Chapter 24: Do You Like Tailing? 1

It was Saturday, and Akaishi had been summoned to Hachiya’s house.

“This is serious…… It’s really serious, Akaishi…………”

“……………”

9:15 in the morning—

Akaishi and Hachiya were having a discussion in the kitchen of Hachiya’s house.

“You know…………”

Akaishi looked at Hachiya.

“You called me way too early.”

“It can’t be helped! This is an emergency!”

Akaishi sat on a kitchen chair with sleepy eyes, still wearing a sleep mask, nodding off.

“I came here on the first train, you know. It was Friday so I went to bed a bit late, and I only got three or four hours of sleep. Let me sleep.”

“This isn’t the time for that!”

Hachiya raised her voice, completely ignoring Akaishi’s circumstances.

As usual, Akaishi had been summoned by Hachiya via Kaof at 1 AM.

This was his second time visiting Hachiya’s house. While aware that he was gradually becoming more like Sakurai, Akaishi still came while making excuses to himself that no one was even asking for.

A mix of hidden motives — wanting to interact with a girl as a normal male student — and his pride of not wanting to become like Sakurai and believing he was different, drove him there with complicated, unresolved feelings. Because of those unresolved emotions, although he came to a girl’s house, he was afraid of becoming the same as Sakurai. He couldn’t bring himself to deepen his relationship with Hachiya, but he also couldn’t completely brush her off, resulting in an ambiguous attitude.

“Akaishi, I’ll now announce today’s agenda.”

Hachiya wrote the topic on the whiteboard stuck to the refrigerator.

“Today’s agenda is: ‘Investigate Sousuke’s cheating suspicions!’”

“…………‘Investigate Sakurai’s cheating suspicions’?”

“Applause!”

Clap clap clap clap.

Akaishi gave a dry, half-hearted applause.

“How long are you going to keep wearing that sleep mask!? Take it off! It’s pointless if you’re not even sleeping!”

“Well, apparently even if you’re not sleeping, closing your eyes still recovers some stamina. …Never mind, I got it. I’ll take it off.”

Thinking it was inconvenient to keep it on, Akaishi removed the sleep mask.

“I have two things I want to say.”

Akaishi held up two fingers.

“Go ahead.”

“First.”

He folded one finger.

“It appeared.”

“What do you mean ‘it appeared’!?”

Akaishi looked at her with an exasperated face.

‘Investigate Sakurai’s cheating scene’—

The absurdity of the topic gave Akaishi a headache. The typical rom-com heroine phenomenon of treating the rom-com protagonist as her boyfriend even though they weren’t dating was happening here too.

“‘Investigate Sakurai’s cheating scene’ — Sakurai isn’t dating anyone, and you’re not dating him either, so this has nothing to do with you, right?”

“What are you talking about! Sousuke is cheating with other girls! So we’re going to catch him in the act!”

“It’s not cheating, and I think you should stop that kind of selfish thinking.”

“U………… shut up! F…… fine, this is good enough, right!?”

Hachiya erased part of the whiteboard and rewrote it.

“Today’s agenda is: ‘Seize evidence of Sousuke’s date suspicions!’”

“Well, this is better……”

“Applause!”

Clap clap clap.

Once again, Akaishi gave dry applause.

“And the second thing.”

“Go ahead.”

Akaishi folded the second finger.

“I’ve thought this before, but on a weekend… where exactly are your parents…?”

Slightly nervous that he might be touching on a sensitive topic, Akaishi looked at Hachiya.

“Mom and Dad are working! I don’t know the details, but Mom works at some Marchand-something place and has to work on Saturdays and Sundays. Instead, she gets weekdays off. Dad is an engineer and often has to work on weekends, so he’s not here either!”

“I see…………”

Akaishi noted that Hachiya called her parents “Mom” and “Dad,” but saw no reason to comment on it and stayed quiet.

He had wondered if this was just following rom-com tropes, but the reason was actually reasonable. With the current shortage of daycare centers, dual-income households were no longer unusual. Living in such a large house probably meant her parents had demanding jobs.

“Then finally, the third thing.”

He extended and then folded the third finger.

“There wasn’t a third thing!”

“I just thought of it now. How do you know that Sakurai is going on a date with someone today?”

“Because Sousuke posted something on Twique late last night that hinted at a date. That’s why I urgently contacted you.”

That explained why he was contacted so late at night.

“Sousuke posted: ‘Tomorrow at 12 I’m having lunch and watching a movie. Looking forward to it. Meeting place is La Torche.’ Then Shiorin posted: ‘Looking forward to watching a movie and going to La Torche tomorrow afternoon.’ Doesn’t this clearly mean Sousuke and Shiorin are going on a date?”

“O………… ohh……”

Akaishi was impressed by her sharp insight. Normally she was oblivious to her followers’ feelings toward Sakurai, but when it came to her own romantic crisis, she detected it instantly. If only she used that insight on a daily basis, he thought.

“So today we’re going to tail Sousuke on his date! Got it?”

Hachiya gave the order without allowing any refusal. Akaishi nodded, telling himself that saying no wouldn’t get him sent home anyway.

Although the reason was to tail Sakurai’s date, going out alone with a girl outside still made Akaishi feel slightly excited and restless.

There, Akaishi recalled Sakurai’s post once more. Apart from Hachiya’s assumption, there was another point that felt suspicious to him.

What exactly was the meaning behind Sakurai’s words?

‘Meeting place is La Torche.’

Was that sentence necessary? There was nothing wrong with posting in itself, but was there any need to specifically post the meeting time and location? Did he need to reveal exactly where and when he was going?

Given Sakurai’s personality, he probably couldn’t stand not showing off how close he was with many girls. He also had the pride, arrogance, and confidence of being popular with girls.

If so, specifying the exact meeting place and time was likely because he expected someone who liked him to come chasing after him. Deep down, he was probably hoping a girl would “coincidentally” come meet him. It was easy to see that he expected this — and in fact, Hachiya was currently acting exactly as he wanted.

The same applied to Mizushiro.

Was it really necessary for her to post something with almost the exact same meaning right after Sakurai?

Wasn’t she implicitly hinting that she and Sakurai were going on a date in order to restrain others?

“No…………”

Mizushiro was different. She had to be.

Mizushiro was a natural airhead. There was no way she had such dark intentions. There couldn’t be. He didn’t want there to be. He desperately wished there wasn’t. There shouldn’t be.

Akaishi, who held admiration and indescribable feelings toward Mizushiro, could not imagine her harboring such vulgar thoughts. No — he had been deleting that possibility from his mind the moment it appeared.

“I understand the situation.”

Akaishi organized all the information and his thoughts, then faced Hachiya.

“Let’s go.”

“We’re going.”

Akaishi and Hachiya set out to tail Sakurai and Mizushiro on their date.

Chapter 24_ Do You Like Tailing