The Best Friend of the Person I Like is Secretly Approaching Me - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I got off the train with Seko when we arrived at the destination station, and as we passed through the station’s ticket gates, a beautiful girl was standing there. It’s Misa.

She’s always beautifully dressed. She’s wearing pants like me, but her slender legs stand out, and she wears her jacket stylishly.

She gives off both a model-like and a ‘young lady (ojōsama)’ vibe. I once asked Seko,

“Is Misa a young lady by any chance?”

“Yeah, she does give off that vibe, doesn’t she? But honestly, I don’t really know. If she were a young lady, I wonder why she’d go to the same public middle school as me.”

That was his response. I was a little happy with that answer.

Not because Misa might not be a young lady but because Seko doesn’t know much about her.

When Misa notices us, her previously expressionless face changes to a slight smile.

Even as a woman, I’m captivated by that smile, and so are the people around us.

“My bad, Yosaki. Did we keep you waiting?”

“No, I just got here too, so it’s fine.”

“Whoa! Now, you look very amazing right now! Your outfit today really suits you, Yosaki! Please go out with me!”

“Thank you. By the way, Haru looks good today. Maybe I should buy a hat too.”

“Hehe, thanks. Everything seems to suit you, Misa.”

“Oh, there are things that suit me and things that don’t.”

Certainly, everyone has their own style that suits them, but with Misa, it feels like she could pull off anything.

Actually, she probably does.

We leave the station and wander aimlessly through the city, chatting about trivial things.

Just doing that is fun, probably because it’s the three of us.

Along the way, Misa spots a karaoke place and says, “I want to go in,” so we decide to go.

She looked adorable when her eyes sparkled at the idea. Apparently, she’s never been to one before.

Misa may be new to karaoke, but she really sings well.

I was so entranced that I’m sure I didn’t make even the faintest sound when listening to her.

When she finished, Seko clapped loudly and praised her singing as “awesome!”

Even though I was also moved, I felt somewhat regretful, so I chose my go-to song. Compared to Misa’s song, mine didn’t seem like much.

Usually, I enjoy singing, but my energy started to wane right now.

Then, a voice other than mine came through the speaker.

I glanced over to see Seko holding another microphone, starting to sing along with me.

He turned towards me, and as our eyes met, he asked through his eyes, ‘how about singing together?’

I answered with a smile.

This song wasn’t meant for a duet, but singing it with Seko was really fun.

When the song ended, he apologized for suddenly joining in, but I managed to say, ‘No worries!’

When I glanced at Misa, she seemed impressed, saying, ‘I see, there’s this way to have fun too.’

After that, we had a great time.

Sometimes singing duets as Misa requested, or Seko added his voice when I was singing.

By the way, Seko’s singing was worse than mine.

He seemed aware of it, saying, ‘I don’t really know many songs,’ and tried to let us sing as much as possible.

The fact that he jumped in to sing seemed somewhat unfair.

After enjoying karaoke, we decided to eat lunch to fill our stomachs.

Following another of Misa’s suggestions, we went into a famous hamburger chain.

It seemed to be her first time there too, and she looked adorable struggling with her order while Seko supported her gently from the side.

After that, we went window shopping. But a while later, Misa received a message on her smartphone.

After reading it, she furrowed her brows and said,

“Sorry. My family, who had dropped me off here, were out doing their own thing. They’re heading home now, and it looks like they’re coming to pick me up on the way.”

“Ah… that’s too bad, but it can’t be helped. We didn’t really have any plans for today anyway. Let’s hang out again some other time!”

“Exactly! Even though I hate to agree with him, he’s right that today isn’t the only day we can hang out!”

“What did you say?”

“What?”

“Fufu. Yes, that’s right. Thank you, both of you. I need to go now because they’re already close by.”

“Oh, see you at school then.”

“See you, Misa!”

A brief silence fell between us as we watched her somewhat lonely back disappear.

“Guess we should head back too, huh?”

“…Yeah, I suppose.”

It was Seko who broke the silence. I couldn’t do anything but agree.

I wondered, does he not want to hang out with just me? Is that why he’s suggesting we go back?

That thought pained me.

“If it’s just us two, Yosaki might feel left out. We came here to hang out as a trio, after all.”

Could Seko be reading my mind?

His words were exactly what I wanted to hear.

For some reason, I felt it was not good to stay alone with Seko. So, I said,

“A-Ah! I was thinking of going to check out that little shop over there.”

I casually pointed at a small shop that caught my eye.

Oddly enough, it was a store I had visited last winter after cram school and left without buying anything.

Then Seko, after briefly checking his phone, said,

“Alright, I’ll go with you too.”

“W-What!? Why?”

“Seems like the train is delayed, so I thought I’d kill some time.”

“I-I see.”

In the end, I couldn’t distance myself from Seko and we ended up visiting the shop together.

I wondered how we must look to others and felt my face start to heat up.

“…ah”

A hairpin caught my eye. It was the same one I had noticed last year.

A small glass sunflower is attached to that pin. I remembered thinking it was odd for winter but also quite cute.

However, I had felt it wouldn’t suit me, so I didn’t buy it.

As I was looking at it, Seko, who had moved next to me, followed my gaze and asked,

“Hey, that’s nice. Aren’t you going to buy it?”

“What’s the sudden interest? Do you like sunflowers, Seko? That’s surprising.”

When I teasingly asked, Seko scratched his cheek awkwardly and said,

“It’s not that I particularly like sunflowers, but I thought it would suit you, Hinata. That’s all.”

I felt a sudden jump in my heart!

The next moment, I found myself unconsciously picking up the hairpin.

“Well, I like sunflowers. So, I’m going to buy this.”

Yes, I like sunflowers.

Today, no, right now——I’ve fallen in love with sunflowers.