V1C1 Part3

Translated by Damian's TLs Edited by Damian's TLs

“Yuuya. We’re having a review meeting.”

“A-ahahaha…”

It was just Mitsuki and I in my apartment. My thoughts were a mess after what happened at school, and I wanted to calm down a bit, so she went back to her own apartment. We’d decided that we’d each go back to our own apartments, finish our chores, and talk about it before dinner.

“Alright. There’s a lot to take in, butー Let me check something. It’s not like you don’t want to… …Right?”

“Yeah, it’s not like I don’t want to. But… …You know?”

I didn’t need to ask Mitsuki what she was trying to say.

Because it’s obviously the same thing I’m thinking. To put it bluntly, having it pointed out so directly by others is embarrassing.

“Y-yeah, it’s like, you know? I’m completely fine hugging you in a tank top with no bra!”

“Ha- Ha- Ha! I don’t know if that’s completely true but yes!”

We were still embarrassed from our conversation with Taiga and Yukina so we were awkwardly avoiding the topic. I could tell my cheeks were burning up but I kept talking anyway.

“…So, I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I feel like we haven’t really done much of what people normally do in relationships.”

“Yeah, I think so too. It’s like… We haven’t really done, or more like, we’re avoiding the stuff that only lovers do, you know?”

It’s a bit of a stretch, but Mitsuki’s right: most of what we’ve done – not all, but most – can be passed off as ‘close siblings’. The stuff we’ve done, though, was either for fun, to get attention, or for our public image. From what I can remember, I’ve never followed my desires. And as for ‘avoiding’… our parents told us not to do anything sexual until we graduated from high school, so I definitely tried to avoid situations and atmospheres where I’d lose control. Even looking back on before we entered high school, there are… a fair few things that come to mind when you say we’re ‘avoiding’ it. It’s obvious why – it’s embarrassing. Not to mention that since I haven’t really been aware of her as a member of the opposite sex so far, I’ve haven’t been treating her as a proper fiancé should, so to suddenly act like lovers would be… well, you get the idea.

…Maybe putting up the act of ‘real lovers’ at parties only made us less aware of each other.

In any case, this ‘avoiding’ of ours probably led to us reacting like that to holding hands earlier today. It probably happened because we called it ‘holding hands like lovers’, right?

“The more I think about it, the worse I feel about how I’ve been acting…”

“Ahaha… I feel the same, it’s not just you, Yuuya…”

The two of us slumped over on my table, depressed. As far back as I can remember, we’ve been childhood friends, best friends, as close as siblings, and at the same time, engaged. That’s why we never went through the usual motions of ‘gradually falling for each other’. We’ve been told we’re a couple, we’ve been told we’re engaged, but… we’ve never actually been in love with each other.

“I guess you could say we’re ‘like husband and wife but not in love’?”

“That’s… one way to put it…”

To that Mitsuki replied with a ‘hahh…’ and put her chin in her palm with another ‘hahh…’.

“And Mitsuki, I think the reason we didn’t get it when they called us ‘husband and wife’ was precisely because we didn’t go through the motions. We weren’t even aware we were acting like it.”

“Ahh… That kind of makes sense, you know.”

I stayed slumped over the table – but I wasn’t actually depressed. I wonder what this feeling is? It’s true that I was shocked by this unexpected revelation, but I wasn’t depressed by it. Rather, I was feeling emotions I didn’t understand, and I was a bit annoyed, andー

“ーHey, Yuuya~ …Doesn’t this make you feel uneasy?”

With her timing and what she said, it’s like she’s speaking my thoughts for me. While how I’m laying on the table may not suggest it, I was carefully listening to her.

“I’m also feeling weird… But… I don’t know why.”

“Yeah. It’s the thing you said earlier about ‘like husband and wife but not in love’, I guess.”

As she was saying that, the tone of her voice didn’t change, but she sounded a bit irritated. She continued.

“…I don’t mind the ‘like husband and wife’ part, but the ‘not in love’ part I don’t like.”

“ーAhh, I get it now, I think.”

Mitsuki’s words made me understand the reason for my own irritation. She’s basically saying , ‘I don’t like how everyone’s treating our relationship like it’s cheap’. That’s the reason I was annoyed. With that in mind, I raised myself off the table and turned toward Mitsuki.

