My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected

Page 677

"Christmas, Christmas, I'm so happy, so happy!"

—The singing was suddenly drowned out by a rough voice.

Thankfully, it didn't come from my mouth. I thought I was too marginalized, like in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and had summoned a fictional second personality—I was super nervous. (Note 15)

A man in a suit pushed his way past the others and walked toward the child.

"Ugh, ugh..."

He stood before the little girl, whose eyes were wide with fright, and stomped his long legs to the sides. The weight of his massive body pressed down on it, causing the old leather rings to emit a groan like an old woman's.

He then turned halfway around.

With his back to the child, he looked at the adults around him.

"Alright, alright everyone, Saint Nicholas's feast day is almost here! Standing there looking so gloomy is disrespectful to the saint. Let's sing, dance, and cheer! Sing along with me! Christmas, how wonderful, how wonderful!"

The man laughed loudly, his rough voice echoing throughout the carriage.

He seemed very drunk. He could barely stand and his speech was illogical. The reason for his loud outburst was certainly of no importance to him.

If you don't offend the gods, they won't punish you.

In the jungle of Tokyo, besides the unwritten rule of not causing trouble for others, there is also an absolute rule: "Never get involved with anything that seems problematic."

City dwellers are very devout. Everyone quickly looked away, or moved to the next carriage, to get away from this strange deity.

And he is—

"Hey, kid."

He turned to look at the child and smiled.

"Your voice is so beautiful, you should cherish it."

"Okay, cherish it?"

"It's such a waste to sing for everyone like this."

He didn't say "You're noisy." It was a very gentle way of speaking, quite different from the intimidating tone of others.

"...But Christmas is so much fun..."

The tense little girl's shoulders slowly relaxed, and she laughed innocently in a voice still full of childishness.

Her figure was obscured by the man's enormous body, and most people could not see her.

It turned out to be the case.

Hearing their conversation, I naturally understood.

His drunken state earlier was probably an act. He wanted to draw the passengers' aversion to children onto himself, thereby easing the tense atmosphere in the carriage.

That clever move stirred something within me.

Although his appearance, tone of voice, and behavior have changed a lot.

I know this man's name.

"How about you sing it just for your mom? That way it'll feel like a special song just for the two of you, right?"

"Okay, that seems to make sense...!"

The young voice gained a new concept, and the tone became light and cheerful.

Soon after, the volume of the loud singing gradually decreased.

The mother sitting next to the little girl finally woke up and repeatedly bowed her head to express her gratitude.

"No, no. Merry Christmas."

The man smiled slightly and nodded in greeting with a dashing air.

The train arrived at Ikebukuro Station.

He walked nonchalantly through the open train door to the platform, and I hurriedly followed him.

"Um, please wait a moment."

I managed to stop him before he went down the stairs.

"……What's up?"

He gave me a suspicious look, which made me hesitate.

Judging by his appearance alone, he really didn't seem like someone I could remember. I wasn't very confident myself either.

We are all old.

"...You're Zaimokuza-kun, right?"

He blinked even more in surprise, and silence fell. Unable to bear the awkward atmosphere, I waved my hand to explain:

"Um, I'm not a suspicious person. We were friends in high school..."

"Oh, no need."

His large hand immediately moved towards me. No need? What don't you need?

I was taken aback for a moment, and then he continued in a very calm voice:

"Even if you're trying to scam me by playing the friend card, I don't have a single friend. Go find someone else."

"...Haha, I wouldn't say that kind of thing to my friends..."

"I'm sorry, I have no money. I really have nothing to offer. Please let me go."

He began to beg for mercy.

By the way, it seems like this side of Zaimokuza is naturally present. He can suddenly become serious the next second after speaking loudly, and he'll also switch to the first person.

It seems to have changed yet hasn't. It's clearly a memory from long ago, but those nostalgic actions have resurfaced in my heart.

Perhaps it was because of him that I felt he was the only one among my friends whom I didn't want to see at the time that I could talk to.

I do not know.

Maybe I shouldn't have called out to him in the first place.

