Chapter 364: Things Unknown

“Getting service from Aoyama like this, even the pain is worth it.”

“What are you saying!”

“Huh, but it was Aoyama who asked me first, right?”

“That might be true, but…”

Perhaps feeling shy, the girl’s small hands didn’t know where to put themselves for a moment. In the end, she lifted them high above her head and loosened her ponytail.

When people don’t know what to do, they always want to do something, anything.

“What?”

Then, Nanami noticed Himekoji staring at her intently, so she asked in a strangely stiff voice.

That stiff, odd tone wasn’t from being unhappy – maybe the opposite was true.

“I just feel that looking up at Aoyama like this is really new and fresh. It’s the first time,” Himekoji confessed so honestly.

It truly felt odd. Just changing the viewing angle brought a completely different visual experience.

Maybe it was because Nanami had let her hair down now?

Switching from a practical high ponytail to quiet, shoulder-length loose hair, Nanami pulled off both totally different styles perfectly.

“Don’t look at my nostrils.”

Yet, what the girl cared about first was this strange thing. Before she even finished speaking, she already covered her nose with her small hand.

“Just changing your hairstyle makes you look totally different.”

The hair always tied up before was released at this moment, falling over the girl’s shoulders and down to her chest. The ends of her beautiful, dark hair swayed gently with each of her breaths and every tiny movement. Even for someone who wasn’t a cat person, it was a sight that made you want to reach out and touch.

“That doesn’t sound like something Himekoji would say. Could your head still be spinning?”

“Maybe that’s really it.”

Even Himekoji couldn’t help doubting himself a little. Why was he saying all this messy stuff?

It wasn’t like him.

But even though he noticed this, his gaze was still glued, seemingly automatically, to the ends of Nanami’s hair as they swayed with her breathing.

“Do you want to touch it?”

Nanami suddenly asked like that.

“I do.”

Himekoji spoke honestly, deciding to be truly sincere this once.

“Then… I won’t let you touch it.”

In the end, he got teased by Nanami.

The usually serious and careful girl could sometimes be playfully cute like this.

“Then why did you even ask…”

Himekoji rolled his eyes in annoyance, finding that deep down, he actually felt a little unwillingness.

He really still wanted to touch it.

“I just asked.”

A simple and blunt explanation. Was this what they called “the final interpretation rights belong to the owner”?

Nanami’s answer annoyed Himekoji greatly.

“You totally went back on your word, didn’t you?”

“There’s a reason.”

“What?”

“Because I don’t want to be compared to Mashiro’s hair… Hers is probably smoother and more beautiful, right?”

“…”

Suddenly, a name appeared that Himekoji hadn’t expected at all. His heart started pounding wildly.

“Your heart sped up just now, didn’t it?”

Was it really that obvious?

Nanami had seen through him instantly.

“Aren’t you going to ask why Shiina’s name came up?”

“…So you knew.”

Though the sentence sounded surprised, the tone carried little actual surprise.

“You know that I know, don’t you?”

The girl stared directly at Himekoji.

Himekoji didn’t speak, silent agreement.

“You clearly knew all that, yet you still came out with me today?”

Nanami’s voice sounded probing, yet her gaze couldn’t help being a bit lonely.

“No… There are still many, many things I don’t know.”

Those unknown things included Mashiro, Nanami, and even others besides them…

Of course, these weren’t even the worst. What truly pained Himekoji was that often, he didn’t even understand his own feelings anymore.

But—

“I want to know.”

After saying this, Himekoji skipped over the topic.

For this stage, they could only talk this far.

This was already the limit.

Then, abruptly changing the subject, Himekoji said—

“Aoyama’s hair is also very smooth and beautiful, you know.”

“Huh?”

This time, redness spread over Nanami’s face, and she was the one left speechless.

The shyness from being complimented and the guilt that came from her thoughts being seen through mixed together.

Somewhere along the line, she had become like this – always unconsciously comparing herself to Mashiro, always subconsciously wanting to get Himekoji’s recognition. Even when she tried desperately to hold back, it hardly worked.

“R-really?”

Nanami fussed with the ends of her hair. The loneliness from moments ago seemed swept away just like that.

Girls could be so easily satisfied sometimes.

“I feel really relaxed and happy coming to the amusement park with Aoyama.”

“I truly hope Aoyama achieves her dreams. So, I thought… if this could help Nanami, then that would be really great.”

Himekoji looked directly into Nanami’s eyes without any hint of evasion.

“It helps! Of course it helps! Himekoji has always helped me so much!”

Suddenly remembering what had happened earlier, emotions surged uncontrollably. Nanami pressed her lips together lightly, her expression earnest.

Getting closer because of adopting Hikari… she had ended up confiding so much to him. The loneliness of studying alone in a foreign land, the distress of her family not understanding or supporting her dreams…

His patience when he listened, the thorough care when they worked part-time jobs together, the bento boxes that always appeared just in time at the end of the month when she was starving – “I made too much,” “I can’t finish this” – and the medicine that magically appeared in her desk the moment she caught even the slightest cold or fever.

And even—

“You can rely on me, Aoyama.”

“I want to be someone Aoyama can rely on.”

“I want to become a person Aoyama can depend on.”

These words he said to her contained a gentleness she had never heard before.

And on that very day, all her fragile yearnings, nurtured over more than ten years of life, finally found a clear, solid shape for the first time.

To this day, she still remembered that embrace tightly – so warm, so strong.

Late at night, it reappeared in her dreams, over and over.

So—

She had fallen in love, Aoyama Nanami.

A high school first love that arrived late.

…

“If that’s how it is… then that’s good… Yeah, what do you want to play next?”

It wasn’t the kind of atmosphere Himekoji was good at handling, so he deliberately started a new topic.

Nanami looked down at Himekoji who was still resting his head on her lap, and couldn’t help smiling lightly.

“With Himekoji like this, you probably can’t handle anything too intense right now, can you?”

“No, quite the opposite! Thanks to Aoyama’s thorough care, I’m fully recovered.”

“So, are you planning to ride the roller coaster again until you faint, to get me to offer my lap once more? Do you like it that much?”

Feeling good, Nanami teased him mischievously, like it was a little prank.

“I absolutely wasn’t thinking that!”

“Saying that with your mouth, but your body tells a different story, doesn’t it? There’s no sign you want to get up at all, is there?”

Because it felt incredibly comfortable, he really didn’t feel like moving yet.

But now that she had said that, Himekoji had to get up. After all, he still had his pride.

Getting up, he reluctantly parted with the warmth of her lap, hiding any sign of it on his face.

Himekoji cleared his throat lightly, putting on a serious expression.

“Alright then, what do you want to play next?”

…