Chapter 10: Chestnut

Honk honk~!

A car horn blared from behind.

It was clear that in a moment, I’d be uploaded to social media under the title ‘Parking Lot Nuisance Guy’.

“Sorry, but I’m going to get going.”

“Ah, okay.”

The car started moving in an awkward atmosphere.

Once we were out of the parking lot and on the main road, I asked.

“Which way is your house?”

Kurokawa, who had been a little dazed, heard my question and pulled out her phone.

She seemed quite flustered.

She always seemed so calm, so this was an unexpected side of her.

Well, given the situation, it was probably to be expected.

“It’s here.”

“Oh, wow. It really is on the way.”

She showed me the map on her screen.

‘It’s fine. It’s on your way anyway, isn’t it?’

Just as Teacher Miho said, it was on the way.

Not only that, it wasn’t far from my house.

In short, it was a neighbor’s house.

Perhaps Teacher Miho and Kurokawa knew their houses were close to each other.

I didn’t need to set the GPS; I just headed towards my house.

I could just drop Kurokawa off on the way.

The streetlights passed by a few times, and the sound of the car served as background music.

After checking on Teacher Miho in the rearview mirror once more, I cautiously opened my mouth.

“Uh, what’s-her-name. Miho-nu… Teacher is my relative.

And due to family circumstances, I’m staying at Teacher Miho’s house.”

To clear up the misunderstanding, I finished my short and concise explanation.

Relative.

Honestly, I don’t even know what degree of kinship we are.

That’s because all my parents ever told me was, ‘Miho is our relative~’.

However, I don’t think she’s within the fourth degree of kinship, which would be considered quite close.

It’s just a feeling.

A feeling.

Still, the word ‘relative’ is a cure-all when it comes to perfect strangers.

Hoping this would clear up the misunderstanding, I glanced sideways.

It was just a slight change, but I could see the atmosphere had softened.

“I see······.”

Kurokawa nodded, as if she understood.

I waited for her to sort things out in her mind.

By the way, how could I keep running into her at such timings?

The only proper conversations I’d had with someone of the opposite s*x at school were with her.

During lunchtime too.

During cooking practicals too.

And after school, when making the chocolate recipe.

And even now.

All of this happened in less than a week.

The question ‘Does fate truly exist?’ lingered for a moment, then I shook my head internally.

Our first conversation during lunchtime was just a coincidence.

Something that might happen once in a while.

After that, I simply became aware of Kurokawa.

She just helped me at the teacher’s request.

She just happened to see me because she lost her hairpin.

And today, she just happened to see us while doing her daily grocery shopping here.

Perhaps if I hadn’t been aware of Kurokawa, and if Teacher Miho hadn’t even been there, Kurokawa would have just been one of the background people.

These events would have happened anyway, even if I hadn’t been aware of them.

“Do you have any more questions?”

“····Huh? Questions?”

“Yeah. Honestly, I realize the situation is sudden.

I just don’t want you to misunderstand.

If you have any more questions, I’ll answer them for you.”

“Ah····. If it’s about that, then it’s fine.

I don’t particularly want to pry into other people’s family matters.”

That was a very Kurokawa-like answer.

Normally in such a situation, people would usually think,

‘Relatives? Hmm, but if you’re close enough to go grocery shopping together, aren’t you really close? Aren’t you just dating and living together?’

and exaggerate things.

For a female student interested in romance, it would be a great story to spread rumors, making them shriek ‘Kyaa~ kyaa~’.

I had even somewhat prepared for a question like, ‘Are you perhaps… dating the teacher?’, but it was thankfully off the mark.

“Hmm?”

However, looking over, it seemed that wasn’t entirely the case.

She occasionally glanced my way, clearly looking like she had questions.

“···I told you it’s okay to ask if you have any questions.”

While I didn’t think Kurokawa would spread rumors at all, I still wanted to properly clear up any misunderstandings.

“No, no. You’re driving, aren’t you?”

“It’s fine. Even though I look like this, I’m quite good at driving.

Besides, it’s not a complicated road.

And there aren’t many cars.”

“···Really?”

It seemed she had deliberately avoided talking to me so as not to disturb my driving.

Kurokawa hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

“Hoshino-kun·····. You can drive?”

Ah, so she wasn’t curious about my relationship with Teacher Miho, but about that instead.

“That’s right. I have a license.”

“Even with a license, there are more people who can’t drive, aren’t there?”

“That’s true.”

In this world, you can get a license from age 17, or the first year of high school, but it’s very rare to see high school students driving.

They don’t have cars, to begin with.

In that sense, it’s extremely rare for a high school student like me to drive well.

“That’s interesting.”

“Well, it just kind of happened that way.”

The conversation stopped.

How on earth was I supposed to continue such a private conversation?

