Chikasugiru Karera no, Juunanasai no Tooi Kankei [LN] V2 Chapter 1.4

Chapter 1 - After The End Of The Rainy Season

On the way home that day, I was also with Yuriko. As I was walking with the other club members, Yuriko and Tachibana, who were changing in the school building, came out of the entrance and we ran into each other, then we left school together. When I told her I was going to stop by a bookstore, she followed me.

On the way home, we entered a bookstore with a CD/DVD store attached, and went to the reference book section. Then Yuriko said in a surprised tone of voice, "Oh, Kenichi, do you study?"

"Yeah. We're already second-year high school student. Lately, I've been thinking about entrance exams."

"I haven't bought a reference book since I was in the third grade of junior high school. Maybe I should begin to study something too."

During the break, we decided to work through a thin workbook, and looked for a book of a reasonable level that would help us strengthen our basics. After we had been choosing books in silence for a while, Yuriko suddenly said.

"Kenichi, you've smelled good lately, haven't you?

"Huh?"

She looked at me with a sidelong glance. The usual, wide-eyed, strong-willed gaze. Suddenly being told such a thing, I couldn't help but sniff my sleeves. 

I used antiperspirant spray when I changed my clothes, but after being so sweaty, I don't think I smelled good. I wondered if she had a unique sense of smell, or if she was just being sarcastic about the sweaty smell, or perhaps she had some special proclivities, and when I took a step back, Yuriko suddenly had an impatient look on her face and hit me on the shoulder.

"Ouch."

It wasn't that hurt, but when I reflexively held my shoulder and said so, Yuriko looked at me and said, "You were thinking something rude, weren't you?"

"No, not really......."

When I replied, she gave me a sulky look.

"You smell sweaty right now. I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about the time before the final exam, when your uniform smelled really nice. I was just wondering if auntie changed the detergent or something."

Yuriko took out another new English reference book from the shelf and began to flip through it.

I had an idea. I had read somewhere that women have a sharper sense of smell than men, but I had never thought that they would be aware of such details.

"---Izumi sometimes put aroma oil or bath bombs? in the bathtub. Maybe it's because we use the leftover water for washing clothes. Mom likes that kind of thing, too, so lately we've both gotten into it, and she buys all kinds of bathing powder."

"---I see."

Yuriko responded in a disinterested manner as she rolled up the pages of the reference book. But as for me, I felt awkward again.

---You were so kind to Izumi-san.

How could I talk about Izumi without feeling awkward after what she said to me that day?

"She's got good taste. That girl."

Yuriko said, looking down at the reference book.

"......Yeah."

"I guess it's different when you grow up in the center of the city. The way she speaks is a little different from ours."

"But, it's normal."

"Yeah. I also think Izumi is a good girl. I thought I might not like her at first, to be honest, because many of those types of girls are very Haraguro-ish."

T/N : Haraguro characters are characters who are good at displaying their appearance of being friendly, approachable, kind and refreshing in public; however, this is a front to hide their darker, sadistic, and twisted personality.

Yuriko continued to speak in a monotone tone of voice. I could not understand what she was trying to say. She was not saying anything bad about Izumi, in fact, she was praising her, but I felt that her words contained some kind of thorn.

"I'll go buy these."

I decided to buy one thin English and one thin math workbook, and headed for the cashier. Yuriko followed me, saying, "Yeah,". While I was paying, she was looking at a cookbook near the counter. I was surprised to see that Yuriko also read such books.

We left the store, got back on our bicycles, and continued down a residential street with few pedestrians. We didn't talk much, but when we reached Yuriko's house a short time later, we both slowed down. "Then, see you," she got off the bicycle, flipped up her skirt, and gave me a small wave across the side of my face.

I nodded and started to head home again, alone. 

Even after the sun had set, there was still a tenacious heat in the air. As I pedaled my bicycle, I began to sweat, my shirt sticking to my skin, which was uncomfortable.

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Then came July 28.

