CH 57

At any rate, it’s been a while since I returned to my room, but isn’t today’s dinner ready yet? It feels like today’s dinner is especially late.

While thinking it was so late and pondering whether I should ask her or not, I kept waiting quietly. It was then –

“Rin-kun, here comes soba for today’s meal.”

“Hehh~ How rare. Or rather, isn’t this the first?”

“This is New Year’s soba.” (T/N: The custom of eating soba on New Year’s night)

“Ah, ahh, New Year’s soba. Sorry, I might not have eaten something like that before.”

“Then, this is your first time eating it. The soba you eat together with me is the New Year’s soba you have for the first time.”

“Yeah, itadakimasu.”

Just like Christmas, I’d never celebrated the New Year event before, so this was my first time eating the New Year’s soba. Even so, the New Year’s soba made by Aoi was truly delicious.

Since it had a gentle taste that could warm the body from the inside, I finished it in the blink of an eye.

“It was delicious. Thank you.”

Recently, it feels like I am saying this line every day. Still, I am glad that there is someone I can say to.

“Rin-kun, after this, let’s go to a shrine for Hatsumōde.” (T/N: Hatsumōde: First shrine visit of the New Year.)

“Yeah, let us do that.”

Hatsumōde, huh……

When we walked to the neighborhood shrine, we saw quite a boisterous scene.

“There are so many people even at this hour.”

“That’s because this is a once-a-year thing.”

“Quite a number of student-like people are mixing in there. Won’t they get taken into custody at this kind of time?” (T/N: You are also a student.)

“I haven’t heard of anyone getting taken into custody just by visiting a shrine on New Year’s day. So, it is probably okay if you don’t cause trouble, I guess.”

“I wonder if it is as you said?”

“It is definitely as I said.”

There were even food stalls that weren’t usually open. Though we ended up getting swept up by the flow of people to the shrine’s grounds. After that, I threw a five yen coin that I prepared into the offering box at the same time as Aoi. (T/N: The sentence progression is weird, but it was like that in the raw.)

Since I wasn’t familiar with it, I made a mistake in adjusting my strength, and the coin almost flicked out. Luckily, it stopped at the edge of the offering box. Then, I made a wish after confirming it had safely settled in the box.

I tried to think about various wishes of mine, but in the end, there was only one.

""

“I wish I can be with Aoi this year as well.”

Wanting to raise my survivor’s rank, wanting to earn more money, and wanting to get higher grades on the tests – various thoughts like these appeared in my mind. But, I couldn’t feel they were that important compared to my wish.

“Rin-kun, what kind of wish did you make?”

“Umm, well, it’s a secret.”

“Eh~hh, I’m even more curious now.”

“Then, what kind of wish did Aoi make?”

“My wish is to be able to keep getting along well with Rin-kun as a partner this year too.”

“………………”

Aoi’s wish was almost the same as mine.

I was both happy and embarrassed that Aoi had thought so, and my face was completely heated up even though it was midwinter.