ALL NOVEL Chapter 9 - Good Intuition
“Whew! So, since when have the two of you been dating?”
The trio moved away from the ruins of the beach house, and sat down on the stone stairs connecting the road and the sandy beach.
As she energetically chugged a cold canned drink, Kijima Ran asked Haruya and Akiha.
“I didn’t notice at all until today. Ah, but when I think about it, you two might be a good match. If I were dating someone as popular as Akiha, I would want to brag about it right away, but not doing so is very much like Haruya.”
Kijima Ran has a tendency to refer to almost everyone as “-cchi”.
That small exception includes Ryoma. But anyway, Haruya and Akiha were feeling awkward listening to her upbeat chatter.
While sipping their canned drinks in a slightly sulky manner, they exchanged glances as if to say, “What should we do?”
“Um, Kijima-san…”
“Ah, call me Ran. I’ve been casually calling you Haruya-cchi and Akiha-cchi after all.”
“Guh… This overwhelming aura of being able to call someone by their first name naturally!”
“Guh… This overwhelming aura of being able to call someone by their first name naturally!”
Indeed, these two have a high rate of synchronization in their thoughts.
Although neither Haruya nor Akiha come off as negative, they are not as conspicuous as Ran, who is like the sun.
Both struggle to call each other by their first names, and they are so pure that they worry about whether they will reset the next day.
It’s not that Ran is impure, and Akiha, because of her appearance, stands out in a different way.
“Well, we’re… not sure how to put it.”
“Go on!”
Ran leaned forward with interest as Haruya carefully chose his words.
Despite being overwhelmed by her eagerness, Haruya carefully spun his words.
“We’re not dating per se. What happened earlier was due to irresistible circumstances.”
Earlier…
He was referring to the incident where they fell and hugged each other on the sandy beach.
Thinking back on it now, Haruya could feel his face growing hot as he recounted the event.
He had held Akiha tightly for a while.
He was desperate at the time, but looking back, it made him feel troubled.
Akiha, too, remembering what had happened a few minutes before, shyly shrugged her shoulders.
“Eh? You’re not dating?”
“That’s right. Haruya is a rental boyfriend…”
“Rental?”
“Ah, no! Um…”
Seeing Akiha flustered, Ran racked her brains.
“Rental… could it be a rental boyfriend? But if it’s Akiha, she shouldn’t have trouble finding someone to date without paying money. So she’s paying money to date Haruya… I see.”
Ran was sharp.
And while Ran was good at closing the distance with people, she wasn’t the type to intrude with her shoes on.
Above all, Ran liked to watch romantic relationships unfold at a slow pace.
“It seems Haruya isn’t completely against the idea, so it might be more enjoyable to watch this unfold slowly.”
“Oh, I see! So you two are just close friends!”
“Eh, ah, yes.”
“Um… right!”
Ran made a forceful course correction, but Haruya and Akiha went along with it.
To reset their mood, the three of them finished their remaining canned drinks in one gulp.
The cans left on the stone steps made a dry clinking sound.
“By the way, Ran-chan, did you come here to surf?”
“Yes, I did.”
Ran put her hand on the surfboard propped up next to her, and proudly puffed out her chest.
“I’ve been hooked since my dad brought me here when I was in elementary school. I don’t mean to brag, but I’m pretty good.”
“You’re in the swimming club at school, aren’t you? With Ryoma.”
“Yes, I love swimming too. …Now.”
Ran clapped her hands together, picked up her surfboard and stood up.
Water droplets falling from her swept-back black hair sparkled in the sunlight.
“I’m going to ride the waves again! You two take your time!”
As Ran ran across the sandy beach with her surfboard, Akiha murmured quietly.
“It feels like our story got twisted somehow…”
“But if you think about it, wasn’t it already twisted when we started talking about stand-in rental boyfriends?”
“Hehe, that might be true.”
“Right?”
The two of them shrugged their shoulders and laughed together.
A warm breeze blew between them, gently swaying Akiha’s hair.
When Haruya followed the movement with his eyes, he noticed that there was still sand stuck to it.
“Akiha, you’ve got sand on you.”
“Eh? Where?”
“In your hair, at the back. It might have stuck when you fell earlier.”
“Eh~. Did it come off?”
“No, it didn’t.”
Since Akiha couldn’t remove the sand by herself, Haruya reached out and gently brushed off the sand that had clung to the back of her head.
“Now it’s off… oh, sorry. I touched you without asking.”
Haruya quickly withdrew his hand and turned his gaze to the sea.
Haruya, who is usually cautious, sometimes acts as if something is missing.
Sometimes it works out well, sometimes it doesn’t, but this time it did.
“No, thank you.”
Akiha answered, still clutching the cold can, now empty, trying to cool her flushed skin.
“Also, I didn’t properly thank you for before. Thank you for protecting me again.”
“You’re welcome… Wait, again?”
“Hehe, never mind.”
“I see. She doesn’t remember.”
Akiha looked out at the sea, feeling a little disappointed.
But that feeling was quickly replaced by a sense of happiness.
The sensation of Haruya holding and protecting her, the sensation of him gently brushing off the sand from her head, remained in Akiha’s body.
“I might be more than just curious about this.”
As Haruya and Akiha watched the sea, Ran beautifully rode the waves.