Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru

At the evening of Christmas day.

Ending the lovestruck brain hunt, I, Natsukawa Masuzu, was on the way back home.

What is lovestruck brain hunt? It is handing out punishment to lovers who publicly display their affection for each other according to social justice.

Because it’s Christmas today, prey are everywhere. Thanks to that, the hunt went very well. I yelled “I-diot!” at their connected hands and hand chopped them then ran away, or shouted “how lewd—!” at a couple sitting on a bench and ran away. The hunt was successful.

“A—achoo!”

I sneezed, and wiped my nose with a piece of tissue.

Because I was walking around outside the entire day, I was freezing, and I wanted to hurry up and warm myself up in my room.

En route home, I pa.s.sed by lovers and people bringing their family along quite a few times.

Since I already made fun of lovers quite a bit today, I am not angry, but people walking with their families make me upset.

The happy atmosphere of a family being together, it makes me sad.

—Harusaki-san’s family, will they go out to dinner like this too?

I imagined that scene.

Because of that, I hate the act of eating.

Eating is just to attain nutrition, nothing more, nothing less. Eating cake or chicken just because of Christmas, eating food that harms the body during a day of celebration, this is not logical.

That’s why, I will eat Weider in Jelly[1] (room temperature) tonight too.

As I reached the entrance of the apartment.

“Hi, you sure are late.”

Kidou Eita stood there with a dumb look on his face, holding a bag.

“A—ara[2]”

My feelings almost appeared on my face, I pinched my b.u.t.t and held it in.

“What are you doing in front of another person’s house? Are you a stalker?”

“Don’t say things that don’t sound nice when spread.”

“Well, I don’t remember telling you my house address.”

“You were absent for a day in our first semester right? I got it from the homeroom teacher then.”

That homeroom teacher is really nosy, this is why I say you can’t trust females.

“Tonight, I brought a gift[3] for you.”

Eita handed over the bag.

Just with that move, my heart started throbbing wildly, how reproachable.

“What do you mean by that? Is this some kind of Christmas gift or something like that?”

“Huh, why should I give you something like that, this is food.”

“Don’t tell me it’s cake or chicken?”

This man would think of something like that?

“Nope, it’s pork miso soup.”

He said it flatly, with an annoying triumphant look on his face.

“Po—pork?”

“I added ginger to give it more flavour. It will warm you up.”

“Ah……”

My limbs gave out.

This man is really anti-love down to his bones, he’s similar to me.

“What’s wrong? You don’t think that I would bring chicken or cake happily here on Christmas, right? Compared to things that harm your body like those, pork miso soup with a lot of vegetables would definitely be better!”

I seem to have heard those words somewhere before.

“If it has nothing to do with Christmas, why did you bring it?”

“This is a show of grat.i.tude that I didn’t have the chance to convey.”

“Grat.i.tude?”

What is this about, I don’t even know.

“Actually, I met your father.”

“……is that so?”

Although it isn’t pleasant to hear, I have sort of predicted it.

After all, my situations are all leaked to my father. It’s not unthinkable of him to arrange a meeting with him.

“You asked your father to let you stay here before you graduate right?”

“That’s nothing, I just didn’t want to deal with all the petty things that come with transferring schools.”

“Even if that’s the case, I’m happy. You chose to be together with us right?”

He said that and smiled.

……what should I do.

I’m close to tears.

“That goes without question right? I’m the one who founded the maiden club you know.”

So, I smiled.

Smiling when I’m close to tears.

I’ll let you see me cry when I feel like smiling.

Only by doing that, I can live on. That would probably be the case from now on too.

Continuing to lie, no matter what.

“Masuzu.”

I even forced a smile for him to see, but he looked really sad.

“Honestly, I don’t know what you’re thinking about, but—”

He placed his hand on my shoulder with force.

“When you need my help, I can always lend you a hand. I’m your ex-boyfriend after all, I still have this bit of reliability.”

—can’t. I, can’t.

I took the bag from his hands, and turned my back towards him.

“Well well, that’s quite dependable of you.”

In order for you to not see my teary but happy face, I spoke with a clear voice.

“However, please save your reliability for Harusaki-san. How is it going? Has there been any progress this Christmas?”

“No? Totally nothing.”

“If you have the time to bring pork miso soup to me, why not give her a gift.”

“Leave it. We will do things our way.”

His firm words sounded stronger than usual.

I knew it instinctively.

Most likely, something good happened between the two of them.

♦

After parting with him, I went back to my own room in the apartment.

Placing the bag he gave me on the dining table—I dived into my bed.

Natsukawa Masuzu’s feast starts now!

“Haaaaa---------nn---------Eitaaaaa-----!!”

n.o.body will hear anything here.

“Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eita, Eitaaaan!”

So I can shout his name all I want.

I hugged my pillow tightly, and rolled around on my bed, shouting.

In the end, I rolled too hard and fell to the ground, hitting my face hard.

It’s painful.

No, it isn’t painful.

I just need to regurgitate the lines he said before—

“‘When you need my help, I can always lend you a hand.’”

Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunn!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!

“Why didn’t I record it, idiot! Idiot! Idiot!”

I could’ve activated the recording function in my pocket without him realizing.

There’s definitely a way I could’ve done it.

As long as I have that voice, I can fight through the rest of my high school life with a full stomach!

If I don’t save it this way, I can’t continue the fight.

Because, his hand will never hug me again.

Even if it’s just a fake.

Never again.

“Ah, aah. Aaah, aaaaaaaaaaaah!”

How painful.

How painful, my chest is in pain.

This won’t do, I shouldn’t think about "reality’things I hate.

I need to escape this. I need to chase reality out of here.

I stood up, and took out a white bag from the drawer of my desk.

This is the “Eita bag”.

During the second semester, I was collecting his belongings without him knowing and keeping it in this bag.

First up is this, an eraser.

I got the eraser that has become really small, so small you can’t use it any more.

I placed the eraser against my cheek softly.

Closing my eyes, imagining his fingertips.

“Monyo, monyo, monyo, monyo, monyo.”

Mmm, it’s too small to do it with.

Next up is this. A pencil.

The area of the pencil in contact with my face is larger than the eraser, and the best thing is, this is the tool that enables him to work hard every day, it’s an indispensable gem.

“Monyo, monyo, monyo. Ouch, monyo, ouch, monyo.”

Getting stabbed by the sharp end is dangerous.

Using this to monyo might be impossible.

There’s no other choice, let’s use the final weapon.

“Jajan~[4]”

Indoor shoes!

I even have such a thing.

Although I felt sorry when I took away his shoes from his shoe rack, I did replace it with a brand new subst.i.tution. I hope he forgives me. Eita did wear the new shoes too. By the way, I hugged those pair of new shoes while sleeping every night. This is what they call killing two birds with one stone.

My face rubbed across the dirty, worn out indoor shoes.

Although the dirt on the sole stuck on my face, I didn’t mind it.

Because this pair of indoor shoes is adorned with his high school life.

“Monyo, monyo, monyo, monyo……”

Ah, how satisfying.

I prepared the pork miso soup he prepared for me afterwards too.

What a great Christmas—

“……!”

I shook my head, chasing away the evil thoughts.

What am I doing!

I was thanking Christmas, this is an idiotic action that an anti-love shouldn’t have!

To calm my head down, I opened the window and went out to the balcony.

I rubbed my frozen hands, and looked at the entrance of the apartment.

There’s no sign of him anymore.

He should be back in his house, where Harusaki-san is waiting for him.

That’s good.

That’s good enough.

“I’ll definitely, make Eita happy—”

This is the biggest gift I can give him.

Take it, Eita.