Chapter 7
Time passed, and the day of our meetup finally arrived. I was waiting for Arai at the meeting place.
“Ugh.”
I let out a groan of frustration. The cause was all the people around me staring.
‘I should’ve picked somewhere quieter for the meeting.’
Sigh.
The attention was pretty uncomfortable. If they were going to walk past, couldn’t they just do it normally? Was there any need to look at me every single time?
The stares were getting to me, so I took my smartphone out of my bag. I wanted to avoid people’s attention by pretending to look at it.
‘Maybe I should take comfort in the fact that Kaede isn’t beside me.’
Kaede had an appointment she couldn’t put off, so she was going to join us after she finished. I figured she’d come over once I’d met Arai and we’d spent some time at a nearby café.
‘I wonder how it would’ve gone if Kaede were with me.’
……It would’ve been the worst.
After all, even on my own, I was attracting enough attention to make me uncomfortable. What would happen if Kaede joined me, too?
I could only imagine getting to experience firsthand what it felt like to be an animal caged in the middle of downtown.
At least, that’s how I would’ve felt. Unlike Kaede, I wasn’t used to being stared at.
‘Will he come right on the hour?’
We’d set the meeting for one, with plenty of leeway. It was about 12:55 now, meaning there were about five minutes left until the meeting time.
‘He might be a little late.’
Arai had to bring his little sister along—the one who’d gotten lost about a week ago. So he probably had a lot to take care of, and the process might slow them down a bit.
“Hmm.”
Well, I wasn’t particularly strict about time, so I could wait.
Of course, I wasn’t thrilled about being exposed to people’s stares for as long as I waited……
What could I do?
I’d just have to put up with it.
I was waiting for Kaede’s sake, too.
But what if I stood Arai up just because I couldn’t stand waiting a little longer, like some lunatic?
That was out of the question.
If I did that, not only would my relationship with Arai sour, but I’d have to worry about my relationship with Kaede, too.
I’d be ruining the meeting Kaede had been looking forward to, all on my own.
If I did something like that, even kindhearted Kaede might hold a grudge against me.
Ugh. It was horrifying just to imagine.
A personal maid getting glared at by her employer for doing something awful. Just imagining myself in that position made my chest tighten.
The thought that my working conditions might get worse made me all the more determined to wait.
I’d wait patiently.
I couldn’t become a subordinate hated by my superior, after all.
“Excuse me.”
As I was lost in thought, someone called out to me. For a moment, I thought Arai had arrived, but…
The voice somehow sounded different. It was oilier than I remembered, with a rather frivolous edge to it.
Hmm. Now that I thought about it, it definitely wasn’t Arai. Which meant it was someone else.
Sigh. I had a bad feeling about this. Probably that familiar sort of thing that happened all the time. Was it a pickup?
I figured I was probably right, but I should still make sure.
Without taking my eyes completely off my smartphone, I subtly raised my gaze.
‘Ah, just as I thought.’
It was just as I’d expected. Unfortunately, the person who’d spoken to me wasn’t Arai.
The one who’d appeared was clearly the type of guy who looked like he was out to hit on me, with a rather frivolous outlook on life.
A man whose natural looks were far from ‘beautiful,’ so he overcompensated by ‘dressing himself up’ with other things.
Ugh. That’s an eyesore.
His hair looked greasy from being slathered with too much wax. Beneath it dangled silver earrings. And to top it all off, he had a septum piercing, like a nose ring on a cow.
…Now that I looked closely, this bastard even had tattoos. I could see a black pattern through his slightly sheer dress shirt.
He was the worst in every way. Absolutely not the kind of person I wanted to associate with.
‘Ignoring him is the answer.’
From experience, it was better to ignore people like this. If you did, most of them eventually lost their temper and left.
“……….”
“Hey, can’t you hear me? Weird, I thought you just looked at me. Maybe I imagined it.”
He even talked like a lightweight. Listening to him was shaving away my patience in real time.
‘Please. Go away. Leave. Get lost.’
“Are you going to keep ignoring me? I know you can hear me.”
―Grit.
He kept pestering me without reading the room. No—maybe he wasn’t clueless, just persistent. Even someone who was clueless would usually leave after being ignored this much.
