Chapter 13

“Mm? Huh . . .? Takumi.”

After getting out of the bath and wiping my hair, Kazuki came toward me and slung his arm around my shoulders.

I didn’t really like that he clung to me when we were only wearing the bottom of our tracksuits, and it felt hot because of our body heat.

“There’s something here.”

He pointed out in a quiet voice as if he was having a secret conversation. His fingers traced the area around my collarbone, making my hair stand on end.

“Wha- what do you mean . . . ?”

For a moment I didn’t know what he was talking about, but when I looked at the reflection of my neck in the mirror, I was mortified. There was a red mark between my neck and collarbone that was clearly unnatural.

“Takumi, you’re more knowledgeable than you look, huh?”

“No, this isn’t what you think!”

He poked me with his elbow while narrowing his eyes and smirking. Even if I wanted to make an excuse, I couldn’t say anything with this.

“Mr. Akira is the one who made that mark, right?”

“Wha . . .!”

He whispered in a much quieter voice that only could be heard by me, and I was at a loss for words. I didn’t expect to hear Akira’s name come out of Kazuki’s mouth at this moment, so I couldn’t immediately refute it and there was a pause.

“Haha, what a face you’re making.”

“. . . What are you two doing here . . .?”

“!!”

A refreshing voice sounded from behind me, and my body tensed up with an obvious jolt. I thought my heart was about to jump out of my mouth.

I slowly turned around like a rusty robot and saw Yuki looking down at us with a puzzled expression.

Seemed like Yuki didn’t hear our conversation earlier. My relief was so obvious on my face that Kazuki gave me a poke on the side of the stomach.

“I- it’s nothing. We were just talking about going to the girls’ place after this. Right, Takumi?”

I nodded my head up and down exaggeratingly at the quick follow-up.

“. . . Hmm.”

Yuki didn’t say anything more after that. But perhaps because he had something on his mind, he looked at me with a doubtful expression. In any case, I had to do something about this awkward atmosphere as soon as possible. It was so uncomfortable that I couldn’t stand it.

“Le- let’s go outside! I want to eat ice cream at the store.”

“Ah! Takumi, wait.”

To leave that place quickly, I rushed to get dressed and get out of the changing room. Kazuki lets out a small sigh next to me.

“You’re too easy to read . . .”

Kazuki muttered with a voice that could only be heard by me and smiled bitterly. Beside him, Yuki was staring at us with somewhat cold eyes.

The stores were crowded with students after taking a bath.

It was decided that only the school’s designated tracksuits were to be used for pajamas, so a strange scene with the same all-black uniform just like at gym class was spread in front of us.

“Takumi, you’re bad at lying.”

“Shut up. It was too sudden, I couldn’t help it.”

I sat on the sofa placed in the lobby and slowly opened the lid of the ice cream that I just bought.

The ice cream that would have cost 100 yen in a supermarket, cost 300 yen here. Normally, I wouldn’t have bought it, but perhaps because I was in this kind of situation, I ended up buying it.

Somehow, it felt like a shame to just eat it all at once, so I just poked it around with a spoon while glancing at Kazuki.

“. . . Umm. That thing from earlier . . .”

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Mm, sorry . . .”

I was a bit pissed and wondered why I had to apologize, but right now I’m grateful for Kazuki’s kindness.

I was glad that Kazuki was the first one to notice. My mood became heavier as I recalled the cold stare that Yuki gave me.

“By the way, isn’t Yukiya taking too long . . .?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

We were with him when we went in, but he hadn’t come out of the store. A couple of girls spok to him and he told us to go ahead without him. Should we have waited for him there after all?

I felt ashamed of myself for being somewhat relieved when Yuki told us to go without him at that time.

When I turned my gaze to the stores in front of us, Yuki, looking somewhat fed up, came out while holding a bag filled to the brim.

“You’re late, Yukiya. What, are you gonna eat that much?”

“No. The girls gave it to me.”

The bag made a thumping sound. The bag that was placed on the sofa across from me contained a large number of boxes that clearly didn’t belong to the stores here.

I would be happy if it were only one or two, but this amount was just too much . . .

The boxes were beautifully wrapped and in various sizes. It was a big difference from us, who had ordinary chocolates thrown at us.

“If it’s this much, I don’t even feel frustrated or jealous anymore.”

“It can’t be helped, Yuki is popular after all . . . I think he probably gained another fan or ten after today’s skiing.”

It was my first time seeing Yuki skiing as well. He looked like a dashing prince on the slopes. The students, teachers, and even instructors’ eyes were all on him.

Yuki was awesome, after all. He could do anything flawlessly no matter what one asked him to do, and I could see why he was the object of admiration for everyone who saw him.

