Chapter 72: Volume 3 - CH 2.6

“Do you have anywhere you wanna go?”

“Let’s see, celebration calls for a karaoke session, don’t you think?” Yuzu casually made such a suggestion.

In response, I made a serious face and told her the world’s absolute truth.

“Listen, Yuzu. Introverts are creatures that don’t go to karaoke.”

“Huh, why?” The extrovert Yuzu was stunned as if I just said something totally unexpected.

“It’s hard to sing in front of a lot of people, you know? And of course, we don’t have our own go-to songs because we don’t usually sing at karaoke, and that makes it even harder to go to karaoke.”

“What a vicious cycle. No one listens to other people’s songs as much as you think, Yamato-kun. They’re concentrating on choosing their own songs. You’re too self-conscious.”

“What? With all of that excitement… it’s actually such a lonely isolated activity?”

In the past, before I had awakened as an introvert, I used to go to karaoke normally too; even though other people were singing, I would try my hardest to keep the excitement high. Had it been suffocating for me because I’d tried so hard to do that all for nothing?

“I think I just realised the harsh truth… Ugh, I even unnecessarily recalled my black history.”

Having remembered my painful past of spinning my own wheels, I was slightly depressed.

“Hey there, don’t be so morose in the first few minutes of our date.”

“That’s my first time hearing someone use the word ‘morose’ aside from funeral-related matters.”

It appeared that my grave mood would be more at home at a funeral service.

“Then, how about a movie? Now that I think about it, I haven’t gone to one with Yamato-kun.”

“Well, that’s okay. I like movies too,” I stood up straight and regained my spirits, thinking that this was not the way to go on a date.

Seeing this, perhaps satisfied, Yuzu also brightened her expression.

“Alright, so a movie it is! Then, let’s go!” She grabbed my hand and led me to the movie theatre.

I’ve become used to holding hands with Yuzu naturally like a couple. As that thought tickled my heart, I didn’t point out this fact and just walked at the same pace as her.

“But then again, it’s been a long time since I’ve been to the movie theatre.”

I was basically a person who streamed movies online. This was a rare case for me to step into an actual movie theatre.

“Yamato-kun, what kind of movies do you like?” Yuzu asked me on the way there.

“If I had to say, I’d say Western action movies. I like the ones with a lot of explosions.”

“I’m the same as you! If you’re going to watch it in the theatre, you’d want a flick with a powerful visual impact, right?”

I was surprised by Yuzu’s gleeful response.

“That’s quite unexpected. I thought you liked live-action shoujo manga adaptations. You know, the kind with good-looking young actors.”

“In fact, that’s the type I watch the most.”

Looking at her snickering at those words, I came to a realisation.

“You were accompanying friends?”

“Correct.”

As I had wondered when we were at the amusement park, it was indeed hard to be someone who cared about their facade.

“But today I’m really looking forward to it since I can probably watch my favourite type of movie.”

“Is that so? By the way, I’m in the mood of watching horror movies.”

“Sure enough, our tastes don’t match! Why would you mention horror at this time?! Didn’t you say you like action movies?!”

“No, I just thought that rather than an action movie, it would be more fun to see you being scared out of your mind by a horror movie.”

“What do you think of your girlfriend?!”

Yuzu puffed her cheeks in anger, so I chuckled in response.

“I’m just kidding. I’ll let you choose what movie to watch, so stop making that coquettish angry face.”

When I pointed that out, her face instantly lit up.

“Hoho… you’re getting better at spotting my eagerness to be cute even when I put on an angry face, Yamato-kun.”

“I can’t help feeling that I’ve developed an unnecessary observational streak.”

While talking nonsense, we reached the movie theatre. There, Yuzu bought tickets for a movie of her choice and we entered the theatre. At the same time as we sat down at our assigned seats, the lights went off.

“Whoa, we entered at just the right moment.”

I focused on the screen as I listened to her jovial voice. A few moments passed before the movie started. The content of the film was a Western-style action movie with sci-fi elements, which was totally to my liking.

My attention naturally was on the movie—but a problem arose midway.

A buff male actor and a blonde-haired actress were intertwined in a grapple… a.k.a the bed scene.

“…”

“…”

Aw-Awkward!

I would like to see how Yuzu was faring, but I didn’t dare look at her next to me. Meanwhile, the high-pitched moanings of the actress echoed throughout the theatre.

I was so nervous that I started to get thirsty. The juice purchased with our tickets should have been in the pocket of the armrest. With my eyes fixed on the screen, I moved my hand in search of a drink.

However, my fingertips touched Yuzu’s hand, which was on the armrest, instead of the juice.

*gasps*

“…!”

Both of us retracted our hands as if static electricity had run through them. With the reaction I just got, I found out that Yuzu was also blatantly conscious of me.

Eh, but wait. Doesn’t this look as if I just got carried away by the bed scene and went to grab Yuzu’s hand?

In this situation where a bad misunderstanding might arise, I unintentionally glanced at the person next to me. Then, in a terrible slip of a moment, our eyes met.

She stiffened with a bright red face and turned her head downwards in embarrassment.

Yes, she completely misunderstood! She must be thinking here was a pervert who got carried away by the mood of the movie and tried to initiate physical contact!

Since the movie was still playing on the screen, I couldn’t really explain myself, and only a feeling of helpless embarrassment floated between us. As I looked resentfully at the characters on screen who had just finished their bed scene, I just wished the movie would end as quickly as possible.

chocolala: Awkward~~~~