Why Don't You Make the Twins Your "Girlfriend" Together? Volume 1 Chapter 5
Chapter 5
An Unexpected Invitation…?
On Wednesday morning, June 1st, Sakuto overslept.
He swayed on the train, his head bobbing and fuzzy from a profound lack of sleep. It felt as if half his body were still buried in the soft, hazy depths of a dream.
Try to unravel me, huh…?
The aftershock of her words had hit him late last night, long after he’d returned home. He’d gotten into his futon and closed his eyes, but his mind refused to settle. His thoughts raced, his throat felt dry. He padded to the kitchen for a glass of water, then lay down again, kicking the blanket to the foot of his bed in a futile attempt to fight off a stuffiness that wasn’t there. Then a chill set in, making sleep impossible.
As two, then three in the morning ticked by and the sky outside began to pale, Sakuto finally drifted off. He’d managed, in the end, about two hours of sleep.
His aunt Mitsumi had startled at the sight of his pale face, suggesting with a worried frown that he should skip school if he felt unwell. Sakuto insisted he was fine, but a wave of awkwardness washed over him. He couldn’t explain the real reason for his sleepless night, and he felt guilty for making her worry over nothing.
Sakuto’s gaze drifted out the train window. The morning sun poured through a gap in the lowered shade, its intensity broken by the passing silhouettes of buildings and telephone poles. The world outside became a flickering reel of light and shadow, the intervals shrinking until they blurred into one. For a moment, he had the disorienting illusion that the scenery was rushing past a stationary train, not the other way around.
The only thing he knew for sure was that in this world, light and shadow existed side by side.
＊ ＊ ＊
Just as he finished changing into his indoor shoes, Sakuto froze.
Usami was standing in the exact same spot she’d occupied after the necktie incident. She clutched her bag with both hands, her back pressed against the wall. But this time, she wasn’t looking down as if she were being scolded. Instead, her expression was a mixture of firm resolve and lingering anxiety.
“…Usami-san?”
“T-Takayashiki-kun…!” she gasped, her eyes widening in surprise as she met his gaze.
She quickly looked away. After what had happened yesterday, Sakuto felt a pang of awkwardness himself.
“Um… you look tired. Didn’t get much sleep?” she asked, her concern evident.
“Ahaha… yeah, just a little,” he managed. “Your face is pretty red too, Usami-san.”
“Eh!? R-Really…!?” she stammered, covering her cheeks with her hands.
“So, did you need something from me?”
“Um, well…” Her cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of red, and her eyes darted about restlessly as if she were fighting a war with her own shyness. Though impatient, Sakuto waited.
“Um… could you please come to the courtyard after school today?”
For just a second, the bashful request sent his pulse racing, but then──
──“Hey… I have something to talk to you about after school today, Sakuto…”
The memory from his middle school days slammed into him, and it felt like his heart had seized.
“…? What’s wrong?” Usami asked, peering at his face with worry.
“…Eh? Oh, it’s nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “After school, you said? I get it…”
“Um, you look even paler than before…”
“Ah, no, it’s really nothing. Well then, this afternoon, in the courtyard──”
Leaving a bewildered Usami behind, Sakuto turned and made a quick retreat toward his classroom.
This time is different. It has to be.
But it seems the past follows you around no matter what.
＊ ＊ ＊
During lunch break, Sakuto sat in the school cafeteria, picking at his food while his mind replayed the morning’s encounter. His lack of sleep had killed his appetite, which was a shame because the daily special was the chicken nanban set, a student favorite he normally would have devoured. He found himself worrying about Usami, and about that other girl—the one who’d put the brakes on his heart, the one he’d probably never see again.
Just then, a shadow fell over his table.
“Is this spot taken?”
Before he could answer, the student guidance counselor, Tachibana-sensei, sat down across from him.
Sakuto immediately scanned their surroundings, but the other students seemed less interested than he’d expected.
“Worried about who’s watching?” she asked.
“No, well… it’s my first time eating with a teacher, so I’m a little surprised…”
A soft chuckle escaped her. “I think it’d be best not to mind them, but I suppose boys your age do get self-conscious, huh?”
“…You sat here knowing that, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she admitted. “I wanted to see your reaction, you see.”
He glanced at her tray—a grilled fish set. It seemed she was mindful of her diet. But more than that, he wondered why she was here, talking to him.
“Is this about what happened with Usami-san yesterday? If it’s about her──”
“No, it’s not about Usami,” she cut in. “I wanted to talk about you today.”
“About me? What is it?”
“Why did you hold back on the midterms?”
The question was so casual it caught him completely off guard.
“…Hold back?”
“Yes. What was your reason for intentionally getting a lower score?”
She said it with such conviction that she had to be certain. Had she come all this way just to test his reaction? Sakuto braced himself, feigning composure.
