When we went outside, it was still before 7 PM, so the sun was setting. The street light built on the side of road was illuminating the path for the three people.
Usually the road, that was frequently being used by students, was now mostly occupied by the office workers, returning home.
Unlike the daytime, the night wind still felt chilly.
“Which reminds me, what were you talking about with Kaede?”
Looking at the two walking slightly ahead, I suddenly recalled the scene from earlier.
It was a scene of the two, bringing their faces near Kaede’s ear and having some kind of strategy meeting.
While at the beginning, Kaede had not showed much interest in the conversation, after the two conveyed something to her, suddenly the look in her eyes changed. I was curious the whole time, about it.
“I will tell you about that afterwards.”
Shizuku replied cheerfully.
In short, I won’t be informed about it, yet.
While I did have little bit of interest, since it was not enough to the degree of pursuing it, the matter finished here.
Since topics for conversation were also exhausted, only the sound of three people’s shoes rubbing on the ground, could be heard. I suddenly noticed that the smartphone in my pocket was vibrating.
There was a notification regarding incoming calls on the screen. Looking at the logs, I could see around 10 missed calls from Yuuto in a straight line.
The calls were logged at an interval of 5 minutes each and there were also a number of messages received as well.
“…Since I left it in the room, I was not able to see it.”
As soon as I was going to call, I received a new message “If you are coming, please give me a reply by mail”. I conveyed to him that this was the first time, I came to know about him contacting and that I was heading over there.
Shizuku walking ahead, also checked her smartphone, exclaimed with “Oh!”. I wonder if she was not able to confirm about us coming, from my house.
I felt really guilty towards him… Let’s apologize properly, later.
We arrived in front of the store, around 15 minutes after the appointed time.
Even from outside the store, we could see our cla.s.smates, eating happily.
“It is difficult to go inside.”
I can understand very well, the feelings of Kirasaka, who muttered so.
It is the same feeling when coming late to cla.s.s.
Entering later would attract awkward attention. It makes me really uncomfortable.
Unlike us, who were hesitating about going inside, Shizuku opened the door quickly, saying “Let’s go”.
With the bell attached to the door ringing, the bustling conversation was interrupted for a moment.
After noticing that it was Shizuku, the inside of the store became noisier than before.
“Ah..Now is the time.”
Noticing that most of the students’ gazes were locked on Shizuku, I nonchalantly, crept inside the store.
Kirasaka also entered the store after me. Across the pa.s.sage from where our cla.s.smates were sitting, in the opposite side, we took our seats.
The place, where we secured our two small seats, was like a private room with its own attached sliding door, which we closed quickly.
“With this, it could be said that we have more or less partic.i.p.ated.”
“Certainly, since we entered the shop, we can say that we partic.i.p.ated.”
There was the matter about apologizing to Yuuto, but amidst this bustling atmosphere, it seems impossible to greet him.
There was touch panel model for menu on the seats. Using it, I ordered beverages for the two people’s portion and turned to ask Kirasaka.
“It is not my place to say, but wasn’t Kirasaka also not partic.i.p.ating?”
“Certainly, it is not your place to say.”
While laughing at a level, which was drowned by the noise, inside the store, she put up two fingers.
“There are two reasons, for me partic.i.p.ating. The first one is, I wanted to listen a bit more, about Shinra-kun. Due to circ.u.mstances, we also gained a pretty good private room…. Well, as for the next one…
And then, one more thing
Saying like that, she started speaking about her private conversation with Shizuku.
“Shinra-kun is going alongside that handsome guy and Kanzaki-san to the amus.e.m.e.nt park, this Sunday?”
“Amus.e.m.e.nt park?”
In the schedule present in my memory, there was nothing written for Sunday.
In other words, it was supposed to be a day, spent leisurely inside the house.
When I told her that I had no such plans, Kirasaka looked at me in a puzzled manner.
“According to her, you will be going together to the amus.e.m.e.nt park this Sunday. So my condition for this time’s partic.i.p.ation was, for this time, Shinra-kun will be handed over to me.”
While saying “Kaede-chan is also alright with it!”, she appeased her thirst with the drink, she was carrying.
Since I was going to be taken away to amus.e.m.e.nt park on Sunday, was that why Kaede was surprised….
I started understanding the scene that had happened earlier. In the first place, since I had to confirm my doubt, I brought out my smartphone.
Fom the contact address, I chose the “Smile Manufacturing Machine” contact and sent a short mail to the registered address, “There is something I have to ask, so come outside.”
“Please wait for a while.”
Telling this to Kirasaka, I went outside the store alone.
Glancing at Yuuto from outside, he also noticed my message. Saying few words to the cla.s.smates around him, he left his seat.
While I waited, sitting on the bench outside, Yuuto also came over and sat besides me.
“I am sorry for not noticing your calls and messages, earlier… I left the phone in the room.”
“Don’t worry about that kind of stuff.”
For the time being, regarding the incident earlier, firstly I apologized properly to Yuuto.
That was certainly my fault.
Since I have apologized to Yuuto, now I can frankly ask about the matter I want to know.
I grasped the hand of Yuuto with both of mine and asked him, while exerting the full power within my body. I grasped Yuuto’s hand with both of mine and putting all my strength, I asked.
“You…. On Sunday, why am I also supposed to go together with you?”