For Some Reason, A Gal In My Class Became Friends With My Step-sister. - V1 Ch-3 part 3【Shrinking Distance】
Translator: AJ1703
Editor: Matsu
◆３【Even I Do Things When I Have To】
We decided to have a late lunch at the food court inside the facility.
There were a lot of people there, as you could eat and drink in your swimsuit.
After somehow securing a seat in the crowded place, Takarai went to the restroom.
We decided it would be better to wait until after Takarai came back to place our order, so me and Tsumugi spent some time talking about where we were most excited about in the facility.
Takarai did not come back for a while.
“Yua-san, don’t you think she’s getting hit on?”
Tsumugi chuckled and said so.
“Well, I suppose there must be some guys who would want to talk to you when you’re dressed like that. There are so many people here after all.”
“Shin-nii, are you okay with that?”
“Okay with what?”
“Shin-nii, aren’t you jealous that Yua-san is being approached by a man you don’t know?”
I tried to imagine Takarai being wooed by a guy I didn’t know.
I’ve seen Takarai being confessed by the opposite gender many times, so I’m not jealous.
However, Takarai is a bit lax when it comes to refusing… They might think, “If I pursue further, maybe I can get her to come?”. Suddenly, I felt a little worried when I thought about the fact that she had been picked up. It’s not like we’re in school, where the students are relatively quiet and conscientious, you never know what kind of bad guys are out there.
“…I’m going to go check on her.”
I got up from my seat.
“Wow. As expected of Shin-nii, he’s very kind.”
“Well, if I don’t, Tsumugi won’t be able to eat!”
Tsumugi’s praise made my facial muscles relax.
“Tsumugi, don’t let anyone pick you up, okay? If a guy calls out to you, just go ahead and kill him. It’s self-defense, right?”
“Shin-nii is so extreme. Don’t worry, if a guy other than Shin-nii calls out to me, I’ll just ignore him.”
I have to go save Takarai before Tsumugi gets approached by some insolent bastard.
Well, unlike night pools, which are a hellish party where the real people and the bad guys of the underworld gather in large numbers (prejudice), this is a peaceful pool full of families and the elderly, and no one would dare to commit such an embarrassing act as picking up a girl.
But I had my hopes up.
At the edge of the doorway near the restrooms, I spotted Takarai with her conspicuous hair color, conspicuous swimsuit, and conspicuous breasts, but she was surrounded by a group of flirtatious-looking men.
Takarai didn’t look frightened, but she looked bored as she turned her head to the side and listened to the pick-up men.
From the looks of it, the people surrounding Takarai seemed to be college students, not particularly big, but even so, others would hesitate when dealing with older people.
I’m a loner. Considering this attribute, it would be natural for me to be afraid of an older stranger and run away, or just stand on the sidelines and watch.
“Takarai-san, what are you doing here, you’re late and made me worried.”
Without any particular hesitation, I was able to stand in front of Takarai.
“N-Nagumo-kun!?”
Takarai’s voice was a mixture of confusion and relief.
Naturally, the men who tried to pick her up responded, “Who are you?”, But I was not perturbed.
I didn’t mind that they were older and a little taller than me.
Growing up in an environment where my father’s wrestler friends frequently visited, I was accustomed to men with scary faces, big voices, and big bodies, attributes that would make me shrink in front of them. There is no reason to be afraid of an average college student who is not big enough to do a thousand squats instead of prep work.
But that doesn’t mean I can afford to stay long. It’s not like I’m a strong person, and I’d rather avoid trouble.
“Come on now, let’s go, Tsumugi’s waiting.”
I took Takarai’s hand to leave quickly. Her hand, or rather, her wrist. I was still too embarrassed to grab her hand.
“I’m sorry, but my ‘boyfriend’ is here…”
Takarai says to the guy he’s picking up in a lively voice. She emphasized the “boyfriend” part very much.
I wish she wouldn’t do something that sounded like a provocation, but in this situation, it might make the guy give up.
However, she pressed on further, which was unusual for me.
“Actually, today is our first date.”
Why is Takarai trying to talk about unnecessary things at this point in her life?
