Arai was sheepishly scratching his cheek, while Kaede still had her head bowed.
Hmm.
…Should I leave them alone and stay out of it?
No, that wouldn't work.
Putting Kaede aside for the moment, Arai looked more awkward than shy. In fact, he'd been glancing at me from time to time.
If I left things alone any longer, the mood could go in an unintended direction.
This called for intervention.
“Um, could you show us inside soon? My legs are sore from walking so long.”
That was a lie. We hadn't walked far at all. Kaede and I had taken a limousine almost all the way here.
But Arai, who'd been home the whole time, had no way of knowing that.
I lied for convenience's sake.
“Oh, sorry. Come in.”
“Thanks. We'll be imposing on you today.”
“W-we'll be imposing on you.”
Arai moved aside to let us into the house. I stepped forward into the space he'd made.
“…Where's Yuki?”
After lining up our shoes, I turned and asked.
Yuki had been the one to suggest her house as the meeting place. But now that we were here, the person who'd arranged it wasn't anywhere to be seen.
Had something happened?
As I wondered about that,
――Big bro!! Why'd you take so long!
Yuki's voice rang out from farther inside.
Hmm, I guess there was nothing to worry about.
“Um. You heard her, right? I'll show you in right away.”
“…Yeah.”
Arai's face took on an uncomfortable expression. After saying that, he headed farther into the house.
Kaede and I exchanged glances, then followed right behind Arai. Before long, we reached a room.
Judging by the nameplate, it looked like Yuki's room.
“……Don't be surprised.”
Arai said that with his hand on the doorknob. His words only confused me further, and I looked at him questioningly.
‘Don't be surprised?’
It was just a ten-year-old girl's room. What was there to be surprised about—
Whoa.
The moment the door opened, my body froze, making my previous thought seem ridiculous. The sight before me was, as Arai had said, rather surprising.
Because—
The inside of a ten-year-old girl's room was like some kind of otaku's room—
“Gasp. The room's filled with Hina-chan!!!”
It was filled with figurines, posters, and acrylic stands of beautiful-girl characters.
Huh?
…W-wait, Kaede?
As I stood frozen in bewilderment, Kaede pushed past me and rushed into the room. I reached out to stop her as she made a sudden dash for it, but…
“Ah.”
Unfortunately, Kaede's agility had been honed by tennis, and I ultimately failed to catch her.
“Nagi! Look, there's Hina-chan all over the room! And the mascot Laruru, too!”
Kaede stood in the middle of the room and shouted those familiar names in an excited voice—the names of the characters covering the room.
"Ah……."
Kaede's outrageous outburst left me utterly bewildered. My lower eyelid twitched as I stared at her.
Yes, I stared at Kaede. …Along with the two people who shared her surname: Arai Shota and Arai Yuki.
“Huh?”
Noticing three pairs of eyes fixed on her, Kaede let out a dazed sound.
…Sigh. Kaede, you idiot.