Chapter 23: The Crane That Was Saved That Day
Translator: Soafp
Hiiragi stared at me, trembling, and pointed.
“You're coming… why is Hatsukade here?”
“I'm accompanying you on your trip.”
“Whaaat!?”
Her shriek echoed through the ticket gate, drawing the attention of passersby.
“Wh-what, no, what are you saying!?”
“I mean exactly that. Your parents also asked me to keep you from being alone.”
“My mom and dad did!?”
“As proof, here—your parents' contact info.”
I showed her the screen on my phone.
Hiiragi hurriedly leaned in and stared at it, stunned.
“I can't believe this… We haven't even exchanged contact info ourselves…”
“I already exchanged it so I can give them daily updates on your situation. Hurry up. We'll miss the train we planned for. By the way, where are we going?”
“…The ocean.”
Hmph, how clichéd—going to the sea for a heartbreak trip.
Still, well…
“That means there'll probably be good seafood.”
“Yeah, sorry, I can't keep up with your thinking.”
I passed through the ticket gate using a mobile payment app.
When I looked back, Hiiragi had lowered her head in defeat and stared into space with dead eyes.
At the platform, I waited for the limited express while drinking coffee I'd bought from a vending machine, stealing glances at her unconvincing profile.
Well, of course.
If I'd been about to take a solo trip and some classmate suddenly showed up unannounced, I'd think, Is this guy insane? and question his sanity too.
But I had my own reasons for not backing down.
“Hey, Hatsukade. I appreciate you worrying about me, but it's Friday and school's still in session. Your parents will worry too, so you should go home.”
“I already explained everything and took care of my responsibilities. I've also informed the school.”
“That kind of initiative…”
With a sigh, Hiiragi pressed her fist into my upper arm.
“Why are you going so far for me? I don't get it.”
“It's because you said you were going to start some ridiculous self-discovery journey because of me.”
“…Huh? Hatsukade-kun, what are you talking about?”
Hiiragi gave a strained smile, cold sweat trickling down her face.
I took her arm.
“You don't need to make excuses. I know everything already.”
“Y-you know? No way. Could it be…”
“Yeah. I was the one who saved you that day and got my butt bitten by the Chihuahua.”
“!?”
The train arrived.
I pulled her along by the arm.
“Wait, no way, no way! I can't even deal with this—never mind getting on a train!”
“You've got a lot to talk about.”
“Why are you so calm!? There's nothing! Nothing at all!”
As she tried to escape, I held her hand firmly.
“…Ah, ah, ah…”
And then she fell silent, too embarrassed to say anything else.
Even if I tried to explain, she wouldn't understand. Better to bluff my way through and not waste time.
The train was crowded, so it took a while before we could sit down and talk.
Hiiragi sat beside me, clutching her head and muttering to herself.
“I'm… so embarrassed… I want to die.”
She looked up at me with teary eyes.
“When did you figure it out?”
“Yesterday. I looked at your social media.”
“Right… of course I'd be found out. I should've deleted the account.”
Her voice was low and gloomy, nothing like her usual self.
For all her boundless energy, what was there to be depressed about?
“Hiiragi, I've got a lot I want to say, but first let me say this.”
“What?”
“Thank you for saving me back then, when I was about to get bitten.”
“…”
“I wanted to tell you that the moment we met again.”
With a thoroughly exhausted face, she forced the corners of her mouth upward and narrowed her eyes.
“Don't worry about something that old. It's nothing special.”
“It wasn't nothing. You were definitely bitten hard enough that your pants got stained red. You probably still have a scar.”
“Whether I have a scar on my butt or not doesn't matter to me. I'm not exactly in the habit of checking back there.”
“But if I had been the one bitten, I'd have regretted that scar for the rest of my life.”
“Then I'm glad I was able to protect you.”
“…!”
She quickly looked away, and I asked her:
“Hey, Hiiragi. Are things in the classroom really that hard that you'd want to repeat a year?”
“…”
“If the issue is that you can't take back saying you'd support Amanatsu's romance with everything you've got, then you're misunderstanding things. Amanatsu isn't the kind of person who would want you to throw away an entire year of your life.”
“I know that better than anyone. Nakina is a good kid.”
After letting out a long, long sigh, Hiiragi lifted her head.
“I like you, Hatsukade.”
“…I know.”