I resisted the urge to throw down a "I've mistaken you for someone else" and turn away, and clenched my fists.

"You don't remember? But we really are friends. After school, I'd sometimes hang out with you, and we'd go to karaoke to sing 'Going Going Alone Way!'... Oh, and I was also the president of the tennis club..."

No matter how old you are, introducing yourself is always a challenge.

I rattled off keywords that might remind him of me, and his eyes widened.

It made strange noises.

"Could it be... you are Totsuka Saika?!"

"...Great. Yes, that's right."

I nodded slightly.

Cai Muzuo said he was going to transfer to the Tobu Tojo Line.

He lives in Saitama now and often comes here to play, so I accepted his kindness and asked him to take me to stroll through the bustling streets of Ikebukuro West Exit.

Tomorrow is a holiday, so it's okay to go home late.

As we chatted, we naturally learned that we were both single and didn't need to worry about other people.

"It's been so long since I've seen you. Hmm, was the last time we met your coming-of-age ceremony?"

"Afterwards, we all went out for drinks to celebrate graduating from university."

"...Nobody asked me out?"

"Huh?!"

"So everyone went drinking together, oh I see..."

"Um, well, maybe I remembered wrong... Ah! We need to order, we need to order!"

We stepped into the izakaya that Zaimokuza often frequented, ordered draft beer, and toasted. Zaimokuza rested his hand on the table, propped his chin on his hand, and gazed at me.

"In any case, five years have flown by. Although it's said that 'a scholar can be separated from his family for only three days'... you've really changed a lot."

"Haha... Let's not talk about that now, Zaimokuza-kun, so you're the kind of person who would do that kind of thing?"

I waved my hand in front of my face to change the subject.

"What kind of thing?"

"About what happened on the tram earlier. You helped that kid out of that situation, didn't you?"

From high school onwards, Zaimokuza's appearance and behavior were different from others.

In a sense, it is very eye-catching.

However, "attracting attention" and "wanting to attract attention" have completely different meanings.

When he's with someone as gentle as Hachiman, he opens his heart and speaks louder, but I've seen him behave like a little devil in front of strangers several times.

He should be very bad at dealing with the malice of the unspecified majority of people in the carriage.

"Oh, you mean that matter... It's nothing, just a small thing."

The student named Caimuzuo downed his beer in one gulp and let out a sigh of relief.

Then, with an exaggerated gesture, he opened his right hand wide.

"Children who wander outside in the darkness must all have their own reasons for suffering."

"Difficulties... such as being left in another place because family members get off work late?"

"Indeed. Or perhaps that child will spread his wings at night and go to vampire school. Perhaps he has a body that burns when he walks in the sun. Perhaps he doesn't live on Japanese time, but on vampire time."

...Is he obsessed with vampires now? Or is it the same old story?

I cast a warm glance my way at him, but the woodcutter remained unmoved.

"Even though we can't understand all the reasons, at least we can be there for him."

He slammed the empty glass down on the table, making his loudest, most energetic sound of the day.

"Because we work so late, risking our lives, all to protect a society where children can live healthy lives! Hahahaha!"

When I saw him deliberately pretending to be like he was in high school, I finally realized.

He was probably shy.

Even though he was shy, he still articulated his principles in life.

On the tram, I had the same thought, but I felt there was a striking difference between our thought processes. No, I'm not referring to chuunibyou (middle school syndrome).

I looked at him again from the front.

She's a bit thinner than before, much taller, and looks more mature.

"...Zaimokuza-kun—"

"Hmm?"

"You've changed a lot. You actually made such a smart choice..."

I sighed.

"Just like Hayama-kun."

I wanted to praise him, but Zaimuzuo classmate just chuckled.

He coughed loudly and waved his hand forcefully.

"No, no, no. You are the one."

"Me?"

"Um, you know... that thing—it seems to be starting to resemble Hachiman?"

I couldn't help but laugh too.

Because the classmate lowered his voice, it sounded like he was saying some very unpleasant things.

After graduating from high school, Hachiman and I went to different universities.

But we didn't drift apart because of this. He, who should have found this kind of thing troublesome, would contact me from time to time.