Episode 20: Because I Actually Kind of Like You, Ruri
“Alright, everyone! Cheers!”
At Miyuki-san’s cheerful call, the four of us clinked our glasses together.
Möbius-san and Miyuki-san, the adult pair, had beer. Sora-san and I, the high schooler pair, had cola.
A toast between four friends, just like this — this is definitely, one hundred percent, an extrovert thing to do…!
“Guh, guhi…”
“Ruri. Your face is doing something scary right now.”
“Huh!? B-but my face is the only thing going for me…!”
“C’mon, might as well take a photo while we’re at it. Fix your face.”
Sora-san slung an arm around my shoulders and held up her phone with her other hand. I scrambled to arrange a selfie-ready expression.
“You two have really gotten close, huh. Makes me happy.”
Miyuki-san took a sip of beer and smiled warmly. Möbius-san nodded along, already emptying her glass at an alarming pace.
“Never thought I’d see the day Ruri actually made a real friend… kinda getting emotional over here.”
“Th-thank you so much…!”
“…You realize that’s a pretty backhanded compliment, right?”
“Cosmo-chan! Maybe don’t point that out…!”
Talking like that, time slipped by fast.
I’d been feeling down over the whole thing with Maria, but… I’m glad I have people who’ll make noise together with me like this.
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“…S-Sora-san, what should we do…”
“Ah, in cases like this, best to just let them sleep it off. Waking them up by force just means dealing with an annoying drunk person.”
About an hour and a half into the pizza party.
Möbius-san and Miyuki-san had gotten completely, thoroughly drunk, and had both passed out.
Möbius-san doesn’t normally drink, so I never knew she actually liked alcohol this much…
There’d always been beer in the fridge, but she never touched it — probably out of consideration for me, since I’m a minor.
Today, though, she’d had quite a lot, and Miyuki-san had been knocking back beer at a terrifyingly steady pace, smiling the whole time.
I’ve heard bathing while drunk is dangerous, so letting them sleep it off like this is probably for the best.
“Ah, are you gonna take a bath, Sora-san?”
“Think I’ll just shower. Want to wash off my makeup too.”
Sora-san stood up, then let out a small “oh, right.”
“After your bath, want to hit the convenience store or something? Late-night ice cream. You’d be into that too, right, Ruri?”
“A-after a bath, convenience store ice cream…!”
Going out for ice cream at a convenience store in the middle of the night has a real extrovert energy to it. Or, well, more than “extrovert” — I think the word is “emo,” like on social media. Emotional love-story stuff.
I’ve seen it on my timeline before, something about it being called emotional and romantic…!
“I-I’ll go, I’ll definitely go…!”
“Okay. Let’s both go shower quick, then.”
Sora-san gave my head a light pat, then disappeared into the bathroom.
“…Maybe… she was trying to give me a chance to talk…?”
While we were eating pizza, I’d deliberately avoided bringing up Maria. It was a sleepover, after all — I wanted to keep things as fun as possible.
Besides, I already knew the Maria situation was something I had to work through myself, in the end.
But maybe Sora-san had been quietly trying to create an opening for me to talk anyway.
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After Sora-san, I took my own shower, and the two of us slipped out of the house quietly. Our destination was just the neighborhood convenience store, but it was already past 3am. Not exactly an hour high schoolers should be wandering around.
Being out at a time like this feels like a little bit of an adventure, somehow…
We reached the store in a few minutes. At the ice cream section, we each picked something out. It was my first time ever choosing ice cream at a convenience store, so I picked the same vanilla cup as Sora-san.
Back at the house, before we went inside, Sora-san took my hand and stopped me.
“Want to sit here and eat?”
She pointed to the stairwell. Not visible from outside the building, and locked, so there was no risk of anyone wandering in.
If we talked inside, Möbius-san and the others might wake up… that’s probably what she’s being careful about.
“Yes. Um, th-thank you for this.”
“So formal. C’mon, let’s eat before it melts.”
We sat on the stairs and opened our ice creams. I scooped some up with the little paper spoon and put it in my mouth.
“Ohh, it’s good…”
“Glad you like it. Convenience store ice cream’s actually pretty great, right?”
“Yeah. But, um, I think, honestly… it probably tastes this good because I’m eating it with you, Sora-san.”
“…You say some pretty embarrassing stuff sometimes, you know that?”
“D-do I!?”
Now that she’d pointed it out, it did seem that way.
Maybe it’s because I’m not used to communicating with people.
“Yeah. But that’s the kind of thing I like about you.”
“S-Sora-san…”
“I like people who actually say everything out loud way more than people whose thoughts I can’t read at all.”
“You actually kind of like me a lot, don’t you, Sora-san…”
“Now you’re pushing it too far.”
“Ugh, s-sorry…”
I’d overdone it. Not knowing where the line is — that’s the annoying part of being an introvert.
“But you’re right. I do like you, Ruri. Quite a lot, actually.”
“…Eh?”
Her hand paused mid-bite for just a second, then Sora-san let out a soft laugh.
“Your whole face just went red. Everything really does show on your face, doesn’t it, Ruri.”