Looking at the shopping list I wrote down on my phone, I put the vegetables and meat in my basket. It was terribly hot outside in late July, so the cool air flowing from the supermarket's refrigerated shelves was cool. Before heading to the cashier, I check the items one more time with the contents of my memo to make sure there are no mistakes. Onions, chicken, potatoes, minced meat---Perhaps because it was an afternoon on a weekday, there were not many shoppers, and the place was quiet.

As promised, Yuriko came to my house at 2 pm this afternoon. It is Friday, so my mother is at work. Izumi and Yuriko were going to cook dinner together. So I was sent to go shopping for it.

With two shopping bags worth of luggage, I pedaled my bicycle back to my house in the intense sunlight of the hottest part of the afternoon. It was so hot that I felt out of breath just pedaling my bicycle normally.

When I opened the front door, I heard the sound of a lively conversation between two girls. Izumi and Yuriko's sandals were placed neatly aligned on the shoe rack.

As I entered the living room, feeling the coolness of the air conditioner, Izumi said, "Welcome home," and beside her, Yuriko continued, "Good work,". They were sitting on the sofa watching a movie. The screen was dark. Eerie background music was playing. It looked like a horror movie. 

"I bought the groceries."

When I put two plastic bags on the dining room table and said so, Izumi stopped the movie with the remote control.

"Thank you. Sorry, even though it's hot outside."

"No. It's okay."

Izumi had suggested that the three of us go together, but I thought it would be awkward for the three of us to walk down the street together, so I decided to go alone.

"What's this?"

When I asked that,

"A horror movie that was talked about a lot last year. I rented it before I came here and it's pretty interesting. Do you want to watch it, Kenichi?"

Yuriko looked at me and said. Yuriko was wearing blue shorts and a white T-shirt today. Izumi was wearing a sleeveless white one-piece with a red plaid pattern that she often wears at home.

"No......"

They were both sitting side by side on the sofa, slippers off, barefoot. Izumi's toenails were a pale cherry color, as if she had painted them with something. Yuriko's toenails were clear and shiny, though she did not seem to have painted them with anything.

"I'm going back to my room."

When I said this, "You just scared," Yuriko said, squinting her eyes slightly, and then she wriggled around, lifted her legs, and sat down on the sofa with her knees on her arms.

"Shut up." 

After stating that, I went up the stairs and returned to my room. When I opened the door, I could feel the heat wafting in.

So hot.

When I looked at the digital clock with a thermometer function, the displayed room temperature was 33 degrees Celsius. The sultry air had become so stuffy that it felt as if more sweat would ooze out of me rather than outdoors. Before turning on the air conditioner, I opened the window to let the air in for the time being.

Instantly, the chirping of cicadas jumps into the air in a mass. Huge white clouds are overlapping each other. The sun was shining so strongly that the shadows of the telephone poles were excessively deep. The wind had a temperature that could be described as hot, but being blown by it was much better than being in a still, windless room.

I stood by the window for a while, soaking up the summer wind. As I closed my eyes, sweat trickled down my face and down my neck, a bead of it reaching the corner of my mouth, where it tasted salty and sour.

Even with my eyelids closed, my vision was reddish-black as the light shone through my skin. Suddenly, I thought I heard thunder in the distance, but I soon realized it was just my imagination. The taste of sweat stimulated me and brought back the sensation I had felt when I kissed Yuriko. I could vividly feel the warm sensation of her lips on mine. I opened my eyes. The strong sunlight made my vision go blank for a moment.

I exhaled slowly. Then I closed the windows and turned on the air conditioner. I sat down in my chair, pulled my phone out of my pocket,

《Can I go to your's apartment today?》

I wrote a message and sent it to my big brother. He immediately replied. 

《I'll be home late tonight. Is it urgent?》

From downstairs came Izumi's voice, "Kya---" and Yuriko's voice, "Wa---". Screams, if you can call them that, have a lot of joyful nuance to them. I let out another deep sigh. My only escape route was gone. I moved my fingers and replied, 《It's not like that, it's okay.》 I don't even have a duplicate key to my brother's room, so if that's the case, I had no choice.

I thought about working on the workbook I had bought the other day, but the voices of Yuriko and Izumi that I could hear from time to time bothered me, and I didn't think I could concentrate at all. I put on my headphones and played music at a loud volume.

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