Chapter 20: If You Find a New Flavor After You've Finished Your Snack, You Can't Help But Eat Too Much

If You Find a New Flavor After You've Finished Your Snack, You Can't Help But Eat Too Much

Satoshi-kun looked at me like I was an alien, but that was the end of what I wanted to do for now.

Of course, I'll continue collecting sparkles, and all that's finished is Tomohiro-kun's play (and Satoshi-kun, by the way).

I won't stop until the best moment arrives. ...Stop for a moment. Don't you feel sorry for those kids?

...Poor thing! But my faith is far more important to me, so it can't be helped.

For the sake of my faith, I can betray even those who innocently believe in me.

In fact, I want to betray them.

Everyone! Believe in Hikari a little more!

While brilliantly hiding these feelings, I was taking refreshing steps with a sparkling hop, excited that I'd achieved the results I expected, when I lost my balance and fell over. The corner of the desk digs into me at an unpleasant angle, and my leg hurt.

With the help of Satoshi-kun, who rushed over to me, I pulled myself up and reached inside my skirt to check, finding no wounds.

However, it hurt when I pressed on it, so I thought it might be a bruise.

"Ouch, ouch," I thought to myself, crying.

I told Satoshi-kun that it only hurt a little and that I was fine, but he retorted, "Those who are fine don't stand up while protecting their leg."

Well, there's no need for me to beat him up here, so I'll just let him argue quietly. You can thank me for being so generous.

Without any choice, I accepted Satoshi-kun's offer to take me to the nurse's office and let him escort me a few dozen meters.

Satoshi-kun didn't look happy, having now legally touched the soft body of the girl he had a crush on... but instead, he looked at me as if he was genuinely worried about me. "Stop it, don't look at me like that."

Unable to meet my gaze, I told him thank you, and he quietly said, "You're welcome."  

I don't like how the school nurse lady smiles with delight and saying "Oh my~"

After a light physical examination and then lifting my skirt to show the inside, she examines me and concludes that it's just a minor bruise. She warns me to go to the hospital if it lasts too long or if it starts to hurt any more, so I decide to take a short break before heading home.

By the way, Satoshi-kun, who had been keeping his eyes on me the whole time with a worried look on his face, looked at me with a dirty look on his face before lifting my skirt, and when I muttered the word "Pervert" he looked away with such gusto that it was almost amusing.

He's so innocent and cute.

After the pain subsides a little, I tell the nurse lady that I can go home now. But Satoshi-kun seems reluctant to accept that.

He seems to be saying, "There's no way I'm letting you go home in that condition!"

Hey, what do you mean to me? Why should I have to listen to your selfish demands...

"Do I need a reason to worry about my precious friend?"

Ugh! What an embarrassing thing to say. I can't help it if he says that. I'll just put up with the embarrassment and let him worry about me a little longer.

Taking advantage of Satoshi-kun's kind offer to walk me home, I head home with his help.

Fortunately, our houses aren't that far apart, and we often bump into each other at the library on weekends.

Of course, it's not as close as Tomohiro-kun's, being next door neighbors, but it's close enough that I only have to take a slight detour on the way home from school.

"Come to think of it, even though our houses are close, this is the first time we've ever walked home together."

"Why would we go home together, you're walking just fine," Satoshi-kun suddenly muttered.

If we were as close as each other, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for us to walk home together, so he was surprised that we'd never done that before.

I was surprised too.

I never imagined that Satoshi-kun, a loner with social anxiety, even existed in the concept of walking home with friends.

"I always walk home with Hiro-chan... You're the one who turned me down when I asked you out before."

"....Is that so?"

Satoshi-kun pretends not to know, but the only reason he turned me down is because he doesn't want to see me getting along with Tomohiro-kun.

Well, it's pretty damn cruel to have to watch the girl you like flirting with another guy every day.

If Tomohiro-kun had been sickly and often missed school, he might have had a chance to come home with me, but he's a healthy kid.

The only things Tomohiro-kun can brag about are his strong body—he's never even caught a cold—and having a wonderful childhood friend like me.

