Chapter 14
Kanade is Angry
“Good morning, Kanade.”
“Good morning, Kazuto.”
After arriving at school and exchanging our usual morning greetings, Kanade spoke in a slightly irritated tone as we faced each other.
“Hey, listen to me for a sec.”
…It’s rare to hear Kanade sound like this—or maybe not that rare, but it’s definitely unusual for her to ask me to listen to something.
“Ah, what’s wrong?”
Maybe something unpleasant happened. If hearing her out will lighten her mood, then I should listen.
“Lately, I haven’t been able to hang out with my friend at all.”
That was an unexpected way to start… Kanade used to be part of one of the stylish cliques, so she always gave off the impression of having a lot of friends. But even she has times when she can’t hang out with them?
“Maybe everyone’s just busy?”
“Ah, no. By ‘friend,’ I mean one person in particular. And I haven’t been able to hang out with that friend.”
“Oh, I see.”
At first, I was surprised—Kanade, unable to hang out with her friends? But if it’s about one specific person, then it makes sense.
Still, in the end…
“Then maybe that friend’s just been busy lately?”
“It’s not that. More like… I’ve been pushed way down their priority list.”
“That’s awful… Maybe you should just ask them directly, even indirectly—”
Before I could finish my advice, Kanade suddenly grabbed both my cheeks, pulling them out with a sulky expression.
“I’m talking about you, Kazuto.”
“…Huh?”
The silly, muffled voice that came out of me was partly because my cheeks were being pulled, but also because it matched my actual confusion perfectly.
Kanade finally let go of my cheeks and continued.
“I haven’t been able to hang out with you at all lately.”
“Well, that’s… because of everything going on with Yumi.”
“So, what you’re saying is that Yumi is more important to you than me? I mean, it makes sense. I’m just a friend, but she’s your sister.”
Her voice was calm, but I could hear a trace of anger in it.
“Are… are you mad?”
“Not really? I mean, I know the circumstances, so I’m not exactly angry. But because I know the circumstances, I’ve been holding myself back from saying I wanted to hang out with you. I’ve been swallowing it down. And now, I’m kind of letting out a bit of that frustration. It’s just… you’ve been blatantly putting Yumi above me, and that… well, yeah, it annoys me. So yes, I am mad.”
…So, she is angry in the end.
Though, honestly, ever since I explained things about Yumi to Kanade, I really haven’t hung out with her at all—even though we used to hang out all the time.
It would be strange if she didn’t feel conflicted about it.
“…Sorry. How about we go out together after school today?”
“Eh, really…? Is that okay? What about Yumi?”
“There’ve been times in the past where we hung out after school and I came home late. It’ll be fine today… Besides, maybe it won’t sound convincing coming from me right now, but… I really do enjoy spending time with you, Kanade.”
“K-Kazuto…”
Kanade blushed, turning her face away as she replied.
“For you, that’s… actually a pretty nice thing to say.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, ‘for me’!?”
And so, with that kind of banter, Kanade and I went out together after school.
Maybe because it had been a while, hanging out with her felt especially fun today… At times, I thought I caught her gazing at me with a kind of warmth and intensity she’d never shown before. But I convinced myself I was imagining things, and just enjoyed spending time with her until the end.
Around 7 p.m., I got home. As always, Yumi greeted me brightly.
“Welcome back, big brother! You’re home late today, huh?”
“Yeah, I was hanging out with a friend. It’s been a while.”
“I see~! Hey, big brother, can we go out together again on your next day off?”
I didn’t have any particular reason to refuse, so I agreed.
“Sure, let’s do it.”
“Yay!”
And so, I ended up making plans to go out with Yumi on my day off.
But what I didn’t know at the time… was that this outing with Yumi would be witnessed by someone—someone who would see it in the worst possible way.