Should I ask something like, ‘Do you come grocery shopping alone every day?’

“How’s the recipe making going?”

At that moment, Kurokawa brought up another topic.

Flustered, I stumbled over my words.

“U-uh? Recipe?”

“The chocolate recipe, I mean.”

“Ah.”

The chocolate recipe was more or less complete.

Since today was Saturday, I’d slack off a bit, then send it to the president via email tomorrow.

“I’ve pretty much finished making it.”

Though I wasn’t confident.

“That’s amazing, doing it all by yourself.”

“It’s not that amazing. I just adapted a commercially available recipe to fit the school’s cooking equipment.”

“Mm-hmm. Even so, completing your responsibility alone is something that deserves praise.”

“···Is that so?”

“Yes.”

To be honest, it was quite difficult.

The president claimed to be busy and didn’t even act as a cameraman for me.

That’s why it took an incredibly long time.

“Ah, you can drop me off here.”

As we chatted about various things, we arrived at a fork in the road.

To the right was my house.

Presumably, her house was to the left.

Even in such a small detail, her consideration was evident.

Also, it would be a bit strange to park the car in front of a classmate of the opposite s*x’s house.

I pulled the car over to the side of the road and let her out.

“Thank you for the ride.”

Kurokawa, having gotten out of the car, gave a small wave.

I hadn’t noticed until now, being preoccupied, but under the streetlight, her casual clothes came into full view.

It wasn’t a flowy or delicate feminine outfit, but rather one that perfectly suited the word ‘cool’.

A black bomber jacket and black skinny jeans.

The cap pulled low was also black.

Staring intently at her appearance, I hastily spoke before Kurokawa could think it strange.

“No, no. If it weren’t for Teacher Miho, I would have just passed by without seeing you.

You should thank Teacher.”

Saying that, I looked at the back seat.

‘···She’s sleeping like the dead.’

“Uh… I’ll convey your thanks, so you should go now.

It must be cold.”

“Ah, okay. See you at school then.”

“Alright.”

With that, Kurokawa disappeared into the darkness, and I pressed the accelerator once more.

Arrived home without incident.

Perhaps hearing the car, Yuki came out to greet me.

“Brother~ You’re here?”

I turned off the engine and got out of the car.

“Can you help me move some of the bags?”

“Yep, got it~”

Yuki ran to the trunk and laboriously picked up the bags.

“Ugh―!!”

The sound of an immense struggle echoed.

I felt bad for Yuki, but the person came before the bags.

I opened the back door and checked on Teacher Miho.

She was in dreamland, breathing softly.

Though I was told to wake her, it felt wrong to wake someone who was tired after work.

I put my hands under her shoulders and behind her knees and lifted her.

Her clothes were thick, so there was no squishing sensation like mochi against her chest, nor did I feel that texture.

‘···Or maybe? I think I might have felt it slightly.’

‘How big is this person?’

“C-cough.”

‘By the way, isn’t she too defenseless?’

‘What if some other guy kidnapped her instead of me?’

“Hmph······.”

Just as I was worrying, Teacher Miho leaned towards me and rubbed her face against me.

A dizzying scent brushed past my nose.

‘If I stayed like this a little longer······.’

“Brother, it’s too heavy!”

“O-oh! Brother’s coming now!”

·····I hurried over, laid Teacher Miho on the sofa, and moved the bags.

****

“Kyaa~ It’s delicious!”

“As expected, our butler’s cooking is exquisite.”

After that, I woke Teacher Miho up, and we thoroughly enjoyed the nabe hot pot.

****

It was Monday.

Normally, I would have lingered in bed, unable to forget the afterglow of the holiday, but today my eyes shot open.

That was because it was my sister’s first day back at school.

Even though I had nothing to show for it, I was still her brother.

It was natural to worry about my sister.

‘First, I’ll wake Yuki up·······.’

Picturing Yuki, still lost in her vacation and sleeping soundly, I went downstairs.

However, for some reason, I heard something sizzling from the kitchen.

There was no way Teacher Miho would be cooking.

Then, a thief, perhaps?

“Oh, Brother, you’re awake?”

Fortunately, standing in the kitchen was my sister, wearing an apron.

She was packing lunch boxes early in the morning.

“Why did you wake up so early?”

I had woken up quite early myself.

“I guess I was so excited that my eyes opened early? And I took a self-proclaimed two-week vacation from lunch duty.

Starting today, I need to work properly.”

‘Gasp. Finally, I can eat my sister’s lunch!’

As I shed tears of emotion, Yuki made a strange expression.

“···Brother, calm down and listen.”

“Huh?”

“Well, actually····. Maybe it’s because my head was foggy after waking up, but I only made my own····.”

“What!?”

In the end, I made my own.