“We’ve only just started dating, but Shinji and I get along really well. He’s really reliable.”
Why did you call me by my first name? You’ve never called me by my first name before. She even put her arm around my waist. I feel Takarai’s touch on the front of my body, and it’s too embarrassing.
“Hey, Takarai, don’t do that now…”
“Why? We’re in a relationship, so we can get together whenever we want.”
“This is not the time to do that.”
We’ve had close contact in our normal clothes before.
But right now, Takarai and I are both wearing swimsuits. From my point of view, it was as if we were hugging each other in the nude.
I was calm enough when I ran out in front of the pick-up guy, but now my head was in a state of panic.
“It can’t be helped. Should we at least hold our hands together instead?”
“Please do… I feel more comfortable that way.”
But connecting them together in front of a group of guys I didn’t know was almost as embarrassing as kissing her publicly because I had no tolerance for it.
“It’s fine now, right? Is it okay?”
I could feel the sweat pouring down my forehead and back, and I tried to shake it off with a wave of my arm.
“No! I don’t want to let go.”
Ehhh, Takarai’s melting face won’t allow it, and our hands are still tied together.
“I like it best when I’m attached to Shinji.”
What the heck, Takarai seems much crazier than usual today.
The men who picked up the girl in front of such a farcical scene had a change of heart.
“Oh man… I’m starting to feel embarrassed.”
“This is what you get for sticking with a woman? I forgot about this first-time freshness…”
“Back in the day, I didn’t think of getting along with girls like this as a game…”
As soon as the pick-up men began to repent on their own, they slunk away.
They probably saw me and had a vision of the time when they were virgins. I’m not too happy about it, because I feel like I’m being made fun of half the time, but I’ll take it as a good sign that I’m safe.
I was so embarrassed, but I wonder if it was Takarai’s strategy… to anticipate such a situation.
“Takarai-san, hello, Takarai-san? They’re already gone, you know…?”
“Who?”
“What do you mean who, I’m referring to the people who were hitting on Takarai-san earlier?”
“Were there people like that?”
Takarai kept sticking to me with a face like a cat playing in the sun.
This will go on forever if I don’t force her off of me.
“Let’s go, Tsumugi must be starving by now.”
“Oh, yeah, Tsumugi-chan, I feel sorry for making her wait.”
I was relieved to see that Takarai was taking good care of Tsumugi in her own way, as the mere mention of Tsumugi brought her back to herself.
I don’t know what would have happened if she had ignored Tsumugi and gone into her own world.
★
When we got back to Tsumugi, she greeted us with a sly smile and no sign of hungry anger.
“Yua-san, Shin-nii, welcome back~.”
It was the smile of an angel. From the bottom of my heart, I was glad to be back safely.
However, I was annoyed to see that Takarai was still attached to me.
“Hey, Tsumugi-chan, what do you think this guy is?”
“What about Shin-nii?”
“He’s my boyfriend~!”
Then Takarai grabbed my arm and put it around her shoulders.
“Hmm? Shin-nii is dating Yua-san, isn’t that right?”
From Tsumugi’s point of view, Takarai was my “girlfriend”, so she looked at her as if she was saying something obvious now.
“Yeah, he’s my boyfriend, isn’t he?”
“Huh!? Shin-nii, what’s wrong with Yua-san?”
“Don’t ask me, I have no idea either…”
“All right. Shin-nii, you came back a little late and kissed Yua-san. That’s why she looks so happy.”
Looking as if she was about to jump up and down out of joy, Tsumugi made a shocking mistake.
“I didn’t do anything like that. What even made you think that…?”
“Because Yua-san has a b*tch’s face right now.”
“Don’t use that dirty word.”
I covered Tsumugi’s mouth with the palm of my hand.
I think Tsumugi’s “early growth” is getting worse and worse. It’s time to make a serious move to clean up Tsumugi’s friendships and remove impurities.
However, for once, it may be inevitable that Tsumugi is mistaken.
Even to my untrained eye, I could tell that Takarai was getting carried away.
In Takarai’s mind, I was a hero for saving the day.
