The Best Friend of the Person I Like is Secretly Approaching Me - Chapter 93

Part 12: Off to Enoshima

Chapter 93

Today is the long-awaited day of the field trip.

Well, in reality, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it that much.

But being freed from classes and going out of school has a special feeling to it——definitely like that.

After changing into my uniform, I sit seiza in the corner of the tatami room at home, close my eyes, and join my hands together for a while before standing up, grabbing my bag, and heading to the front door.

This is my routine every morning.

Because I take time to join my hands and close my eyes, I always arrive at school just in time.

“Rento”

Just as I finished putting on my shoes, Mom called out to me.

“Aren’t you a little early today?”

“Yeah. We’re meeting up at the station over there.”

“I see. Did you say hello to that child again today?”

“Of course. It’s part of my daily routine. I was sharing some of my worries with them.”

“You could talk to your mom too, you know.”

“There are things a boy my age just can’t discuss with his mom.”

“You’re telling things you can’t tell your mom to that girl? I hope you’re not saying anything strange.”

“…I’m off.”

“Hey wait…sigh. Have a good day and be careful.”

Sent off by my mom, I leave the house. Usually, it’s my mom who leaves home first, so this feels like a throwback to my elementary school days.

Come to think of it, where did we go for the school field trip in elementary school?

The fact that my memories are becoming hazy makes me realize how much I’ve grown.

I wonder if even ‘now’ will become a distant memory someday.

——That’s right. The last year was a joint trip with the fifth graders.

Something about an incident at the facility the fifth graders were supposed to visit, so they joined the sixth graders who were planning to go mountain climbing since there was no limit on how many could participate.

As I walked while recalling my vague memories, I arrived at the nearest station.

There, I saw Misa. We had planned to meet up.

“Good morning, Misa.”

“Good morning, Rento-kun. Looks like you made it on time.”

“Wha’s that, I’ve never been late before.”

“Fufu. But Rento-kun, you’re always just barely on time for school.”

“That’s because… well, there’s no deep reason. It’s just that, you know, I help old ladies carry their bags
when I see them on the street.”

“How many old ladies in need do you run into? Well, I know you’d lend a hand right away if you did come across someone in need.”

“I’m just joking, don’t make me feel embarrassed by saying things like that.”

“Fufu. But I just love that expression on your face.”

Misa laughed teasingly, and I found myself captivated by her smile. I could feel my face grow hotter.

I had to change the subject before she embarrassed me to death.

“Where did you go on your school trips when you were in elementary school, Misa?”

“When I was in elementary school? Let’s see, I think we went to places like art museums.”

“Sounds pretty classy.”

“What’s with that reaction. When I was in lower grades, we also went to themed parks. Though we were told not to play too much on the playground equipment.”

“Oh, then what did you play with?”

“We drew pictures and enjoyed listening to the birds’ songs, I guess.”

“That’s a field trip I never heard of.”

“For me, it was a relief. I didn’t have many friends to enjoy noisy places with. But now, with you and Haru, I was really looking forward to today’s field trip.”

Her smiling face now held a destructive power incomparable to her earlier smile, and as I looked directly at her, my face became as hot as if it were on fire.

In the end, I was completely done in by her, and at her request, we held hands on the train.

We are actually dating right now, and as far as everyone else is concerned, we’ve been dating even before that.

Therefore, even if other students from our high school see us, no one is particularly surprised or gives us strange looks.

Misa is facing forward, looking out the window.

However, it seems her attention is on our joined hands, as she occasionally squeezes or grips my hand tightly.

Perhaps because she doesn’t often act so clingy, I found her behavior very endearing.

Just before the train arrived at the next station, she gently let go of my hand.

Her profile looked somewhat lonely, but I couldn’t bring myself to grasp her hand again.

“Good morning, Seko! Misa!”

That’s because Haru is coming on board from the station where we just arrived.

It’s okay for Misa and me to maintain a lover-like distance outside, but I can’t be at such a distance as if we’re in a relationship with Haru.

It seems Haru is aware of this too—she positions herself next to me but stands half a step farther away than Misa is.

And Misa, not wanting to be unfair by being the only one close to me, let go of my hand.

Once again, we have managed to build a relationship that is maintained by a delicate balance.

“Hey-hey, it’s great that it’s sunny today!”

