CH 14

[Point of View] Kaede Ayase :

“Wait a minute, Minato-kun…. Ah, no you can’t do it in a place like this.”

“That’s fine. Other people can’t see us this way, right?”

At the Arcade center.

Mi-kun and the woman who seems to be his girlfriend, Yumi-san were currently in a photo booth machine.

We cannot see the inside of the photo booth from here, but we were able to hear their voices clearly.

Yumi-san’s mother, Kiyoka-san, who was following them, was currently eavesdropping on their conversation and I am also doing the same…

But before you get a wrong idea about the situation, I am not eavesdropping without permission.

It seems that Yumi-san and Kiyoka-san had a quarrel, and they decided that she would let her hear the date conversation through their smartphones.

“Your soul is leaving the body, Onee-chan!”

I was in a heartbroken state, with my mouth hanging open, when Shi-chan called out to me.

Her voice brought me back to life somehow, and I suddenly regained consciousness.

Oh no, this is not good. The conversation was too much for me to listen to, and I tried to escape from the reality of the situation.

“Kids these days don’t really care where they are.”

“No, Mi-kun is not like that, there must be a misunderstanding.”

And then again, I heard a voice coming from the phone.

Of course, the other party can’t hear my voice because the phone is muted from this side.

“… Minato-kun, what would you do if someone saw us like this?”

“Yumi-san, you are too cute, I can’t control anymore.”

“Uh… I can’t help it. But please be gentle, okay? It would be bad if someone heard us.”

“It’s upto Yumi-san to suppress her voice.”

“……”

We were standing at the corner of the arcade station, there was no more sound coming from the other side and I was nearly going to lose my senses when…

Shi-chan tugged on my hand sleeves and looked at me with a sad impression on her face.

She is a really kind sister after all. She was trying to comfort me in my misery.

“I’m really sorry, onee-chan.”

“Guahh?!”

That was the final blow.

The strength in my knees gave up and I slumped down to the ground on all fours.

“Well, don’t get discouraged, there are other good people like Minato-nii. But he is now Yumi-nee’s, though.”

Argh, why did this happen to me?

“But… Mi-kun is my favorite, I am not going to give up that easily.”

With tears welling up in my eyes, I tried to resist the reality quite pathetically

Shi-chan and Kiyoka-san patted my shoulders to console me, but it didn’t seem to be working on me. Stop pitying me!　

_____________________________________

[Point of View] Minato Segawa :

“Ah, what are you doing with me…?”

“That’s my line, you know.”

Right now I was having a really awkward conversation with Sakuramiya-sensei.

Sensei’s phone is connected with a call right now with Kiyoka-san who is supposed to eavesdrop on our conversation, but Sensei has put the phone on mute for sometime, so she can’t hear our talks till it gets unmuted.

“But once you have decided, you have no choice but to do it endlessly.”

“I know, that’s why I am doing this… I think it’s time to leave the booth, our purpose to come to this place has been fulfilled already.”

“Let’s hang out at the Arcade center for sometime and then spend some time watching a movie.”

“Yeah I guess a movie would be nice for some change of pace, but…”

“It’s a sweet romantic movie that will make our stomach churn, you know.”

“That’s not a good way of saying it.”

Sakuramiya-sensei laughed bitterly hearing my thoughts but didn’t deny it. It looks like she also doesn’t romance movies much, like me.

She turned off the mute option on her smartphone, dropped it in the pocket of her coat she was wearing and entangled her arm in mine.

With a deep breath I prepared myself for the next situation I was going to be in.

“… Minato-kun, think about the time place from the next time, okay?”

“It’s your fault for being too cute, Yumi-san.”

“No, no I don’t feel this way with other women. It’s like having an affair with a monkey.”

—Crash!

““Huh?””

Sakuramiya-sensei and my voice overlaps.

I just heard a really weird sound but what was that?

Did a crane game machine fall over? It doesn’t look that way.

“Woah, I was so surprised.”

“Yeah, that’s right…”

The people around me were all paying attention to the source of the sound. But I’m not going to go so far as to find the culprit.

The reason is that this date is being watched from afar by Kiyoka-san. It would be troublesome if we made any sort of eye contact. As much as possible it’s better not to look around.

“Oh, there is a cute stuffed animal. Win this for me Minato-kun.”

“Don’t worry, leave it to me.”

Sakuramiya-sensei was aware of the same thing as me, so she stopped worrying about it and decided to focus on the crane game.

I put coins to operate the crane game in the game slot. My wallet was with Sensei right and it was fun to kill the time in the Arcade center.