[Funno Otome] Is my colleague angry today?

81

"—— Akutagawa-kun? Spear sauce? Akutagawa Ryunosuke? Can you still hear me? Are you disconnected?"

When Akutagawa heard this, his eyes moved slowly.He didn't look at his partner, but just looked in her direction vaguely, looking a little out of his mind.

"How stupid, I don't care about you when I ask you... Oh no, don't you get sick from blowing wind in the yard just now?"

The partner reaches for his forehead.

As if afraid of being scalded by her body temperature, Akutagawa shrank back suddenly, almost breaking his voice: "I'm fine!"

82

She was taken aback, and said strangely: "It's okay if you're okay, I just want to feel if you have a fever, so I can get you medicine, what are you hiding? Even if you have an infectious disease, it's impossible to pass it on to me, right? Besides, Your body is already weak, so don't be self-willed and avoid medical treatment, Akutagawa-kun? Look at how blushing your face is—"

The partner supports one knee on the sofa.

Out of worry, she rarely showed a rather tough attitude, ignoring his struggling intentions, and leaned over to grab his hand.

Akutagawa lost the ability to resist, and let her hold him stiffly.

83

At the fleeting moment when she touched him, he lost his mind for no reason.

—something is misplaced.The surrounding things remain the same as before, but "Akutagawa Ryunosuke" himself has become strange in the environment.

It was only for a moment.

The illusion quickly disappeared without a trace.

The partner frowned inexplicably, and said to himself: "...Isn't it because of your body?"

84

The blush that had faded from Akutagawa's cheeks when he looked back, returned after a while.His eyes wandered, and the hand that she held and forgot to let go was also sweating.If it wasn't for pathological reasons, or because of her excessive self-awareness...that performance was just like that of an innocent young man with a spring heart.

The answer came so obvious, so easily, that it almost seemed false.

However, this seems to be the only explanation.

85

The partner covered his face, escaped from reality for a while, took a sip of his drink, collected himself, and said solemnly:

"Akutagawa-kun, I ask you a question. Although it sounds strange, please answer me truthfully. This is about my self-awareness."

He nodded slightly.

She struggled, as if unable to speak.It wasn't until she took several deep breaths that she asked slowly with a trembling voice: "When did you start to like me?"

"Before you defected."

Akutagawa answered with a broken can.

86

In the four years when she left without saying goodbye, Akutagawa never deliberately sorted out her thoughts; now, it is already a mess, and nothing can be sorted out.Because of his feelings for his partner, it is not something that can be summed up in simple likes and dislikes.Even if the prototype is just pure goodwill, after four years it will be distorted beyond recognition.

If I have to describe it, the subject is a kind of obsession that is almost hateful and terrifying.

For him, keeping his partner within sight is more important than getting her love itself.

Once the words are broken, the carefully maintained, illusory balance will collapse.Therefore, it must not be exposed, and it must not be known. ...That is, even subconsciously, what he is sure of.

However, all of this was unilaterally made clear by her.

87

Just as he was fully prepared to use the ability, thinking that even if he was bound, he would keep her, she let out a long sigh.

"It turns out that the plot of the comics is true," my partner said angrily, "I'm actually the kind of dull protagonist that I complain about every day. So it's not your sense of boundaries that's wrong, it's you who are hitting straight balls, and I'm a slow one I haven’t received it yet. Counting the time, it’s probably your first love... It’s only when you read love comics that you find it sweet.”

He was stunned.

88

Akutagawa has been chasing after him since he was conscious.

Even the Tin Woodman in fairy tales has had happiness within easy reach in the past.But he just ran in the wilderness with nothing, desperately chasing something that even he didn't know the real thing.

So far, no one, thing or thing is willing to stop for him.So he only knows to rely on robbery.

However, even if you try your best to fight and snatch it, it will not help.As a supernatural being, he may be as insatiable as the supernatural power named "Rashomon".

The partner sank, fell into his arms, and said in a low voice: "It would be great if I found out earlier. ——In that case, I can come to play with you every year during the holidays. Calculated in this way, it really delayed a lot Time."

Akutagawa had thought that this emptiness would never go away.

This moment, just this moment, he felt complete.

89

After establishing a romantic relationship, his partner's attitude towards him has not changed much.

"I thought I was always in the straight ball mode," she said honestly, "Don't you think that I am your neighbor and call you to eat, play games, and watch movies, so I just put up a banner at the door of the house and wrote "My dear neighbor Akutagawa Ryunosuke: You are so cute, I really want to have a crush on you, so please throw yourself into the trap and post it with me"? The most important thing is, Akutagawa-kun, think about it—"

90

The partner talked and said that he was angry.

She was ferocious and vicious, pinching his face with gnashed teeth: "How many times have you called me 'Iron Wall'!As for me, I have never taken revenge on you, nor entered your house with a knife in the middle of the night and hacked you through the window. I have uncovered it every time. Don't you think I must have you in my heart? "

Having said that, what she said was so eloquent, maybe she had rehearsed it countless times in her mind, but she didn't actually implement it.

Akutagawa was dumbfounded by her determined tone: "Is that how you judge whether you are interested in me?"

She nodded seriously: "That's right, that's how I judged it. If this is a love game, that bad name must be the option that loses the most favorability. Even if you step on the minefield like this, you are not out of the game, which shows that we dog lovers It’s more tolerant of the cute Shiba Inu.”