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“Ayumu~!”

Right after leaving the house, Mika, who was wearing a thin jacket over her uniform and carrying her school bag, pulled me into an embrace. We were neighbors, so it didn’t even take 10 seconds to walk between the respective front doors of our houses.

…Huh, for an instant, I could’ve sworn I saw Mom at the door with a grin on her face, but that was probably just my imagination.

“Eh-heh-heh-heh~. Let’s go!”
“Yep, let’s.”

Mika and I started walking while holding each other in an embrace… not! When even having our arms linked was enough for our neighbors to think we were getting excessively affectional, a hug was obviously out, so all we did was hold hands with our fingers interlocked. While Mika did understand that reason, she looked somewhat dissatisfied.

“Dear me, good morning, Ayumu, Mika. You seem quite close today.”

That was Mrs. Imai¹, who lived close to us. She called out to us every morning.

“Good morning.”
“Good morning, Mrs. Imai!”
“My, oh my~, today, you truly seem more affectionate than usual. Why haven’t you… huh? You’re even holding hands?”

This woman, who teased us about our relationship just as badly as Shuu did on a regular basis, had noticed that our fingers were interlocked.

“E-Eh-heh-heh. You’re right,” Mika replied.
“C-Could it be… did you start dating?”
“Yes, we did… uhm, lots of things happened yesterday…”

Mrs. Imai’s eyes snapped open, looking as shocked as if she had suddenly won the lottery, and raised her voice.

“Whaat!? Hang on… hang on!!”

While she wasn’t the type to normally talk loudly, the news about us dating must have astounded her to the point where she ended up shouting. The moment she did, everyone nearby reacted.

“D-Did something happen!?”
“Huh… it’s Ayumu and Mika?”
“And they’re holding hands!?”

About five to six people showed up. Among them was Mr. Kyouno², who’d taught me karate. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it was thanks to him that I survived in the other world. I’d have to thank him at some point in a roundabout manner. Regardless.

“Listen to this, Ayumu and Mika finally~~ started dating!” Mrs. Imai exclaimed.
“Hah~… at last.”
“It took 14 long years, huh?”

Everyone had a comment. That wasn’t all, they started spouting lines like “When will the wedding be?” and “What will you do on a date?”, so Mika and I made ourselves scarce under the pretext of being late for school.

“Hah… hah… that was tough,” I panted.
“Yeah. But lots of people seem to be rooting for us,” Mika replied with a smile.

Ah~~, she’s as lovely as an angel.

On the way to the train station Mika and I always used, we heard people whisper on several occasions. Naturally, most of these comments were because of us.

“Hey… that girl looks super cute, right?”
“True, but looks like she got a boyfriend. Damn normies… hm? Isn’t that another girl with her? That one also looks awfully cute…”
“Yeah, but she’s wearing a boys’ uniform… Oh, right. Those are Joujou Ayumu and Magarigi Mika.”
“Oh, they’re famous, aren’t they? So, they’re normies, after all.”

Indeed. Each morning Mika and I walked together, we heard such conversations and felt countless stares. It wasn’t just unsavory types like the ones just now, but normal people, too. Well, I understood their reason.

If you took 100 people and then added another 900, Mika was beautiful enough for all those 1000 to turn back and look at her… at least I thought so. And people apparently saw me as cute, too.
Though that’s just me talking.

With slightly flushed faces, Mika and I finally reached the train station without ever letting go of each other’s hand. From here, it was two stops on the train and then another ten-minute walk to our school.

Incidentally, since Shuu lived closer to the station, he arrived earlier than us at school about half of the time. The other half, we got there together.

I digress, but ever since the new trains were introduced, they wouldn’t stop even during heavy snow or a typhoon. This was apparently seen as very convenient, but the previous generation of trains had been replaced six years before I was born, so I had no idea how much they improved things.

Isn’t it natural that trains run all the time…?

“Oh, it’s Ayumu and Mika…”
“Aren’t they acting different than normal?”

At the station platform, students from another high school were whispering. Mika, Shuu, I… and Kanata and Sakura, too, were apparently rather famous around here. Though I didn’t get why.

We entered the platform with our commuter tickets, where most of the people stared at us, as we waited for the train. Some people looked as if they were gazing at a painting, others seemed to have a dangerous glint in their eyes, and then there were those who appeared to display loathing for those in a relationship… While I understood that people were jealous of Mika and me, I wished they’d show a bit more restraint³.

“The train is now arriving-”

A few minutes later, the train came, and we got on board. We had left a bit earlier than usual, so there were less people, and we found some seats. As for why we left earlier… well, to put it mildly, there were gropers on the train. Needless to mention Mika, but even I seemed to be a target. I didn’t really get it.

Still, thanks to a certain guardian, we hadn’t gone through such an experience for one and a half years. It went so far that people called him “the strongest” in this city. Even without said guardian, delinquents left us alone. They were probably scared of him⁴.

On that note, even though Kanata and Sakura took the same route to school (they attended the middle school part of our combined middle-and-high-school, so that was only natural), this apparently never happened to Sakura, who looked cute even when wearing her glasses. It was likely due to Kanata’s fierce protectiveness.

Well, it wasn’t just the lack of molesters, you also had an easier time finding a place to sit if you took an earlier train. Mika and I sat down, our bodies as close as socially acceptable.

1. The original is 今井. No furigana are provided, but luckily there’s only one reading.
2. The original is 京野. Same as last time, no furigana but only one possible reading.
3. That whole “constantly being stared at by everyone” sounds like a nightmare situation. I’d probably refuse to leave the house if this happened to me on a daily basis.
4. Not sure about those two sentences. The original is ガーディアン、不良でもないのに。それを恐れてるのかも。 (“guardian, despite not even inferior/delinquent. Probably is afraid of that.”). My version is based more on context, but it could also mean that him being a guardian (and getting rough with people) doesn’t mean he is a delinquent, because he’s afraid of becoming that.

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