Shinichi awkwardly turned to those quiet giggles, and of course who else could it be but Frire–the girl he had been teasing literally just moments ago.
She was there, holding her mouth so tightly with her hands, that no gaps could be seen. Her shoulders trembled just behind them.
As for why they were trembling, well, the answer soon revealed itself with no inquiry on Shinichi’s part, for even the tight grip she held over her own mouth failed to keep the giggles at bay.
“Pfft! Ahaha!
I’m so sorry, but–
You were just so tense, so flustered, so totally wrapped around their finger that I wondered who it was going to be, but then it turns out to be–
Ahahaha!”
For as long as she’s known Shinichi, he was always someone who held the upper hand.
It didn’t matter if it was in conversation or in battle, he was always in a position of superiority.
So, to be able to see him like that, to see him so helpless and flustered, of course, she couldn’t help but laugh.
Yet at the asme time, she actually wasn’t surprised.
In a sense, it was just so like him to be lacking in the strangest of parts.
She’d long seen glimpses of his childishness before–Like how he could become flustered when praised unexpectedly, but as far as straightening his back to the point it was as stiff as a board, or the expression on him going through a hundred variations in a short period of time, this was definitely the first.
That’s why Frire couldn’t be faulted for laughing. Anyone who knew the usual him would’ve surely laughed as well.
That’s why it was also understandable that the boy would end up blushing, turning bright red from embarrassment.
He glared at her for laughing at him, but he had no one to blame but himself. Why did he let his guard down? She was literally right beside him.
So, with a sigh, he was about to just let it pass, but then Frire said.
“So, even you can’t act normal when it comes to family, huh?”
An honest remark, echoing her own circumstances, but it was those words that made him blink.
There was no need to even wonder who Frire was thinking of in that moment.
Perhaps that’s why–Shinichi grinned with that usual crescent smile of his.
“Laugh all you want, but you do realize, right? That you’re touching your mouth with that hand I did ‘that’ to.”
“Huh?”
At his words, Frire looked at the hand she had been using to suppress her laughter.
For a moment or two, she wondered what he might’ve done to that hand–
Then, she boiled over.
(In other words, an indirect kiss.)
As though to land the finishing blow, Shirayuki interjected.
“───────!!!”
A silent scream echoed, and Frire’s kissed hand flailed about wildly in the air, as though she hadn’t a clue what to do with it, while she used the other hand–the so-called ‘untainted’ hand–to cover her mouth.
Of course, such actions did nothing to conceal the red that now suffused her face, dyeing it in a red even redder than Shinichi’s, who speaking of which, was no longer blushing but grinning with satisfaction.
Casually, he reached out and touched at her shoulder.
“W-What?”
Before she knew it, her field of vision had already been tilted ninety degrees.
Shinichi had pulled her down sideways during her confusion, and now, her head was resting on his lap.
It was a reversal of the situation earlier.
Whereas before, it was her giving him a lap pillow, now, it was him who was giving her one.
Frire tried to sit up, but before she could, the boy was already gently combing her beautiful white hair with his fingers, and she found herself unable to continue.
Didn’t he say it earlier? Whether it was him giving or receiving, Shinichi loved lap pillows.
And just like before, she couldn’t find it in herself to leave.
Above all–
“Family stuff just never goes smoothly for either of us, huh.”
As his ministrations, gentle and kind, caressed her scalp, a wry chuckle echoed from above, and Frire found herself floating away, only able to look up to find a gentle expression hovering just above her.
She could neither understand nor empathize fully with the emotions that flickered there, but there was something to it that touched her more deeply than even that indirect kiss from earlier.
“You were tense, but it didn’t sound like a bad relationship.”
Though she didn’t understand, she said those words regardless, as though driven by instinct.
“Haha, that’s because Rinko-san is a really composed person. And I owe her a lot from before, so I just felt like it would be wrong to keep my distance, but at the same time, it also felt wrong to act casual.”
It was a vague response accompanied by a wry smile, as though he couldn’t find the right words, but it was basically a confession that he didn’t know how to handle her.
But Frire could understand that all too well.
“Proper emotional distance, huh… No wonder. That’s something you’re really bad at.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Haha, I guess that makes two of us then.”
In that sense, the two of them really were quite alike, yet they both accepted that fact without so much as an argument, leading the two of them to share a chuckle and their eyes to meet.
One looked up, while the other looked down.
There was a shared exasperation as gazes intertwined and an atmosphere that was inappropriate that of a teacher and a student appeared, but then again, neither really saw themselves as student and a teacher.