Everything else he's proud of is something I invented after the fact.

Wow, so he's proud of being silly and convenient! So that's what it comes down to. I think it's okay for Tomohiro-kun to cry. I love the way his tears soak into the ground. Tomohiro-kun's tears look good on the ground.

I want to collect and lick the tears of My little sister and Mama too.

There's a type of sodium that can only be obtained from the tears of a beautiful girl who can't hold back and sheds them without doing anything wrong!  

With that thought occupying half my mind, I chatted with Satoshi-kun with the other half.

This is what they mean when they say "take everything half-heartedly." Hikari is so smart!

Thinking that Satoshi-kun probably enjoys this conversation more than the glasses holder, I continued the conversation, which was mostly empty.

Light-hearted conversations are fun, aren't they?

If I shook my head now, I'm sure I'd hear a happy clanging sound. Like a bell. If it's full of stuff, then it's not empty, right? Excuse me, but the things rolling around in my head are just entrenched sexual fetish.

Yes, even when I empty my mind, I keep thinking about sparkling things. The best people never let their guard down.

As we were chatting happily like this, I suddenly found myself in front of my house.

Incidentally, the front door of the neighboring house opened for a moment, but then quickly closed, so I'm sure Tomohiro-kun was there watching and listening.

I'm lucky. After all, I was unexpectedly confronted by my Snack-kun in this atmosphere that felt like the aftermath of a tryst.

"Thank you for today, Satoshi-kun. ...It was my first time, so you'd better take good care of it, okay?"

The person he was going to take good care of wasn't a poor, pleasure-addled beautiful girl who was blackmailed and had her virginity taken away..... but a pair of 1/5 scale Satoshi-kun glasses (with glasses holder).

However, if you didn't know what I'd given him, it would look that way no matter how you looked at it.

"Of course I'll take good care of it, Mashiro," Satoshi-kun said, sounding so cool.

I blushed and muttered a relief, and the boy started worrying about whether I'd be able to get into my house by myself.

"I'll be fine on my own now. ...Or do you want to come and say hello to Mama? She said she's making sekihan today, so I'm sure she'll welcome you and give you some to eat."

Introducing him as my friend Satoshi, the red rice was just a coincidence.... Just kidding.

I was being selfish and asked to have sweetened red rice with azuki beans made for me after a long time. I never thought the timing would be so perfect.

But objectively, it would seem as if Mama knew about my "graduation" and was celebrating it.

From the perspective of Tomohiro-kun, who was once expected to have a bright future by both sets of our parents, it must be a terrible betrayal.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of some liquid hitting the floor from the front door of the neighbor house.

I wondered what on earth was being spat out that squelched. I wasn't planning on going this far either, so I was surprised. I'll continue though.

By the way, as I was remembering something unrelated, that today's school lunch was stew, Satoshi-kun turned down my invitation to dinner. He says he thinks it's still too early for that, but I wonder if he's planning on joining me for dinner someday? What a thick-skinned guy.

"I see... that's a bit disappointing. Thank you for today, Satoshi-kun. See you tomorrow."

As I said this, I waved my little hands, and Satoshi-kun waved them back as if drawn to the action.

Oh, he glanced at his watch just now. If he knew the time, he'd definitely give me his usual creepy greeting tomorrow.

Yeah, yeah, life as usual, as usual, is best!

I walked into the house, walking awkwardly, partly to escape the faint smell of vomit.

If I'd only been pretending to be in pain, I'd be able to walk normally, but unfortunately, this was a genuine accident, so I continued to walk in a protective manner. I'd do it if it was really necessary, but if it wasn't, I wouldn't hurt the precious body that Mama gave me.

This body is mine, but above all, it's a gift.

Self-harm is out of the question.

...But Mama, you'd worry if Hikari got hurt, right? 

You'll spoil me a lot, telling me not to push myself, and I'm sure you'll even take me to and from school. 

I literally shook off the thought that maybe it wasn't so bad, only to be seen by my Mama, who was waiting for me at home, who was worried about me.

I was having fun and spinning around, and I fell over. I'm sorry, hehe~