What Should I Do When My Childhood Friend Acts Like This?
On the bed, Yuri was hugging my cardigan tightly with both arms.
Her cat ears were folded flat, and her purple tail swished gently back and forth.
Between those motions, her nose stayed buried in the fabric as she breathed in deeply.
It was a very short question.
When the childhood friend who likes you but always acts prickly buries her face in your cardigan like that, what the hell are you supposed to do?
1. Hand it over, you damn cat bitch.
2. Oh, is this some kind of gap-moe scenario?
3. I'll give you half my cardigan if you give me half your crop top!
4. Grrrr, I can't hold back anymore! Get over here!
All sorts of bizarre options kept generating in real time inside my head, each one demanding that it shatter the delicate atmosphere between Yuri and me.
Unlike me, Yuri had turned bright red, as if her brain had completely overheated.
She simply clutched my cardigan with all her strength, staring at me without being able to say a single word.
Under that gaze, I ultimately picked the single dumbest choice available.
“Um… do you want my shirt too? It’s been closer to my bare skin, after all.”
If I could regress one more time, I would go back to the exact moment before I said that.
Yeah. I’m serious.
I’d take a time machine if I had to. I would have stopped past-me even if it meant throwing a healthy punch and a round of applause at him.
“I…”
Yuri’s voice trembled as she opened her mouth.
“Huh? You mean me?”
Thinking she might be calling my name, I leaned my face closer to hers.
“Get out and die!!!!!”
My vision went black like I had just lost a Pokémon battle.
Yuri had shoved the cardigan into my face with a genuinely tearful expression.
Thanks to that, even though I wasn’t a narcissist, I ended up committing the ridiculous act of burying my own nose in my clothes.
Still… it smelled like Yuri. That part was nice.
“Do you guys use different shampoo for each personality? Sunny’s was citrus, but this time it’s grape.”
“What are you even saying?! Aaaargh! I don’t know anymore!”
Crash!
Yuri sprinted out of the room, leaving me sprawled on the floor after her sincere cardigan-powered jab.
The only sound that filled my ears was the frantic patter of her feet rushing down the stairs.
“…I never thought I’d end up starring in this kind of trashy rom-com.”
Thanks to the cardigan that had slid off to the side, I could finally see again.
But the ceiling felt strangely blinding, so I pulled the garment back over my face.
“Oh? This side still has some scent left.”
It should be fine to enjoy the grape aroma once before I went to comfort her, right?
By the time the cardigan only carried the damp-fiber smell mixed with my own scent, I finally stood up.
“Shall we?”
I tossed the cardigan aside coolly and headed down to the first floor.
The entrance came into view as I descended.
Her shoes were still exactly where they had been when she first entered the house.
She did say with her own mouth that she couldn’t go outside, after all.
That meant the only place Yuri would go inside this house—especially on the first floor—was obvious.
I walked over with leisurely steps.
Past the living room where I had given Cloudy a lap pillow.
Past the kitchen where Sunny had fed me dumplings.
Knock knock.
“Yuri, you’re in there, right?”
“…Go away.”
Her voice came through faintly.
From the stuffy tone, it sounded like she had been sobbing quite a bit after the earlier catastrophe.
Even that side of her was adorable. That was my childhood friend for you.
“I can’t just leave my childhood friend sitting there sniffling by herself.”
“Whose fault do you think this is? Give me a little more time to wallow in despair alone.”
“That’s inconvenient. I even got a request from your mother to take good care of you. And besides—”
I placed my hand on the doorknob.
“I wasn’t asking for your opinion.”
“What? Noah, have you lost your mind?! You know where this is! There’s even a member of the opposite sex in here. Are you a pervert?”
“Yep. When it comes to you, Yuri, I’m a pervert who thinks everything is good.”
Click.
I forcefully opened the bathroom door.
The lock on the first-floor bathroom had been broken since we were in fourth grade.
In other words, even a middle-school boy’s strength was more than enough.
“Hello, Yuri. I’ve come to pick you up.”
I greeted Yuri, who was sitting on the toilet with her knees drawn together, her face still flushed crimson.
Her cat ears were burning all the way to the tips, and her tail was twitching along with them.
“Get out! Get out right now! I’m calling the police!”
Yuri flailed both arms, trying to push me away.
Every time her small palms smacked against my chest, it felt like a real cat throwing tiny cat punches.
“Then will you come visit me in jail?”
“Why would I go there…! Uh, well… Sunny would probably go…”
Even though she said that, her last words came out in an embarrassed mumble.
At some point her tail had wrapped tightly around my wrist.
“I don’t want Sunny or Cloudy. I want the current you to come.”
“Haaaaaaa?!”
Yuri floundered again, overcome with embarrassment.
Now that the continuous excitement had left her guard wide open, it was the perfect opportunity.
“Haa… stop. Stoooop…!”
She thrashed wildly in my arms after I princess-carried her.
Still, since I was holding her firmly, there was no chance she would fall.
