C3...

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

“Um, should I scatter salt, or place

salt by my entrance way or something?”

“Huh? No, I think

it would be pointless doing something like that. Besides, if there

was something here now, and you piled salt by your entrance way,

instead of it being unable to come and go, it would result in it

being enclosed in your home. We shouldn’t do anything

careless.”

“Huh, ah, is that so?”

He was

surprised by his unexpectedly thorough reply. Since he had the image

of someone who didn’t believe in the paranormal, he was a little

shocked.

“Um, thank you for today. I’ll make some tea, so

please have a seat.”

“Ah……right.”

Tatsumi

frantically headed to the kitchen. He put the kettle full of water on

the stove, and let out an almost inaudible sigh. There

was no one hiding in his home like had worried about, nor did

anything appear to be stolen. He was relieved by that. However, that

meant the possibility that the discomfort he felt, the presence of

something he sensed, the locations of his cookware changing, were all

his imagination was high. He locked the door today as well, so in

other words, it was just his own carelessness, which made him want to

crawl into a hole.

—……even though I thought I was

used to living alone, why am I starting to feel lonely

now?

Actually, up until

he started talking to Kusamakura, he had forgotten about the emotion

of loneliness. Could it be he unconsciously made an excuse to invite

Kusamakura to his home? Perhaps he wanted to have a more defined

friendship outside of just acquaintances who exchanged words during

their lunch breaks.

—I don’t know what I’d do if he thought

this was just an excuse to invite him over……

Realizing he

wasn’t able to clearly state it was just a misunderstanding, Tatsumi

became more and more flustered.

That wasn’t it,

that couldn’t be it, he repeated

over and over again in his mind as he pulled out the tea pot from the

cupboard and placed it next to the mug he took out earlier. He did so

with such excessive force, they clashed. CLINK,

it made a loud sound as expected.

“Are you all

right?”

Kusamakura called out to him.

“I-I’m all

right. Just a little……clumsy.”

As he tried to laugh it

off, he put in an adequate amount of tea from the cherry bark tea

caddy into the tea pot. Even though it was only something he did all

the time, his hands were shaking, so the moment he dropped in the tea

leaves, the teaspoon dropped into the sink.

—Aah,

jeez……normally I wouldn’t make these sort of mistakes.

The

kettle let out a sound to let him know the water was boiling as he

panicked on the inside. He turned off the stove, and moved the hot

water. Perhaps overly worked up by trying to make sure not to mess up

this time, the hot water hit his left hand directly when he tried to

check if there was enough water.

“Hot……!”