“No, you don't get it at all. I've liked you this whole time. I fell for you at first sight when you saved me back then, and I kept working hard to become cute because I wanted to date you someday. I studied cooking because I wanted you to like me, and I used social media so I could gather followers and maybe find you again.”
Hiiragi gave a weak laugh.
“And I still love you now. It's funny, right? I never used to feel this way, but now that you've come running to me like this, I'm falling for you more and more.”
“Let me make one thing clear: I have no intention of dating anyone. So no matter what you do, the result will be the same.”
“That's where you're wrong. If I give it my all and still fail, then I can accept it too. Didn't I say that unrequited love is still a proper kind of love? But… if I'm not even allowed to try and make you like me, then I don't know where to put all these feelings I've carried for so long. That's what hurts.”
So she wanted distance, to calm down.
From her position, I could understand why she'd think that, especially considering Amanatsu.
Hiiragi must have felt guilty toward Amanatsu because of the fake-confession incident.
But even so, that didn't mean…
“You're thinking too extremely. I've said it plenty of times: Amanatsu probably doesn't want that either. That guilt of yours is just going in circles.”
As far as I was concerned, the solution was simply to reject everyone equally.
If Hiiragi confessed to me, got rejected, and then moved on, that would be enough.
Then she could go back to school as usual.
Hiiragi gave a small laugh.
“You always look like you understand everything, Hatsukade, but you don't know me at all, do you?”
“What do you mean?”
“This isn't guilt. It's because I fell in love with you.”
Her cheeks faintly flushed as she spoke with a delighted smile.
“The first time I nearly got bitten, the way you saved me was so cool. I fell for you at first sight, but at the same time, I also wanted to be like you. Help people when they're in trouble, support them when they're worried. Well, I'm an idiot, so sure, I sometimes cause trouble and get disliked, but I really mean that from the bottom of my heart.”
She stood up and moved around to face me directly.
“First love is important… but friends are just as important. I can't choose one over the other!”
With her usual energy back, Hiiragi slapped my shoulder briskly, smiling brightly.
“So let's end the gloomy talk here. It's too late to do anything about school now anyway, so just come with me and enjoy yourself today!”
“You're unbelievably carefree.”
“It'll all work out somehow! It's Saturday tomorrow, so you can stay one night and head home after that.”
“Don't just decide my schedule on your own—”
Before I could finish, Hiiragi pressed a fingertip to my lips.
“No objections! You don't need to worry about me. This is the conclusion I reached after thinking positively!”
“…”
If she had that much determination, then maybe it wasn't my place to interfere anymore.
What Hiiragi and I got off at was a town scented with sea breeze.
It was a famous spot that gets crowded with locals and tourists alike in summer, and I at least knew the name.
Hiiragi walked ahead cheerfully, her long blond hair swaying as she occasionally pointed out restaurants or other places she liked.
Her destination was a relative's house near the beach.
Apparently this wasn't a trip with no destination after all.
The three-story house had an automatic door on the first floor. When we entered the stylish wooden interior, there was a large counter.
I read the sign on the wall next to it.
Marine Activities – Blue Note
“Wait, your relative's place is a diving shop?”
“Yep. Though it's not just diving—we do all sorts of stuff.”
Surfboards and snorkeling sets were displayed on the walls.
There were bottles of alcohol on the shelves behind the counter, so maybe it doubled as a bar too.
Pure extrovert energy.
It fit Hiiragi's relatives perfectly.
Then, from the back of the shop, out came a heavily built, well-tanned guy—despite it still being June.
“Yo, Sakura, it's been since New Year's!”
“Uncle Toshie! Please take care of us starting today!”
“Yeah! We've been short-handed, so live-in help is more than welcome.”
Toshie-san, with a name like a Sengoku warlord and the look to match—complete with a mustache—stared at my face and widened his eyes in surprise.
“Is he Sakura's boyfriend?”
“No, I'm not her boyfriend—”
“I like him! From today on, you're officially my nephew!”
I'm worried the Hiiragi family bloodline has fallen for a scam.
“I'm just accompanying her. I don't have even a millimeter of romantic feelings toward Hiiragi.”
“What a shame. I was just getting emotional, thinking Sakura had finally woken up from her stupid crush.”
So even the relatives know about it?
Could it be that this guy is being made fun of throughout the entire family?
“Uncle Toshie, Hatsukade dropped his emotions and romantic feelings somewhere, so he always has that grumpy face.”
“I see. I don't hate that kind of smoky, refined man either.”
