Chapter 18: Volume 1 - CH 2.6

So the following Sunday came. I’d been nervous on the previous date, but not so much on the second one; even though I’d arrived at the station before time, I’d managed to keep my composure.

Certainly, I had grown up a lot.

“Sorry for waiting.”

I waited while looking at my phone, and soon Yuzu came too. Unlike last time, she was wearing a hoodie, a pair of shorts and sneakers because she knew she would be walking a lot in the amusement park today.

“Oh. Surprisingly you’re early.”

“Oh well.”

As I responded casually, Yuzu stared intently at me.

I understood what she meant and, reluctantly, I complied, “…You look very pretty in your outfit today.”

“All right, ten points for you.” Yuzu nodded with satisfaction.

“Oh, well. That’s good.”

Feeling a little embarrassed, I started walking towards the station. As soon as I entered the platform, we boarded an express train1 and headed for my destination.

From here, a 30-minute train ride would take us to the amusement park. I thought I could just take it easy on our ride there… but things don’t work out that way in this world.

“It’s getting a bit… crowded.” Yuzu, standing next to me, looked around uncomfortably.

It was not as bad as the peak commuter hours, but on Sundays, it seemed like a lot of people were going out the same way we were, and the dense crowd on the train was surprisingly suffocating. Further on, as the train stopped at the next stations, more people boarded.

“Aah!”

“Whoa!”

Naturally, I was pushed back, and Yuzu and I were in close contact with each other. I tried to move away, but the shaking of the train and the weight of the other passengers on my back made it impossible for me to budge at all.

Yuzu was sandwiched between me and the door.

“…Ngh,”

“Urk…”

For a moment, I recalled the time when I was pushed down in the classroom, and I was a little nervous. Maybe Yuzu also had the same thing in her mind; she was stiff as she looked downward.

It would be just the two of us all day and I really didn’t want an awkward start from early morning… But my goodness, she smelled so good!

“Al..right,” I put my hands against the door and forcibly created a space between me and Yuzu.

This calmed her down, and she let out a relieved breath, “Thank you. Ten points for you.”

“It’ll trouble me if your waist were to give out again.”

“…Minus 50 points.”

I said something unnecessary and it caused a tumble in my scores.

Despite these minor problems, we made it safely to our destination after a while. Perhaps because the train ride was so strenuous, we felt a sense of liberation when we stepped outside.

“It’s so nice to be outside. I feel like I’m out of prison.”

Yuzu also stretched out and expressed with her whole body the joy of being released from the train. After a short walk, she found a spot with the best view of the entrance to the amusement park and nodded to herself before pulling out her smartphone.

“OK, Yamato-kun. Let’s take a photo here first.”

“Alright.”

The main objective today was not to play, but to gather material to persuade Kotani. This photoshoot should not be neglected.

“Hm, like this?” Yuzu stood next to me and held up her phone for a selfie.

“Okay, here we go. What is the body joint between thigh and lower leg?”

“Eh? Knee?”2

*snap*

“There we got our photo.”

“You should’ve just said cheese just now!”3

Due to her strange shout, I was startled during the moment the photo was taken.

“Mmm. Yamato-kun, your face is really tense. Are you not used to having your picture taken?”

“Obviously the cause was something else!”

Yuzu frowned at the screen of her phone, probably because she didn’t like the way the photo turned out.

“Hmmm… Yamato-kun, it also has something with your expression, but we still look kinda awkward here. It doesn’t have the vibe that we’re dating or anything close.”

“Why don’t we take some examples from the people around us?”

While Yuzu stared at the screen in deep thought, I pointed out to a nearby couple.

They were trying to take photos just like us, but different from us─a fake couple─they exuded an aura of a happy couple even from a distance. We compared their poses while taking photos with the one we had just taken.

Then I found one clear difference.

“They’ve got their arms around each other, don’t they?” Yuzu also noticed the same thing as I did, and mumbled quietly.

Yes, all the couples around us, unlike us, were comfortable with close contact. Arm-in-arm, cheek-to-cheek, they were flirting with each other in the liberating atmosphere of an amusement park.

We, on the other hand…

“We keep as much distance between us as we can fit in the frame and try to avoid getting too close. This couldn’t be called a couple.”

Yuzu nodded her head in agreement with me.

“If I show this to Aki, she’ll just look at me suspiciously…”

A moment of silence ensued as we both stared at the finished photograph. We both knew what we had to do, but we just couldn’t make up our minds. A check-and-grip pause filled the air as we tried to work out who would initiate it.

“…Urm, let’s just stick together a bit closer, shall we?”

It might be difficult for a girl to say this, so I mustered up the courage to suggest it. I was going to be heartbroken at that point if she refused, but fortunately Yuzu seemed to be understanding and nodded quietly.

“Hey, just for a little bit, okay? Just because we’re stuck close doesn’t mean that I let you do everything else, okay?”

“I know that even without you warning me.”

""

I was a bit blunt, trying to cover up my nervousness. We paused for a moment to prepare ourselves, and then looked at each other intently.

“He-here we go!”

“A-alright!”

With awkward movements like a rusty tin doll, Yuzu twined her arm around mine.

*rustles*

Naturally, Yuzu’s chest came into contact with my arm. Oh my god, it felt sooo soft and they were big as I thought! It felt like they were wrapping around my arm.

I dared not look at Yuzu, but she was probably aware of the situation. It’s her own chest after all. I felt shy and dizzy too, but I couldn’t just stay stiff here. I also leaned my cheek against Yuzu’s cheek as much as I could and forced myself to smile.

“Joint.”

“Knee.”

*snap*

Following an extremely abbreviated shout, the photo shoot automatically ended.

And soon we were both one step away from the other.

Silence.

Awkward. Extremely awkward.

I was on the verge of exploding with shame, embarrassment and nervousness and I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I could tell that I’d mess up with whatever I say.

Then, after a few moments of silence…

“Now I think about it, I haven’t been to an amusement park for ages.”

“Oh, really? Well, you don’t seem to have any friends to invite! Yamato-kun!”

“It’s none of your business!”

──We both pretended that we didn’t remember the last few tens of seconds.

chocolala: omg, I’m getting second-hand shyness ≧=ʘ‿ʘ=≦