CH 7

“Are you awake?”

“Yeah, I’m awake.”

A single miniature light bulb illuminated the room.

Inside that space, we both lay ready to sleep, Suzuka was on top of the bed, I was on the futon.

For a while now we haven’t really been able to fall asleep and had been repeating the same lines over and over like parrots, ‘Are you awake?’ ‘Yeah, I’m awake’.

“It’s an interesting sensation, sleeping on another person’s bed.”

“It’s because you said that you wanted the bed that I handed it over to you, but, could it be you actually prefer the futon?”

“No, no. The bed’s fine. After all, Yuuki, if I was sleeping in the futon and you happened to fall off the bed onto of me, I would be squashed flat.”

“…”

“Oh? Where’s your retort?”

“I regret saying this, but I do toss and turn a lot in my sleep. What you said could well and truly happen.”

“E~h? So you still haven’t stopped turning in bed? I still remember when we were little and we napped together, you’d stick your fingers up my nose, or slap my cheeks. So you’ve yet to stop doing those things?”

“Pff!”

I barely managed to keep myself from laughing.

Sticking my fingers in her nose, pulling her cheeks, or slapping them, those were all me playing pranks on her.

Of course, Suzuka would wake up and open her eyes from that, so…

At that moment, I would pretend to be asleep to trick her.

To think that I really managed to fool her and that even now, at the present, she hasn’t realized it.

I almost burst out laughing without thinking, you know?

“What’s wrong? You suddenly went silent.”

“N-no, it-it’s nothing…?”

“How suspicious… But oh well.”

“…”

“…”

We fell into a state of calm again.

Aahh, I feel myself being invited over to dreamland in this state,

“Zzz”

The sound of Suzuka’s deep inhalations.

It would seem she is in the midst of taking in the scent from my bed.

After a few more deep inhalations, she let out a groan and started to complain out-loud.

“Hmm~~~~, it sort of stinks, but it also doesn’t… Is this the so-called ‘scent of a man’? No, this is nothing more than the body odor of Yuuki being smelly…”

“Is it fun purposely saying it loud enough for me to be able to hear it?”

“It is!”

Despite only a single miniature light bulb being on in the room, I feel like it got brighter right now.

More importantly, does this girl not have any intentions of sleeping?

She’s been very noisy for a while now.

“How about we stop for now and go to sleep? Or is it that? You’re too nervous and can’t fall asleep.”

“Yes… I’m extremely nervous and can’t sleep.”

“Haah, it can’t be helped. For today, I’ll keep you company for as long as you want. Now go on, speak about anything you want until you lose yourself to sleep.”

“Quite generous, aren’t you? Thank you. Then then! To start with… What do you think of this living together dynamic? Tell me.”

She asked me as she turned to look at my face and stared fixedly. 

She had every intention to talk and has completely ignored sleeping already.

“Being honest, my mother was right in having us practice living together first. Living alone the two of us all of a sudden, it really would’ve been hard, if you ask me. Even now it’s already pretty hard.”

“Ye~ah, I think so too. How to say this? It’s kind of suffocating… I feel like it will take us some time to get used to this. Look at now, even though it’s already sleeping hours, it feels so stifling that we’re talking like this instead.”

“This turned out to be quite troublesome. Then, since it’s sort of unfair to have you be the only one asking the questions here, is it ok if I ask some too?”

“Oh, my! What is it? Do you want to know my three sizes?”

The slender Suzuka.

If we were to focus on her sizes alone… Oh, how mysterious! She isn’t so attractive any longer.

Nevertheless, when you see her in person, man, she has a style and air about her that puts her in a league of her own…

“If you’ll answer me, I have no qualms asking, just so you know.”

“If you say it like that, I don’t feel like telling you. Ok, your turn is over, Yuuki. Next is my turn to ask a question!”

“Hey! Don’t just end my turn like that! Oh well, no matter. Come on, ask away.”

“So, Yuuki, what do you think of me?”

“… You’re asking that… now?”

A decent amount of time has already passed since we started our married life.