Haru, who had been really looking forward to today, happily talks about the weather.

“It’s so clear that it makes you doubt we’ve even entered the rainy season.”

“Right! If it had rained today, I might have started to think I’m a ‘rain woman’ (雨女).”

“Rain woman, even though you’re ‘Haru’? What’s that?” (TN: The joke here is that Haru means spring (Clear weather).)

“Ah, Seko, that’s name harassment!”

“Why am I always accused of such ‘weird’ harassment?”

“I don’t know! Well then, I’ll just play with Seko’s name too. Let’s see… Since it’s Rento, Seko is a bunny! Seko is actually a lonely person!” (TN: “Rento” (蓮兎), “蓮” (ren) means “lotus” and “兎” (to) means “rabbit”.)

“That’s quite an assumption. I mean, isn’t Haru the lonely one?”

“I-I’m not!”

As Haru denies it, I laugh teasingly, ‘Really now?’

While we’re doing this, someone tugs at the hem of my uniform from the opposite side of Haru.

When I turned around, Misa was there with her cheeks puffed up slightly.

“Hey, Rento-kun. Don’t just pay attention to Haru, look after me too. I may not look it, but I’m a lonely person too, you know.”

“But Misa has a rather solitary image.”

“That’s true. It might have been like that in the past. But you’ve changed me Rento-kun. So I want you to take responsibility.”

“Verbal gaffe, verbal gaffe. That’s harassment.”

“Rento-kun, just adding ‘harassment’ to everything doesn’t make it a valid comeback.”

“Why am I the only one who can’t use that excuse?”

As I let out a voice of disappointment, Misa giggled.

It seems I’ve been teased by her again.

“By the way, did you two bring any snacks?”

“No, I didn’t bring any.”

“Me neither.”

“Aw, come on. It’s a field trip. Snacks are a must for field trips!”

“It’s not that special anymore since we can bring snacks freely in high school.”

“That’s true. Plus, since we’re not on a chartered bus but taking the train, there might not be much opportunity to eat,.”

“Ugh… I brought some chocolate because I thought I’d share it with everyone.”

Haru said that, giving a quick glimpse of a bag filled with individually wrapped chocolates from her bag.

“Haru, you said you had a lot of things you wanted to eat when we got to Enoshima. Do you really have room for sweets?”

“B-but I just thought that you can’t have a field trip without sweets! You see, sweets go into a separate stomach!”

“So, you won’t be having sweets in Enoshima?”

“…I will.”

Haru said sulkily, and Misa sighed.

It’s true that sweet things do tend to fill you up.

But I had already fully understood Haru’s desire to thoroughly enjoy this field trip, so not wanting her spirits to dampen.

So, like a robot with a round, blue body, I start rummaging through my shoulder pouch to see if I have anything.

(TN: Doraemon?)

“Hmm?”

Since I didn’t need to bring heavy textbooks for this field trip, I changed to this pouch instead of my usual backpack and packed a wallet, a handkerchief, etc., into it lightly.

I hadn’t expected to find anything particularly good in it, as I didn’t remember putting anything of the sort inside.

Still, there was a small bag with individually wrapped candies that I had no recollection of placing there.

I took one out of the pouch and held it out in front of Haru.

“Haru, this won’t fill your stomach, but it should help you enjoy the feeling of having sweets.”

Haru’s expression, which had shown a hint of gloom, instantly brightened at the sight of the offered candy.

“Candy! Can I have one?”

“Yeah. Well, it was actually my mom who prepared them.”

“Is that so. Ehehe, thanks Seko!”

After thanking me, Haru took the candy I handed her and quickly popped it into her mouth——then her cheeks bloomed with joy as she exclaimed, ‘Yummy!’

“It’s strawberry milk flavor. Does Seko like this taste?”

“It’s not so much me, but rather my mom. She’s always bought this flavor whenever it comes to candy, so much so that there’s always some at home.”

“Wow, Seko’s mom really likes strawberry milk that much?”

“Rento-kun. May I have one as well?”

“Sure, here. I’ll eat one too.”

As I savored the strawberry milk-flavored candy rolling around in my mouth, I was reminded of that field trip from our elementary school days.

Come to think of it, I had brought these same candies on that trip too.

***

TN: Seko’s mom has a habit of buying strawberry milk flavored cadies, huh? Koido is probably strongly related to his past trauma.