Chapter 29: Sunday, Breakfast

The drops tracing down my cheek were irritating.

When I forcefully wiped them away, several ripples spread across the water's surface. I squeeze out a few shallow breaths.

When I slightly open my eyelids, there's the face of an unfriendly man reflected in the mirror.

That much was the usual normal.

What's different is the voices shaking my eardrums.

(...What are those girls doing this early in the morning.)

I'm impressed at myself for taking on such troublesome matters, and a sigh as if hanging my head flew out of my lungs.

Ever since I reached out to Orimoto, who was about to die on the other side of the railing. Things changed from there.

I've been carried along by the flow to reach this point.

I won't declare that to be a bad thing. Unexpectedly, I'm not bored, and somehow my days are noisy.

I was bad at this. I was bad at having fun.

That's why I can't keep up with processing my emotions.

About a month since I started getting involved with Orimoto.

In that time, both long and short, short and long.

I was constantly being thrown around. If my past self were told about the current situation, he wouldn't believe a word.

He probably wouldn't even try to believe it.

──Water flows down the drain.

The water pooled in the sink had disappeared completely down it before I knew it. Conversation can be constantly heard.

A wry smile and weariness leak from the corner of my lips.

When I leave the bathroom, that sound becomes even more pronounced, attempting to invade my eardrums.

It was just a quiet house.

Just inorganic.

A miserable, flimsy dwelling with only vague, slipping-away memories in any quantity.

Large, and nothing else remarkable.

With an unhurried gait, I open the living room door and──there's the incarnation of noisiness.

This is the morning after I warned them to be quiet.

It's Sunday, so the town is still lulled by drowsiness. There's no sound from outside.

Their voices stand out even more.

Their cheerful voices seem to be too stimulating for my head, which sleeps lightly.

「──How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet in the mornings?」

The living room was filled with the wafting scent of miso soup. I can't help but hesitate to speak.

Female classmates lined up in the kitchen.

「Ah! Good morning, Kasugai-kun!」

While efficiently tasting from a small dish, Orimoto was bathing in the dawn light streaming through the window.

As always, she was in her uniform.

「I put the sleepwear in the laundry, so I'll take care of it later. Kasugai-kun, put out anything you need washed too.」

「Wait, let me point out several things.」

On holidays, I'm exclusively in sweats. Gray, simple loungewear chosen purely for functionality.

The laundry had indeed piled up.

I was planning to do it today.

That's not the issue. It's Orimoto's behavior.

Why is she making breakfast?

She doesn't have to do laundry either.

「First, why are you making breakfast?」

After tilting her head, Orimoto pointed somewhere with a bold motion.

「──Cup noodles.」

Hopelessly outmatched. Must escape immediately.

Last night. When we gave up on the Orimoto house and the key and trudged home, I was shut down with the same words.

「──Packaged bread.」

「Alright, I accept the breakfast matter.」

「Kasugai-kun. Unhealthy eating is the enemy.」

While stirring the simmering miso soup with a ladle, Orimoto smiles like a flower.

I feel like I caught a glimpse of why she's popular.

I redirect the conversation.

「Don't worry about the laundry, really. It's only my clothes anyway. No need to trouble your hands──」

「These got dirty, unlike this.」

Orimoto straightened her uniform collar.

Suddenly, I asked about something that was on my mind.

「So what happened? You ended up wearing mine to sleep. …Even though you were so against it.」

「Ah! I-I wasn't against it!」

Orimoto shakes her head vigorously side to side. After showing a flustered appearance for a while, she eventually lets out a breath.

However──I see.

Orimoto's uniform and Michikusa's yukata reset to being clean each time. As if reverting back.

But as expected, mine was an exception.

「It's just... I thought being stubborn about it wasn't right. This situation is because of my selfishness and mistakes after all.」

「Stop blaming yourself already. It's tiresome.」

「Kasugai-kun would say that, wouldn't he?」

I don't know what struck a chord, but Orimoto's profile was wrapped in cheerfulness. What I lent her was clothing and shelter.

It was me who was being given food.

「Also, it might not be so bad.」

「...That comment feels kind of gross.」

「How mean?!」

The continued cohabitation had restarted after establishing several rules.

「Lastly. What's going on with her?」

While swaying back and forth fighting sleep, the petite golden-haired girl was desperately working the frying pan.

Her hands are unsteady. Makes me nervous.

Since it's obvious she's weaker in the mornings than I am, I wish she'd just go back to sleep already.

If there's a fire, it won't be funny.

「Oi Michikusa, be careful...」

I wedge myself between the two and lower the gas stove flame. Then a faint voice came.

「A... i. ...u.」

「Eh? What was that??」

A line like some dense protagonist slipped out. But I genuinely couldn't hear.

The contours of her words aren't defined.

「Ah, Kasugai, she's saying good morning.」

「...How the hell can you translate that?」

「We've been best friends for a while.」

Orimoto puffs out her chest proudly with a satisfied "Mufun". There was a modest but definite presence there.

「I'm grateful for breakfast, but why is Michikusa, who's weak in the mornings, standing in the kitchen?」

「Grateful?! Kasugai-kun is grateful?!」

「Is it that surprising?」

She nods vigorously, as if her neck might come off, bobbing up and down.

