Tsushima Kagami was taken aback for a moment, then chuckled.
"So you haven't had dinner yet?"
"Or is it a late-night snack?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka nodded, patted her stomach, and looked a touch aggrieved.
She actually hadn't eaten much after school.
"After Livehouse wrapped up, everyone was tired and in a hurry to get home, and I, on my own..."
She paused, gave a small shrug.
"I just suddenly didn't feel like going to eat by myself."
"Since Kagami said he'd see me home, how about you just come along and grab a bite with me?"
"How about it?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka stood there at the ticket gate, having not yet stepped through onto the platform, and said this.
Tsushima Kagami looked at her.
A good bro — wasn't he supposed to be by the other person's side when they were feeling down?
"Let's go."
Tsushima Kagami walked back a few steps, took out his commuter pass once again, swiped it at the ticket gate, and headed back through.
"Good bro — I really had you pegged right!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka laughed as she watched Tsushima Kagami come back.
Just at that moment, the subway heading the way home pulled in and stopped beside them.
"Hurry, hurry!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka swiftly stepped forward, grabbed Tsushima Kagami's hand, and ran toward the subway.
Meguro Ward.
Tsushima Kagami and Hiratsuka Shizuka walked out of the station shoulder to shoulder.
Even though the night had grown deep, the streets on either side were no less bustling than Shinjuku at night — brilliantly lit up.
Neon signs flickered overhead, izakaya banners hanging one after another, with a takoyaki stall by the roadside sending up clouds of steam.
Passersby weren't many — they walked in twos and threes, with the occasional drunken salaryman staggering past.
The two walked down the street, neither saying anything for a while.
Hiratsuka Shizuka — usually the kind of tomboyish girl who'd warm up to anyone — was unexpectedly quiet today.
Tsushima Kagami simply followed behind her, letting her lead the way to the ramen shop.
A gust of night wind blew past.
Hiratsuka Shizuka's long hair behind her was lightly stirred.
It gave off a faint, fresh fragrance.
Tsushima Kagami unintentionally caught a very pleasant scent.
Was it shampoo, or perfume?
So this was the so-called "delicate Chanel breeze" of a beautiful girl?
Tomboyish personality, plus all soft and fragrant, plus a good bro.
A pity she didn't have short hair.
Even more of a pity that she wasn't a boy.
Because otherwise, it would have been perfect.
Right — how about drawing this theme next time?
Originally thinks he's got a good bro, only to discover that this good bro turns out to be all soft and fragrant —
After endlessly questioning his own sexual orientation, finally resigns himself to accepting the fact that he's Homo —
Then, unable to hold back, makes a move on his good bro, the good bro half-resists-half-yields, and the upshot is that the good bro turns out to be a girl after all!
Surprise? Shock?
Tsushima Kagami had, somehow inexplicably, been led by Hiratsuka Shizuka's delicate fragrance into mulling over a new theme for his manga.
"What are you thinking about?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka, sensing Tsushima Kagami constantly behind her, could feel his eyes fixed on her the whole way.
In the end she couldn't help glancing over and asking.
Tsushima Kagami snapped back to himself — he hadn't realized his train of thought had wandered all the way to his next manga's theme.
Argh, this damnable career-brain of mine!
Coming back to his senses, Tsushima Kagami laughed.
"It's nothing."
"How much farther to this ramen shop you mentioned?"
"Just a bit more walking and we're there."
Hiratsuka Shizuka said with a smile.
The ramen shop was tucked into a small alleyway.
The storefront wasn't large — just a single row of counter seats, with all manner of handwritten menus stuck up on the walls.
Steam billowed from the pot — tonkotsu broth bubbling away — and the savory aroma drifted through the entire little shop.
The owner was a middle-aged man in his fifties; on seeing Hiratsuka Shizuka come in, he greeted her with a smile.
"Koharu, back again! Brought a friend today?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka nodded and took a seat at the counter.
"The usual?"
"Mm, the special tonkotsu, add an egg."
The owner turned to Tsushima Kagami.
"I'll have the same."
Tsushima Kagami sat down beside her.
"Coming right up!"
The owner turned and began bustling about.
Inside the shop was warm, a sharp contrast to the chill outside.
The steam blurred the window panes, the halos of the neon lights outside turning hazy.
Once she'd settled in, Hiratsuka Shizuka spoke up with a smile.
"This place."
"The food's really not bad."
"I come by alone every now and then."
Tsushima Kagami looked at the rare, faintly melancholy look on her face right then.
And, half-joking, replied.
"When you're in a bad mood?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka froze for a moment, then laughed.
"How did you know?"
"Just a guess."