Then, all of a sudden—
A puppy burst out from the back of the room.
“Woof?”
An Akita?
I slowly dropped to my knees, worried it might bite me, but before I knew it, I was reaching out my hand.
“Haha.”
It licked the tip of my finger.
“Cuuuuute!”
“Hey, Sakura, what part of that is a grumpy face?”
“Come to think of it, he made the same melted expression with Rooney… Wait, does that mean I'm not just losing to Nakina—I'm losing to dogs too?”
Something was wrong…
I had come with Sakura prepared to repeat the year if necessary, but after playing with Fujimaru, the Akita puppy, it had gone from evening to night.
I couldn't even remember the taste of the sashimi platter Toshie-san had treated us to.
I felt bad about that.
That's how shocking my encounter with Fujimaru had been.
“Hey, Hatsukade.”
Sakura, who had come to visit my room in the lodging, pouted in dissatisfaction.
“I was really looking forward to today. I thought we'd make lots of memories and I'd be able to put my feelings to rest. But after we got here, you barely talked to me. You could pay a little more attention to me, you know?”
It was surprising, really.
I was just as shocked at myself.
“I couldn't resist Fujimaru-kun's charm.”
“Fine, whatever… But why do you like dogs so much? You got traumatized after the Chihuahua bit you, didn't you? Normally that would make you hate dogs.”
“Because I got bitten.”
“Huh?”
“That day, I ended up liking dogs because I got bitten.”
“What do you mean?”
After stretching out my tired body from playing with Fujimaru, I took a sip of the coffee Toshie-san had brewed for me.
“I don't know if you remember, Sakura, but my childhood friend was there that day too.”
“Yeah.”
“She's loved dogs since she was little, and back then I didn't care much for them. But when I got bitten, she started crying her eyes out.”
I can still remember it as if it happened yesterday.
My childhood friend—Miko—was worried about me.
She cried so hard that I didn't even have time to feel the pain myself; comforting her was the hard part.
After that, she stopped going near dogs.
“I didn't want her to end up hating something she loved because of me. So I thought, if I liked dogs instead, maybe she wouldn't feel that way. Before I knew it, I had gotten into them myself.”
Though to be fair, my dad's a born dog person too, so I can't deny I probably already had that kind of tendency in me.
“Hehe. I really do like you, Hatsukade.”
“What's with that all of a sudden?”
“Because the reason you like dogs is so wonderful. The person I fell for was even cooler than I imagined.”
Sakura clenched a fist happily in front of her chest.
Maybe because she had just gotten out of the bath, her long hair was tied into a ponytail, and she carried a faint sweet scent of shampoo.
“Sorry. At school, I thought Hatsukade was kind of a jerk, and I used to complain about you to Amanatsu sometimes.”
“It's fine…”
“Thanks. So, did you and that childhood friend ever date?”
“Things happened, and we drifted apart.”
“So that heartbreak you talked about was that too?”
“Yeah. Don't ask for details. It's a pain.”
“Ahh, I see.”
Sakura stood up and clasped her hands behind her back, leaning her body to one side.
“Well, romance is hard. I know that from experience. So… if I stay with Hatsukade like this, I'll probably get even weirder. Let's say goodbye here.”
“…”
“I've told you everything I wanted to say, so you understand how I feel, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, then that's that. I'm going back to my room.”
“…Good night.”
“Good night, Hatsukade.”
The next day, I was talking with Toshie-san across a table inside Marine Activities Blue Note.
Then Sakura, just woken up, appeared and looked surprised.
“Oh? Hatsukade, what are you talking about with Uncle Toshie this early in the morning?”
I held up a sheet of paper.
“Ah, I just got hired as live-in part-time help.”
“!?!?!?”
“So now I can see Fujimaru-kun every day.”
“Ahh, wa-wait, eeeh?!”
Sakura dashed over and snatched the contract from me.
Her arms trembled as she gripped the paper.
“W-Why? I thought my feelings got across to you!”
“I understood them, of course. But why do I have any obligation to follow them?”
“Huh?”
“I've never once regretted saving you from that Chihuahua that day.”
“…”
“Thanks to that, I became a dog lover, and I got to save both that lost Chihuahua and you. But Sakura, if that encounter becomes the reason you throw away your friendships with Amanatsu and Shinonome and choose to repeat a year…”
I looked at her and, after a breath, said:
“I would come to regret that day.”
“…!”
“I absolutely won't allow that.”
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