Why Don't You Make the Twins Your "Girlfriend" Together? Volume 1 Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Why Don’t You Try and Unravel Me…?
“──So, what can I do for you today? It’s a bit of a surprise to see you again so soon after yesterday…”
It was after school on Tuesday, May 31st, with the sticky humidity of the rainy season lingering just around the corner. I found myself in a corner of the faculty office, in a makeshift counseling area sectioned off by simple partitions. Across the low table sat the student guidance counselor, Tachibana-sensei. The voices of other teachers drifted over the partitions, a constant reminder of our lack of privacy. Even though this was my second time here, the atmosphere was something I just couldn’t get used to. I wanted to wrap this up and go home, fast.
“Again, I am truly sorry about yesterday. I mean it──” Tachibana-sensei bowed her head low and formally.
It wasn’t something worth dwelling on, and frankly, as the one who had intentionally derailed her guidance session, I was the one feeling awkward. I just wanted to put the whole thing behind us.
“Tachibana-sensei, please, raise your head. What happened yesterday doesn’t bother me in the slightest…”
“I nearly landed you in this morning’s newspaper,” she insisted, her voice tight. “An apology is hardly enough to make up for that.”
“Ah, it’s fine, really. If I was going to be in the paper, you’d have been right there with me, Sensei…” Our circumstances may have been different, but for now, I was just relieved neither of us had ended up on the front page. “So… is this a continuation of your apology?”
“No,” she said, her expression shifting. “There’s something I’d like to ask of you…” She crossed her legs, a familiar, sharp gesture. “Actually, it’s about Usami Chikage… Well, how should I put this…”
“What is it?”
“Are you two… in a close relationship?”
The question hung in the air. For a moment, I struggled to understand what she meant, but I calmly shook my head. “No, we’ve only just started talking recently.”
“I see… Recently…” Tachibana-sensei hesitated, a stark contrast to her usually direct and articulate manner. I felt a flicker of impatience, wondering what she was getting at, but I held my tongue and waited.
Finally, she leaned forward and lowered her voice, as if the words themselves were difficult to say.
“What do you think of Usami Chikage?”
“…Do you mean romantically? Like, if I like ‘like’ her?”
“Who’s asking about that?” she snapped back reflexively.
“No, I just mean, with the way the conversation was going…”
“Ah, no, no… My apologies. My phrasing was poor,” she conceded, sinking back into her chair and pressing a hand to her forehead. “I’m asking for your assessment of her character.”
“My assessment of her character…?”
Tachibana-sensei crossed her arms. “Indeed,” she affirmed, recrossing her legs.
“Well, she was the top student on the entrance exams and she’s ranked first in our grade… I suppose she’s an amazing person.”
“…Anything else?”
“She’s serious and a hard worker… although it seems she’s the type to argue her point when something doesn’t sit right with her. I hear she’s quite competitive, you know? And also──” The image of Usami’s bright, carefree smile at the arcade flashed through my mind, but I quickly suppressed it.
“…Well, I guess that’s about it,” I finished, deliberately glossing over the rest.
The day I was disciplined by Tachibana-sensei, I never once mentioned Usami’s name. I had insisted I came to the arcade alone, that I had no friends with me──and friends was the key word. It wasn’t a lie, so why did this feeling of guilt continue to grow? It was probably because I was starting to realize that Tachibana-sensei wasn’t a bad person, just someone who was almost frighteningly dedicated to her job.
But I had promised Usami I’d keep our time at the arcade a secret. I could never speak of it.
“So, what was it you wanted to ask me, then?”
“I want to know about Usami Chikage’s ‘other side’.”
Damn, I’ve really stirred the hornet’s nest now…
“You see, there’s a rumor going around about her. Haven’t you heard anything from your friends?”
“I don’t have any friends.”
“O-Oh, right… My apologies… Right… Right…” An awkward, heavy silence descended upon our little counseling space.
Unable to bear it, I was the one to speak first. “Um… if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of rumor is it?”
“Hmm… For example, that she wanders around the station with her uniform worn improperly. That she eats hamburgers while wearing headphones. Or that she’s been seen going into an arcade…”
So many of the details hit uncomfortably close to home that a sense of dread washed over me. They were almost all true.
You really couldn’t just dismiss rumors, could you?
“And also, that she drags a doll around with her… or that if you answer her call, she whispers, ‘I’m right behind you’… Something like that.”
