And yet… why? My face feels even hotter than before.
“Hey, could you stop staying so quiet and react like you normally do? It’s really embarrassing… Yuzuki?”
“H-Huh!?”
Whoa! Don’t get so close to my face out of nowhere!!
It startled me so much that I instinctively flinched.
I feel light-headed and fuzzy… I don’t even understand what’s happening to me.
“...Your face is bright red. Do you have a fever or something?”
“!! That’s it… Yūki… am I feeling sick right now?”
“Why are you asking me? Well, whatever—come on, let’s go to the nurse’s office.”
“Ah, no… it’s fine… I can go by myself…”
I said that, quickly gathering my things, and dashed out of the classroom.
Sato Yūki’s POV
I watched Yuzuki as she kept glancing back at me on her way to the nurse’s office.
…What do I do?
I tried to act normal, but isn’t her behavior toward me recently kind of weird?
She’s been fidgety… almost like she’s avoiding me.
Did I mess up by saying something like a confession when we were doing that “how to realize who you like” thing?
I really screwed up.
When I saw the expression on Yuzuki’s face during that, I got a bad feeling and ended up blurting out something way too close to a confession.
I never thought she’d take it seriously, though…
But wait—calm down, me. If she were avoiding me, she wouldn’t have invited me to see a movie, right?
…Wait.
Did I misread the situation? Was it not an invitation?
Was she just talking about how the dessert yesterday was tasty?
No… that’s not impossible!
She’s never been the one to invite me to do anything before. Ugh… this is so embarrassing I want to die.
“Hmm?”
My phone buzzed. A message notification popped up.
It was from Yuzuki.
“No fever. See you tomorrow.”
Ahhhhhhh!! Thank goodness!!
So it wasn’t just my imagination after all.
That’s a relief… but it doesn’t explain why her behavior has been so strange.
The Next Day
“That was actually pretty good, huh? The movie.”
There was a minor hiccup—Yuzuki showed up 30 minutes late—and she acted a little odd at times, but we managed to watch the movie and were now relaxing at a nearby café.
We chatted about the movie and exchanged impressions, enjoying the cozy atmosphere.
It was the usual pattern for us.
The movie, surprisingly, was a school romance.
Seriously, that’s Yuzuki we’re talking about—someone who always claims she doesn’t understand love or feelings like that.
I was shocked when she picked a romance movie, but the story was captivating, and the heroine’s struggles with her first experience of love were both endearing and relatable.
“Yeah, I really liked the heroine.”
“Oh, totally. She was adorable.”
“Huh. So that’s your type?”
Why does her tone have a hint of sharpness? Her eyes are kind of narrow, too…
“N-No, it’s not like she’s my type. I just thought she was cute, like… you know, a girl in love.”
Why do I feel like I’m making excuses when I haven’t done anything wrong?
“Love, huh...”
Yuzuki swirled her iced coffee with a straw, looking restless.
“I could really relate to the heroine. Feeling jealous when he talks to other girls, getting so nervous about asking him out that you don’t know what to say, stressing over what to wear for the first date and being late because of it, worrying if he’s mad at you, but then being overjoyed when he compliments you…”
She spoke with a faraway look, as if recalling her own experiences.
“But you know… that must be what love is.”
...
“...Yeah, I think so. And confessing properly like she did? That was impressive.”
“The cherry blossoms were falling in the park when she did it, huh?”
That scene had made me tear up a little…
The way the heroine mustered her courage, even though she was trembling and thought it was hopeless, was so relatable. I couldn’t help but root for her.
“Would you be happy if someone confessed to you like that?”
“...Huh?”
“I mean, would you be happy if someone confessed to you in a place full of cherry blossoms… somewhere meaningful?”
I couldn’t quite grasp what Yuzuki was trying to say, but her expression was so serious that I felt compelled to answer honestly.
“...Yeah, I’d be happy.”
…If it were you, that is.
“I see...”
Her expression seemed resolute, as if she had made an important decision.
My childhood friend, Kosaka Yuzuki, is popular.
The reason is simple: she’s beautiful.
With well-proportioned features and a chestnut-brown bob haircut, she’s the kind of person who turns heads wherever she goes.
It’s said that 10 out of 10 people are drawn to her at first sight.
She gets confessed to by boys practically every day.
And she turns down every single one of them, earning her the nickname:
“The Rejection Queen.”
However, lately, there’s been a rumor that something has changed about her.
It’s about how she rejects people.
Apparently, she used to turn boys down in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way. But recently—
“I’m sorry. I already have someone I like... But thank you for confessing to me. It really means a lot. I’ll do my best too!”
Now, she rejects them with a smile.
That radiant smile is so charming that some boys confess just to see it, even knowing they’ll be turned down.
“I heard you got confessed to again?”
“Huh? …Did Ririka tell you?”
“Yeah. She was happily talking about it again.”
“Well, I turned him down properly.”
“…I heard that too. So, when are you going to confess to the person you like?”
“Huh? How do you know I have someone I like?”
“Well… rumors spread. You’re famous, after all. I don’t know who it is, but everyone knows you have someone in mind.”
“Ah… The cherry blossoms are about to bloom soon, right? So, it’ll be soon.”
Yuzuki pointed to the cherry tree in the schoolyard as she spoke.
“On the way home from school, at the park where the cherry blossoms fall, I’ll confess.”
“Like in that movie?”
“Sort of… I heard it would make them happy.”
She pointed firmly and said this while her cheeks turned slightly red.
“So, just wait a little longer… okay?”
[The End]
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