Chapter 379: Triangle
Chapter 379: Triangle
The days spent with a girlfriend…
Such thoughts were not something he had never considered.
In the morning, he would purposely loiter at the school gate and not hurry inside until she arrived, greeting her with satisfaction for a cheerful chat before walking into school together.
During class, he would hide from Sensei and secretly pass notes with the help of classmates.
At lunch break, they would eat bento together; sometimes he would have the Heart-shaped Bento she specially prepared for him, and they would say things like, “So, is it good?”, “Yes, it’s super delicious,” in embarrassed yet sweet conversation.
After school ended, they would meet at the shoe lockers to chat about what funny things someone did today or what embarrassing moments someone had yesterday; even if the topics were always silly like this, they never grew tired of it and walked home together every day.
Before bedtime, even if they had already run out of things to talk about, they would still send each other goodnight messages to feel at ease before closing their eyes.
On rest days and holidays, they would of course go on dates together.
To the Amusement Park or Aquarium, to watch movies or go shopping and stroll down the streets.
In summer, they would probably go to the beach or a water park, right?
He would sneak glances at her swimsuit look, his face flushed with both shyness and excitement.
Sometimes, if he accidentally glanced at another girl, she would keep scolding him and getting jealous over it.
And so, the two of them spent times like Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day, summer and winter breaks, and even high school graduation…
They kept accumulating time together, and even if they argued sometimes, they made up quickly; the distance between them kept getting shorter as they grew closer.
Eventually, they became intimate enough to start with the basics like holding hands, moving on to hugs and kisses…
Even, that last shy thing…
As these images flashed through his head, Himekoji unconsciously pictured the girlfriend as Nanami instead of Mashiro.
“Hm… it’s okay.”
Blushing with shyness, Nanami lay beneath him…
His mind instinctively imagined such a beautiful scene.
Just as the fantasy in his head was about to go even further, Himekoji suddenly snapped himself awake—
“Ugh! Crazy, I’m going crazy… what on earth am I thinking?!”
He shook his head hard to shake off all those naughty, dirty thoughts.
This was just daydreaming…
How perverted of him, really…
“But still, if we were dating, that’s exactly how it would be, right?”
Gradually calming down, this thought slipped out quietly from Himekoji’s lips.
Because intimate touches like those were part of being in a relationship.
Himekoji lifted his hand without thinking to touch his lips; the softness and warmth from the Ferris Wheel were still impossible to forget, even now.
If Nanami and he dated, even if she felt shy, she would definitely learn to do all sorts of things with earnest effort, right?
That was just how Nanami was—serious about everything—so she would surely handle love the same way.
And, not just all sorts of things; maybe even all sorts of positions, and Nanami would learn them seriously while blushing…
“Pah! What’s this nonsense about all sorts of positions…”
His brain instantly overheated, and Himekoji banged his forehead hard.
He felt he was way too fixated on such thoughts tonight…
To calm himself down completely, Himekoji walked to the balcony to enjoy the night breeze.
He stood there for barely a few minutes when he suddenly heard a loud “thud” behind him, as if something heavy had fallen over.
Confused, he turned around and discovered the “heavy object” was actually Mashiro; she was lying flat on the floor, stiff as a baby seal.
“Huh?! Hey, Shiina?”
In a rush, he ran back shouting her name and quickly picked her up off the floor.
What caused her to faint out of nowhere like this?
Was she sick?
All kinds of horrible guesses rushed into his head; his expression looked ugly and stiff, as if blank.
“Huff… huff…”
Just as he was worrying, he suddenly heard the sound of her deep, happy snores.
“Hah?”
“Huff… huff… huff-snort…”
Mashiro’s cheeks puffed in and out, sleeping sweetly without a care.
“She was just asleep?!”
Himekoji instantly realized his worry was completely pointless…
“Huff-snort…”
“Don’t answer with a huff-snort! Get up, Shiina!”
It was a false alarm; he had been scared for nothing and was sweating, so Himekoji shook Mashiro’s shoulders impatiently.
He felt if he didn’t do this, Mashiro would definitely sleep on the floor until morning today.
“…Wha?”
After much effort from Himekoji, he finally woke this little sleepyhead up.
Sleepy-eyed, Mashiro struggled to open her eyes and looked at him hazily.
“‘What’? And you’re the one suddenly doing what here? This is the living room!”
“Huh?”
Mashiro looked to the right, then slowly to the left, as if checking her surroundings, but she didn’t finish doing this cute stuff before she gave up and closed her eyes halfway through.
“Huff… huff…”
In less than half a second, she was already making sweet sleepy sounds again.
“Stop sleeping!”
“Akito is too noisy.”
“If you want to sleep, go back to your room!”
“Carry me there.”
“You have legs of your own, go yourself!”
Mashiro held back a yawn and seemed to think it over for a bit,
“Fine, I won’t sleep.”
She suddenly blurted out this answer.
“You’d already fallen asleep if I hadn’t called you!”
“No, I was thinking about the story; I won’t sleep until I figure out the triangle part.”
“Thinking about the story?”
The manga story?
In other words, Mashiro had been drawing manga all day until collapsing from exhaustion just now?
Himekoji suddenly realized.
Mashiro’s efforts were no less than Nanami’s.
“But what’s this ‘triangle thing’ you’re talking about?”
“Triangle… is triangle. Editor said… need conflict… in relationship storyline.”
“Oh… you mean a love triangle?”
Himekoji barely understood.
“Mmm. I… need to… handle… triangle thing.”
Probably too exhausted, Mashiro’s words were fragmented and brief.
“Didn’t sleep at all?”
Seeing her eyelids drooping through sheer willpower, Himekoji felt a pang of sympathy. His voice softened with concern.
Had she even slept properly these past few nights?
“Hungry.”
“So you came to the living room… for food?”
“Then… Akito got mad.”
“Don’t skip the in-between details! And that wasn’t anger!”
“Then what was it?”
Worried about you, dummy!
Himekoji gave up continuing this tiring exchange.
Anyway, the situation was clear: Mashiro got hungry late at night, came out for food, but collapsed mid-way from exhaustion…
He helped the sleepy Mashiro sit on a chair, then took a Baumkuchen from the fridge and handed it to her.
Mashiro nibbled at it slowly.
“Go to bed after finishing this.”
“Triangle thing.”
“……”
Himekoji shook his head wordlessly.
Pointless to argue now, wasn’t it?
Even while eating, her mind remained glued to manga.
Her replies felt like reflexes—tomorrow, she’d remember none of this conversation.
“You really are something else…”
“……”
No reply came; Mashiro seemed not to hear his sigh.
“Honestly…”
Come to think of it… what would dating someone like Mashiro feel like?
He tried imagining it briefly.
“Ummmm…”
Strangely, no images formed. Scenes easily envisioned with Nanami remained blank with Mashiro.
Exchanging meaningless texts? Blank.
Eating a girlfriend’s homemade Bento? Blank.
Even weekend or holiday dates…
All blurry and indistinct.
He couldn’t picture any of it with Mashiro…
Why?
An uncomfortable tightness swelled in his chest—something restless and suffocating.
A voice screamed “Bad news!” in his mind… probably his own.
“No, wait a second!”
No one rushed him, yet panic bit at his heels like something chasing him.
Desperately, he tried calming his frantic thoughts with empty reassurances… but it barely helped.
Mashiro.
Mashiro?
Mashiro…
What exactly had he seen in Mashiro until now?
What feeling had he held for her since the beginning?
What kind of emotion had grown inside him while being with her?
Mashiro?
Mashiro.
Mashiro…
……
……