My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected

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"There's nothing we can do but keep living."

"There's no other way, so I can only keep living."

We looked at each other, a helpless smile on our faces.

Just then, the child said a few words to his mother and came running over.

"—Here, take the extra!"

She shoved a small bag into the woodwork seat and ran back.

With light, pure, and spotless steps.

Then, together with her mother, they kept bowing and disappeared around the corner.

After watching the two leave, our gaze fell on the bag in Zaimokuza's hand.

"This is……"

It was a small packet of cookies wrapped with red and green ribbons. It didn't look like a ready-made product. Perhaps she had made it herself.

Like a carefully prepared gift.

"...Christmas, I'm so happy, so happy!"

"You're so naive."

My classmate, Cai Muzuo, started singing as if he were joking, and I chuckled.

However, in fact.

I'm a little envious of him, so I guess I'm pretty naive too.

I said goodbye to Zaimokuza at the ticket counter. He was going to take the Yamanote Line to Ikebukuro, while I was transferring to the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku.

"Christmas, I'm so happy, so happy... right?"

The Christmas carols that Cai Muzuo and that child created lingered in my ears.

I leaned against a pillar on the platform and closed my eyes.

He locked himself in a dark world, yet felt unusually restless.

“…………”

I reached into my pocket and rummaged around for my phone.

I pressed down on each number by the sound of swiping my phone. It was a number I had hesitated to call for a long time, a number I ultimately decided not to dial.

It was all just alcohol to embolden me. Although I might just be faking being drunk.

After the phone rang a few times—

"……Hello?"

A response came.

He seems to still be asleep.

A cold and impatient voice—a voice I miss dearly.

"Hi there—it's me. Can you recognize me?"

"It's Totsuka, right? Your voice hasn't changed at all... It's like an angel's cooling balm..."

"Ugh, Hachiman, really."

I suddenly felt a lump in my throat.

He cleared his throat several times, barely managing to cover it up.

"...Hmm? What's wrong?"

"It's okay, I'm sorry for calling you so early in the morning. We're having a high school reunion soon, and it suddenly occurred to me that I was wondering how you've been."

"Huh? Isn't my Totsuka too much of an angel?"

"Hehehehe..."

A long-awaited, ordinary conversation between classmates.

That's all, why is it so difficult to make a light and cheerful sound?

Since I was destined to experience this, I should have talked to him more during high school. And gotten a little closer to Hachiman.

Time cannot be turned back.

A feeling of frustration lingered deep inside me, but even so, I didn't want to hang up the phone.

"Oh yeah, we do text each other, but we never talk about anything in depth, and we don't know what the other is up to. What are you doing right now?"

"Um—I'm drunk."

"I can tell."

"I can't do anything with him," I laughed, letting my ears adjust to Hachiman's breathing as I spaced out.

Hachiman, I'm here to tell you something.

I like you so much.

The clumsy parts, the parts that insist on taking responsibility, and the parts that try to cover it up.

I am hopelessly in love with you.

I like you so much that I deceive myself into believing I never want to see you, even if it means death.

"Isn't Hachiman going to the class reunion?"

"How could I possibly go? By the way, let's go out together next time. Without my wife."

"Haha... Is that okay?"

"Sure, your due date is approaching. Come and visit after the baby is born."

"...Yeah, I hope I'll have that opportunity."

I will try my best to swallow my bitter feelings and put on a smile.

In front of you, just like before.

and so--

"Eh, Hachiman."

"Um?"

"Merry Christmas! Give me a present!"

"Oh, oh? What's going on... You suddenly started acting all cute with me, which caught me completely off guard and almost killed me. How about I give you my inheritance as a Christmas present? I'm going to write my will now, wait for me."

"Hehehe, just kidding. I wouldn't make such a capricious request to a married man."

"But I don't have any other gifts."

"I've already received it. I absolutely will not return it to you."

"Huh...? You're so cute when you're drunk you're practically unbelievable?"

