Chapter 5 Sei and Shiho's Phone Call

Unable to resist, Sei called Shiho on RINE.

The phone rang, and just before the first ring ended, the other side picked up the phone.

“Shiho…”

“Hahaha... Good evening, Sei-chan.”

"Ah, good evening. I never thought I'd be tricked by Shiho.”

“I wasn’t tricking you. I was just trying to make it easier for you to be honest with yourself.”

“That's what the public, or in my opinion, tricking people is about!”

“But you were really cute, Sei-chan. I've never seen anyone fall for someone without being aware of it before.”

“Kuu…!”

In reality, it was me who spoke about it, even though I was led to do so. And it was also a mistake to blurt out almost everything without checking with Shiho about how much of the scene she saw.

However, it was good to know that... she only saw me leaving.

She didn't need to know that I had a slight crush on Shigemoto before Hisamura confessed his feelings to me.

“But thank you for calling me, Sei-chan. Now I can ask you about that time as much as I want!”

“No, no, I'm not calling to talk about that...”

"Fufu, recently I used to only talk about my feelings for Shigemoto-kun, but I'm glad that Sei-chan can talk about her feelings as well!“

“I've got to go to bed...”

“It's only 10 o'clock! You go to bed much later than that, don't you, Sei-chan? Do you not want to talk about love with me that much...?”

"No, it's not like that, but... well, it's embarrassing...”

I said that as I barely squeezed my voice out. I heard a gasp from the other end of the phone.

"......Sei-chan, you're SO CUTE right now!”

"Whaa? Huh? What are you talking about...!”

"The way you said that! I'm a woman, but that still made me go kyun~!”

"Ye-Yes, I'm not sure how to say this, but....”

“Fufu, I knew Sei-chan was cute but Hisamura-kun made you even cuter.”

“What do you mean by that?!”

“I'm sure that he told you a lot of things just by listening to your love story.”

"Uuu... yes, but...”

Shiho had led me to say almost everything that had happened

I was able to hide the things I needed to hide the most, but I couldn’t hide all the embarrassing things that I had just told her on RINE.

“I mean, why did Hisamura-kun suddenly confess to Sei-chan?”

“We-Well, that's what I'd like to know too.”

Both Shiho and I had some interaction with the two of them, Shigemoto and Hisamura. But there was never any indication that he had actually liked me.

"How did he confess to you, Sei-chan?”

“Wh-Why are you asking?”

“It's nothing. I just want to use it as a reference for when I confess my feelings to Shigemoto-kun.”

"Uuu..., I don't know if it'll be helpful but-”

When I heard that my best friend wanted to make her confession successful, I explained the flow of the confession and the words that he had used against me. [ED: The story just suddenly shifts from first person to third person so I’ll try my best to keep it in first person.]

There were many parts in the middle where I was just too embarrassed to explain, but I managed to explain the entire thing to her.

“Th-Thank you Sei-chan, I’m sorry you had to tell me all of this.”

“Huh... No, it's fine. If it helps Shiho's confession, then everything’s good...”

“No, I’m sorry to have you say all of that. I feel a little bad for having you tell me everything. I don’t think I would have been able to do such a thing.”

“Wh-Why?”

“It's too embarrassing... It's not a confession a student would make. It's more of a marriage proposal than a confession.”

“Pro-?!”

Not expecting to be told such a thing, I coughed involuntarily.

I couldn’t grasp Hisamura's confession from an objective standpoint. But never would I have dreamt that I would be told such a thing by Shiho who had looked at it from an objective standpoint.

“It sounded like a proposal, didn’t it? “I'm going to make you happy, I'm going to devote my whole life to you.” ...It sounds like a marriage proposal, right?”

“Uuu… Wh-When you say it like that.”

Indeed, looking back on it now, Hisamura's serious mood and words were closer to a proposal than a confession.

It was just like a proposal. The only thing it lacked was him asking me to marry him.

"I also want to go out with Shigemoto-kun and be with him, but I don't think I’d be able to propose to him yet...”

“It's not like I'm thinking about marriage either, even if I accept Hisamura's confession…”

"Oh, so you're accepting the confession?”

“WE-WELL I DIDN'T SAY THAT!”

"So you're rejecting it?”

"No, that... I'm still at a loss as to what to do..."

In fact, he wouldn't be able to keep waiting forever for my response.

I have to reply to his confession as soon as possible. Hisamura said he wants it as soon as possible.

