CH 19

And then came Sunday.

Thinking back on it, I had never been out with girls on a holiday, as I had always hung out with my male friends.

In junior high school, I ran into a girl from my class when I was hanging out with Keiichi, but I had never gathered together for the purpose of having fun from the start. In fact, if it had been me back then, I would have canceled the meeting without a doubt. That’s how bad I felt about girls.

“I resent Keiichi, who looks good in anything he wears. ……”

While heading to the large supermarket where we were to meet, I looked at Keiichi walking next to me. It was late afternoon, well before our meeting time of one o’clock.

Keiichi was wearing pure white pants and a sky-blue shirt. He had a long wallet in his back pocket and no baggage.

“Hahaha! I get paid for this, after all. But Tomoki looks good too, did you have clothes like that?”

“I bought it in a dash after my part-time job yesterday.”

“Oh! You’re more serious than ever!”

“It’s not like that,…… I don’t like it when I go out with girls in worn out, drab clothes. I’m going to be amongst you beautiful boys and girls, so I want to at least have something decent to wear.”

My clothes were not that elaborate, but rather a rather ordinary pair of beige chinos and a white hoodie with a logo on the chest. I bought the same combination as the mannequin was wearing, so there was nothing unusual about it.

When Keiichi heard my self-deprecating comment, he said, “What? I don’t think Tomoki’s face is that terrible?” I snickered at him.

Incidentally, today, we took a bus from the bus stop right in front of the supermarket where we were meeting, and traveled about 20 minutes from there. The destination is a bowling alley.

“I wonder what kind of day this is going to become.”

I muttered in a small voice as I looked at the large supermarket that came into view.

I was half-excited and half-worried.

Well, it’s a holiday without a part-time job. If I don’t enjoy it, it will be a loss, right?

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I arrived in front of the supermarket where we were to meet, and waited for ten minutes while talking nonsense with Keiichi. I spot Saejima on the street across the street, waving to me. Next to her is Kohinata, who is wearing a rather large cassock hat.

Saejima crossed the crosswalk at a short run, holding hands with Kohinata. The height difference makes them look more like sisters than classmates.

“Thanks for waiting! Karakusa-kun looks cool as ever no matter what he wears, Sugino-kun’s casual clothes are so fresh and look good on him! Not your usual black apron!”

Saejima says in her usual innocent manner as soon as she arrives. She is wearing denim half pants and a half-sleeved T-shirt. The skin-colored area is wider compared to her school uniform.

“Idiot, that’s the uniform of the “Rest and Recreation” program. It’s not my uniform.”

I responded in a voice mixed with exasperation, trying not to show my embarrassment at being told that I “looked good” in the uniform.

“Saejima and kohinata look good, too, don’t they? Do you know exactly what you have to offer? Hey, Tomoki.”

“Oh, …… yeah. Well”

“Ehehehe Thanks, Karakusa-kun and Sugino-kun. Today is bowling, so I chose clothes that are easy to move in.”

Saejima said so and smiled at us smilingly.

Sadly, I don’t have the guts to compliment girls as straight-forwardly as Keiichi does. I can at least agree with what someone else says, but I can’t do it on my own. I would be embarrassed if someone made fun of me.

However, there are exceptions to every rule,

“Good morning, Kohinata. That checked hat looks good on you. I think you look cute.”

I was able to say such an embarrassing line without once biting my tongue.

I am sure that Kohinata will not laugh or make fun of me when she hears what I have to say – I am sure of it. Another reason is that I myself could not suppress the cry of my heart.

I’m sure Saejima, like Kohinata, wouldn’t laugh at me either, but I wonder what the difference is ……. I don’t know myself.

However, isn’t Kohinata too cute today, even more so than usual? If I’m not careful, I might end up giving her an allowance. I wonder if 20,000 is enough.

I don’t know if it was to hide her embarrassment or not, but she slapped hands on my hand. She then began to play with her phone in a flustered manner.

“–What is it …… [Sugino kun, suits you]?”

On the screen of the phone that Kohinata showed me, there were a series of letters that I did not understand.

What do you mean, “Suits”? What in the world am I supposed to guess?!

“Hey, Kohinata, what suits?”

As expected, I could not understand the content due to the lack of information, so I put my hands on my knees and bent down before asking Kohinata.

She looked at the screen of her phone about three times and then blushed even more. Then she slapped my hand again.

“E-Eh? Is it my fault?”

I was stunned to see Kohinata turn her face away from me, and then I noticed Keiichi and Saejima looking at us with smirks on their faces. What’s with that ‘I understand everything’ look?

“Now that’s Tomoki’s fault.”

“You’re not very perceptive, Sugino-kun, you should at least understand a typo in a flash.”

Then they both say something like that to me. A typo? You mean there is something wrong with that sentence?

Kohinata was trying to type ‘it suits you’ – I realized that when the bus arrived at the stop.

（TL/N : Okay, so the typo thing is basically kohinata wanted to say suits you with 似合ってる which means, ‘suits you’, but she typo to に当てる which means other things but the kanji pronunciation can be somewhat the same. I know I’m suck at explaining this but you know what I mean right……??)