“ーThen, why don’t we start from the beginning? The steps people normally take.”

“Yeah, sure…”

Mitsuki didn’t show any reaction as she said that. I looked at her, thinking she was uncomfortable, but… her ears were a little red…?

…Yeah, now that I think about it, that was quite the embarrassing line.

“A-, ah, look! Not like all at once, but more like a gradual change… Well, if you don’t want to, I won’t force you, of courー”

But before I could finish, Mitsuki sat up.

“A, ahaha… It’s not that I don’t want to, I actually want it too. But… It’s a bit embarrassing to suddenly start acting like a couple after this longー”

“A-, ahh. Well, you’re not wrong…”

If you say it while blushing like that, it’ll make me feel even more self-conscious.

We stared at each other in silence.

We were both blushing furiously, and looked away from each other. I didn’t dislike the idea though, butー I gave an awkward cough and tried to act normal.

“…That’s what I mean.” “This is what I’m talking about…”

Since ‘it’s been this long already’, it’ll be embarrassing to change things now. …This looked like a pain in the butt, but for some reason, I don’t dislike it.

“Mitsuki. ーJust to make sure… You want to do this, right?”

“Yeah. It’s pretty interesting, too. You think so too, right, Yuuya?”

“Well… I wouldn’t complain. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.”

…Maybe the reason we’ve never done normal couple stuff is because we were so comfortable with how things were that we subconsciously avoided changing things.

But now that we’ve sorted out our emotions a bit, we’re starting to see the change as ‘interesting’. It’s because we know our relationship, at the very least, won’t become worse. The two of us are already close enough to each other to believe that.

“Alright, then it’s decidedー we’ll take it slow and steady.”

“Ahaha, yup~ Please take care of me, Yuuya~”

We smiled at each other. And so, our plan of action was decided.

“ーWell. Now that we’ve decided what we’re going to be doing… What do you want for dinner?”

Rather than life’s biggest challenges, the first order of business is… the struggles of daily life. We alternate cooking every day, so today should have been Mitsuki’s day, but deciding on what to have for dinner would take too long. Instead, I suggested that we make something quick and easy together.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was much later than when we’d normally eat dinner.

…And the moment you realize that, you suddenly become a whole lot hungrier.

“Ah, it’s so late… Good thing we can make it quicker together. What do you want?”

“Hm… Mapo tofu maybe?”

TN: “Mapo tofu is a popular Chinese dish from Sichuan province. It consists of tofu set in a spicy sauce, typically a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, based on douban and douchi, along with minced meat, traditionally beef.” – Wikipedia

If you don’t care how it tastes, you can make it really quickly, and make some rice using the fast cook mode. I was thinking about how if you rush, you can eat it in about half an hour, but Mitsuki looked troubled.

“Mapo tofu… Hmm, it’ll be fine without tofu… Right, Yuuya?”

“It won’t be fine, though?”

Isn’t mapo tofu without the tofu just spicy soup with ground meat…?

…If you put it on rice, it’d be delicious, though.

“Since we came home without getting groceries today, there’s no tofu left…”

“Ah, well, I guess it can’t be helped then. So, Mitsuki, what do you want to eat?”

“Hmm… Then, I want Chinese stir-fry with green peppers!”

“Chinese stir-fry with green peppers…”

We have beef, so green peppers…

“It’d be beef stir fry with peppers… but without beef. Would that work?”

…Because the only beef we have is stewing beef. We have pork and poultry, but that wouldn’t really work.

“We’ve got chicken, so I can fry some, but that’s not very quick…”

“…I would’ve bought frozen dumplings if I knew.”

We could’ve easily made some sort of egg dish with a side of vegetable stir-fry with whatever we had in the fridge, but both of us were completely fixated on Chinese food.

“Hmm, some quick Chinese… Ah, by the wayー”

ー10 minutes later.

““Thank you for the meal.””

After we said the words together, we slurped our noodles almost simultaneously. And that’s the story of why we were having cup noodles for dinner. I put some frozen vegetables in mine, to make sure I got my nutrients for the day.