“Let’s change locations first. We’re not some loner character from a manga.”
“You don’t have to euphemize it. When I was being ostracized at school, this place felt much cozier.”
Suddenly the mood grew dark as she gave a gloomy smile.
At that moment she made the atmosphere even heavier and wetter than Cloudy ever could.
I had been pondering how to respond while holding her, but for a second I couldn’t speak and simply stared.
“…Hehe. You annoying person. What am I supposed to do if even you get serious? You’re supposed to throw in a quip like before.”
This time Yuri looked up at me and smiled as if comforting me instead.
“Sorry. Right now that’s the only thing that comes to mind.”
“Who’s comforting who here? Listen carefully, Noah. When you tried to open the door, I was honestly scared. Back when I used to eat lunch alone in the school bathroom, there were kids who would rattle the door or spray water inside.”
Those words cast another dark cloud over my emotions.
So something that was just a prank to me had been enough to trigger her trauma.
Nausea rose in my throat.
My actions had nearly wounded my childhood friend.
“Noah? Noah…?”
She looked up at me from within my arms, eyes full of worry.
It was far more consideration than I deserved after touching her wounds.
She seemed to keep saying something to me, but none of it reached my ears.
Then she let out a deep sigh and—
Bam!!!!
Yuri slammed her forehead into mine with genuine force and shouted.
“Ugh, you idiot! Listen to the end of what someone is saying!”
“Huh…?”
“I was scared when the doorknob clicked. But when the door opened and I saw it was you, I was happy. It wasn’t the kids who used to bully me—it was you, so my heart fluttered like crazy! It felt good!”
Her words left me silent once more.
I genuinely didn’t know how to respond.
This was supposed to be the version of Yuri who, on rainy days, acted prickly and hid her true feelings.
Yet here she was, laying her heart bare so honestly right in front of me.
“…Thank you. Thank you, Yuri. Sorry, that’s all I can say.”
“Hmph. Good. So… hurry up and take me somewhere already.”
“Where?”
“Idiot. Obviously the second floor.”
“Not feeling the living room today, huh.”
Yuri frowned at my joke.
She took a short breath, then pouted.
“…We have to go to the second floor because I can stay in your arms a little longer that way. Aaaargh, seriously! You idiot! Don’t make a girl say something like that out loud!”
Really, she was so lovable that it was hard to bear.
If I had been an adult, I might have actually carried her straight to bed.
How could she stab my heart like this?
Was it because of the rainy weather making me overly sentimental?
“Noah…? Your eyes look a little scary.”
“It’s nothing. Let’s go, Yuri. Today I’m never letting you down.”
“Huh?! What does that—kya♡”
The moment I took a step, she let out a startled sound.
Even so, her tail wrapped tightly around my waist.
In the end, I wandered around the entire house with the rainy-day version of Yuri in my arms.
I did it on purpose because I wanted to keep holding her.
So I stopped in every room and begged her to give me a tour.
Yuri looked dumbfounded at first, but she eventually chuckled and started telling me stories one by one.
“This is the entrance. The place where my shoes and yours sit side by side.”
“I always place mine neatly next to yours whenever I come over~”
“Ew. That gave me goosebumps.”
“It loses impact if you say it while grinning~”
One step.
“Now we’re at the attic in the roof?”
“I’d love to climb onto the roof, but it’s raining.”
“There’s too much dust. Let’s go back down.”
“Was the dust so bad you had to bury your nose in my chest?”
“Are you going to keep making me say embarrassing things out loud? Haa… it smells nice.”
Two steps.
“After going in a big circle, we’re finally back at my room.”
“The only place a man and woman head to at the end is the bed, right?”
“You pervert. Bite your tongue and die.”
“That’s pretty electrifying. You’ve got more talent for verbal abuse than Cloudy.”
“I didn’t want to learn about your tastes this way. Here, put me down on the bed.”
And that brought the steps to an end.
I gently lowered Yuri onto the bed.
I naturally tried to sit beside her, but—
“You sit on the floor.”
“Starting the master-and-servant play already feels a bit fast. I’d like some mental preparation too.”
“That’s not what I meant! Seriously, there’s nothing you won’t say!”
I scratched under her chin with a soft shaaah once more, then obeyed her request.
I sat on the floor and leaned my back against the bed.
“Okay… it’s simple. Just do it like the sunny version of me would. I can do this.”
Behind me, Yuri was muttering to herself, steeling her resolve.
I really wanted to turn around and see what she was doing, but I held back.
No matter how dense I was, I knew that this time I had to stay still and wait.
A subtle silence flowed between us for a moment.
Squish.
“Um… Yuri? What exactly are you doing right now?”
A warm sensation pressed against the center of my back.
She had pushed her chest firmly against me.
Since I was only wearing a thin t-shirt, the stimulation felt especially strong. On top of that, her shallow breathing tickled my ear.
“G-guys… like this kind of thing, right? You kept carrying me, so, so! This is your reward!”