"Hmm, is there anyone you like, Sei-chan?

"Anyone I like...?”

“I've never heard of your crush, Sei-chan”

The first thing that comes to my mind when someone says, "I like you," is now Hisamura's face.

But before that..., or rather before Hisamura confessed to me, the only person I could think of that I liked was Yuichi Shigemoto, Shiho's love interest.

“....No, I don't have anyone I like”

I can't let Shiho know about that.

'I see. Then how was it when Hisamura-kun confessed his love to you?

"Well, that's… It made me kinda happy.”

"...What? I couldn't hear you at the end.”

"It made me very happy.”

I couldn't help but add an adverb at the end to express how happy I was.

I was very happy in my heart.

That's why even now, a few hours later, my face turns red when I remember that moment.

“Fufu, It's hard not to be aware of it when someone confesses so passionately to you.”

“Uuu... Don't tease me too much, Shiho. I'm full of it too...”

"I'm sorry. It's the first time I've talked to you like this, so I got excited too.”

We usually talked about Shiho's love story and relationship advice, but this time it was about my love story.

It was no wonder that Shiho was so excited.

'But, Sei-chan, what are you really going to do? Are you going to go out with him?”

"No… I knew Hisamura was a very nice guy, but he just confessed out of the blue and… I’m not sure.”

“'Hmm, I don't think you need to take it so seriously.”

"...Really?”

“I've been thinking about it. You can't help but think about getting married after hearing Hisamura's confession, but we're still in high school, remember?”

“We-Well, yeah, I guess so.”

Of course, I wasn't delusional enough to get married right away.

But before I got the message from Shiho, I was thinking about how I would have felt if I had accepted his confession right then...

“Kuu...I just thought of something irrelevant.”

“W-What's wrong”

“It-Its nothing, go on”

I punched the stuffed animal again, to get that delusion out of my head.

“This is a story about a friend of mine in the tennis club. A boy confessed to her, she didn't like him, but she tried going out with him once.”

“Really?”

"Yup. Well, there are some people who are doing well, and some who aren't, but one way is to go out with them without thinking too much about it. Sei-chan is serious, so it may be a little difficult."

“Yeah, I know...”

In fact, most high school romances are probably like that.

No, it's not just high school students, it could be adults too.

There are probably only a few men and women who have serious feelings for each other from the start and end up going out with each other.

If you’re in highschool you can go out with someone that confessed to you. If you’re curious you can give it a try.

It's not like I'm going to be dating that person for the rest of my life.

That’s probably what happens usually.

(However...)

“Sei-chan, I like you, I'm going to make you happy, so please go out with me”

With serious eyes, Hisamura said to me seriously.

Can I go out with such a person with the feeling that ‘I don't really like him, but it might be a good idea to try going out with him?’

“Fufu… It’s different”

“Hmm? What's wrong?”

"No, I'm sorry, Shiho. I don't mean to deny your friend or anything, but I'm just not into that kind of thing. Besides, Hisamura, well, he said it so earnestly.”

“Yeah I know, Even though I suggested it, I knew Sei-chan wasn’t that kind of person”

“Huh… I see”

“And if I'm going to confess to Shigemoto-kun, I won’t be happy if he goes out with me thinking like that either.”

"I guess so. Well, I'm sure Shigemoto, like Hisamura, will take these things seriously.”

'Yeah, I think so too. Because that's who I fell in love with.”

"I see…”

If Shiho had been that confident, maybe I wouldn't have needed to approach Shigemoto to find out about him.

That way maybe I wouldn't have taken a liking towards him.

However, it’s also possible that Hisamura wouldn’t have confessed to me if Shiho hadn’t liked Shigemoto... After all, I approached Hisamura to check and see if Shigemoto was good enough for Shiho.

(No, no, no, Why is being confessed by Hisamura the positive option? I haven't even agreed to the confession yet...)

"Oh, by the way, Sei-chan.”

“W-What?”

Shiho grins and speaks over the phone to Sei, who was thinking a little too much again.

“You got a little carried away earlier again, didn't you?”

“Hah? No I’m not in love with him”

“You said that Shigemoto-kun would take me as seriously as Hisamura-kun, right?　In other words, Hisamura-kun treated Sei-chan very seriously, didn't he?”

"Hey, no, I mean...”

It was Sei-chan who unconsciously fell in love with him again.

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