So—before hanging up the phone.

Please let me hold you tight, your voice as always, the warmth of the sun.

Please, Hachiman.

Finish

15. After the protagonist, Dr. Henry Jekyll, drank the potion he concocted, an evil second personality, Dr. Hyde, split off.

Short Story Collection 4: Allstars - Stories about Saki Kawasaki and Hachiman Hikigaya related to anniversaries.

Author: Tianjin Xiang / Illustration: Ukami

While I was lazing around in the living room playing with Yuki, Komachi, who was in the kitchen, exclaimed, "Ah!"

"What's wrong, Komachi? Did you see those fast-moving black bugs?"

"Um, Komachi screams even louder when she sees those bugs. My brother is really evil."

"I just wanted to make a joke, but I didn't expect to be scolded like this."

"It's more like gloom than humor. You can tell the person who made this joke is gloomy."

This response reveals exactly my personality; she truly is my sister who has lived with me for many years.

"So, what scared you?"

"I wasn't scared, I just remembered."

Komachi walked into the living room and pointed to the calendar hanging on the wall.

Mother's Day is coming soon.

"Oh, right. What's wrong?"

"Komachi forgot to buy a present."

"Oh, I see. Then I'll leave it to you this year as well."

Every year on Mother's Day in the Hikigaya family, Komachi chooses the gift, and I pay more for it. It's customary for Komachi and I to give the gift together.

"Um--"

Komachi pondered for a moment, then walked up to me.

"Komachi feels that neither her brother nor she is a child anymore."

"Yes. In some countries, it wouldn't be surprising to call someone our age an adult. But even as an adult, I still want to live at home."

"What kind of shut-in talk is this... No, Komachi meant to say that it might be better to send the gifts separately."

I looked into Komachi's eyes as she made the suggestion.

"Komachi, that's impossible. I have absolutely no taste in gifts. My taste is horribly bad. Not that I don't have it, it's negative. My taste in gifts is absolutely terrible."

"Brother, how dare you say that?"

"That's why I always ask you to buy me gifts, isn't it? Like something fashionable, or that fashionable thing."

"My brother's taste is so bad I can't even name it."

Komachi saw right through it. I felt helpless because I lacked a fashionable vocabulary.

"I can't imagine a future where the gift I give will make the recipient happy. So I won't buy the gift myself. Proof complete."

After I finished speaking, I hugged Xiaoxue, but Xiaomachi immediately snatched Xiaoxue away from my arms.

"Brother, Komachi knows you're not good at picking gifts."

"You actually knew that?!"

She stabbed me right in the heart, and I was a little scared. No, that's what I said myself, so it should be okay, but my trusted sister's clear affirmation made my heart race.

"However, Komachi felt that what gift she gave was not important; what made her mother happy was that 'her child chose this gift for her.'"

"Uh, isn't that a bit too spiritualistic?"

"And this creates a contrast. 'That Hachiman, who knows absolutely nothing about these things, actually bought me such a gift. I'm so happy!'"

"Really?"

"Yes, I will. 'It's true that my taste is terrible, but I'm so happy! No, it's precisely because my taste is terrible that it makes people feel like Hachiman really picked it out for me, I'm so happy!'"

How bad is my taste in your eyes?!

Komachi described me like that, does that mean my taste is worse than I thought? A strange unease crept into my heart. Komachi leaned closer to my anxious face.

"So this time, my brother wants to buy his own Mother's Day gift! That way, Komachi thinks he'll get a higher score."

The smile that Komachi showed after saying that, and the weariness she felt from having to buy gifts for people all by herself, made me feel something was off.

Xiaoxue, oblivious to my feelings, leisurely watched this side.

"Hmm... I have absolutely no clue."

I was talking to myself inside a trendy boutique that resembled a select shop.

The next day, after school, I went to the "LaLaporTOKYO-BAY" store. I went to the shopping center as Komachi suggested, but I couldn't think of anything to buy.