They both struggled with personal boundaries, and that allowed the two of them to understand each other and form a relationship that was different from the other girls.
“Speaking of which, how much do you actually know about my family?”
That’s why Shinichi didn’t hesitate to touch on something that would have otherwise been awkward.
Frire’s reaction suggested that she already knew who Rinko was, so it wasn’t strange to infer that she probably knew even more.
She was the co-homeroom teacher for his class, after all.
It wasn’t surprising for her to know, but he didn’t know how much exactly she knew.
In response, Frire showed a faint trace of guilt.
She had learned the information as part of her job, but knowing someone’s family background without their permission still made her feel guilty.
So, choosing her words carefully, she answered matter-of-factly.
“…As your homeroom and co-homeroom teacher, Teacher Saland and I have both been briefed about your family and your circumstances, so we’re aware that your family split up. However, we weren’t given any information about your biological mother and the siblings taken by her. If someone else knows or is looking into it, I don’t know.”
Frire wanted to share everything she knew, as though to make up for the sin of knowing, but in actuality, she knew very little, and she found herself frowning at that.
Shinichi just smiled, however, as though to say not to worry about it, gently combing through her white hair with his fingers.
It was curious if it was because of his practiced touch or because of how close they were, but it almost felt like a massage.
Frire had previously been sharp with self-restraint, but under his touch, she soon found herself loosening up.
“Mn…”
Quiet exhales, subtle shifts, she was his teacher, and he was her student, but somehow, someway, she found herself offering less and less resistance to the touch of his fingers.
It was curious if she intended to or not, but at some point, she leaned onto him, as though to plead for more.
It was a scene that begged the question which one of them was older, but neither of them cared, and there was no one to ask.
“So, you really didn’t know. In that case, I’ll tell you.”
As they enjoyed the moment, Shinichi suddenly spoke casually.
“Hmm?” Frire said.
“The second-years. The Senba siblings,” Shinichi said.
“What about them?”
“Actually, they’re my younger siblings.”
“…HAH!?”
In one fell swoop, the atmosphere shattered, and Frire, in spite of her inability to move in the moment, opened her eyes and yelled.
Meanwhile, Shinichi just grinned.
Of course, he hadn’t dropped that bomb just to see her reaction, but now that he did, he was certainly enjoying it a lot more than whatever his original purpose might have been.
The fact that he was doing this right after being scolded by his stepmother proved it–he was a bad bad boy.
“W–Wait a moment! Younger!? But they’re older than you, and–Ah! The time lag!
If you include the time difference due to the lag, everything lines up! A pair of twins, a boy and a girl, single parent. All of it! That matter of yours before we left too! But, why are you telling me this just now!?”
“Hmm, I just felt like it?”
“You’re the one who said it, how come you’re asking me?”
Frire buried her head in her hands as she watched the boy tilt his head from up above her, genuinely puzzled.
The fact that he looked so genuinely confused exasperated her, but that just made Shinichi laugh even harder.
“Nakamura, why are you always like this?”
She was about to complain, maybe even given him a proper scolding for once, but she stopped.
As the class’s assistant homeroom teacher, she knew about ‘that’ information too, but the meaning of that information changed if they were siblings.
“So that’s why the sister was so hostile to you.”
She served on the disciplinary committee and could be said to be strict, but in spite of that, she had a good reputation.
She listened to offenders and didn’t dismiss them out of hand. She wasn’t blindly rigid about rules, but for some reason, she treated Shinichi in the exact opposite manner. Somehow, Shinichi was always in the wrong when it came to her.
It’s always been a mystery to the teachers, but this cleared it up. She was his sister.
“Our parents got divorced, and I wasn’t around for eight years, but just when things were finally starting to stabilize, I show up with bottom-tier stats and waltz straight into the academy she worked so hard to get into just because I’m a returnee. Honestly, I’d be pissed too.”
“…”
Shoulders shrugged and a tone of resigned acceptance, that was his answer.
But the bitter smile on his face that seemed as though he really didn’t feel anything, made it all the more painful to Frire.
In that moment, she realized why he had given that vague reason earlier–When he told her that he told her just because he felt like it.
“…Why are you always so roundabout about the most important things?” She asked.
Maybe that’s why Frire wanted to scold him, but in the end, all she did was touch his face.
“…Huh?”
Shinichi was understandably confused, but he neither pulled away nor looked uncomfortable.
That emboldened Frire, and for some reason, the warmth of his skin under her fingertips that should’ve been a given felt unusually endearing.
“I owe you a thanks, I guess,” Frire said.
“For what?” Shinichi said.
“You were trying to cheer me up, right?”