“Sensei, those last two are urban legends you’ve mixed in…”
“I don’t want to believe those last two, either.”
“That’s up to you, isn’t it? You don’t have to believe them…” So rumors were just rumors after all. How ridiculous. “But, I see… So that’s why you came to the arcade that day?”
“You figured it out?” she said, a hint of surprise in her voice. “I went to check if the rumors were true… and there you were.”
“I’m truly sorry.”
Tachibana-sensei offered a wry smile. “It’s over and done with… but I’m still concerned about Usami Chikage. My guidance yesterday—the lecture about her ponytail—was actually just a pretext to observe her.”
So that was it. No wonder it had felt so unreasonable. While I felt a pang of sympathy for having gotten in her way, a strange awkwardness bloomed in my chest, knowing I was a part of the very secret she was trying to uncover.
“I see… so, how was she?”
Tachibana-sensei’s brow furrowed. “She’s a smooth talker.”
Haaaah… Is this what they call hating your own kind?A giant boomerang is going to come flying back and hit her one of these days.
“Well, in any case, if the rumors are true, it’s my job to provide guidance. I needed to confirm,” she concluded, her professional mask back in place. “Sorry for taking up your valuable time.”
“No, that’s not… It’s just, there’s one thing I’d like to ask you, Tachibana-sensei.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Why are you so passionate about student guidance?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s good that you’re passionate, but don’t you think you’ll be disliked by the students if you’re too harsh?”
I was simply curious. I had chalked it up to “hating her own kind,” but Tachibana-sensei shared something fundamental with Usami: a stubborn refusal to bend their principles. Even if it was her job, where did she find the resolve to guide students so forcefully, without seeming to care if they disliked her for it? I wanted to hear it from her directly.
“…Because it’s my job.”
“Does that mean it’s just because you get a salary?”
“There’s that… but that’s not all there is to it.”
With that, Tachibana-sensei offered a small, enigmatic smile and said no more.
＊ ＊ ＊
After leaving school, I headed straight for the arcade near the station. My goal wasn’t to play games, but to find Usami. If possible, I wanted to convince her to stop coming here. And even if that was impossible, I felt I had to at least warn her that strange rumors were going around—that she was, in effect, tightening a noose around her own neck.
I searched the first floor, then the second, but there was no sign of her. Just as I was about to give up and head for the entrance──
“Waah───!”
A loud cry erupted from right behind me. I spun around to find Usami standing there, dressed in the same casual clothes I’d seen her in before.
“Hey, were you surprised…? I mean, you were surprised, right?”
“Yeah, a little…” I admitted. Truthfully, I had sensed someone approaching from behind. Or rather, anyone would be on guard if a person was standing that close to them. “So, what was that for…?”
As I asked with a tone of exasperation.
“Te-he-he… I wanted to surprise you! I actually spotted you first, Takayashiki-kun, and hid.”
“Ah, is that so…”
“But it didn’t really work, did it? You’re really not the type to get flustered, are you, Takayashiki-kun?”
“That’s not true. I told you I was surprised.”
Usami placed her right index finger on her lips and tilted her head, looking up at me. “Hmm… You’re kind, but it feels like it’s a kindness you can fake, can’t you? You seem indecisive, but are you actually the type to take control of the other person?”
“Take control…? What do you mean?”
Usami’s face lit up with a bright smile as she held up her index finger to begin her explanation. “Because just now, you only put on a surprised face out of reflex, right? You weren’t really surprised. But you thought it would be bad for the person who tried to surprise you if you didn’t pretend… Am I wrong?”
A chill ran down my spine. This girl wasn’t just smart; her intuition was terrifyingly sharp.
──However, the circumstances were a little different.
I had simply chosen the optimal response that I believed the other person desired. In a situation where a normal person was supposed to be surprised, I would act surprised. It was a skill I had learned, a programmed reaction for appearing normal. In the end, it was still “pretending to be surprised” just as she’d said, but──
“…You’re not wrong, but I don’t think you’re entirely right, either.”
“You have such a difficult way of putting things…” Usami sighed, looking momentarily uninterested, before another chuckle escaped her lips and her smile returned. “But isn’t that kind of suffocating?”
“Suffocating?”
