I'm in Love with the Gorilla Sitting Next to Me - Volume 1 Chapter 6.9

Secrets are meant to be revealed 9

While my stomach, which had just eaten takoyaki, was fiercely clamoring for more, I finished the transaction and received the paper bag with our food,

“Alright, let’s eat, let’s eat! Gossan, where can we sit?”

“There’s an empty bench over there.”

Gossan’s voice seemed to bounce with excitement as we both quickly made our way to the bench. I handed her the thick special skewer with alternating pieces of tongue and skirt and a bottle of ramune, and I immediately bit into my pork belly skewer.

“Mmm! Delicious!”

The juice burst out the moment I bit into it, and the almost too salty taste of salt and pepper was irresistible. The rich flavor of the fat, just shy of being too heavy, was perfectly refreshed by the fizzy sensation of the ramune.

Gossan, who was also munching next to me, seemed to soften her eyes with happiness. Meat really does enrich the soul.

Having quickly finished half, I reset my palate with ramune, ready for the second half, when a beef skewer and Gossan’s sturdy hand appeared in front of me.

“Saiki-kun, would you like to trade?”

“Huh? I mean, I’m happy to, but are you sure, Gossan?”

“I’ve had one piece of each. It’s your treat, and I’d like to try the pork as well.”

“I see. Then, I’ll take you up on your offer.”

Accepting Gossan’s offer and the beef skewer, I exchanged it for the pork belly skewer I had been eating.

The thick tongue and well-grilled skirt looked super delicious, but I hesitated to bite into them right away because I was a little concerned. Then I heard,

“Ah, I haven’t touched the remaining meat on the skewer, so it shouldn’t be dirty.”

“O-oh. I mean, I wouldn’t mind even if you had, but…”

Sorry, total lie, I’m actually super nervous.

What is this feeling? I can normally share a drink from the same bottle, and there’s zero excitement in an indirect kiss with a gorilla, but there’s this strange tension.

However, pushed by the desire to eat two thousand yen worth of meat, I bit into the beef skewer with gusto.

“Mmm… the chewiness, or rather, the bite is amazing. I’ve only ever eaten thin slices of beef tongue, so I didn’t expect it to be this substantial.”

“Yes, it’s not too hard and quite delicious.”

“Is that so. The skirt is… mmm… yeah, it really tastes like beef. It’s not fatty at all, is it lean meat?”

“I believe it’s classified as offal… doesn’t feel like it at all, though.”

“It’s definitely different from liver. Whatever it is, it’s delicious.”

“You seem quite calm in your reaction, though?”

Gossan’s sharp observation made me return the finished skewer to the bag,

“Maybe I had too high expectations, but frankly, I preferred the pork belly skewer. Or maybe beef ribs are just tastier?”

“What a coincidence. I also prefer the fattier ribs. And I’d like some white rice with it.”

“I get you. There were grilled onigiri over there, but I’d prefer plain white rice. Actually, if someone brought a rice cooker here to sell rice, they’d make a killing. I’d definitely buy it.”

“Me too. Well, that aside, it was delicious, but two thousand yen feels too expensive.”

“Right? It wasn’t worth more than three pork belly skewers and two beef kalbi skewers. I haven’t tried the beef kalbi, but still.”

“For a thousand yen… even then, I’d probably choose one pork belly and one beef rib skewer…”

Gossan and I seriously discussed the prices of the skewers. Is this what they mean by a conversation devoid of any romantic atmosphere? The only thing present was our appetite.

“Well then, we have fireworks to watch later, so shall we move on? As an apology for making you buy something so expensive, I’ll treat you to shaved ice.”

“Really? Gossan is being generous!”

“Leave it to me. Then, let’s go buy the ones they were selling over there.”

“The tiny ones? The ones in paper cups?”

“We’re just eating it as a palate cleanser, and besides, isn’t shaved ice only delicious for the first few bites? After that, you can’t really taste it because it’s too cold.”

“Now that you mention it, that might be true. Then, let’s go enjoy your treat.”

Having decided, we got up from the bench and started walking through the lively precincts of the shrine, heading for our next target.

After grabbing what we wanted from various stalls and quickly moving on, we spent an intense time, and in about ten minutes, our stomachs were reasonably full, and our wallets significantly lighter.

It’s dubious whether our conversation, mostly about the taste, was exciting, but for me, it was strangely fun, and time flew by…

And then, a major event suitable to conclude this tumultuous day erupted.

“——Well, here we are. This should be a good spot.”

Led by Gossan in a yukata, we arrived in a forest with nothing but a storage shed.

Gossan said she would take me to a secret spot to watch the fireworks, so I followed her from the back of the shrine and walked a bit to a place where no one else was.

Or rather, there was a light installed in the storage shed, so it was fairly bright, but there were no signs of fireworks or people heading to the shrine nearby.

“Gossan, are you sure this is the place? Are we going to climb trees?”

“No. The place with a good view of the fireworks is not here. It’s further down the path we split from earlier. I think you can see them reasonably well from here, though.”

“So, you didn’t make a mistake. You brought me here on purpose?”

“Yes. There’s something I really wanted to ask, or rather, something I needed to confirm.”

Her tone of voice didn’t change much from usual. It’s hard to read her expression since she’s a gorilla, but the atmosphere Gossan was giving off had become serious, unlike before.

In the dim light, Gossan looked straight into my eyes, and after a small exhale, she asked,

“Saiki-kun, do you like me?”

——She dropped a tremendous bombshell.