“Mikoto-seeee-napaaaai!!”
While slurping ramen by myself at the university cafeteria during lunch, Hiyori approached me with a wave.
“Is this seat next to you free?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Today, Hiyori has a lot of plates on her tray again.
Let’s see… katsu curry and Mapo tofu? Quite a combination, but do they actually go together?
After putting a bite of curry in her mouth, Hiyori eats the Mapo tofu without missing a beat.
Since she has a cheerful look on her face, it must taste good together.
While chewing, Hiyori looks around the room.
“Ah, hey, hey, Seina-senpai and Reito-senpai are over there. Are those two dating?”
Looking in the direction Hiyori points, I see Seina and our upperclassman Reito eating face-to-face. Reito is also in the same club, and unlike Takuto, he has sharp, defined features—the textbook definition of a handsome guy.
“Yeah, they’re dating. At first, Seina wasn’t interested at all, but Reito pursued her aggressively until they started dating about four months ago, right?”
“Eh?! I didn’t know that.”
“They don’t really talk about dating to other people, you know. Well, everyone around them can figure it out anyway.”
“I should ask Seina-senpai about all kinds of things next time.”
I also glance sideways at Seina and Reito. The two of them are smiling and laughing affectionately.
I remember being very surprised when I first heard they were dating.
Despite how she looks, Seina is surprisingly popular.
Well, she has nice hair, she’s tall, has long legs, is well-endowed, and is charming—truly having no flaws at all, so it’s only natural.
After staring at the two of them for a while, Hiyori speaks to me, and I turn my gaze back to her.
“If someone pursued you aggressively, Mikoto-senpai, would you fall in love with them?”
“Hmm, I wonder… It might depend on what they do…?”
When I say that, Hiyori stops eating, leans forward, and looks at me with sparkling eyes.
“What kind of things would they have to do for you to fall in love?!”
I also stop slurping my ramen and think.
“Hmm, let’s see. Simply inviting me on dates, or physical touch…? I’m bad at picking up on hints, so as long as it’s straightforward, pretty much anything is fine, I guess.”
“I see, I see… Makes sense…”
Hiyori rests her chin in her hand and listens to me with a serious expression.
Why is she listening so seriously? My love life should be totally uninteresting to her.
————… Could it be.
Does she have a crush on someone in our third-year class, and is she trying to figure out how an upperclassman wants to be approached…!?
She definitely wants to use me as a reference.
Yes, that has to be it.
I might be overthinking it, but I can’t think of any other explanation. To keep my composure, I slurp my ramen.
What should I do if that’s really true?
If such a cute girl pursues someone, any guy would fall in love in a split second, that’s for sure.
“———… Hey, Hiyori, do you…”
Do you have someone you like?
I thought about asking that, but with my mouth still open, the words wouldn’t come out.
If I asked and she replied, “Yes, I do,” I would probably never be able to recover.
Finding me frozen, Hiyori peers into my face, looking suspicious.
“Is something wrong with me?”
After hesitating a little, I smile and answer:
“Nope. It’s nothing.”
Unfortunately, I don’t have the courage to ask.
Hiyori looks a little dissatisfied, but soon goes back to eating her katsu curry and Mapo tofu.
Since I’ve already finished my ramen, I watch Hiyori eat. Resting my chin in my hand, I blankly watch her cheeks move as she chews.
Even though it’s an intense combination of curry and Mapo tofu, she looks completely happy. Giving her all to eating is just so much like Hiyori.
I really love watching Hiyori eat.
Of course, I love everything else about her, too.
“……Mikoto-senpai, aren’t you staring a bit too much?”
She says this out of nowhere, and my heart leaps.
I stop resting my chin in my hand and frantically try to deny it in a fluster.
“Eh? N-No, not at all. Ah, you know, your appetite just looks really nice to watch—”
“Is that so?”
Hiyori tilts her head, stares intently at me for a moment, and then gives a soft laugh.
“Then, please keep watching all you want. I’m good at eating, after all.”
Wondering what she means by “good at it,” I can’t help but laugh.
Well, since she said it’s okay to keep watching instead of thinking I’m staring too much, I decide to just keep looking at her.
A brief silence passes, and only the murmur of the cafeteria reaches my ears.
Hiyori swallows her last bite and puts her palms together.
“Thank you for the meal!”