“Communicating while always being so considerate of the other person. I think ‘equality’ is a difficult concept… it’s the ideal, of course, but it’s hard, right? I think you’re a very serious person, Takayashiki-kun. But I feel like that kind of thing is suffocating, and I’m not good with those kinds of relationships.”
There was that chill again. This time, it felt as if her words were a sharp blade gouging out my heart. Though she left much unsaid, I understood exactly what she was telling me. What she had just said wasn’t some general observation or her own opinion; from beginning to end, it was directed solely at me.
This person was terrifyingly perceptive.
Just how much of me could she see?
Her words weren’t the vague psychological bait of a fortune teller, crafted to apply to anyone. They were words that seemed to pierce through everything from my past to my present. Could she possibly see the future, too?
For a moment, the smile on her face seemed utterly terrifying.
“Aren’t you the one thinking about difficult things, Usami-san? I don’t think that at all.”
“And why is that?”
“People aren’t perfect reflections of each other, like in a mirror. They’re more like a jigsaw puzzle, with all sorts of gaps, big and small… isn’t trying to fit the pieces together the fun part?”
Usami puffed out her cheeks, looking unimpressed. “I feel like I’m being lectured… like by a school teacher…”
“It’s just an exchange of opinions.”
“Hmph… Are you a realist, Takayashiki-kun?”
“And you, for that matter, are a surprising romantic, aren’t you?”
At that, we both burst out laughing at the same time.
Then, with a charming, cheerful smile, Usami took my right hand. She guided it to her left cheek, and as she felt the warmth of my palm against her skin, she smiled, genuinely happy.
“I love this hand…”
“Um…”
“A jigsaw puzzle… this is what you meant, right? It feels like this hand was always meant to fit right here…”
My heart leaped inside my chest. This was… this was not good.
“Um… I decided I absolutely wouldn’t touch you, though…” Had she already forgotten our exchange from the other day? In the school hallway, when I had tried to touch her left ear just like this.
But Usami only squeezed my hand tighter, showing no sign of letting go. “That’s so sad…” she whispered, her playful expression melting into a sorrowful one.
I felt my heart clench.
“You don’t have to be scared, you know?”
“Huh…?”
“It’s scary when you can’t understand something, right? And change, facing things head-on—that’s painful, too, isn’t it? It’s all so lonely and scary and painful, but if we touch like this, the pain eases a little…”
I felt my resolve faltering. It was as if she could see right through me, as if she was giving me permission to bare my soul. Really, how much could she see?
No, that probably wasn’t all there was to it. Her words just now… they felt as if they were directed, in some way, at herself. She, too, must feel lonely, scared, and in pain at times. Perhaps by touching someone, she was trying to soothe her own pain with their warmth. Like a small bird seeking a branch to rest on, she was searching for a place where her heart could belong.
Then, just as suddenly, Usami’s face brightened. “Alright, that’s enough of the heavy talk! Shall we go?”
“Huh? Where to?”
“Ensamu, of course! I’m getting my revenge for the other day!”
“Ah… wait a minute!” I finally remembered why I had come here in the first place.
“…? What’s wrong? You’re not going?”
“There’s something I need to tell you first, Usami-san──”
＊ ＊ ＊
“──I see… So there are rumors about me…”
We had moved to a bench in the station’s waiting area, where Usami and I now sat side-by-side.
“Did I cause you trouble…?” she asked, her voice small.
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Usami shook her head with a little ‘no, no’ gesture and gave a wry smile. Her spirits had clearly dropped, and I spoke to her with concern.
“Well, it’s a pain when weird rumors go around at school, right? Especially in your case, Usami-san, since you stand out so much.”
“Is that because my grades are good?”
“Not just that, but… your…” It felt strangely awkward to tell her to her face that she was beautiful. Seeing her clueless expression, I just gave a wry smile in response. “You had that run-in with Tachibana-sensei yesterday, too. It’s probably better if you stay away from the arcade for a while.”
“Hmm… but that’s the only place that has an Ensamu 3 machine…” Usami said, looking up at the ceiling as if in deep thought.
“No, there are other places that have it, you know.”
“Where!?” she shot back, her eyes lighting up.
“Y-You’re really chomping at the bit…” It seemed she hadn’t learned her lesson at all. A little disappointed, I managed another wry smile. “For now, you should just stop hanging around this area.”
