“Good night, Nanami-san.”
The words Youshin had said earlier still lingered pleasantly in my ears, and I kept replaying them in my mind.
It’s not like this was the first time I’d talked to a boy, but every conversation with him made my heart race nonstop.
It felt as if he were right beside my ear. Phones really are an incredible invention. I silently thanked the person who invented the telephone—even though I didn’t know their name or face.
…Come to think of it, this might actually be the first time I’ve talked to a boy alone. And this late at night, too…
“What is this—this is baaad…”
Lying face-down on my bed, I kicked my legs back and forth. There wasn’t any particular reason for it, but if I didn’t move somehow, I just couldn’t calm down.
No, this is bad. I can’t control my feelings at all. I really can’t settle down. Everything feels fluffy and light.
“At this rate, I won’t even be able to argue back against Otofuke Hatsumi and Kamoenai Ayumu…”
Today had been a chain of unbelievable events since morning.
This morning, when I arrived too early and was wondering how to kill time, he came straight over to me.
He noticed my new hairstyle and shyly told me it was cute. But honestly, I thought that Youshin looked cuter in that moment.
I was the one who suggested we hold hands, and I even surprised myself by saying it. I wonder if my sweaty palms were okay…?
There were other things too. He poked my cheek, we ate lunch together… and somehow, I even ended up doing an “aaahn.”
Now that I think about it… wasn’t that an indirect kiss!?
Waaah—why did I only realize that now…? It’s so embarrassing…
I covered my burning cheeks and curled up into a ball on top of my bed.
Youshin should’ve said something too… like, “That’s an indirect kiss.”
No, wait, that would be even worse. If he said something like that, I’d probably die of embarrassment. And besides… Youshin would never say something like that anyway.
And then, the final thing today… after school, we even went on a shopping date…
Every single thing today was a first for me.
Well, it makes sense. This is my first time having a boyfriend, after all…
Even though he’s technically a boyfriend that came from a punishment game… being with Youshin is unbelievably fun. …Fun enough that I want to spend even more time with him.
I can’t completely shake off the guilt about that. But still…
I glanced at the lunchbox I had secretly placed in my room.
The one meant for Youshin.
He bought it for me… my precious treasure.
No, saying he “bought it for me” might be a bit inaccurate. If you think about it, it’s only natural that he would buy something for himself…
I was just so carried away that I didn’t even realize it until he pointed it out.
But still… it felt like I had received a present. That’s why instead of hiding it in the kitchen, I kept it secretly in my room.
From now on, every day I’ll fill this lunchbox with my homemade cooking and give it to him.
Just thinking about that makes me incredibly happy.
“A loving wife’s lunch, huh?”
Suddenly, the grinning faces of Hatsumi and Ayumu popped into my mind.
“I’m not a loving wife yet!”
I sprang up on the bed and protested to the two who weren’t even there.
Ugh… it’s their fault for saying weird things like that.
Cooking is supposed to be love, after all. So of course I’ll put love into it. I will put love into it…
But that’s the same kind of love mothers have when they cook… that kind of love… probably…
The more I thought about it, the hotter my cheeks became, and I ended up writhing on the bed again.
“Seriously, what happened? The Nanami who said boys were kind of scary is suddenly walking to school holding hands with one?”
“I’m so jealous! I want to walk to school holding hands with my boyfriend too… though that’s impossible…”
Those were the things Hatsumi and Ayumu said this morning when they interrogated me about the situation.
Hatsumi… honestly, I want to ask the same thing.
Ayumu seemed jealous that Youshin and I had walked to school holding hands.
It really was just a normal walk to school… but it was incredibly fun.
Of course walking with friends is fun too, but this was a different kind of fun. If Ayumu can’t experience that herself but sees me doing it… of course she’d feel jealous.
Anyway, I told them everything that had happened yesterday. Including how Youshin had helped me… everything.
“Heh… not bad, Misumai. So he saved you and you seriously fell for him, huh, Nanami? Wow… seriously… Maybe our worries were actually right. We almost felt like we couldn’t leave Nanami behind to go to vocational school because she’s so easy to win over.”
“Nanami really is so easy, yep yep… But still, choosing Misumai was the right call. He seems reliable when it counts, and he suits you well.”
Calling me easy is rude.
But hearing them praise Youshin made me happy… and before I realized it, I ended up talking about him endlessly to the two of them… even though we had only been dating for two days.
When I finally realized I had been talking too much, the two of them were watching me with mischievous grins… but they also looked relieved.
Thinking back, that felt less like reporting about a punishment game and more like…
“That was just a normal… love talk, wasn’t it…? That was the first time we talked about romance together… it was fun…”
Before I called Youshin, the three of us had been chatting together.