After all, the guys who picked her up weren’t vicious, and all I did was talk to them. I didn’t do anything too significant.
In the first place, if a beautiful girl like Takarai is in your class, there are probably plenty of guys who would be willing to help her out of her predicament, so it wouldn’t be anything unusual.
“Okay now, I’ll take care of the luggage for now, so you two go ahead and buy whatever you want.”
I wondered about Takarai’s overreaction, and sent them off to have lunch for Tsumugi, who was hungry.
★
After a late lunch, we played for a bit and left the pool as the evening was approaching.
We were sitting at the back of the bus, which was sparsely populated.
To my left was Tsumugi, and to my right was Takarai.
“I’m sorry for making you worry today.”
Takarai said in a whisper.
As expected, by this time, the unusual excitement had subsided.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve had enough fun, even Tsumugi is also tired of playing with you the whole day.”
Tsumugi was asleep, leaning on my left shoulder.
“At this rate, I’ll be staying up late today.”
“I want to stay up late with Nagumo-kun.”
“Well, why don’t you come again next weekend?”
While I was thinking that Tsumugi would be happy to see her, Takarai next to me was grinning like a maniac.
“What is it?”
“Nagumo-kun, you didn’t ask me out like that before, did you? Moreover, you say you’re okay with me staying over.”
I felt embarrassed.
I wonder, does this mean I’m letting Takarai in? I don’t want to. I didn’t mean to do that.
“I’ll bring a sleepover kit with me next time, since you’ve invited me.”
“…I’m glad you’re friends with Tsumugi, but do you really want to stay with us? Takarai-san has lots of friends. Wouldn’t you rather hang out with them?”
“Nagumo-kun’s place is special.”
Takarai said with a very serious face.
What the hell is so special about me?
“You helped me when I was being hit on.”
“I was just talking to you.”
“‘I’ll protect Yua!’ You said so while flying to the rescue.”
“Don’t fabricate what I said.”
I didn’t say anything that could lead to such a heated situation.
“There are plenty of boys who would be willing to do that for Takarai-san.”
“No, there aren’t.”
Suddenly, there was a strong sound that almost stopped time.
“It’s because I’m not taken very seriously.”
Takarai, whose voice was usually soft, sounded strangely dry at that moment, and it seemed to reverberate everywhere in the nearly deserted bus.
For a moment, I thought she was joking, waiting for a comment, but even I could sense that she was serious.
Even though I had recently become involved with Takarai, I didn’t know much about her.
I only knew what she looked like after we became classmates.
Takarai only showed a cheerful side in front of me, and I thought that was Takarai’s true nature… but is there really a problem that she can’t talk about?
“─If I said that, would Nagumo-kun be worried about me?”
For a change, Takarai said so in a bright tone.
“You b*stard… I’ve been surprised by the seriousness of your tone for a moment.”
“I’m a great actress, you know.”
“Well, you can’t be a riajuu without some character development.”
They’re so caught up in their characters. They look flimsy because they can only play characters that anyone can understand.
“But the only thing that’s true is that I like Nagumo-kun, okay?”
Takarai said, looking out the car window into the sunset.
“You’re a good actress. I was fooled.”
“I meant it.”
If you say it with a grin, it’s not very convincing.
“Well, since you helped me today, is there anything I can do for you?”
“Just playing with Tsumugi is enough for me.”
If she had only come with me today, she wouldn’t have had so much fun that she would have fallen asleep.
“Fuun~, Is that so? Well, Nagumo-kun is not greedy after all.”
What’s with that line about me being greedy? Takarai doesn’t seem to know me well yet.
“Nagumo-kun, I’m looking forward to working with you.”
“What’s the matter with you?”
“I’m hoping we’ll have a long relationship.”
Takarai’s body slowly tilted and her head rested on my shoulder.
There was a natural weight to it, as if a missing piece had been filled in.
I was not able to repel her from saying that she was not valued and that she should not try to sleep alone, so I was left to my own devices until we reached our destination.
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Translator’s Afterword: Help, I need more insulin, this is too sweet.
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