“Mmm… okay… I shouldn’t cause trouble, right…? Haaah…” Usami agreed reluctantly, though she never specified who she would be causing trouble for. It was probably her family—her parents.
I sighed in resignation and glanced down at her feet. She was swinging her legs back and forth like a restless child. It was this childish side of her, contrasted with the sharp, mature woman she sometimes revealed—a completely different face from the one she showed at school—that gave me such a strange, captivating feeling.
(Ah, right…)
Remembering the question I’d wanted to ask at the arcade the other day but couldn’t, I decided now was the time. “Usami-san, at school… are you just acting the part of an honor student?”
Usami looked up at the ceiling again, a habit of hers when she was thinking. “Hmm… but I am an honor student…”
She stated it as a simple fact, without a hint of boasting or sarcasm. It sounded as if she were talking about someone else entirely.
“Hey, Takayashiki-kun, which one do you prefer?”
“Eh?”
“‘Me’ at school, or this me.”
This time it was my turn to be troubled by a question. But when I really thought about it, I realized there was no need to separate them. “I think they’re both great, actually…”
“Ehh? That’s a bit greedy, don’t you think?”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because the question just now was, ‘Which one is your type?’ you know?”
“My ‘type’… you can’t just change the question on me like that…” I felt a flush of embarrassment and struggled for an answer. “…Well, not my ‘type,’ exactly, but I do think both are charming.”
“Hmph… so it’s both in the end, huh…”
“It’s just that… this you… or rather, the you I meet outside of school… I can’t seem to take my eyes off her.”
“Fuehh!? W-Why…?”
“You seem reckless… and there’s that part of you I just can’t leave alone… Do you… do that kind of thing to other guys?” The “marking,” as she called it—letting me touch her cheek and ear, the hugs—was not good. With the wrong person, it could easily blow up into a huge problem.
“It’s okay,” she said with a soft smile. “I only show that side of myself, and let people do that, to people I’ve taken a liking to.”
So, she had taken a liking to me. Hearing her say it so directly made me feel rather shy.
“Or do I look that easy to you? Like I’m an easy girl?”
“Hmm… I can’t say for sure. You have your firm side, too, so I don’t really think so.”
When I answered her seriously, Usami giggled. “I get lenient, and become an easy girl, but only for the person I like, you know?”
“I-Is that so…?”
“Wanna try me?”
“No, I’ll pass…”
When I politely declined, she giggled again. It seemed she was only joking.
“Well, I’d think most guys would prefer the ‘me’ at school, right? She’s kind of tsundere-ish.”
I couldn’t help but offer a wry smile. “I think it depends on the person. But as for this Usami-san here──”
“Uh-huh, uh-huh, I wanna hear, I wanna hear!” she leaned in, her eyes sparkling.
“Don’t rush me… I’m choosing my words…”
“You don’t have to worry about that~”
Still, word choice was important. The other day, I’d been too direct and messed up. I had to make sure not to make the same mistake twice. I took a moment to organize my thoughts before speaking.
“…You’re like a difficult puzzle I was suddenly handed.”
“Heh? What do you mean by that? It doesn’t sound like much of a compliment…”
“No, no, I mean it in a good way, of course. When you solve a puzzle and find the answer, it feels great, right? But the process of solving it, the time spent thinking it over, that’s fun too… It’s that kind of feeling. This Usami-san has that kind of mysterious air about her.”
Usami smiled, but I could see her cheeks were flushed. It was a testing smile, not a joking one. “So, in other words, you want to know more about me, Takayashiki-kun?”
“Well, if you sum it up like that, I guess so…?”
Once again, Usami took my hand and gently guided it to her cheek. She closed her eyes, nuzzling against my palm as if to better feel its warmth.
“Then, why don’t you try and unravel me…?”
“Huh…?”
“I think you can probably do it, Takayashiki-kun… The deepest part of my heart… the parts you can’t see, all of it… I want you to unravel it all…”
She whispered the words in a slow, relaxed tone, and finally, brought my hand to her left ear.
The charm, she’d called it, to make sure I don’t mistake her for someone else.
When it was done, Usami pulled back, her usual cheerful smile returning as if a switch had been flipped. “Well then, shall we head home for today?”
After seeing Usami off at the station, I stood there for a moment, looking down at my right hand.
The warmth of her skin and the soft feeling of her cheek still lingered on my palm. This was probably the effect of her marking.
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