“Why would you think that?”
“I compared the copies of your midterm exam answer sheets.”
So the rumor was true—they kept copies to analyze answer rates and prevent cheating. That was fine, but having them compared was not. She must have sensed something.
“The last three questions were left blank. On every subject. And you answered every other question correctly.”
“Is that your basis for saying I held back?”
“It’s not a basis, it’s a calculation,” she corrected. “The point distribution for each question varies, but since there are no four-point questions, it’s impossible for your score to be ninety or below. In other words, you were aiming for the ninety-one to ninety-seven point range.”
“Assuming that’s true, why aim for the nineties? It could have been eighty or less…”
“Test scores account for ninety percent of your grade. Here, if you’re in the nineties and submit your assignments, your grade is a nine or ten on a ten-point scale. A five on a five-point scale. ──Oh, by the way, at this rate, you’re more than qualified for the full-tuition academic scholarship. You can rest easy.”
Sakuto held his breath, stunned by her sharpness. This was different from Usami’s intuition. Tachibana-sensei’s logic was a silken cord slowly tightening around his neck.
This is seriously troublesome.
It seemed Tachibana-sensei wasn’t the type to be fooled by ‘superficial results’ like rankings.
“By the way, the individual scoring by each teacher isn’t shared among the faculty. The only ones who know the full results are the students themselves when the answer sheets are returned… I see. You’ve cleverly exploited a loophole in our system, haven’t you?”
“…”
The system for processing grades had a loophole so obvious it could barely be called one. Homeroom teachers only ever saw the final scores tallied by the subject teachers. Graded answer sheets were never shared among the faculty, because why would they be? He had assumed no teacher would go to the trouble of comparing every single student’s answer sheet for all subjects.
The reason it was such a non-loophole was that there was no conceivable benefit for a student to lower their score. Students were obsessed with raising them, not lowering them. That’s why he was so flustered.
Tachibana-sensei had figured him out, at least in theory.
“You intentionally left the last three questions blank on every subject. In other words, you held back…”
“Even if I did, what merit would there be for me?”
“The reason is likely the ranking list,” she stated.
“Tch…!?”
“You don’t want to get a high score and be put on display. Public interest fades quickly after first place. So, around eighth place was just right… Am I wrong?”
She spoke like a famous detective laying out her deduction, each word bringing her closer to a truth that made him feel sick.
“I ran out of time.”
“Hmm… You, who got first place in the country during your third year of middle school?”
She investigated that far? …And she’s not even my homeroom teacher. If that’s the case, she might have dug into my middle school days. This person is scary.
“The content is different between middle school and high school. And even if what you say is true, does that count as cheating?”
Her expression darkened. “No, it’s not cheating. But it’s not right, either.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“When I said it’s not right, I wasn’t talking about you.”
“Eh…?”
“No, it’s nothing. Whoops, I’m out of time──”
She didn’t press him further, silently bringing food to her mouth. He noticed, however, that one particular vegetable on the edge of her plate was pushed aside with the fish bones: the carrots from the simmered hijiki side dish.
“…Takayashiki-kun, you like carrots, right? You can have them. No need to hold back.”
“I’ll pass. And could you not just assume what people like?”
“Is that so… hmm…”
She let out a small groan in front of the carrots. It was hard to tell if she was trying to be cute or not.
“Tachibana-sensei, are we done talking?”
“Just a little more, if you don’t mind?”
“…What is it?”
She gave up on the carrots and put down her chopsticks. “You were twenty minutes late to the entrance exam, weren’t you?”
“Yeah, well…”
“You entered during the first exam, Japanese. The reason was a train delay due to heavy snow and an accident, correct?”
“…For the most part.” Sakuto recalled the events of that day with a wry smile.
“I’m just glad they let me take the test at the last minute.”
“It was a situation that warranted consideration. But… are you sure you made the right choice applying to our school?”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. Was there really no other high school you wanted to attend? Living with your aunt, away from your parents… you see, I want to know why you insisted on our school, to that extent.”
This was a more fundamental question. This was probably what she wanted to ask him all along. Sakuto let out another wry smile, as if to say, give me a break.
“Well, the school cafeteria is the best,” he quipped.
“Also, you should really eat your carrots.”
“Mmm… I know, but I’m not good with them… mmmph…”
Just how much does this carrot-hating teacher know?
It was all just fragmented information and speculation. The timeline was scattered, the cast of characters incomplete. It probably didn’t make any sense yet.
And yet, maybe a single story has already formed inside Tachibana-sensei’s mind. A story that could be a comedy or a tragedy, depending on who’s writing it──.
＊ ＊ ＊
Under a clear sky that made you wish for an endless stretch of days just like it, Sakuto finished packing his bag and headed to the courtyard. A pleasant breeze was still blowing—perfect weather for an after-school meeting. He almost wondered if Usami had planned it this way.
