Chapter 18

When I opened the front door, the delicious smell of oden greeted me.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the two from earlier and I was still feeling down when I got home, but I didn’t want to bring that feeling into the house.

More than anything else, I didn’t want to worry my family, so I took a moment to catch my breath before I headed to the living room.

Inside the room, Dad was sitting in his usual spot on the sofa and watching the evening news with a beer in one hand while Mom was busy preparing dinner. Seeing this usual scene soothed me.

I hurried to help Mom by setting the tableware, when all of a sudden Dad turned up the TV volume.

The news was about the issue of harsher penalties for a perpetrator of a drunk driving accident that occurred about four years ago.

In the incident, four family members died when a car with a drunk driver crashed into them at high speed. The only survivor was a girl whose age wasn’t that far from mine.

I was an elementary school student at the time, and I was too scared to look directly at the graphic images that were shown day after day in the news.

“This incident was so awful . . .”

“If I remember correctly, it was the friend of Yukiya’s older brother who passed away . . .”

“Huh?! Really?!”

I almost dropped the plate in my hands at Mom’s shocking statement. It was my first time hearing this.

“I heard they were in the same circle in college, he was so sad about it . . . I still remember it so well because he went to the funeral in a panicked frenzy.”

“I see . . .”

Yuki had a brother five years older than him, and he used to play together with me and Yuki a lot. He did look depressed for a while, but I never realized that it was connected to this incident.

If my parents and my friends were to suddenly pass away, would I be able to stand the fact that I was all alone?

The news then shifted from a gloomy atmosphere to the topic of adorable baby pandas. Some cheerful and cute music started to play, and Mom started to move again.

I put a coaster on the table and placed a big earthen pot of oden on top of it. The warm steam from the pot stimulated our appetite. The three of us put our hands together before we ate.

While eating the delicious oden, I looked at my parents. They were gentle and kind people who wouldn’t be angry unless there was something serious. It was probably because I was an only child, but I felt that they took very good care of me.

About that girl who was taken in by her relatives, I wondered how she was doing right now and what she felt about this incident. If I were in the same position, would I be able to keep my sanity? I wondered about this as I chewed on a well-seasoned daikon radish.

After my bath, I returned to my room and plopped down on my bed without bothering to turn on the light.

It was almost time for exams and I had to study, but I didn’t feel like doing anything.

Today, a lot of things happened again. I feel like Kazuki saw through me again, and I was also curious about Akira’s actions—

I wonder where they went after that. Come to think of it, there was a famous local entertainment district a short distance away from that restaurant I was in.

After they had fun there, what would they do—?

“I’d better stop . . . this is silly.”

I swallowed my sigh to shake off the unpleasant imaginations in my head, then rolled over on the bed.

I honestly didn’t expect I would be this upset, seeing Akira walking together with a girl.

It wasn’t like I was in a relationship with Akira, so it had nothing to do with me

My head was well aware, but my heart didn’t feel the same.

What was this feeling, why did it bother me so much . . . I probably already knew the answer.

I must have been afraid to admit to it and pretended to not notice.

But, I might have reached my limit.

Akira was always so forceful, dragging me to match his pace.

Although I disliked it at first, Akira’s presence had grown on me before I knew it . . .

For Akira, it might have been just a way to pass time.

There were no special feelings there, just a weak relationship where he moved on to the next person when he was tired of me.

It was supposed to be that way . . . But then he gave me something like this—

There was a bottle of perfume on the sideboard. This was given to me by Akira along with the chocolate.

The perfume that had aqua color would change to the deep blue of the ocean when it was held up to the light.

When I put it on my fingertips, I could smell Akira’s scent. It made my heart race and my chest feel painful.

Maybe there was no deeper meaning. But what if he gave this to me on purpose—?

I searched it up and saw that the meaning of giving perfume as a gift was to ‘monopolize’ or ‘mark’ someone. The words that popped out were more than enough to confuse me.

“Akira, you idiot…”

What a sinful man he was.

Unable to deal with my feelings, a very deep sigh escaped me.

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