Chapter 3: Gradual Progress
On the way home, I arranged to meet Hanazono about two minutes’ walk from the school gate.
I did this to avoid being noticed by the other students, but since there are hardly any go-home club members in our class, the risk was close to zero.
At our highschool, where joining a club is basically mandatory, the go-home club is extremely small.
Class 1-2, where I’m enrolled, was no exception—there were only five students treated as go-home club members.
Remi is a transfer student, so she’s on hold.
Yuzuha’s gal group, including herself, runs a social club called the “Fashion Club,” so that’s a gray area.
Hanazono belongs to the student council as secretary, so I’m essentially the only genuine stray go-home club member.
Yuzuha told me, “You’re actually standing out more!” But considering the rumors about me dating Yuzuha have already spread, and my childhood friend relationship with Remi has been exposed, it’s too late to worry about that now.
Even if I try to lurk in the shadows, I keep getting dragged into the spotlight, so I’ve long given up on having a completely inconspicuous high school life.
That Remi and Yuzuha seem to have become quite close, and after school, the four of them in the group apparently went out somewhere together.
As I walked while thinking about Yuzuha’s group, I spotted Hanazono’s figure.
Standing at the entrance to the shortcut path, she boasted an extraordinary cuteness that was stunning even without any bias, and all my previous thoughts were blown away from my brain.
“Yaho~”
“O-oh”
“Fufu. Why are you nervous?”
“I’m not, I’m not nervous at all”
“Really?”
Hanazono lowered the corners of her eyes and lined up next to me.
“Hey, since we have the chance today, let’s use the shortcut path”
I was surprised by Hanazono’s suggestion.
The route home from highschool forces pedestrians to choose between two main options.
Either take the gently sloping road or keep going down the steep descending stairs.
“No, but that’s all stairs”
“This way, it’s just the two of us, right?”
“…Stairs are pretty nice, aren’t they?”
“Fufu, so obvious”
“My apologies”
Even to my response that could be considered creepy depending on how you look at it, she laughed warmly.
After walking down the slope for about five minutes from the school gate, stairs appeared.
The poorly maintained stairs were flanked by fences on both sides, and beyond the fences, mountains spread out.
Recently, wild boars apparently come out at night, making this path particularly popular with groups of boys.
At this time, most students are busy with club activities.
Otherwise, they can’t pass through here.
“How was today’s quiz?”
“There’s nothing to say about it—it was terrible”
“Eh, that bad?”
“My raw ability showed through. That would have been fine by itself, but I got my hopes up halfway through”
Without Remi’s pseudo-help, I could have accepted it, but I couldn’t solve anything at all.
Well, I’m happy about the fact that she helped me, though.
“What about you, Hanazono?”
“I probably got around eighty points. Pretty average, I guess”
“But that’s way higher than mine”
“Really? That gives me courage!”
“Hey!”
At my retort, Hanazono giggled.
The conversation flowed naturally.
I couldn’t tell if this was as friends or as lovers.
But if it were the latter, wouldn’t there be more conversation different from usual?
Perhaps sensing a shift in the atmosphere, Hanazono sent me a reserved glance.
When I closed my mouth, she responded by saying:
“…Want to try holding hands?”
“…Eh? Is that okay?”
“Yeah. Um, I want to hold hands”
After rephrasing, Hanazono moved a little closer to me.
“…Here goes”
Without being able to give a proper response, my hand touched Hanazono’s.
Then, as the end of the stairs came into view, Hanazono quickly let go of my hand.
It was only a few seconds.
Yet in those few seconds, I strongly realized that I was her boyfriend.
“…Man, I’m Hanazono’s boyfriend”
“What? Are you just now realizing it, Yosshi?”
“Well, that feeling just got stronger”
“…From now on, little by little, right?”
“What will be?”
“…Meanie”
“Eh, no, I didn’t mean it like that”
Maybe she was talking about future progress.
But asking directly would be indecent, and she might be put off.
Thinking that, I couldn’t bring it up.
“By the way, how am I doing so far?”
“Eh? What kind of question is that? It’s hard to answer”
“Hmm…”
Remi had warned me.
If I asked whether it was okay for me to talk with other girls, she’d have no choice but to give me the okay.
But is that really true?
Wouldn’t it be better to decide on the difficult-to-ask things early on, rather than let them get complicated later?
Steeling myself, I opened my mouth.