“Can’t be helped~. Guess I’ll have to make you listen by force.”
“Ah.”
I wondered what the hell he was suddenly saying, then saw the guy reaching out toward me. It looked like he meant to force me to listen.
Sigh. What a pain, all because I got possessed in this damn body.
I’m pissed.
＊＊＊
“This is bad.”
On the way to the meeting place, Shota’s expression was quite gloomy. Something completely unexpected had happened on the day of their meetup.
‘I never thought Yuki would get an upset stomach.’
The night before, he’d wondered if she was eating too much ice cream.
Just as he’d feared, Yuki complained of a stomachache that morning. Not only that, her face turned deathly pale and her body trembled. It was severe.
She was in no condition to go out.
‘Normally, I should cancel the meeting.’
The person the meeting was for wasn’t Shota, but Yuki. Shota was only there as her guardian. So the moment Yuki got an upset stomach, they should’ve canceled the meeting.
In fact, he’d planned to. He just couldn’t go through with it.
“If only I’d exchanged contact information with her.”
This wasn’t the past; it was the modern age. Usually, when people made plans, it was basic to have a way to contact each other beforehand.
Shota knew that, too. Honestly, he wanted to ask.
However, he couldn’t. The other person was none other than Takamine, the so-called Rejection Princess.
From Shota’s perspective, even getting this meeting was already a hard-won victory. And on top of that, exchange contact information?
Shota couldn’t muster the courage. So, in the modern twenty-first century, he’d arranged their meeting in the old-fashioned way.
He’d simply told her the date, time, and place, and they’d agreed to meet there.
‘What if she thinks I’m trying something weird?’
Shota believed Takamine had accepted the invitation because Yuki, not him, was the one at the center of the meeting.
That was why he was seriously worried that Takamine might see him showing up at the meeting place without Yuki and mistake him for someone with ulterior motives.
“Hmm.”
Even if the meeting falling through today couldn’t be helped, he wanted to avoid ruining their relationship over some unnecessary misunderstanding.
Takamine had already caught him watching her sleep once before. Her distrust of him had been building ever since.
“Maybe I should have Yuki talk to her on the phone.”
It was a desperate solution, but if it could clear up the misunderstanding, it was worth a try. Of course, that only worked if Yuki agreed to get on the phone.
“We’re almost there.”
As he walked, turning the problem over and over in his mind, the scenery ahead began to resemble the meeting place. That meant Takamine might be somewhere near the fountain he could see over there.
Shota turned his head from side to side in broad sweeps, looking for Takamine, who might have arrived before him.
‘Ah.’
Shota’s wandering gaze caught on one spot. Takamine was there.
‘There she is.’
It wasn’t difficult to find Takamine. Simply put, she was beautiful. Takamine had a powerful charm that drew people’s attention.
Because of that, Shota could find her just by looking toward the spot where people’s gazes were unnaturally concentrated.
“Ugh.”
Shota felt his steps grow heavy. He could picture himself making excuses in his head.
Please, I hope Takamine takes my words at face value and doesn’t misunderstand me.
With those thoughts, Shota headed toward Takamine, who had arrived first and was waiting for him.
It was then.
A certain scene entered Takamine’s field of vision.
Someone was approaching Takamine, who was waiting for him.
‘A delinquent.’
Shota’s expression twisted.
He wasn’t the sort to judge people by their appearance alone. However, the man pestering Takamine was obviously a delinquent to anyone.
‘I should help her.’
Takamine seemed used to this sort of thing and was responding by ignoring him. But the delinquent who’d appeared was pretty persistent and just wouldn’t back off.
She must be having a hard time.
So Shota quickened his previously slow pace, in order to rescue Takamine from her predicament――
That was when it happened.
――With a whoosh, something flew up into the air. Shota checked what it was.
…It was a person. The delinquent who’d been pestering Takamine just moments ago.
Thud!
The delinquent who’d been tossed into the air landed right on the pavement. And behind him, Takamine, who’d been hidden by the man’s body, finally came into view.
She was seething with rage, her face contorted in anger.
Seeing that, Shota pictured something in his mind.
A brutal scene of a wild bear tearing a person apart.
“Mm……”
‘I must never make Takamine angry.’
Shota resolved himself firmly.