“Oh, I’m Tsuzuri’s mother.”

Right, of course. Who else could she be? I’d have been shocked otherwise. Well, I guess she could have been her older sister… she didn’t look old enough to be her mom.

“I’m, um…”

Wait, what was I to Yarai-san again? A friend?

“I’m Kaidou Ritsu, in the same class as Yarai-san.”
“Ritsu-chan, right? It’s a small house, but make yourself at home.”
“Yes, thank you very much.”

Not like I could just blurt out that I’d rather get out of here quickly.

“Oh, Mom, you’re already back?”

Hearing the voices, Yarai-san poked her head out from her room. Looking at them side by side, they really did look alike. Well, her mom at least carried herself with the calmness of an adult. If she had the same kind of personality as Yarai-san at her age… yeah, that’d be way too much.

“I told you this morning I was getting off early today.”
“Did you? Totally forgot!”
“You’re as scatterbrained as ever… Hey, Ritsu-chan, is she like this at school too?”
“Eh—uh, well…”
“Oh, don’t worry, no need to hold back. Just tell me what Tsuzuri’s really like.”

…Well, what was I supposed to say? The truth was, her daughter was a loner. Too busy being on her own to even have chances to be scatterbrained. But I couldn’t possibly say that to her actual mom.

“Well… yeah, I guess she’s pretty much just how you imagine her.”

I decided to play along.

Unlike Yarai-san, I actually knew how to read the room.

“I knew it. Sorry, she must be a handful.”
“Oh, no, no. Not at all.”
“Jeez, Mom, don’t worry about me. Just go get changed already.”
“You’re right. Well then, Ritsu-chan, relax and make yourself at home.”
“Ah—please, don’t fuss over me…”

Her mother retreated back to the living room, and I headed into Yarai-san’s room again.

There she was, sitting stiffly on a cushion, looking awkward as could be.

Even for her, having her mother seen like that must’ve been embarrassing. With such a beautiful mom, you’d think she’d be bragging instead of hiding.

“Ahaha, sorry about that. My mom’s kind of noisy.”
“You’re really one to talk.”
“Guess it’s genetic.”
“No, you’re clearly the anomaly here. Your mom seemed normal enough.”
“So you’re saying I’m not normal?”
“Normal girls don’t just kiss other girls.”
“You think so?”

She tilted her head to the side with a puzzled look.

And the fact that she genuinely seemed unsure about it was what really ticked me off.

“Not that I really want to ask this, but… Yarai-san, are you, um… a lesbian?”
“Why?”
“Why? Well, otherwise you wouldn’t have kissed me, right? I mean, you’d be repulsed.”
“…Hmm, am I?”

Uh, don’t ask me.

She pressed a long, slender finger against her lips as if in thought. As always, she was the kind of girl who looked picture-perfect as long as she kept quiet.

“I don’t think of myself as a lesbian. But… I don’t dislike kissing you, Kaidou-san.”
“So… what, it doesn’t have to be me in particular?”

Wait, why was I even saying this? And why did it sound like I was angry about it?

“I’ve never kissed anyone else, so… I don’t know.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Kaidou-san?”
“So my first kiss got stolen just like that, on a whim?”

If at least she’d said she’d liked me for a long time, I could have understood. Well, maybe not understood, but at least it would have made a little sense. Randomly picking me like it was nothing—I couldn’t accept that.

She pulled me into a tight hug.

“…What. I’m telling you I’m mad.”
“Um… what should I do? If I promise never to kiss anyone except you, would that be okay?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. So if I told you to, you’d just blindly obey?”
“If that would make you forgive me.”

Why was my forgiveness so important to her? We weren’t even friends to begin with—we were just classmates.

I didn’t get it. I had no idea what she was thinking.

“Hey… let’s go back to the beginning. Why did you kiss me that day? You said it was to see if I hated kissing itself—was that really true?”
“It was. But…”
“But?”

Even when I urged her to go on, she stayed silent.

Her arms around me were trembling. As if she was scared of something.

“Kaidou-san!”

Out of nowhere, Yarai-san suddenly called my name in a loud voice, staring straight into my eyes. Her face was flushed red, and with her pale complexion, the contrast stood out all the more.

“Am I… not good enough?”

Before I could even ask what do you mean, she rushed ahead in a torrent of words.

“If it were me, I’d never make you look like that, and I’d treat you gently! I know you probably don’t like me, Kaidou-san, and you probably think I’m loud and annoying… but… but I’ll change, I swear I will!”
“Wh-whoa, hold on! Timeout!”

I raised my voice a little just to calm her down before she got too worked up.

She finally stopped talking, though her breathing was still uneven. Warm breaths brushed against my nose.

“Yarai-san, calm down, okay? And, sorry, but what you just said didn’t make a lot of sense—I couldn’t really figure out what you were trying to tell me.”
“Oh… sorry…”

She blinked a few times, then her shoulders slumped so visibly it made me feel bad.

Geez, when she looked that dejected, it almost gave me guilt for snapping at her.

“Hey, look, I’m not mad about this, all right? So just take it slow and explain, okay?”

Funny. A minute ago I’d been the one grilling her, but now here I was consoling her instead. Could this all be some kind of tactic on her part? …No, seeing her on the verge of tears, there was no way.

“Um, so… what I mean is…”
“Mm-hm.”

I nodded, trying to keep my voice as gentle as possible.

“Why don’t you break up with that Shouya guy… and go out with me instead?”
“Yeah… Huh!? Wait, what!?”