“…I don’t think this really counts as Chinese food.”

“It’s fine because it’s good. The details aren’t important~”

Even I have an irresistible urge to have cup noodles sometimes. It’s such a lazy thing to eat, but it’s fine every once in a while.

“Ah, right. I was thinking about it while making dinner. Let’s try out a bit of ‘couple stuff’ every day from now on?”

As I slowly sipped my noodles, I asked Mitsuki what I had on my mind.

“‘Couple stuff’? Sure, but what would that be? You wanna make out or something?”

“I mean, if we try something like that all of a sudden, we’ll both just run away.”

“Ah, maybe… It’d probably end up with me going into ‘proper lady mode’ and becoming too nervous to do anything.”

I can easily imagine both of us being completely clueless, then me losing all rationality and getting carried away, which would make our efforts be for nothing.”

“So let’s start with something easy and work our way up. …Even easier than holding hands.”

“Ohh, I see. Then, let’s try… staring each other down?”

“Hmm, good idea. It seems too easy, but… it’s probably more about being conscious of each other.”

“Yup, that’s right. We need to be conscious that we’re a couple and of not running away, I think.”

“ーHm, I’ll focus on that then. Then, let’s start with… about 30 seconds for now?”

“Yeah, seems reasonable to me…”

…Anything is fine by me, really. I feel like we’re already doing it wrong just by talking about this over cup noodles.

But I thought, ‘it’s a start’, and so I took on the challenge.

“ーAlright, let’s do this. Blinking is fine, but no looking away or talking for 30 seconds.”

“Mmm. Then, on the count of 3.”

“…”

“3, 2, 1… and go.”

We both stopped eating and stared at each other in silence.

We stared.

Then we stared some more.

And stared some more… What’s this…?

ーAnd time.

““Thank you for your hard work…””

So we said to each other and started slurping our cup noodles in silence again. …I don’t need to look in a mirror to know my face is burning up. I slurped my noodles in silence, but with much more tension than before this challenge of ours.

“…Hey, Mitsuki?”

“…What is it, Yuuya?”

Feeling a little more normal now, I opened my mouth.

“We’re way too weak, aren’t we?!ー”

“A, ahaha… I didn’t even last 10 seconds before getting flustered!…”

The first few seconds, you’re focusing on the other person, and when you do… you realize, ‘ah, they’re focused on me too’, and start getting flustered. That’s what happens near the 10-second mark. Then you notice the other person blushing, which makes you blush even more, then you think to yourself, ‘this is bad!’, then you try to focus on your reflection in their eyes, andー

Well, that’s how it went. When we finished, I stared at my cup noodles to try and get her out of my head, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to talk with her properly today.

“…Let’s try 20 seconds tomorrow and gradually get used to it… ーyeah?”

“…Yeah. It’s a bit frustrating, since it doesn’t feel like we’re making progress.”

“You’re completely right. …But there’s no need to rush, so let’s take it step by step.”

As I said that, our eyes awkwardly wandered away from each other. But we can’t stay like this forever, so I started talking again.

“Ah… Um, Mitsuki-san?…”

“Uh, what is it… Yuuya-san…?”

I was still flustered, so I started with something safe.

“ーIs it normal to put rice in your cup noodles?”

“Of course it is.”

Both Mitsuki and I like to put rice in our cup noodles, though I don’t know if it’s something you should do in public. ーIt’s okay every once in a while, I guess.

…Yeah, there’s no way this conversation isn’t us running away from it. But at the same time, I think it’s better than getting too worked up over it.

“ーBut eating gyudon for lunch and this for dinner… It’s like we’re university students that just started living on their own.”

“It’s fine in moderation. And I like eating dinner together like this more than going to a restaurant.”

And indeed, Mitsuki definitely looked happy as she enjoyed the rice soaked in noodle broth.

…Well, you’re right. I do like this more than going out.

“Hm? What’s wrong, Yuuya?”

“ーIt’s nothing. …I was just thinking how I should have added some egg.”

“Ah!ー”

And so we ate our dinner, chatting about our plans for tomorrow… each pretending not to notice the redness of the other’s face.

Read only at Travis Translations