Honest Feelings
"…Sachan seems to be working hard."
It was after school during our club time. Kanata was speaking about someone whose designated seat currently remained empty.
People who were in cla.s.ses that needed to prepare something, probably stayed behind to help. Those who had clubs, did exactly that. So, most people were free after school to do what they needed to do.
"She"s playing ghost, right?"
I had the option of choosing to help out for my cla.s.s as well, but there wasn"t much for me to do anyways. As such, I was sitting here like this, talking with Kanata in the home economics room. As usual, Kanata was focused on staring at the portable console screen displaying the game that she was playing.
"… Seiji-kun, on the day of the cultural festival, can you go and visit her?"
"Eh? Well, that"s fine I guess…"
"… She probably made it seem like she didn"t want you to, but there"s probably some part of her that wants you to see."
"That"s why she"s working hard?"
Kanata nodded.
I do believe it"s a little weird that someone playing a ghost role wants to be seen though.
"Kanata, do you like games?"
"… That"s a foolish question."
Well, as I expected. She"s playing games right at this moment after all.
"In the future, the current cell phone evolves, and ends up holding specs like that of a portable console…"
"… What are you talking about?"
"About the future of games. You can play games on your cell phone just like how you play on portable consoles."
"… That"s just a what if, right?"
It"s in our era though.
"… If you"re talking about mobile games, there are some right now, but you"re talking about more than just that?"
"It"s just a possibility… but if there were those types of games, wouldn"t it be interesting to make them?"
She stared at me like a cautious stray cat, before returning her gaze to her hands.
"… It… might… be interesting…"
I heard a bit from Sana. About Kanata"s future path. It seems she was aiming for a vocational school, that focused game programming, graphics, and other subjects of the sort. She doesn"t know what specific subject she wants to pursue yet though.
Before, I was told that interests and work are different, and I felt that it was definitely true, but I think that"s only the case if you actually take the time to think about it.
"Sorry for making you wait~"
With a relaxed voice, Hiiragi-chan came in.
"There"s a lot of ingredients, so let"s go out shopping in my car."
Sana was the one who wanted the home economics club to make curry, but she seems to be busy, so it ended up being us doing the work. We can"t just push all the work onto Hiiragi-chan after all.
"It might get pretty late, so I"ll probably send you guys directly home afterwards, okay?"
Since that was the case, Kanata and I gathered up our belongings, and exited from the entrance. Soon after, Hiiragi-chan brought the car around for us.
I was about to sit in the pa.s.senger seat when Kanata sat down in it. Well, it can"t be helped I guess. I climbed into the back seat.
"… This pa.s.senger seat…"
"Ii-san, what is it?"
"… Sensei, do you have a boyfriend?"
Hiiragi-chan, you"re too nervous.
"No—I—don"t"
Your eyes are spinning. Are you okay?
"…Really? The pa.s.senger seat… I just thought the seat was positioned quite far back. I was thinking that a person probably a height of about 170 to 180 cm, would be sitting here."
Are you a detective of some sort!? I"m 175 cm. You"re correct, congratulations.
"I-it could be that my father was sitting there?"
"…Ah, I see."
There were no questions after that, and Hiiragi-chan and I both patted our chest in relief.
We were shopping for ingredients, but it was quite a large amount. There"s no way we could get it at the supermarket… What are we planning on doing?
"There"s a farmer that sells a lot of potatoes and onions. The carrots are sold by a different farmer. We"ll be buying them there."
It"s like she"s managing a real store. According to Hiiragi-chan, it was cheaper to buy there, compared to the supermarket.
The curry would be limited to 200 servings a day, and it"s for the two weekend days of the school festival. On Hiiragi-chan"s notes, the amount of potatoes, onions, and carrots weren"t written by count, but rather in weight by the kilograms…. If we"re selling Hiiragi-chan"s handmade products, they could probably be sold at twice the price.
We arrived at the first farmer"s house about twenty minutes later and made our greetings.
"Aaah, it"s all been prepared."
He said, as we were guided to a warehouse-like place. We bought a large number of cases of potatoes and onions. Just like that we arrived at the second farmer"s house, and bought carrots as well.
Originally, Hiiragi-chan probably planned on taking me along. It was kind of heavy for a girl to be carrying all of this. Both the trunk and half of the back seats became filled with ingredients.
After that, we sent Kanata back to her home, leaving it as just the two of us within the car. When my conversation with Hiiragi-chan stopped, I thought back to what Rei-chan had said.
"Senpai, that"s just a furious head-on appeal."
I decided to ask Hiiragi-chan, who had turned the steering wheel in the direction of my house.
"Haruksan."
"Hmm? What is it?"
Last Sunday, she probably couldn"t think or even dream of the fact that I might have been awake then.
"Haruksan, do you ever think about wanting to do… perverted things?"
"Eeeeeh!? W-w-why!? W-why are you asking all of a sudden…?"
She was super shaken.
"Aaaaah, front, look in front!"
The car took a meandering path as it said h.e.l.lo to the opposite lane. Just as I thought that, the car cornered around the guard rail.
"I-it stopped. I thought I would die…"
"Y-yeah…"
She brought the car close to the side and stopped. There were almost no cars or people that would pa.s.s by, so it should be okay.
"Why did you ask that?"
"… Why, well, I heard that even women have that sort of desire."
"Ah, that was written!"
… That was written? What were you reading?
Ohon, Hiiragi-chan coughed as if trying to pa.s.s off what she said.
"It"s one of the three basic desires. So, of course I would. At least a little."
She was in the driver seat, while I was in the back seat, so I couldn"t see her face, but I could see that her ears were red.
"Any resistance…?"
"N-none… probably… t that time… I might be incompetent, but I"ll do my best."
She had shrunk her neck, so I understood that Hiiragi-chan had done her best to squeeze out her courage.
As I thought, Airi-san asking about whether we had done it, had probably inspired her.
I said that it was okay if we did it at our own pace, but if Hiiragi-chan said okay, then there was no reason to hesitate.
"I"ll… also do my best."
Pufu, Hiiragi-chan laughed.
"So you say, but if you seem used to it, I"ll cry…"
She took a sidelong glance at me while pouting with her lips.
"It"s because I do image training."
Fufu, Hiiragi-chan laughed again.
That"s a relief. The serious atmosphere softened.
Opening the door, Hiiragi-chan came into the back seat. Due to all the luggage, it was quite cramped.
With the sun setting, we kissed. The pleasure from the kiss made the back of my head go numb. Closing my eyes, I could clearly feel our breaths mixing together. Maybe it was because of the weird conversation we had, but Hiiragi-chan"s kiss was especially pa.s.sionate and aggressive today.
"Seiji-kun, you said it was fine to go at our own pace though…"
"Yeah."
Staring straight at such a cute Hiiragi-chan, made me slightly embarra.s.sed. With her cheeks dyed in a slightly different color from the sunset, Hiiragi-chan looked at me with upturned eyes.
"I think… i-it might be okay… now…"
"Ah, as expected."
"What do you mean as expected?"
It"s nothing, I shook my head.
"I"ve also… umm, prepared my heart, so… it can"t be in the next few days, but…"
"I-is that an okay…?"
Hiiragi-chan nodded twice while covering her eyes.
"at that time, please take care of me?"
"P-please take care of me as well."
It was conditional, but just like this, I got an okay from Hiiragi-chan.