Part-2 Ch-04 Ep-01

The rainy season had ended, and as the sunlight began to grow harsher, summer vacation began. A few days into the break, I woke up one morning before my alarm rang. The room was still wrapped in dim light. In the quiet stillness, I sat up and glanced around.

For a moment, the unfamiliar surroundings confused me, but then I remembered. Right. I was staying over at Maki’s house. On the bed placed beside the futon where I had slept, Maki lay fast asleep. The owner of the room was breathing softly, her peaceful expression untouched by the early hour.

And then, I remembered the chaos of the night before.

“…Last night really was something.”

It was only six in the morning.

It had been Maki who suggested the sleepover to celebrate the start of summer vacation, and I was the one who agreed. Looking back, I had to admit that I hadn’t properly thought through the risks at the time. She had looked so innocently excited.

As I watched my childhood friend sleeping, I felt an inexplicable urge to pinch her cheeks. After checking the alarm clock and confirming it was still far too early to get up, I slipped back into my futon.

Wrapped inside, cradling my sleep-deprived head, I began replaying everything that had happened from just before summer vacation up until last night. Just before summer break, during homeroom, we had been handed pamphlets about university open campuses.

Since most students at our school go on to higher education, this time in our second year is when the school starts providing explanations about scholarships and various support programs. I was planning to attend university as well, and in the career survey distributed back in April, I had marked “hoping to pursue higher education.”

In the game, topics like university entrance exams or employment had never been addressed at all. This is still the real world, or rather, the game world. Yet it seems I now have to seriously think about and take action toward my future after graduation. It’s only natural, of course, but it feels strangely unreal.

I died at seventeen in my previous life, after all. Everything beyond this point is completely unfamiliar territory to me. Both Maki and I listed the local university as our first choice, so we applied together. And then, the day before summer vacation finally arrived. The last day of school, the closing ceremony.

On the way home, Maki said it.

“The open campus is after summer vacation starts, so why don’t you stay over at my place the night before and we’ll go together?”

I remember blurting out a dumb, “…Huh?”

The negotiation that followed was fierce.

I tried to decline politely, saying, “S-Staying over feels a bit too sudden!” but she looked exasperated and replied, “You’ve stayed over tons of times before, haven’t you?” before narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “Is there some reason it’s not okay?”

“It’s not like there’s a reason or anything…”

A reason. Well, honestly, I wasn’t confident my self-control would hold. Even now, just having Maki close by makes my body heat rise, and even light physical contact sends blood rushing to my face. The thought of a sleepover filled me with nothing but anxiety.

I couldn’t even remember how I’d managed to spend time with her normally up until last year. Moreover, the last memory I had of being in Maki’s room was that Christmas. The day she begged me and kissed my cheek.

The warmth of her breath and the lingering sensation from that moment suddenly resurfaced, tightening my chest until I felt like crying. What had Maki been thinking when she kissed me?

On Christmas, and before that, at the summer festival. If something like that happened now, I felt like my feelings for her would spill over uncontrollably.

“H-Hey, Mari. Your eyes look watery. Are you crying?”

“I-I’m fine. Um, so…”

“So… what?”

I took a deep breath and gathered what little courage I had left.

“I-If you’re not going to do anything l-lewd, then… it’s fine… Like, k-kissing my cheek again or something.”

“…”

“W-What do you say?”

“……………………Okay,” Maki said.

There was a long pause. She suddenly turned her back to me, hiding her expression. For some reason, her ears were bright red. After a while, she added quietly, “I’ll… think about it a little.”

If I heard her correctly.

“No, no, no, no! You don’t need to ‘think about it’! You’re not going to do it, right? Normally!”

“W-Well, yeah. Basically, as long as it’s skinship within the bounds of childhood friends, and done with proper discretion, it’s fine, right? Then you’ll come stay over?”

“I-If it’s the usual level, then it’s fine.”

I couldn’t deny that Maki’s desperate intensity overwhelmed me, but in the end, I reluctantly agreed.

“Got it. Then I’ll be waiting.”

From there, the walk home was marked by a clear temperature difference between Maki, visibly motivated, and me, already full of nerves. And so, the day before the open campus, I ended up staying at the Ichinose household.

Before I knew it, that day arrived.

In other words, yesterday. As usual, Maki came to my house early in the morning and woke me up.

I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and headed to the living room, where I ate breakfast that Maki and my mother had prepared together, as always.

“Thanksh for the food.”

“Hey! Don’t talk with your mouth full. That’s bad manners.”

As my parent scolded me, Maki sat across the table, watching me with a gentle smile.

I think I might like Maki.

Ever since that thought vaguely crossed my mind, I’ve started feeling embarrassed about her seeing my sleeping face, my messy morning hair, or my swollen eyes right after waking up.

Even now, being scolded in front of her is embarrassing. I’ve begun to realize that the whole situation, having a girl my age come over every weekend to wake me up and cook breakfast, is probably strange.

Come to think of it, I feel like Kagami-kun once told me that my relationship with Maki was abnormal.

No, was it that it was “heavy”?

I must have forgotten because we’d grown so used to it.

“…Um, Maki.”

“What?”

She was still in a good mood, watching me eat. In front of her sat only the coffee my mother had brewed. My mother always invites Maki to eat breakfast with us, but she refuses every time, insisting she’s “an uninvited intruder.”

She’s oddly strict about that boundary. In the end, my mother always forces coffee on her anyway. My mother was now resting on the living room sofa, having finished tidying up.

“I also, um, on my days off, I hang and fold the laundry properly, and clean too.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I know.”

“R-Right.”

The moment I said it, I felt embarrassed. Trying to make myself look good now was pointless. There’s no way to act cool in front of Maki anymore. I felt embarrassed at myself.

“Maki…”

“Yeah?” she said, slowly sipping her coffee.

“I-I feel bad that every time there’s a break, you come over to wake me up and make breakfast. So you don’t have to force yourself to come… Ah, sorry, that’s not what I meant.”

The hurt expression that suddenly appeared on her face startled me, and I immediately tried to take it back. I waved my hands frantically in front of her as she lowered her gaze.

“N-No, no, no! I’m happy. I’m really happy! I like that you come over, wake me up, and make breakfast!”

“…Then, is it okay if I keep coming from now on?”

“Y-Yeah.”

When I said that, she lifted her face slightly.

“…Is it okay if I keep waking you up in the morning?”

“That’s a little embarrassing… Ah, but yes, it’s fine.”

This time, she looked up at me with hopeful eyes.

“…Will you eat the breakfast I make?”

“Uh, yeah. I mean, it’s nice that you make it.”

Her face immediately broke into a bright, radiant smile.

“…………………………Then, after we graduate, will you live with me?”

“No! How did it escalate to that?!”

She instantly pouted, clearly dissatisfied.

As always, I was completely at Maki’s mercy.

That was how yesterday began.