Chapter 12 – Asanagi is So Cool
The reservation ti was coming up, so Asanagi and I quickly left the station and headed downtown.
“Maehara, I don’t mind you walking next to , you know? If you walk behind like that people will think that you’re stalking .”
“A-ah, right. Sorry.”
“Seriously…”
Asanagi was the one who knew the location of the restaurant, so I intended to follow her from behind, but as expected, walking three steps behind her was a bad move, huh? I involuntarily sighed.
I walked half a step closer to her, but she admonished again.
“Jeez, I said, walk next to , co closer.”
“Wa—”
In the end, Asanagi pulled by the arm and we walked half a step away instead, practically side by side.
Our shoulders were just barely touching. I felt uncomfortable.
She told that the shop we were going to visit was located in a narrow alley. From the main road until we reach a certain drugstore on the left side of the road, turn left toward the alley right beside the drugstore. We wouldn’t get lost looking for the shop because the route was straightforward and easy to follow.
“Seriously, I knew it was coming, but, Maehara, you’re such a pain in the ass.”
“It can’t be helped, okay? This is my first ti doing sothing like this.”
I looked forward, my gaze stopped at the group of students wearing their uniforms in front of us, students from another school. As they strolled along, chatting happily with their group, consisting of both girls and boys, I couldn’t help but think that they lived in a different world than mine.
And then I looked at Asanagi, who was walking next to with her hands hidden inside her hoodie pockets.
“So, Asanagi, do you and Amami-san hang out around here often?”
“Well, yeah. Though, we just wander around aimlessly here. Depending on how we felt, we might go to the karaoke or if we got hungry, we’d go to a cafe, sothing like that.”
“Hmm… As expected, I can’t relate with that at all…”
Like I stated previously, I did co here once in a while, but whenever I did, I always had a purpose for doing so. Buying new gas, books, or doing other errands. Even right now, I had a purpose for coming here.
If I didn’t need to go outside, I’d rather laze around in my house.
“That’s such a lonely way of seeing things. Maehara, you’re just overthinking it.”
Asanagi seed to have a different opinion than mine though.
“What do you an?”
“What I an is that you don’t need to have a clear purpose. For example, if we were hanging out with Yuu and she asked us to go to karaoke, but Maehara butted in and said that there’s a new kind of dessert being released, and asked Yuu and I to go and try it instead. With that, we naturally made plans along the way. In this case, it’s ‘karaoke’ and ‘eating desserts’, so even if we originally went out without a purpose, we’ll still be able to have fun. Understand?”
“Ahh… That’s… Yeah, I get it.”
I could understand from their interactions in class that the reason why Amami-san kept inviting Asanagi to hang out with her was that she genuinely wanted to spend more ti with her.
Things such as karaoke and the like were re afterthoughts.
“That’s why, even if we don’t have a clear purpose, we’ve actually already achieved our goal, which was to spend our ti with our friends. If you think of it that way, our activities wouldn’t seem like a waste of ti.”
“…That’s true.”
“In that regard, we aren’t really all that different from that group in front of us. After all, we’re doing the sa thing, hanging out with our friends. Whether it’s outside or at your house, we are essentially doing the sa thing.”
The reason why Asanagi and I hung out often was not to ‘play so gas’ or ‘eat dinner together’, rather it was because we wanted to spend our ti together.
Sothing like ‘eating dinner together’ was a re afterthought.
“Maehara, sure I spent less ti with you than with Yuu and the others, but I still enjoy spending my ti with you, even though I always get annoyed when you beat my avatar into a pulp… Also, you don’t get annoyed whenever I make inappropriate jokes or call you a loner.”
“No, I’m actually pissed off by that, you know?”
Yeah, I got pissed off whenever she did sothing like that, but I didn’t mind it because it would be aningless to say anything.
After all, I knew Asanagi was joking.
“Speaking of which, when you’re in Amami-san’s group you seem to be fully imrsed in your role, huh? Like, I could totally see you wearing a suit, like a manager or sothing.”
“Shut up… But well, you know, doing that is stressful sotis, especially when I have to deal with a lot of people at once. That’s why I need this kind of peaceful ti once in a while.”
“And said peaceful ti is… Hanging out with a loner like ? Are you really okay with that?”
“Mhm, I’m okay with it. You’ve been a great help, thanks a lot.”
“Ugh…”
“? What’s wrong? You sound like an iguana that was crushed by a 4WD.” (T/N 4WD is a toy car, if you play Yakuza, they called it pocket circuit in that ga)
“No, well… Wait, what the heck? What’s with that comparison?”
‘Thank you for being honest with ’– I couldn’t say that directly to her face, no way.
—Seriously, this person is so cool.
I hated myself for thinking that.
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