Hiratsuka Shizuka didn't say anything, just stared at the teacup in front of her.
After a while, she opened her mouth.
"It's not that I'm in a bad mood, either."
"It's just... sometimes I want to be alone for a bit."
She paused.
"But I don't want to be too lonely, either."
Tsushima Kagami didn't speak, just listened.
"Weird, right?"
She turned her head and looked at him.
"Wanting to be on my own, and yet not wanting to be on my own."
"It's not weird."
Hiratsuka Shizuka blinked.
"Why?"
"Because people are contradictory creatures to begin with."
Tsushima Kagami said.
"Wanting solitude, yet afraid of loneliness."
"Wanting to be understood, yet afraid of being seen through."
"Wanting to draw close, yet afraid of getting hurt."
He looked at the broth pot in front of him, bubbling away.
"Oba Yozo was that kind of person too."
Hiratsuka Shizuka was taken aback for a beat.
Then she laughed, gave Tsushima Kagami's shoulder a few pats, and said.
"Ahaha."
"Are you trying to plug your own book here?"
"Not at all."
Tsushima Kagami laughed too.
"It's just that Komoe-sensei and Douraku-sensei are always telling me their summaries of what adolescent students are like."
"I've heard it so often I could recite it."
"Just happened to come in handy for answering your question."
"Adolescence, huh?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka murmured to herself.
"Isn't adolescence just one kind of worry after another?"
"Look — even you, usually so cheerful."
"Today you've gone all sentimental too."
Tsushima Kagami went on.
"Huh?"
"Is that what it is?"
"I really don't want to be told that."
Hiratsuka Shizuka slumped forward onto her arms and said in a small voice.
"How about menopause then?"
Tsushima Kagami suddenly added.
"Hey now, you — how are you so mean!"
"And here I thought we were bros!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka, who had just been gearing up to brew some melancholy, was interrupted by Tsushima Kagami yet again, and went right back to pummeling away at his shoulder.
"Hmph, basically you think I'm some carefree, hot-tempered obasan, don't you!"
"I actually think today's Koharu is more like a quiet, demure young lady, you know."
"Oh? Only just for that bit at the station, though."
As soon as Tsushima Kagami said this, he quickly threw up a full defensive posture.
But after waiting a good long while, Hiratsuka Shizuka's million-ton heavy fist failed to come down.
He only saw Hiratsuka Shizuka sitting beside him, holding up a menu to cover her face, silent.
Tsushima Kagami's hands were quicker than his eyes — he swept the menu aside.
And saw the sight of Hiratsuka Shizuka's face flushed bright red.
"What in the bubble-teapot are you blushing about!"
"You, of all people — don't tell me one single line out of me has gotten you developing impure feelings toward me!"
"That is some next-level narcissism."
"I'm not that easy!"
Hiratsuka Shizuka said, sticking her neck out stubbornly.
"Really?"
"Really!"
"Then what's with the blushing, huh!"
Tsushima Kagami pointed a finger at Hiratsuka Shizuka with a how-about-that look on his face.
Hiratsuka Shizuka, refusing to back down, fired back.
"It's all your fault, you bastard!"
"Don't go suddenly saying flirty stuff like that out of nowhere!"
"Sure, I didn't get the wrong idea."
"But blushing's perfectly normal, isn't it?"
"What if it had been some other girl, and she'd taken it the wrong way?"
Tsushima Kagami thought about it.
The hell — bro doesn't have a god's-eye view, you know.
Who the heck knows who's gonna fall for him over one single line.
That's just way too sci-fi.
And besides, that was just a perfectly normal compliment.
If she could accidentally fall in love over that, just how starved for affection would she have to be!
Backing up ten thousand steps —
Even if you do flirt, sure, the girl gets some emotional value out of it, but that doesn't mean she's actually going to fall for you.
Tsushima Kagami thought of the saying "if you're not gonna marry, then why flirt."
Hahaha.
Bro thinks if he just casually goes a little yasashii on some girl, the girl's gonna secretly hand over her heart, does he?
Bro really is narcissistic, shrimp-headed, repressed!
You think this is playing some galge or what!
Who's to say the girl isn't also just taking what she needs out of it, having a perfectly good time?
So yeah.
Flirt away, flirt away!
Watch me thoroughly tease JK Hiratsuka Shizuka!
"Koharu."
"Hm?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka looked over as Tsushima Kagami suddenly turned to her with a serious expression.
A little flustered, a little expectant, she looked back at him.
Tsushima Kagami let a smile bloom across his face — like the gentle, warm sunlight of a winter's day.
"Bros are bros, you know!"
"A bro cannot be turned into a wife!"
____
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