Am I some kind of emotionless monster?

「Do you think I'm the kind of guy who complains when someone makes me breakfast?」

「Yeah.」

Orimoto affirmed without hesitation.

「Hou? So it's a fight then.」

「But? Kasugai-kun saying he's grateful means it's that delicious, right? Fuuhn.」

「Well, maybe so──whoa.」

Just as I was about to lodge a complaint──Michikusa's golden hair swayed slightly.

She lost her posture to drowsiness.

Instantly, I hurry to turn off the flame.

I supported Michikusa with my free hand. I'm impressed with myself for enduring in such a nimble position.

「Nice catch, Kasugai-kun.」

「Don't stand in front of fire when you're sleepy!」

If I'd been any later, she might have gotten burned... that was close. Can't take my eyes off them.

「Inori wants to show her gratitude in her own way.」

Orimoto turns off the pot's flame, washes her hands, then guides Michikusa, who had started breathing sleepily, to the sofa.

She's sound asleep, in dreamland.

Before I knew it, that ugly dog I won at the crane game the other day was also sitting on the sofa.

It has a rather irritating expression.

I smell a kindred spirit and feel like punching it.

Michikusa was unconsciously hugging it.

「──She could take her time in the bath. The yukata is hard to move in. Her feet don't hurt. That's what Inori was saying.」

While gently combing through Michikusa's hair with her fingers, Orimoto murmured. It echoed well in the quiet room.

Eventually, Orimoto toddled over here.

「You're a guy who does what needs to be done, aren't you?」

「That's just your convenient interpretation.」

「I'll let you think that.」

Orimoto turned on the stove with a click.

Since it was already warm, in just a few minutes the steam was being sucked into the kitchen exhaust fan.

「Conscientious, or wasteful, I'd say. ...All I'm doing is providing a place to sleep.」

「It's veeery appreciated.」

Orimoto repeatedly tastes from small dishes.

With practiced hands, clumsy help would just get in the way. She's truly a domestic woman.

「You know how hard it is sleeping in the hallway? It's hot, and I have to wake up whenever I hear footsteps!」

Orimoto voices her complaints with a huff.

Now that she mentions it──that's right.

I don't know the internal layout of the Orimoto house, but judging from the exterior, it was just an ordinary single-family home.

Her former room has become a storage room, so that's out of the question.

But there's no other room she can freely use.

That means the only option is the hallway.

「After we eat~, do laundry~, watch TV~, uwah! Kasugai-kun's house is so comfortable!」

「Your standards for comfort are way too low...」

「Nuh-uh. Kasugai-kun, you're just spoiled.」

I didn't say that you guys have had it rough this past month. There's no need to pour cold water on this.

「Leave out my laundry.」

「Eh? Why? I'll just do it all together.」

She's briskly progressing with the cooking while humming.

She was tucking her chestnut-colored hair behind her ear.

「You're planning to do my underwear too?」

「──kehoh! Did you say underwear?!」

A beautiful girl in school uniform earnestly cooking in my home on a Sunday morning had a faint sense of taboo.

But it's not like anything would come of it.

「Keep mine separate. Also, that's unsanitary. Spit flew.」

「W-Whose fault do you think that is?!」

To me, Orimoto is more than an acquaintance──that much is true. Above acquaintance. The line for below wasn't coming to me.

─────

「Kasugai-kun, are you going out somewhere?」

After finishing breakfast, around the time Michikusa's consciousness was clear. The wall clock points to before noon.

I change into regular clothes for going out.

I had an engagement I couldn't skip.

Orimoto caught me in the hallway. She was directing a gaze mixed with doubt and suspicion at me.

「Part-time job.」

「Part-time job?! You had one?!」

「...Is it bad that I do?」

The high school I attend has loose rules. Taking advantage of that, I was also engaged in labor.

「It was so unexpected my brain couldn't process...」

「This is my second year. ...What's with that face?」

Manual labor that doesn't require communication skills.

Work in an air-conditioned indoor warehouse. The pay isn't bad, and I occasionally take shifts.

「The super-shut-in Kasugai-kun has a...?」

「...I want to beat the crap out of you, but that can wait. I'm heading out.」

「Ah, okay? Have a safe trip?」

Even though I'm like this, I have expenses. Rent doesn't apply, but I cover my own food costs.

But I don't intend to compete over who has it worse.

It's a path I chose myself. I have no regrets.

「If you need anything, send me a message. I'll buy it after work. I'll be back by evening.」

I turn on my smartphone.

My part-time job time was steadily approaching. Unfortunately, I had no leisure to chat at my own pace.

Orimoto says quietly.

「I thought we could finally relax together.」

「There's nothing we could do together at home anyway.」

「...Fuuhn. Take care then!」

Harboring some slight displeasure for some reason, Orimoto stomped back to the living room.

Ah, we could have had a strategy meeting, I guess.

「Crap, gotta go.」

I had even covered Orimoto's food expenses for a while. ...Though I won't tell her, since it'd be lording it over her.

Now then, it's time for work──