Chapter 184

Chapter 184 – Those Two’s Past

After breakfast, Riku-san and Umi left to go help out at Mizore-san’s house. I decided to go back to our room.

I came back to a room fully cleaned by Shizuku–san. The futons were already taken away, so the room looked as clean and neat as when we first arrived.

Umi said that she would be back by noon, so I would have the whole room to myself.

Since I had nothing to do, I sat down on the sofa and let out a deep sigh.

“What should I do? It’s boring without Umi…”

If this was my room, I would have pulled out my console and started playing already. But I didn’t bring any console with me.

Should I take a nap? I did plan to play in the river with Umi after this, so it wouldn’t hurt to get some rest before that. But, could I even fall asleep? I had a good night’s rest and I wasn’t feeling tired at all…

Inside the quiet room, I stared blankly at the ceiling while thinking about Umi.

“Since we got here, Umi has been showing more of her cute side…”

I wasn’t saying that she wasn’t cute normally, it was just, she had been acting 30% cuter than usual. Aside from showing me various expressions in a span of one day, she also showed me various looks. From her summer outfit, yukata, her usual loungewear…

And last but not least, her appearance when she was bathing in the hot spring…

“…No, wait, I shouldn’t try to remember that kind of thing this early in the morning.”

Even though I managed to control myself last night, her appearance was still destructive for me. The murky water managed to hide her body from the chest down, but I could still see through it a little.

She noticed this, of course. I mean, I was staring at her chest from time to time, she would be bound to notice it even if she didn’t want to.

I could still vividly remember the sight.

Her bare skin, her two soft mounds pressing against my arms–

“Jeez, stop thinking about this already! If I keep thinking about it…”

My eyes wandered to the table. Right next to the tray with tea and snacks, there was a box of tissues. I was sure that I took care of my urges properly before the trip, but because of what happened in the mountain yesterday and in the hot spring last night, those urges started haunting me again. To be fair, I was barely even seventeen, so having this much ‘energy’ was normal… Right?

“I should go outside… Staying here any longer will be dangerous…”

I decided to move my body around to distract myself from this boiling urge. Before that, I gulped down a cup of tea first. A walk around the inn should calm me down.

After going downstairs, I headed toward the direction of the hot spring, though I wasn’t trying to go there. Rather, I went to where the vending machine was because there were a lot of things for me to play with there like massage chairs and a ping-pong table.

Some of them were old traditional games, giving me the perfect traditional Japanese inn vibe.

“My dad kept those as a hobby. You don’t need to pay for them to play them.”

“Shizuku-san?”

Suddenly, Shizuku-san came out from the entrance of the open-air bath and approached me.

She seemed to have just finished cleaning that place. Instead of her waitress dress, she was currently wearing the same outfit that she wore when we met at Mizore-san’s house. A shirt, black jeans and a towel with the word ‘Shimizu’ embroidered on her neck.

“Good morning. I heard that you had a rough day yesterday, but did you get a good night’s sleep?”

“…I guess you could call it a rough day yesterday, huh?”

“I saw what happened during breakfast. Umi-chan was all over you. What did you do to make her love you that much, Maki-kun?”

“Nothing in particular… That’s just the kind of person she is…”

It was my morning kiss that made her act like that, but there was no way that I would say that out loud.

“Um, by the way, what did you talk about with Riku-san yesterday, Shizuku-san?”

“Hm? Well… It’s been a long time since we last met, so we just talked about trivial stuff… Why do you ask though?”

“No particular reason… Well, it’s just, you two look so close, so I was curious…”

“Do you think there’s something going on between us?”

“…Yeah, honestly.”

After seeing the way they looked at each other, I figured out that they didn’t treat each other as ‘childhood friends’, but someone of the opposite sex.

The feeling was particularly strong with Shizuku-san.

If Umi were to hear this, I was sure that she would agree with me.

‘She has the face of someone with an unrequited love.’ Umi would probably say something like that.

“Hahaha… I tried to hide it as much as I could, but I guess I got carried away when it was just us two talking, huh?”

“Do you like him, Shizuku-san?”

“Hmm~ Can I call it ‘like’? I’m not sure…”

“Huh?”

“Well, I confessed to him once years ago and he rejected me…”

“What?”

That was unexpected.

I thought Riku-san would be the one who confessed to her.

Her words made me want to hear more about this. Sadly, she was currently on the clock, so I doubt that she had the time to tell me her story.

“You’re curious, aren’t you, Maki-kun?”

“Um… Yes, I am curious… Sorry about that, Shizuku-san.”

“Hehe, it’s fine, I’m the one who talked a little too much there… As long as you can keep our conversation a secret from Rikkun, I can tell you everything.”

“Can I tell Umi about this?”

“Yes. It’s inevitable that you’ll tell her anyway, right? You two are a real idiotic– no, you two are really close.”

“Uh, you can just call us an idiotic couple. Our friends call us that all the time anyway.”

Well, we fed each other all the time during lunch, so it was inevitable that everyone would call us that.

Now that I think about it, what were they currently doing, I wonder?

“All right, I’ll tell you a little about our situation. I would love to tell you everything, but I have work to do. This is a story from when we just graduated from high school.”

She sat down next to me and was about to tell me her story when…

“Ah, Mama!”

“Reiji?”

Reiji-kun appeared.

He was wearing a shirt and short pants that weren’t buttoned properly. There was a game console in his hand.

Shizuku-san seemed surprised to see him here.

“What’s wrong, Reiji? Why are you walking around on your own again?”

“Sorry, Mama. I went to the toilet, then I saw big brother…”

He looked apologetic as he turned his gaze to me.

I see. When he went out of the toilet, he saw me, so he chased after me and ended up here.

“Reiji, this big brother is a guest, so you shouldn’t bother him, okay? Go back to your room, okay, Dear?’

“Yes, Mama… I’m sorry…”

Despite his disappointed look, he still obeyed Shizuku-san’s words.

He brought a console along, so he probably wanted to play with me.

After we came down the mountain together yesterday, he got attached to me quickly. This was probably his way of thanking me.

If that was the case, then it would be better for him to not go back to his room on his own.

“Shizuku-san, I can play with him, if you don’t mind.”

“!”

My words made Reiji-kun’s eyes sparkle.

He wanted to play with me that badly, huh?

Honestly, I felt quite happy that he was this attached to me even though we just met yesterday.

“Are you sure? He’ll be fine by himself though…”

“Yes. I don’t have anything better to do anyway. Besides, it’s more fun to play games together than alone.”

It was a pity that I would be missing the story she was about to tell me, but it wasn’t like this would be the only opportunity.

“Reiji, big brother said that he will play with you, do you want to play with him? If so, listen to him properly and stay quiet, okay?”

“Mm! Will do!”

“Really? Promise?”

They made a pinky promise before Shizuku-san placed Reiji-kun on her lap.

“Thank you very much, Maki-kun. You’re supposed to be our guest, but you had to help us out with something like this instead. I’ll try my best to finish my work quickly, okay?”

“Don’t mind it… Uh, Reiji-kun, let’s play together, okay?”

“Mm!”

And so it was decided that the two of us would be playing a game together.

Though, rather than babysitting, it felt more like I was playing with a friend way younger than me.