The Visitor

The next morning, the chime rang at a relatively early hour.

Hayashi, who had been caught up in a bit of a mess earlier, headed toward the entrance, and I heard the sound of the door opening.

“Meguu!”

The visitor was Kasahara.

Yesterday, by some chance, it came to light that Hayashi makes me meals every day, and it seems Kasahara managed to secure a promise to have Hayashi cook breakfast for her directly.

“It’s a hassle to do this at the door, you know.”

Hayashi’s cool voice reached my ears.

She’s right, I thought.

The sound of the door closing followed.

“Meg, if you’re cooking, you should’ve told me!”

“Are you gonna judge me for it here? Didn’t we talk about this before?”

“I knew you could cook, but I didn’t know you were making meals every day!”

“Why are you so mad about it?”

Still, what’s with this? It feels like I’m eavesdropping on some flirty girl talk, and it’s kinda awkward.

“Anyway, hurry up and eat breakfast. You’ll be late for uni.”

“Haha, Meg, you sound like a mom!”

“Shut up.”

I could hear the patter of their footsteps as they approached.

“Morning, Yamamoto-kun!”

“Yo.”

“You’re up bright and early, huh? Good job!”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Who do you think I am?”

“Fair point. You are Yamamoto-kun, after all.”

“Exactly.”

“Don’t act all high and mighty just because you’re pointlessly up early every day.”

Hayashi called out from the kitchen.

I decided not to respond.

The one glancing back and forth between us was Kasahara, caught in the middle.

“Wait, are you guys fighting?”

“I’m not under the impression we’re fighting.”

“Neither am I.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t have to be so snappy if there’s nothing wrong!”

“Huh? You’re the one always saying arrogant stuff!”

“No matter how you look at it, you guys are totally fighting.”

For some reason, Kasahara seemed to be enjoying this a little.

“What started it?”

“We’re not arguing or anything.”

“Yamamoto-kun.”

“…Well, if this looks like an argument to you, it probably started with yesterday’s thing.”

“You’re way too soft on Akari, aren’t you?”

Hayashi’s exasperated voice came through.

“…Ohh.”

And Kasahara seemed to get it.

Yesterday’s thing.

I’d talked to Kasahara about it too, but yesterday, Hayashi and I made a certain promise. The deal was that I’d talk to someone from our university.

“Actually, after talking to you, I managed to keep that promise.”

“Really? What kind of talk did you have?”

“Heh heh heh. Get this… I picked up a handkerchief that got blown by the wind and fell at my feet, called out to the person, and handed it back. They even thanked me!”

Kasahara just stared, dumbfounded.

“What do you think, Akari?”

“Uh? Well, it sounds kinda… made-up, doesn’t it?”

Kasahara seemed to catch on a bit.

“So, you two are arguing over whether that promise was kept for real or not?”

“Not really.”

“Nope.”

“Wait, it’s not?”

“I mean, Yamamoto wouldn’t lie about something like that, right?”

“S-so much trust…!”

“What’s ticking me off is that this guy says he doesn’t need a reward even though he kept the promise!”

“Considering your wallet, I figured it’s no big deal.”

“And then he says we should organize the cleaning supplies as part of some penalty game!”

“The cleaning supplies are getting all cluttered, so what else are we supposed to do?”

“That’s not the point!”

“Do you two always bicker like this when you’re alone?”

“Hey, hold on, bickering? This is important stuff!”

“Exactly. Akari, I can’t agree with you on that one.”

“Ugh, what a pain.”

Kasahara looked fed up.

We paused the back-and-forth and started eating the breakfast Hayashi had prepared for us.

A little while later, the conversation picked back up.

“I kinda get what’s going on. But you two are so stubborn, you’ll never settle this at this rate, you know?”

The turning point came from Kasahara’s sudden, blunt truth.

“Hmm.”

“Fair enough.”

When you’re heated and in the middle of an argument, you don’t notice it, but she was absolutely right.

The two of us were talking in circles.

In that case, maybe we needed a third party’s opinion.

“What do you think, Kasahara?”

“Yeah, Akari, tell us.”

“Uh…?”

Kasahara let out a long hmmm.

“…”

“Kasahara…?”

“Akari…?”

“I don’t really care either way.”

Kasahara gave a wry smile.

A rare case where the author and the characters’ views align.

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