“I want to ask you something. Is it okay for me to talk with female friends? I don’t have many, but I do have some friends of the opposite sex”
“That’s totally fine, isn’t it?”
“Really?”
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Getting approval so easily gave credibility to Remi’s opinion.
…I guess I made her worry about my feelings after all.
As I was regretting it, Hanazono added:
“I mean, I knew about your friendships when I started dating you. I’d be jealous if they were closer to you than I am, but if you didn’t want me to dislike normal conversation, you should have told me before we started dating, right? From your perspective, Yosshi”
“Ooh…I see”
It was an unexpectedly logical opinion that seemed perfectly reasonable.
I got tentative approval, and her response that being too close was NG felt like proof of her true feelings.
“But if it’s someone you had a good thing going with in the past, that’s a different story”
“Eh?”
“I mean, if that’s the case, you might go to them instead, Yosshi”
After blinking, I understood what she meant.
“Why would I do that? I’m not going anywhere”
“But Yosshi, you seem popular”
“No, seriously, not at all. Actually, that’s more like teasing”
“Eh, but I said okay to your confession”
Hanazono continued matter-of-factly.
“That means you’re quite popular”
“…That’s suddenly a lot of confidence”
“It’s not confidence, it’s…a matter of probability”
Hanazono replied with a slightly embarrassed look.
She seemed to think it was a slip of the tongue herself.
“I’m not as flashy as the people around you, Yosshi”
“But I said I liked you just as you are, Hanazono”
“Thank you. I was happy”
“Don’t put it in past tense, okay?”
Whether it was unconscious or not, Hanazono just relaxed her mouth.
I thought she would smile like that, but she slowly pulled back her smile.
“I’m still taking those words you said then as half-truth. The words about showing only the parts you want to show”
“Eh?”
“So, Yosshi, you don’t have to be bound by your own words. Be free, and then decide based on that. If you don’t change, I’ll be happy, but…I think it’s natural if you do change”
She spoke in a quiet tone.
Unable to say anything in response to her atmosphere that was different from her usual self, I listened as Hanazono continued.
“People change. Especially at our age”
“…You’re quite philosophical, aren’t you”
My honest thoughts leaked out. Hanazono chuckled.
“Is being philosophical bad?”
“Not at all. It’s cool, like an adult”
“I’m glad. Being adult is good. I want to become an adult soon”
“Wow, that’s amazing…I’d rather be a high school student forever. No, I’d prefer to stay between first and second year. I don’t want to think about exams”
“Ahaha, I don’t like exams either”
“Right?! Besides, I don’t feel like I can do everything high school students do in just one round”
“That’s true. Do you want to do high school student-like things?”
“Well, doesn’t everyone?”
“I thought you were different since you’re not in any clubs, Yosshi. Won’t you join one?”
“I won’t join. Handball is too late now…and there don’t seem to be any clubs that are easy to join later”
“There are, though. Like the volunteer club”
“V…volunteer club…?”
That’s extremely questionable.
Actually, it’s more like a definite no.
While volunteering itself is wonderful, I don’t have the confidence to enjoy spending my precious youth helping others.
I finally got a girlfriend, so I’d rather be in the same club—no, student council would be too much.
“I’m kidding. Volunteering doesn’t suit you anyway, Yosshi”
“That’s harsh! I’ll have you know I went to quite a few riverside cleanup activities when I was little!”
“That’s surprising too. But I think sports would suit you better, Yosshi”
As if it were obvious, Hanazono looked at me.
“…There probably aren’t many people at highschool who would say that”
“Really? In PE class, you stand out quite a bit, Yosshi”
“Eh? Like, athletically gifted?”
“You’re not in any sports club but you can move pretty well”
“That was diagonally below my expectations…”
Well, most people don’t know that I was actually in a sports club.
Probably only people who knew me up through middle school. Hanazono is just one of those precious few.
Going down the stairs, we came to a small road wide enough for one car.
If we went straight through, we’d immediately go down another set of stairs, but if we walked along this small road, there’s an unpopular park.
The park, which doesn’t even have a single vending machine or restroom, overlooks a small sports ground.
We headed for the solitary bench and sat down together.
Neither of us said anything; it just happened naturally.
That made me a little happy, and I relaxed my expression.
With each breath, I caught a faint scent of sand.
“I’d like to see your handball again, Yosshi”
“Handball, huh. If there’s a sports festival or something, I’ll show off”
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