After saying that cheerfully, Hiyori drops her tone of voice, puts on a serious expression, and looks down.
“Hey, Mikoto-senpai.”
“What?”
Without looking into my eyes, Hiyori traces the rim of her empty glass with her finger and speaks.
“What if—just what if someone really likes Mikoto-senpai and comes on strong with a fierce pursuit…”
Hiyori looks up, locks eyes with me, and gives a gentle smile.
“Please make sure you notice it properly, okay?”
I end up tilting my head in confusion.
Before I can figure out what she means, Hiyori suddenly stands up with her tray.
“Well, I have my next class, so I’m off! Let’s eat together again next time!”
With that, she waves her hand and disappears into the crowd. I stare blankly at her retreating figure for a while.
What was that supposed to mean?
Holding onto the small snag left in the depths of my chest, I look down at my empty ramen bowl.
I turn my thoughts over in my head, trying to figure out what Hiyori meant.
She said that if someone really likes me and aggressively pursues me, I need to make sure I notice it, right?
I look over at the seat Hiyori was just sitting in.
Could it be that she asked if I’d fall for someone who pursues me because one of her friends likes me, and that friend asked her to fish for answers?
Or else… does Hiyori like me…?
……No, no way.
I shake my head to brush the thought aside.
If she liked me, she wouldn’t casually invite me to a love hotel.
One of Hiyori’s friends has a crush on me. That explains everything.
Hiyori is helpful, kind, and the type who can’t say no when asked for a favor.
So, she was just probing to find out what kind of person her older upperclassman would find romantically appealing.
Thinking about it that way, her serious expression and the way she phrased it all make complete sense.
Besides, it means Hiyori isn’t in love with some other upperclassman, so that’s fine.
Telling myself that, I place my empty ramen bowl at the return counter.
With a light clatter, it felt like that matter was settled.
♢
Since I had a class after that as well, I headed straight to the lecture hall.
While listening absentmindedly to the lecture, my smartphone suddenly vibrated.
Using phones during class is forbidden, but I quietly opened mine so the teacher wouldn’t notice.
When I opened the messaging app, a message from Hiyori was waiting. Feeling a slight bitter smile since Hiyori had also mentioned having a class, I opened the chat screen.
“Are you free tomorrow?”
“I only have one class in the morning, my afternoon is free.”
It was marked as read immediately, and a moment later, a message from Hiyori arrived along with a URL.
“I want to go here, will you come with me again?”
At the same time, a sticker of a dog putting its paws together to beg also arrived.
When I tapped the URL, true to form, it was a love hotel’s homepage. Looking closer, a local gourmet festival starts today, and I figure out that this is what she’s after.
I reply that it’s fine and close my phone.
“Did you figure out your date plans or something, big sis?”
Seina, sitting right next to me, leaned over and whispered.
I waved Seina away with a shooing motion before speaking in a low voice.
“Of course not?”
“Eh? Because your face was grinning from ear to ear.”
“No way.”
When I hastily pressed against my cheeks, Seina started quietly giggling.
“Just kidding. You usually don’t reply right away even when you look at your phone, so I just knew it had to be Hiyori-chan. What’s up?”
“She wants to go to a hotel together.”
When I say that, Seina says, “Oh my,” and covers her mouth with her hand.
“It’s just like last time. She says it’s a local gourmet festival this time.”
“…Is that what Hiyori-chan said?”
“Nope. It was on the website.”
“Then that might not be the only reason.”
“What do you mean?”
Then Seina brings her mouth close to my ear. I lean in toward Seina too.
“Maybe she wants to do those kinds of things with Mikoto?”
“Huh? Are you an idiot?”
I pull away from Seina and look at her in disbelief. But Seina shrugs off my gaze without a care.
“I mean, I’ve thought this for a while, but isn’t Hiyori-chan’s sense of personal distance way off when she’s around Mikoto?”
“That’s just because she’s friendly.”
“For just being friendly, I think she treats you like special treatment, though.”
Seina says this and rests her chin on her hand. The teacher’s voice drones on evenly against the blackboard. My pen runs across the notes, but I don’t understand the meaning at all.
“Even if that were true, she wouldn’t ask someone out so directly when we’re not even dating.”
For some reason, Seina looks a bit exhausted, lets out a small sigh, and turns her gaze back to the blackboard.