Chapter 82: Volume 3 - CH 3.7

“…May I know where the date will be? It’ll ruin the plan if she meets other people she knows on the day, so you’d better choose your location carefully,” Yuzu anxiously voiced my same concern.

Kotani’s personality would make it impossible for her to make a public confession in front of people she knew. Hence the need to be thorough in choosing the right place.

“It’s okay! Sota hasn’t been told about the place—so he can look forward to the surprise—but the place we chose is not somewhere regular people or couples will normally go.”

“And that place is…?”

To our question, Namase cheerfully answered, “It’s the ‘Christmas Fulfilment’ event. Yuzu, I’ve told you about this event before, right? In the end, they’re going to participate in that.”

Yuzu and I froze upon listening to those words. Of all places, their date spot had to overlap with ours.

“It’s an event that you two, an established couple, don’t have any connection to, but if you bump into them on the way, just leave them alone. For Aki too, this second confession is her big gamble. So, see you later!”

Namase finished saying that and walked away with a smile. Only Yuzu and I remained with a heavy air enveloping both of us.

“…”

“…”

Silence ensued, as we were unsure of how to take this situation.

“Er, somehow our places clash,” Yuzu first broke the silence.

I awkwardly nodded and mustered up, “Yeah… Well, it does seem appropriate for us to compromise, don’t you think?”

In the first place, Yuzu and I agreed to ‘date’ in order to help Sakuraba and Kotani to be together. If we ignored that cause, it would negate the very reason for this fake couple’s existence.

No, that wouldn’t do.

“Well, it’s not like we have to stick to this event, we can just go to another event, so it’s not really a big problem,” Yuzu said with feigned cheerfulness.

“That’s right. Let’s go search for a new event,” I answered while suppressing my inner turmoil.

It was still okay. Even if we cancelled our plan to participate in that event, it didn’t erase the fact that I had invited her to a confession event. So, nothing had changed in terms of the situation. I still had a good pretext to actually confess to her.

“Now that we’re at this point, let’s make it a super-luxurious plan. I’m looking forward to listening to your great ideas, Yamato-kun.”

“Don’t raise the bar. I’m scared.”

Trying to rally our sinking hearts, we kept up our spirits and continued the conversation.

But when there were no more students other than us walking down the corridor, Yuzu looked a little more serious.

“Yamato-kun, there’s one thing I want you to answer me honestly.”

“…What is it?”

I sensed there was something different about Yuzu, so I corrected my posture.

Then, she looked into my eyes and asked, “Yamato-kun, do you know the meaning behind the ‘Christmas Fulfilment’ event and is it for that reason that you invited me?”

I was struck speechless.

For a moment, I dithered on how to answer her. However, at the sight of her straight-looking eyes, I gave up trying to fool her.

Yuzu was extremely perceptive of people’s hearts… I was not capable of weaving any lie that could fool her.

“…Um, I didn’t know at first.”

At the very least, I didn’t know the reason at the time that I made that invitation. It wasn’t done after mustering up my courage or with full determination; it was a result of a misunderstanding on my part.

“I see.”

Hearing this, Yuzu smiled a little dolefully.

“Listen, Yuzu. Even then—”

Ding Dong~ Ding Dong~

Right when I tried to explain myself, the ringing bell indicated that it was five minutes before class.

“Whoa, it’s already this late. Let’s go now!”

Yuzu headed for the classroom at a quick pace, as if the bell’s tone was pushing her forward.

“…Yeah.”

Having lost my timing, I gave up speaking about that and went along with her.

…Even if I explain myself now, it’ll sound like I was just making up excuses on the spot. Let’s tell her when things get a bit calmer.

==

Lunch break.

“Yuzu, I have something to talk to you about, is right now okay for you?”

I headed to Yuzu’s seat before the reverberations of the bell had died down and tried to create some time alone with her.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m going to have lunch with Aki today, so I’ll see you later,” Yuzu put up her usual smile and declined my invitation.

For the whole day, I had been trying to talk to her every time we had a break, but each time, she avoided it for this or that reason. The normal me would have backed down at this point, but uncharacteristically I persisted.

“…We can’t, no matter what?”

Yuzu also seemed a little surprised by this unusual me, but she immediately pasted on a smile that was recognisably fake and shook her head.

“Yeah. You see, I think she wants to talk to me about the Christmas Eve thing. Given our objective, how can I ignore her?”

The objective of our fake couple, huh?

Once she said that, I couldn’t force my way anymore.

“…I got it. But can you please make time for me when you have a moment? I have something to say to you.”

“Okay, I will… When both of us are calm, okay?” Yuzu left the classroom after dropping these words in my lap.

It seemed like she had judged that she was still not in a condition of being calm enough to talk properly.

“…No, she did say ‘us’, didn’t she?”

She must’ve sensed my perturbation as well.

When I let out a sigh, I found that all eyes were on me from all over the classroom. Apparently, my interaction with Yuzu—the central figure of the class—had attracted a lot of attention.

Feeling uncomfortable, I made my escape from the classroom.

chocolala: Yamato, what’re going to do now?