Chapter 14: CH 14

It will be difficult, but…

Translated by Dawn

It will be difficult, but…

Specific plans for the double date were made very quickly after that.

It was mainly Shuji and Ogura who worked on it.

The day after he proposed the idea, he formed a LIME group and invited Mizutani and me, and the location of the date was soon decided, followed by the date.

Shuji and Ogura had soccer and brass band activities, respectively, and Mizutani had piano practice, so we decided on a Wednesday in the middle of Golden Week. What? My schedule?  I don’t have any plans.

So, on the day of our double date.

After much deliberation about what to wear, I decided to go with jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

I didn’t have any other decent casual clothes.

I didn’t really need to have any personal clothes, since I didn’t usually go out much.

On weekdays, my uniform would suffice.

As I was checking my clothes at the front door, Mai came out of the living room and peeked at me.

“Eh, brother, you’re up early. It’s rare to see you this early on a day off.”

Mai had no club activities today and seemed intent on sleeping in during the morning.

Mai’s nightclothes, which she scratched her back with sleepy eyes, had none of the charms of a junior high school girl, even Hana would be embarrassed to admit. It was hard for me, her older brother, to believe that she was popular at school.

“I have plans today.”

“…No way, a date?”

Mai’s sensors must have reacted to the sight of me checking my clothes in the mirror.

“No, wait a minu—”. I was about to deny it, but it was too late.

Mai went out into the living room and called out in a loud voice.

“Mother~! Big brother’s going on a date~!”

I heard some rustling in the back.

Soon, “Really?” Mom came rushing in.

You shouldn’t have bothered to get up, Mom. You must be tired from work.

And that was why I didn’t want to be caught leaving the house.

Mom looked at me and said.

“So, spring has finally come to Akito…”

“No, it’s not a dat—”

“That’s right, mom. So from now on, it’s not Akito anymore, it’s Haruto.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“Ehh, that’s a good name. It’s better than Akito, no?”

“It’s the name you gave me.”

Oh man, I couldn’t keep up with the tsukkomis.

Anyway, I had to deny the fact that it was a date.

“It’s not a date today.”

““[Today]””

“Ahh, geez, I told you it’s not like that!”

“Hmm…then who are you going out with? Since big brother, who usually doesn’t care about clothes at all, goes out of his way to make sure he’s dressed appropriately, even if it’s not a date, it’s definitely going out with someone you have to pay attention to how you dress, right?”

“….Well, you know…”

Damn, is this girl really an 8th grader?

She’s attacking me in a very disgusting way.

After Mai, my mom asked this time.

“Who is it? Your high school friend?”

“…any one of them.”

“Girlfriend?”

“I told you, she’s not my girlfriend.”

I sighed.

It wasn’t going to get anywhere at this point, so I might as well tell them appropriately.

“I’m just going out with this Mizutani guy.”

“…Ah, that person?”

Mai, who had previously been misinformed about Mizutani, said.

Mom looked at Mai.

“What? Do you know anything about it, Mai? About that person?”

“Yeah, big brother told me about him the other day. He’s a big guy with a shaved head.”

“…what, it’s a boy then.”

“You’re still a little naive, Mom.”

“…what do you mean?”

“Do you usually check your clothes when you go out with just a male friend?”

“…!? Then don’t tell me it’s not a male friend…”

I had a feeling that the conversation was going in some strange direction, but it was a waste of time to deal with them.

Ignoring them, I got ready, put on my shoes at the front door, and opened the door.

As I was leaving the house, I said one last thing to them.

“Okay, I’m off.”

“Akito…there’s one thing I want to tell you, is it okay?”

“…What is it.”

I had no choice but to turn around when my mother said in a very serious voice.

Before I knew it, she was right in front of me and grabbed me by the shoulders.

“I know it’s going to be hard for you, but…your mom is rooting for you!”

“Y-yeah. Thank you.”

Her son was just going out for the holidays, but wasn’t she overreacting?

*****

Today, I met Mizutani at Nagayama Station, the closest station to my house, and then took the train to the next station.

There we would meet Shuji and the others and then transfer to the monorail to go to the zoo.

So, I headed to the nearest station.

The meeting time with Shuji and the others was 10:00 a.m.

The meeting time with Mizutani was set a little earlier than that.

I arrived at the station about five minutes earlier than that time.

I leaned against a station post, playing with my phone and waiting for Mizutani to come.

Soon someone tapped me on the shoulder, and when I looked up, I was absolutely stunned.

It wasn’t a tap on the shoulder from someone I didn’t expect.

Rather, the person tapped me as I had expected.

It was just that the other person’s appearance was a little unexpected.

“Good morning, Aizawa.”

It was not surprising when I thought about it, but Mizutani was dressed in plain clothes.

She was wearing a denim jacket over a tank top and a long floral print skirt and white sneakers underneath. I was speechless because the non-uniform outfit was fresh and suited her well, to begin with.

Stylish, too stylish.

Mizutani would probably look good in anything, but even so, this was strong.

In a manner of speaking, I am Mizutani’s boyfriend, right? Can I walk next to him in this?

“…Aizawa? Are you okay?”

I finally came to my senses when Mizutani waved her hand in front of my face.

Shaking my head, I shift my eyes away from Mizutani and look across the ticket gate.

Oh no, it’s almost time for the train to come.

“…Let’s go.”

I called out to Mizutani and proceeded to the ticket gate.

Then, unexpectedly, I was grabbed by the sleeve of my shirt from behind.

I turned around and saw Mizutani staring at me.

“…What?”

“You look good in that.”

“…Are you being sarcastic?”

“No, it’s not like that…I’m not weird today, am I?”

Mizutani looked down and looked down at her outfit.

…Oh, that’s what she means.

I had been praising her so much in my head that I mistakenly thought I had praised her in reality as well, but when I thought about it…I hadn’t mentioned Mizutani’s outfit at all. From Mizutani’s point of view, she must have felt like she was being looked over her shoulder.

But can I ask her one thing?

“Do you usually urge people to do that?”

“Because Aizawa looked away after staring at me, I thought there was something wrong with……this denim jacket since it was freshly laundered.”

Ah, I see. That was what you were thinking.

“No, it’s not like that. I didn’t mean to turn away from you because of that, but…”

I was about to say that much when I realized that we were at an impasse.

Because of this, I had no choice but to tell her the real reason why I looked away after staring at her. But it was very difficult to say that reason in front of Mizutani.

“…but?”

Mizutani looked at me as if she expected something.

I looked back at her defeated blue eyes that seemed to see through everything…and I gave up.

“…I was just trying to cover up the fact that I was fascinated by you. So it wasn’t like I thought Mizutani’s outfit was weird or anything.”

“…Ah, I see.”

Mizutani responded to my reply one step later.

With her eyes downcast, she said repeatedly, “I see, I’m glad.”

See, that was why I preferred not to tell her.

I knew it would only make things awkward or itchy or whatever.

“Okay, then…should we get going?”

“…Un.”

Mizutani nodded her head demurely as she scratched her neck to cover up the awkwardness of her words.