Chapter 8: CH 9

TL: Furby

ED: DannY

Obstructing Tanaka…

The most effective way to deter him would be to show-off to him how good of a relation Suzuka and I had, without disclosing we’re married.

Of course, the best method would be letting him know we are lovers…

“Suzuka, we won’t tell the class that we’re married, but shouldn’t we tell them we’re going out?”

“Hmm~. When we spoke with the teacher, they told us to not say that we’re dating, no? Since doing so would make it easier for them to connect the dots and discover we’re married. Also, though we didn’t tell the teacher, remember, we won the lottery. It would be bad for us if people got curious about why we got married and they found out about the lottery.”

It was a special booklet that winners of large sums of money were given.

There were many examples of other winners who had been met with misfortune.

People who, after casually telling their friends of it, found them being excessively flattering or pestering.

Others who had salesmen coming every day to their doors.

Some who were constantly asked by acquaintances to be guarantors for loans.

And so on and on.

Hence, we decided not to let our friends know of our marriage nor get suspicious and discover we won the lottery.

“I know, but…”

Tanaka was one of those close acquaintances.

If possible, I would like to hint to him that Suzuka and I are in a relationship, or more precisely, in a marital relationship.

After all, no matter what anyone may say, that would be the best way to prevent Tanaka from making a move on Suzuka.

“You want to boast to everyone you’re my lover?”

“That’s not really my goal.”

“Hahh… Isn’t that where you’re supposed to say, ‘Yes, I want to!’, even if it’s a lie?”

“Right back at you. If you’re saying that, that means you want everyone to know it. Oh, that reminds me, we decided the destination for our graduation trip. Should we start making reservations?”

Suzuka and I had narrowed down our destination candidates.

Since we’ve officially been named the organizers, all the paperwork and other things have been left to us.

The season being what it was, we need to move as soon as possible; otherwise, we’ll be sure to be met with trouble down the road.

Having finished eating our apple pie, Suzuka and I went to fill out the reservation forms on the computer.

All that was left now was to gather everyone’s part and make a transfer to the travel agency.

“Hmm~, our money’s been decreasing more and more lately. If we don’t hurry and learn already how to manage our money, we may lose it all.”

“Oh right! I bought this along with the apple pie.”

I took out a book about asset management from my bag.

That’s right, having won the lottery, we have monetary capital.

Just looking at it without doing anything else is the very definition of wasteful.

My dad even told me that if I had that amount of money, I ought to start investing. That’s why I want to start studying it seriously.

“I guess if we don’t have the necessary investment knowledge, all that’s left is to go to an investment trust, huh?”

“All other forms of investment appear to carry some sort of risk with them, after all.”

“So, what’ll you do with your funds?”

“For the time being, I was thinking we could keep a few years’ living expenses’ worth of money at hand, some 20,000,000 yen, and have the rest invested.”

“You’re right about that. Twenty million yen should be more than enough to let you live without worries for a few years. I wonder if I should do the same.”

What a curious feeling this is, us two discussing with each other about our futures.

This despite us not having talked about this in the least until a little while back.

As we continued to have an unexpectedly serious conversation about many things, my mother came back home.

Seeing both Suzuka and I talking to each other in the living room, she spoke to us.

“Planning for the future is important. Be sure to be careful. Even if you don’t go into very specific details, you should still make some plans for things like children, ok?”

Talk about awkwardness.

I want it to be April already and leave this house, you know?

Since my mother had already returned, Suzuka and I decided to stop talking in the living room and move to hole up ourselves in my room.

I mean, if we remained in the living room back then, we’d end up my mother’s prey.

Suzuka and I are still very much newlyweds.

She must have a mountain of things she wants to ask.

We entered my room and Suzuka, who sat on my bed, complained as she opened the package of candy sticks dipped in chocolate and munched at them.

“When she brings up the topic of kids is when I least know what kind of face I should make!”

“The same goes for me. That joke of hers is very tolling on the mind. Also, you’ve totally taken over my bed, haven’t you? Just so you know, that’s my favorite spot to relax too!”

She’s gotten used to relaxing on top of my bed.

Where did the woman who said she was nervous go?

“Guess it can’t be helped. Here.”

Suzuka, who had been seated in the center of the bed, moved slightly to the side.

She gestured over to the space that had opened up beside her by patting it.

Her face was saying, ‘I made you space, so how about you sit down?’. Nonetheless, from how the space she freed was super small, barely enough for me to sit, she must have been teasing me.

That said, since she went through the trouble to make that space for me, I tried to fit into it.

“O-kay!”

“Wha, close! You’re too close!”

“That so? Rather, you’re still taking over most of the bed, aren’t you? Since we’re husband and wife, we should neatly divide it into halves.”

Saying that, I tried to push Suzuka over and gain a bigger corner of the bed for myself.

“No way! This is my bed!”

She yelled and didn’t move any more to the side.

Being so close to each other our shoulders were almost glued together, we both played with our phones on top of the bed.

{ED/N: Such wholesomeness heals my heart wounded with trashy isekais}

Remembering a video I was interested in that had been sent to me, I tilted my smartphone sideways and started to watch it.

It’d be best not to play it on speaker.

I tried to put some earphones on but was prevented from doing so.

“I wanna watch it too.”

“Hm? Ok.”

We began to watch it from the small display screen, on top of the bed, shoulder-to-shoulder.

A few tens of minutes into the video:

“Is this what they call flirting?”

“Maybe.”

It was when I whispered that.

Suzuka reached out and grabbed my hand that wasn’t holding the phone.

“Ehehe, if I do this, would it be lovey-dovey?”

“Then, how about we go and do this?”

I intertwined my fingers in hers.

This is the so-called interlocked fingers handhold.

Two hands holding tightly to one another.

This feeling… Pressing our hands together, creating a slight warmness… It was pleasant.

“Say, Yuuki.”

“What’s up?”

“Want some candy?”

Ah, now that she mentioned it…

This girl’s been eating candy sticks covered in chocolate on someone else’s bed this whole time, right?

“My hands are busy, so feed them to me.”

One hand is holding Suzuka’s hand.

The other is holding the smartphone where we’re watching the video.

It happened after I demanded that she feed me because I couldn’t use my hands.

“Ahnn”

She held one end of a candy stick in her mouth and turned her face towards me.

It was almost as if she was telling me to do that thing you often see people on group dates do.

I tried reaching for the stick she held in her mouth, but before I could,

“Somehow, it feels empty to have my first in this way…”

Suzuka spoke as she ate the whole candy stick that had been in her mouth.

Then, she stuffed some candy sticks into my mouth normally, with her hand.

This candy that she stuffed into my mouth…

I’m not sure why but, I felt it was slightly sweeter than normal.