She was sitting on one of the six benches, and his chest tightened with nerves as he approached her already-flushed face.
“Usami-san, sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Takayashiki-kun… No, I just got here myself. Please, have a seat next to me──”
He sat down beside her as prompted. It felt a little awkward sitting side-by-side, but it was probably better than facing her directly.
“…Thank you for coming,” she said softly.
“No problem… So, what did you want to talk about?”
“Yes…” she began, then looked down, her face bright red as she gathered her courage.
Is it because we’re in the school courtyard? The atmosphere is completely different from when we touched at the arcade or the train station. Or is she hesitating because she’s trying to maintain her ‘honor student’ persona? Or is this just that hard for her to bring up?
He waited, and finally, she spoke.
“T-Takayashiki-kun…”
“Yes?”
“Takayashiki-kun, are you… by any chance, free this Saturday…?”
“Eh? Ah, I’m free, I guess, but…”
“Th-then, w-would you… maybe… want to go on an outing with me…?”
“An outing? Sure, that’s fine.”
Once he processed what she was asking, his heart began to pound even faster.
“…Does that mean you want to go out together?”
“It’s definitely not a date!” she declared, her face turning completely red in her fluster.
“Ah, yeah… I didn’t say it was,” he said, a small smile touching his lips. “But, why?”
“W-Well, you see, there are things that are hard to talk about at school, and since we’ve gotten to know each other, I was hoping we could become better friends!”
There’s a strange calming effect in watching someone more flustered than you are. He couldn’t help but be amused.
“Yeah, okay. Let’s go out.”
“Eh!? R-Really!?”
“Yeah. I’m fine with it, but are you sure, Usami-san?”
“Eh? What do you mean?” Her happy expression shifted to a blank stare.
“You know, if we go out together, people might think it’s a date. I thought you wouldn’t want that kind of misunderstanding.”
“I-I don’t mind…!”
“Y-You don’t mind…?”
Like a small animal peeking out of its burrow, she glanced around cautiously.
“Are you sure it’s okay, Takayashiki-kun? To be mistaken as a… a couple with me…”Her voice trailed off, but he heard every word.
“Yeah,” he answered. “…Well, to be honest, I’m not a big fan of rumors or standing out.”
“I knew it~…” she mumbled, dejected.
“Ah, no, that’s not what I meant.” He hurried to rephrase. “Lately, thanks to you, Usami-san, my perspective has changed… I’ve started to think that what’s important is how I feel about it myself.”
“How you feel about it…?”
“You mentioned it before, didn’t you? That sometimes it’s scary what other people think.” Sakuto clasped his fingers together. “But I realized that sometimes you have to be brave. I don’t like rumors or standing out, but… the nail that sticks out too far doesn’t get hammered down. You taught me that it’s okay not to be afraid, Usami-san.”
As he said it, he offered a small smile.
Usami’s cheeks flushed crimson as she stared right back at him, and in that moment, her expression was more beautiful than ever.
I think Usami-san is truly beautiful.
If rumors were to spread about me and someone this beautiful, that might be fun in its own way.
If she says she doesn’t mind, then it should be fine. I can go out with her, talk a lot, and get to know her better. Even if we’re not a couple, even if we’re mistaken for one, I want to take a step forward.
I don’t know if I can do it, but I want to unravel her──
“I want to go out with you too, Usami-san. Because I want to know more about you.”
Yes, he decided to follow his heart.
“Ha… hauuu~…” A soft, overwhelmed sound escaped her lips.
“Wh-What’s wrong?”
“I-It’s nothing…”
She covered her mouth, but she was so red it looked like steam might rise from her head. Her eyes were moist, as if she were about to cry from sheer happiness. Sakuto felt a little embarrassed himself. He hadn’t expected her to be this happy, but he hoped this could be the start of a relationship where they could talk more naturally. Though, judging by her current state, that might take a while.
After they’d both calmed down a little, they exchanged phone numbers and LIME contacts. On his friend screen, the name “Chikage” appeared. A moment later, a chat notification popped up: a cute cat sticker with the message, “Nice to meet you.”
“W-Well then, I’ll contact you later about the time and place, okay?”
“Yeah. Ah, um…”
“Yes?”
Sakuto looked embarrassed as he shoved his phone into his pocket.
“Want to walk to the station together…?”
“Y… Yesss…”
He didn’t really remember what they talked about during the ten-minute walk to the station. He had a vague impression they’d talk about classes and cram school from their time in middle school, but honestly, he was so nervous that most of it didn’t register.
Walking side by side. Making small talk. Stopping for a moment, then starting to walk again.
It was just that, but how could the world look so different just by having her next to him?
Even the normally annoying evening rush hour seemed somehow vibrant today.
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