CH 64

Supporting High School Student Sharing an Umbrella

When I went out, the onlookers were almost gone instead, it was raining heavily outside.

“Ahh, it’s a downpour.”

“Yeah. Good thing we finished the shoot before it rained.”

“If it’s raining this much then we must be in the middle of it right.”

“Yeah, but I thought this would happen so I brought my u—-wait!?”

At the sudden realization, I looked at Suzuka’s face. When I saw the message this morning I must have forgotten to grab it with me because I was in a hurry.

It’s about a 30 minutes walk from here to get home so I will probably be soaking wet. Well, it’s my fault since I forgot to bring the umbrella so I don’t have anyone to blame but myself……

I guess I will have to apologize to Suzuka and rush home by myself before the rain gets worse.

“Sorry, Suzuka! I can’t walk you home today! I’ve got to go–”

“—-wait! Uh…how far is your place from here?”

I took a step into the rain but I stopped my feet at her question and turned back.

“From here….I think around 20 minutes if I run? Well, I think it took me under 30 minutes for me earlier this morning though.”

“W, well, if you run in this rain you will catch a cold right…..?”

“Yeah….but if I take a shower immediately after then I think I will be fine.”

“Ugh, b, but if your shoes get soaked then it will be troublesome for you tomorrow don’t you think?”

Certainly, I basically have only one pair for summer and one for winter at my place. My place doesn’t have any shoe dryers either. In the worst case, I will have to bear with the wet shoes tomorrow. Besides, it’s going to be smelly if these things get wet too.

“I guess that’s true……maybe I should wait here a while huh……”

“T, then! Why don’t we walk home together with my umbrella?”

“Eh, but that way Suzuka might get wet too, right?”

“It’s okay! I don’t mind if my shoulder gets a little wet and, uh….I would feel guilty leaving Seiya-kun alone here in the rain by yourself……”

“Then I guess I will trouble you today. Well, if it’s this much rain then we should be relatively safe if we have an umbrella…….”

I joined Suzuka under her umbrella and started walking home together with her…….rather, I went with the flow since she invited me but aren’t we sharing an umbrella right now?

“…….well, I guess this is happening.”

“Eh, what did you just say?”

I glanced at Suzuka but she didn’t seem to be particularly conscious of it. She must have been worried about me and invited me to share it purely out of her goodwill. It wouldn’t do if I just got conscious about this by myself so I started a small talk.

“Ahh, I was thinking that it would be bad for the next shoot if I got soaked from the rain and caught a cold you see. Thanks.”

“Yeah. You owe me one okay!”

“Ahaha. Got it.”

I guess only middle schoolers would care about someone writing your names under a love umbrella on a blackboard nowadays huh.

To be specific, the top castes in a school like Suzuka probably don’t care about sharing lunch, or some indirect kisses anymore.

I was a little conscious about this umbrella sharing thing but with regard to indirect kisses, thanks to my little sister’s habit of having a bit of everything, I often have to share my food with her so I long ceased to care about such a thing.

Well, before I got used to it, she always told me that I don’t have to worry since we are family though…..

“C, Come to think of it! Did you make any progress with the girl who found you out?”

“Nn? Why do you want to know about that?”

“W, Well! You see! In the news, you often see blackmailing development in a situation like this right? Well, most of the cases are the ones that a man threatens to expose a woman though……”

Certainly, that’s the kind of development you often see in this kind of plot and it’s true that such a thing would be quite effective against me. That being said, Eihashi-san is not someone who would do something like that. She already told me that she will treat Kousei and Seiya separately too.

Still, if Eihashi-san does such a thing…..”

“Ahaha.”

“Why are you laughing!?”

“Well, Eihashi-san is, ah, the girl who found me out is called Eihashi Reika you see. It’s just kinda funny to me imagining her doing something like that.”

“Eihashi-san……. Is that so. So she just asked you if you are the real one and that’s it? I remember that you told me about your takoyaki party though……”

“Yeah……we were hanging out in a group of four though. That being said, I guess we planned to attend the festival together this summer too? The only thing that changed was that I have more friends I can casually talk to at school now I think?”

Well, I managed to get two more friends but those two are pretty big in the school. It is kind of a big deal considering the fact that I can talk to the two of them so casually now.

When I said that, Suzuka seemed quite surprised. This is unusual.

“Eh, then you already quit being a mob high school student? Weren’t you really particular about being one before?”

“Well, I supposed I had to quit that by default though…….Still, there are no needles hiding in my shoes or any funeral flower at my desk yet so I guess it’s not as terrible as I expected?”

“They would be asking for an immediate suspension if they do that right………”

“Ahh……..thinking about it now, the previous me was quite pessimistic huh……still, I still think that being a mob is the most enjoyable route for me. Not so much that I’d want to force my way back to being one though……”

It’s fun to talk to others and now I can even go to events/places that would be weird for me to go alone like a festival too.

Thinking about it now, perhaps the next best thing to being a mob might be establishing my position as a friend character. Well, in any case, being a protagonist is out of the question.

“Uhh, you are going to the festival with three of your friends right?”