Why Not Make Both Twins 'Girlfriends'?-Chapter 8Volume 1 .4 - Chikages First Date...?

Chikage’s First Date…? 4

As Chikage moved her lips closer——

“Wait-wait! This is definitely not okay!”

Sakuto stopped her before their lips could touch.

“…Aren’t you going to do it?”

“No, I will… but not like this, let’s be more… like Chikage!”

Updated from freewёbnoνel.com.

Saying this, he returned Chikage to her original position and touched her shoulder.

Sakuto sighed in exasperation.

“Do you really need to try so hard to be aggressive?”

“But, otherwise… I’ll lose to Hii-chan…”

“It’s not about winning or losing. I like both of you, and I don’t intend to rank one over the other. …Chikage, I’m happy with your feelings, but you should go at your own pace. Maybe save your competitive spirit for something else?”

“Sakuto-kun…”

Sakuto smiled reassuringly at Chikage.

“I’ll lead as your boyfriend, so…”

“Alright. Then, I’ll leave it to you──”

Saying this, Chikage quietly wrapped her arms around Sakuto’s neck. Then Sakuto gently pulled her closer.

The gondola had passed eleven o’clock. (TN: In terms of height position.)

The lights went out from below on the ground, making it dark, then suddenly lit up intensely.

It seemed the parade had started. The lively music echoed up to the bottom of the gondola.

Fireworks were launched. Red, blue, green, yellow, orange——The sky was enveloped in a fantastical world of color and sound, bursting one after another.

As this magical time began——The two quietly shared a kiss.

It was a long, soft, and gentle moment, quietly passing by.

Before they knew it, the gondola had moved past the three o’clock position.

As they slowly parted, they gazed at each other with flushed faces.

“I’ll ask you again… will you go out with me?”

“Yes… from now on, please take care of me——”

And then, they kissed once more——

***

Leaving the amusement park and walking towards the train, Sakuto and Chikage naturally linked arms.

They were tired from walking around excitedly too, but the afterglow of the date was more significant for them .

He felt that this day had greatly closed the distance between him and Chikage.

“During our date today, you didn’t talk about Hii-chan, did you?”

“I thought it was taboo to talk about other girls during a date.”

“Who taught you that? It depends on the situation.”

“…Just common sense, I guess?”

Sakuto wondered whether to say he learned it from his aunt Mitsumi, but he was more curious about Chikage bringing up Hikari’s name.

“Sakuto-kun, you’re worried about Hii-chan, aren’t you?”

“Ah?”

“Probably about her usual… school matters, right?”

He had refrained from asking during the date, but it seemed she had seen through him.

“…Well, I wasn’t sure if I should ask, but I’m concerned about her being absent from school.”

Chikage suddenly dropped her gaze to her knees.

“…She’s been absent continuously recently, and actually, I spoke with Hii-chan’s homeroom teacher the other day. They said at this rate, it’s quite bad…”

“What’s the reason for her absence?”

“I don’t know. She won’t talk about it with our parents either…”

“I see… What about during junior high school or elementary school?”

“She started missing school occasionally around the fourth grade of elementary school. It increased significantly when she entered junior high school, and even then, she didn’t really talk about the reasons…”

“Sounds like a case of school refusal…”

Sakuto felt a sense of understanding. Why the topic of Hikari never came up at school.

It wasn’t that it didn’t come up, but rather everyone consciously avoided talking about it.

School refusal is not uncommon these days. Even during Sakuto’s junior high school days, there was at least one student like that in his class.

Socially, there’s a tendency for the number of students refusing school to increase from elementary to junior high school.

The reasons vary, and in some cases, the students themselves don’t understand why.

Most cases stem from the student’s ‘lack of motivation and anxiety,’ but it can also overlap with other reasons like ‘parent-child interactions’ or ‘academic struggles.’

Therefore, it’s difficult to pinpoint a single reason.

As far as Sakuto knew, the approach of the homeroom teachers handling classes was to avoid touching on the topic of students with school refusal.

However, it wasn’t about ignoring the problem; it was more about deliberately not addressing it.

If the topic came up in class, teachers would strictly regulate any slander and encourage empathy and understanding with a smile.

Over the years, this formed a kind of rule among the students.

Similar to the teachers, an unspoken rule emerged to avoid touching on the topic of classmates with school refusal as much as possible.

It wasn’t about ignoring them but not addressing the issue.

Perhaps the students with school refusal themselves didn’t want to be addressed, and the others didn’t know how to handle it, eventually thinking it was best not to mention it.

Sakuto realized that the reason he hadn’t heard rumors about Hikari at school was probably due to this.

“What about your parents? Are they worried?”

“No, the conclusion in the Usami family is that Hii-chan should do what she wants.”

Sakuto was troubled.

“Is that… like a laissez-faire approach?”

“It might be close to that. But I think it’s because they trust Hii-chan.”

“Trust her? With what?”

Chikage looked at Sakuto with even more seriousness.

“Actually, about Hii-chan… Ah, please wait a moment——”

Chikage put her hand to her right ear and suddenly turned bright red again——the same pattern as before.

“Refusal! I refuse!──Eh? Then, affirmative?”

(Why did she suddenly become affirmative…?)

After her soliloquy (?) ended, Chikage suddenly relaxed and rested her head on Sakuto’s shoulder.

“Um… I’m really tired today, and it seems impossible to make it home…”

“I-Is that so, what happened all of a sudden?”

“I need to take a break of some sort before I can go home, so could we take a break?”

“No, I think we should go straight home…”

“I am hereby requesting a deviation to take a break, so please…”

Chikage rubbed her head against Sakuto’s shoulder.

Her way of speaking was odd, and it was hard to walk.

“Um, Chikage──”

As he pushed Chikage’s head back with his shoulder, something fell to the ground and rolled away.

“Ah!?”

“Huh? …Earphones?”

Sakuto picked them up and tried them on his own ear.

『Stay over somewhere tonight! I’ll come over later too, so find a place──』

“…Hikari?”

『Ah…』

Sakuto looked around.

Across the street, on the other side of the road, he caught eyes with a suspicious person wearing sunglasses and a mask, but he immediately recognized who it was.

Realizing she had been spotted, the person on the other side raised her hand slightly.

“Ahahaha… Hello?”

“Were you the one giving weird instructions to Chikage? Have you been following us the whole time?”

“Uh, that——Emergency escape! Farewell!——”

With that, the suspicious person ran off towards the station.

Sakuto, bemused, took off the earphones and gently placed them in Chikage hand.

“Well, how do I say this… let’s make sure to value our own identity and individuality, okay?”

“…Yes…”

Although Sakuto was completely dumbfounded, he also thought that Hikari was quite something.

It might sound harsh, but he had never expected Chikage, who is supposed to be ‘strict’ in a sense, to be manipulated to this extent.

Truly an unbelievable sister.

Still, this doesn’t change the fact that Chikage is adorable.