She hit the core of the matter despite Shinichi feigning ignorance.
Shinichi blinked for a moment, then broke into a grin.
He never missed the chance to tease.
“Looks like the sharp one showed up today.” Shinichi .
“Shut it, so I’m not the only one struggling, am I?
Still, the way you wear yourself thin trying to look out for others—that’s not something I can easily approve of.”
“You know full well you’re guilty of the same.
“That’s not the point.”
She said that only because she felt it, but she actually hit the mark dead on, and Shinichi’s face twisted into a sour expression, partly because he was caught off guard, and partly because he was embarrassed.
But even so, Shinichi was still Shinichi.
“Would you be happy if I told you that I would sacrifice myself for you?”
“Huh? F-For me?”
Shinichi had meant to tease her, but Frire continued to repeat those words to herself as though to digest them, and Shinichi realized that she didn’t understand, leaving him speechless.
“Normally, you’re supposed to tell me not to go that far,” he pointed out.
“Oh, but I was actually thinking how nice that would be.”
“Hah?”
“The thought of you sacrificing yourself for me, for some reason, it really makes my heart go pitter patter, and it makes me really happy.”
She held her chest with her other hand and innocently laughed.
Just the thought of him sacrificing himself for her made her so giddy.
But at the same time, to the boy, it meant as though such a thing could remain only in fantasy.
“Seriously?”
Because of that there was an anger that began to well up from within him.
But that was not the emotion that he should be showing her right now, so he swallowed it.
Right now, what he needed to show her was a different emotion, a different set of words.
“Nakamura?”
She looked up at him, and he looked down to meet her gaze solemnly.
There was a gentleness to his eyes, but there was a slight unhappiness laced behind them that did not escape Frire.
That’s why she called out to him like that.
And when he realized she’d picked up on those emotions, he hurried to remove those emotions and bring forward a different emotion.
As such, he ended up locking gazes with her with two contrasting emotions.
“Frire, I’ll return you the words you gave me before.”
Then he held her arms, as though to ensure that they wouldn’t leave his face, and with a solemn face, he met her gaze and with a gentleness and sincerity greater than usual, he said.
“It’s because of you that I can be here right now. I’m not messing around. It’s not out of consideration, and it’s not because we’ve helped each other. It’s because it’s you, a big dummy who would go through great lengths to save someone as foolish as me.”
“───────”
There were no lies or pretenses in his words, only truth, and that’s precisely why–His words resonated in the deepest part of Frire, penetrating and filling that void that she had been seeking this whole time.
“─────”
Exactly what this was, she did not understand.
She remained there dumbly, unable to move, only able to return his gaze until the emotions proved too great and she rose and looked away.
Shinichi matched her timing exactly and let her hands go, but on his face could be seen a look that seemed to regret her leaving.
But of course, there was also a gentleness to it that was more than content to watch over her.
“I… What am I doing?” Frire said.
Unable to understand or control the emotions welling up from within her, Frire found her voice trembling.
Though Shinichi has long seen too many parts about her that she did not wish others to see, she couldn’t help but look away from Shinichi.
What emotions were leading her to do this? She could not understand.
Shinichi too would normally tease her when she acted like this, but now, he was just quietly looking out the window.
She should be grateful that he wasn’t teasing her this time, but for some reason, she just felt reproachful instead.
“Ah.”
Then, gently, a small hand touched at her from behind, as though to tell her that he was here.
He couldn’t see her face, but he was here.
It was just his palm, but the moment those words and those feelings were imparted to her, that something she had been holding back burst forth.
“Uu, uu, ahh… You… This is so unfair!”
It was a different sort of frustration from how he usually trampled over her during their sparring.
But she couldn’t express herself so well, so she blamed him like that instead.
Of course, Shinichi didn’t complain and just accepted it all, watching her happily.
“Ku ku ku, I get that a lot. But that’s exactly what makes me happy.”
“Huh?”
“Because there’s someone who will stay with me despite knowing how unfair I am.”
Moreover, someone who would wear herself down just to be with him.
The boy happily said that with a chuckle, and the girl did not have the courage to turn to him.
But even without looking at him, just from the tone of his voice, it was clear how happy he was, and that made her chest all the warmer.
The warmth of that seemed to charm her, for inch by inch, she drew closer to the boy.
Did she notice that?
Of course, Shinichi noticed it, but he didn’t say anything.
Like that, the two of them stayed the whole trip without saying or doing anything more, just immersing themselves in each other’s presence in that quiet space where only the sound of their breathing could be heard.
Tl Note:This is shorter than the usual, so I’ll be posting again.
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