A girls’ talk about love… although it felt like I was the one doing most of the talking. But the two of them listened to everything I said.
They even irresponsibly told me I should be more aggressive. There’s no way I can go any further than this right now!
In the end they told me, “Enough bragging already. Just message Misumai.”
Was I really bragging that much…? That’s kind of embarrassing.
After that, I talked with Youshin… and he asked me out on a date.
When I told him I already had plans on Saturday, he suddenly started speaking politely and invited me on a date anyway.
I had actually been planning to invite him out myself for Sunday… but before I could, he beat me to it. I’m a little frustrated.
But still… Youshin invited me on a date.
That makes me unbelievably happy.
Too happy.
Why am I this happy?
A date… my first date… Sunday will be my first date. I can’t stop feeling excited.
“I should put some extra effort into tomorrow’s lunch… Ah, but I still need to make sure Mom and Dad don’t find out yet…”
He said I didn’t need to worry about thanking him for the lunchbox. I’m just doing it because I like to…
Because I like to? Who likes to?
No, I just like cooking, and I’m only doing this as practice for being a girlfriend, that’s all.
…Even I realize that excuse sounds a bit forced.
Anyway, trying to calm my overly excited heart, I started thinking about tomorrow’s lunch.
Youshin said he wanted hamburg steak. I’ll make an extra big one for him. I wonder if it will fit inside the lunchbox?
I wonder if he likes tamagoyaki too. Come to think of it… does he prefer the sweet kind or the salty kind? Maybe I should have asked him today.
Should I make rice balls… or maybe… a heart shape with sakura denbu…
…No, a heart shape would be too embarrassing for me to make. And if someone found it, who knows what they’d say. Rice balls it is.
He said he could eat anything except herb-type foods… but there was so much going on today that I didn’t have time to ask about his preferences.
Tomorrow, I want to talk about more things.
I want to learn more about Youshin… and I want him to learn more about me too.
But if that happens…
“One month… is pretty short…”
I muttered that without even realizing it.
“You don’t have to force yourselves to keep dating, but there’s nothing wrong with just continuing if you want to.”
Those were the words they said when they proposed this punishment game.
At first, I felt gloomy about having to date someone for a whole month.
I felt bad for the boy involved… and I had no idea what I was supposed to do during that time.
But now it’s different. One month feels incredibly short.
I’m surprised myself at how much my feelings changed in just a single day.
I want to try drinking tapioca with Youshin. He probably hasn’t had it before, so I want to teach him all about it.
I want him to eat more of my cooking. Not just lunchboxes—I want him to eat food freshly made by me.
…If that happened… would I go to his house? Just imagining that makes me nervous.
If we keep dating, there will be so many events too.
Festivals would be fun to go to together. And Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day…
All the things I want to do, the things I want to do for him, the things I want him to do for me…
When I think about all that, one month really does feel too short.
“Are you going to kiss tomorrow?”
“I’m not! I can’t!”
I protested again to the imaginary Hatsumi and Ayumu in my head.
I started thrashing around wildly on the bed while shouting, which made my mom yell at me to be quiet.
That was bad… calm down, calm down…
Youshin seemed much calmer than me. At school he always seemed quiet, but maybe he’s actually more mature than I thought.
He probably has no idea that I’ve been nervous and excited inside this whole time, even during the phone call.
Although… I did hear him panic a little once. And when he invited me again afterward, why did he suddenly switch to polite speech?
If he was actually nervous too… then maybe we’re the same. That would make me happy.
One month from now… what will I want?
If the truth comes out and Youshin leaves me… that thought scares me so much.
Just imagining it makes me feel like crying.
“…Am I really that easy?”
The question had no one to answer it, so it simply faded away inside me.
I’m sure that’s not true… I’m not that easy…
Even so, the fact that I can’t argue against what the two of them said—when I’m thinking about Youshin even now—is something I have to admit.
So I decided on one thing. Just like their advice… I’ll be more aggressive.
“I’ll make Youshin fall completely in love with me! I’ll win him over through his stomach! We’ll hang out a lot! …Kissing is still too embarrassing though!”
I know that sounds pretty awful.
But before he ever learns that this started as a punishment game… I’ll capture his heart completely.
I’ll make sure Youshin falls head over heels for me.
…For someone like me who still doesn’t have the courage to tell the truth, this is the best effort I can make.
“Alright then, tomorrow I’ll make another lunch! Okay, I’m going all out!”
I stood up on my bed while shouting, which made my mom scold me again.
But now that I’ve decided my plan, I don’t have any doubts anymore!
And just like that, I slipped under my blanket and fell asleep. I hope I’ll have a good dream… maybe even a dream about Youshin.
…Wait, dreaming about him too…?
Maybe I really am that easy after all…
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