I was a little proud that such a person was my childhood friend.

“But, it troubles me to receive this much . . .”

“Isn’t it nice? You can pick any one of these girls to date as you like, right?”

“What are you saying? I’m not very happy to receive chocolates from girls I don’t like . . .”

“Tch, you’re so picky.”

This was the first time I heard Yuki speak about something like this. For Yuki, the same thing happened every year. And it was not just on Valentine’s Day. If he received various gifts on any occasion, such as birthdays and Christmas, he might feel very troubled.

Come to think of it, I wonder if Yuki had someone he likes? It made me think there was another reason why he refused all those confessions.

“Hey. Is there anyone you like, Yukiya?”

Kazuki must have thought the same thing and asked it straight out. Yuki never spoke about this topic before. Only Kazuki would talk about things like which girl he thought was cute, or which actress was beautiful or sexy, while Yuki and I were always the listeners.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t not interested in girls. Maybe it was because I had been together with Yuki for so long? But it felt awkward to speak about things like this with Yuki, so I always avoided it for some reason.

Yuki scratched his cheek as if feeling troubled, and looked like he hesitated for a moment before deciding what to say. His eyes met with mine for a brief moment, then he exhaled a small sigh and plopped down on a nearby sofa.

“. . . Yeah.”

“Huh?! Are you serious, what’s she like? Is she cute? Is she someone we know?”

Toward the words Yuki muttered quietly, Kazuki jumped onto it before I did and asked him a bunch of questions, which caused Yuki to look even more troubled.

“I won’t answer that.”

“Ehh, why not? Come on, just tell us.”

“No.”

He suddenly turned his face away. Yuki was unexpectedly stubborn. If he decided not to tell, he would never tell.

After arguing back and forth, Yuki still wouldn’t open his mouth and Kazuki finally caved in. He stood up from the sofa as if he had given up, and at that time, a classmate called out to him, so his interest seemed to turn that way.

“They said they’re going to play Uno at Saitou’s room! You guys should come too.”

Speaking of Saitou, she was the girl who was always in the center of the class. She’s cheerful and has a lot of friends.

Kazuki said that her smiling face was cute. I wasn’t really interested in that kind of thing, so I didn’t really get it, but I did think she was good at making people smile because she was always smiling.

However, playing games with a large group of people was a little bit difficult for me.

“Uno, huh . . . I’ll pass.”

“Then, I’ll do the same.”

“Yeah, Takumi’s weak at games like this after all!”

“Shut your trap!”

I saw Kazuki off to Saito’s room with a grin on his face, and Yuki immediately moved into a seat next to me.

I quickly grabbed the towel on my shoulder to cover my neck, and Yuki stared at me doing that.

I felt restless if I didn’t do something, so I poked at the ice cream that was slowly starting to melt and put it in my mouth.

To be honest it felt awkward. I need to find something to talk about . . .

“. . . Takumi, is there anyone you like?”

“Ack—”

While looking at the people who go in and out of the store, he asked me that question abruptly as if he were talking about the weather, making me almost spew out my ice cream.

“W- why so suddenly?”

“It’s not something to be that surprised about, I was just asked the same question earlier.”

“Yeah, but still . . .”

I didn’t know what Yuki was thinking. Why would he ask that question now?

“So? Do you?”

Asked that, I was at a loss for an answer. After all, the first thing that came to mind was that person’s face.

Did I like Akira? No way! He was a pervert who enjoyed teasing people and fished for girls on a dating app.

I was a guy. There was no way I would like someone like that.

More importantly, I wondered why Yuki looked at me with such a pained expression. His cool almond eyes narrowed in sadness. He even looked like he was about to be crushed by worry.

“. . . No. I don’t have anyone.”

“Is that true?”

“Yeah, really.”

“. . .I see . . .”

After a few seconds of heavy silence, Yuki sighed and slumped on the sofa.

“Hey, Takumi. Let me have some of that ice cream.”

“Huh?”

“I also wanted to buy it, but there were so many people and I was surrounded by girls, so I couldn’t buy it in the end.”

Yuki said so, looking very disappointed. I see, it was a pity that he couldn’t even get the things he wanted to buy.

“But this is already half-eaten. It melted a bit too.”

“That’s fine.”

He looked at me with a spoiled expression. The way he waited with his mouth open like a child reminds me of Yuki when he was a kid.

Come to think of it, we used to share our food in halves. It was a nostalgic memory of sharing our meager allowance and eating together.

Well, if you say so, I thought as I scoop up the half-melted ice cream with a spoon and brought it to his mouth.

“Haha, it tastes like chocolate.”

Yuki smiled with satisfaction. It warmed my heart to see the smile that I hadn’t seen in quite a while.

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