We may not have met a lot because of the entrance exam, but it still doesn’t change the fact that quite some time has indeed passed since our marriage.

It must be because of this that she chose this precise moment to ask.

I take a deep breath and express my feelings to Suzuka, not withholding anything.

“Honestly, I do think of you as one of my options. Even though I did think of our relationship as something I was stuck with, or like that of brother and sister. Once we got married, it was… That, you know? It wasn’t so bad. However, if you were to ask me whether I wanted us to spend the rest of our lives together, it becomes complicated. I’m not really sure myself.”

“It’s the same for me. I also think you’re an option for me, Yuuki. But, the fact that we’re going to be living together as husband and wife, it hasn’t really sunk in for me yet.”

“Speaking of which, though we have gotten married, what will we do if we find someone else we like?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is this: Simply put, what we have is a ‘fake’ marriage, right? So, what if we found someone we really and truly liked despite it? Wouldn’t giving up on them because of our present relationship as a ‘married couple’ be kind of weird? That’s what I’m talking about.”

“Hmm–, you brought up a difficult question here. Rather, the fact that you’re asking this, does it mean you have someone you like, Yuuki…?”

She’s suspicious of me now.

At this very moment, the light from the miniature light bulb was reflected on Suzuka’s eyes, making her give off a strong pressure unlike any I could describe with words alone.

“I don’t have someone I like. I said it for your sake.”

“Eh?”

“It’s for you, after you finally managed to find someone you like. Having you give up on them because you’re married to me, that’s something I absolutely don’t want you to do. Remember, we only have one life, no?”

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!”

Suzuka suddenly shoved her face into the pillow and screamed.

After that, she lifted her face and glared at me with narrowed eyes.

“A-are you ok?”

“It’s not fair! For you to say something so cool, in this kind of situation, it’s not fair! You’re a real cheater! If you’re so kind to me like that, even though you yourself aren’t so into the idea of this married life yet, I’ll be the only one getting more and more into it!”

“Oh, I see? But, isn’t getting into this married life something goo-…”

“You think it’s something good? We’re talking about me alone falling for you Yuuki. However, you don’t like me to that extent. That’s basically as if I was tying you down. I don’t want that…”

Suzuka’s acting like a spoiled kid.

And, out of nowhere, she grabbed and threw the pillow at me.

Aah! Damn it!

I could say the same of you! You’re too kind to me.

I’m in a similar position. What’ll you do if I’m the one who unilaterally got into this married life and then tied you down to it?

A while later, I noticed that Suzuka had gone silent after throwing the pillow at me.

Most probably she fell asleep.

Wondering, until which hour she stayed up, I looked over at my cell phone. 

“3:20am, huh… Wha? This guy, how come he’s sending a message at this late hour.”

There’s a single message alert in my phone.

It was from my friend, a boy named Tanaka.

{Once the entrance exams are over, I’m thinking of approaching Mita-san. You’re her childhood friend, right? Please lend me a hand with this. Sorry about writing this late at night, but I couldn’t manage to summon the courage to ask for your help before…}

{TL/N: A Big F for the man}

The Mita-san Tanaka spoke of. 

She no longer exists in this world.

After all, Mita Suzuka married me, and in doing so became Shindou Suzuka.

Though we were hiding our marriage from everyone at school, hence she’s still Mita-san there.

Now then.

How should I reply to him?

I’m certain that Tanaka likes Suzuka, far more than I do.

Tanaka is different from me, who was gradually falling for Suzuka only because of our present circumstances.

Suzuka too, more than with me, she’d be happier going out with someone like Tanaka, who can clearly declare that they like her.

However, contrary to those emotions, my fingers moved by themselves.

{Who cares, idiot!? Suzuka’s my wife, for your information.}

… Hngh! I barely managed to stop myself before pressing the SEND button.

I was one step away from creating a ruckus at school because of letting everyone know that Suzuka and I are married.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and modify the message.

{Who cares, idiot!?  Do it yourself!}

{ED/N: I thought he sent it for a second!!}

I then proceeded to press the SEND button.