Chapter 29: The Moment Our Eyes Met
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 29: The Moment Our Eyes Met
"So you ended up buying both."
"Ugh, one of them is for me, so it doesn't matter."
As we walked along a path where purple wisteria bloomed in abundance, I playfully shook the two paper bags in my hands. The President, blushing slightly, snatched her bag from me.
In the end, we had decided on a yukata as the gift for the Russian exchange student.
A kimono seemed too formal, and besides, it was difficult to put on by yourself, making it an unsuitable gift for a foreigner.
Well, with festival season just a few months away, a yukata wouldn't be a bad gift at all.
"Anyway, let's just enjoy our walk. A walk."
Wanting to change the subject, the President clutched the paper bag to her chest and quickened her pace.
I lengthened my stride to catch up and asked, "It looks like we're done with our business for today. What are you planning to do next?"
The President, who had been walking ahead, stopped in her tracks and turned around.
"You mean after our walk is over?"
"Yes. It's a rare day off. It'd be a waste to just go home after doing student council work."
Choosing the gift had ended sooner than I expected, so it was only two o'clock.
Even with a short walk, we still had plenty of time until evening.
The President hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"Then how about Nakano Broadway? I heard from Minami that it's a great place for young students to hang out."
"Ah, that's a great spot. But it'll take a while to get from Asakusa to Nakano by subway."
"That's fine. We can just call for a car."
As expected of a rich young lady, her way of thinking was on a completely different level from a regular student's.
"Then let's have lunch in Nakano."
"Fufu, sounds good. I was just starting to get hungry myself."
Having reached an agreement, we were about to continue down the path.
Click!
"Hm?"
Hearing the sound of a camera, I turned around to see a man and a woman who looked like a couple, taking a picture with a selfie stick.
I could have sworn it was just the President and me a moment ago. When did they get here?
"Aren't you coming?"
I tilted my head in confusion, but at the President's urging from ahead, I hurried to follow her.
*
"I-I thought we were caught."
"They're gone, so get off me."
Akagi Shinjiro and Akagi Minami had been secretly following Kumiko and Kim Yoo-Sung, taking pictures.
It was for a report they had to give to their young lady later, but they never imagined Kim Yoo-Sung would suddenly turn around, forcing them to quickly pose as a couple.
"This is why I told you not to get too close."
"But we can't get good pictures if we don't get this close," Minami retorted curtly while checking the photos she had just taken.
The Vice President, Akagi Shinjiro, glared at the back of Kim Yoo-Sung's head as he walked away.
"That lucky bastard. He has no idea someone like the young lady likes him."
"Brother, I don't care if you personally dislike him, but you know you can't show it in front of him, right?"
"...I know."
The two had been serving Saionji Kumiko for a very long time.
Perhaps from the very moment they were born.
As such, they possessed a blind loyalty that made them willing to do anything for her.
They had been raised that way from the start.
After checking all the photos on the camera, she inserted a backup memory card into her smartphone, then folded the selfie stick in her right hand and said, "The young lady will be calling for the limousine soon. We need to go clean the back seat before she does."
"Then we'll have to take a taxi."
"Call one in advance if you can. We need to get to Nakano Broadway before the young lady and Kim Yoo-Sung to do some reconnaissance."
"Understood."
The two efficiently coordinated their plans and set their next actions in motion.
Everything was for their dear young lady.
*
The President and I took the limousine she had called and traveled from Asakusa to Nakano.
The trip would have taken about an hour by subway, but since we went by car, it only took around forty minutes.
When the long, black limousine, the kind you'd only see in movies, stopped in front of Nakano Station, it naturally drew the stares of passersby.
I got out of the car first and, feeling inexplicably self-conscious, pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head.
"Shall we go?"
The President, who got out after me, gave a slight nod.
"Alright."
After the limousine glided away down the road, the President and I confirmed its departure and began walking slowly toward the red and white building in the distance.
*
Nakano Broadway.
One of the landmarks that comes to mind when you think of Nakano, and one of the three holy sites of the otaku world.
Since it's just a single building, it differs in scale from the electronics district of Akihabara or Ikebukuro's Otome Road, but it's said that the darkness lurking within it can definitely hold its own against the other two.
I had never actually been here myself, but Kim Yoo-Sung's memories, which remained as knowledge in my mind, included experiences of visiting Nakano Broadway frequently.
It seemed he came here at least once a month, as if on a treasure hunt, because there were quite a few rare items that could only be found here.
The first floor of Nakano Broadway housed various shops, the main branch of Mandarake—famous for its used bookstores—a DVD rental shop, and an arcade.
Perhaps because it was Golden Week, every corner of the building was bustling with people.
"Wow. There are so many interesting things here."
The President, who seemed to be visiting a place like this for the first time, was busy looking around in fascination.
It appeared her "commoner experience," which she had been on since we first met, was still ongoing.
"Is there any place you'd like to go?"
The President crossed her arms and made a thoughtful face, then stated her opinion without hesitation.
"Let's eat first. We can have fun after that."
A brilliant answer, indeed.
We hadn't eaten anything except ice cream since meeting at noon.
"Then lunch is on me. I have a regular spot I always visit when I'm here."
To be precise, it wasn't my regular spot, but the real Kim Yoo-Sung's.
"Oh, lovely. I'll trust your choice today, Yoo-Sung."
As I stepped onto the escalator leading to the second floor, I asked the President, "Do you like ramen, by any chance?"
*
The place I brought the President to was the ramen shop Kim Yoo-Sung used to love.
It was known among people as a pretty good restaurant, so the seats inside were already full.
We had no choice but to sit at the counter, where a waiter naturally handed us menus and water.
The President, who had rarely been to such a commoner's restaurant, looked around and commented, "The layout of this shop is interesting."
I flipped through the menu and replied, "It's because the floor space is small. They try to fit in as many seats as possible, so you end up sitting packed together even at different tables."
Having decided on my order, I handed the menu to the President and asked, "What would you like to have?"
The President read the menu items one by one.
"Tonkotsu ramen, miso ramen, shio ramen, tsukemen?"
"My personal recommendation is the shio ramen. I've heard its clean taste is very popular with women."
After some thought, the President made her decision.
"Then I'll have the shio ramen."
With the President's order decided, I called over a passing waiter and ordered one tonkotsu ramen and one shio ramen.
It seemed like it would take about ten minutes for the ramen to come out, so I excused myself from the President and stood up.
"I'm just going to use the restroom quickly."
"Alright. Go ahead."
With her permission, I headed to the restroom.
*
Gurgle—
'Hnngh!'
Akagi Shinjiro, who had been secretly watching the young lady and Kim Yoo-Sung enter the ramen shop, frowned at the sudden signal from his gut.
He turned to Minami, who was keeping watch beside him.
"C-Can I run to the restroom for a second?"
"What? All of a sudden?"
"I think the cream bun I ate in the car went bad."
Gurgle-gurgle—
The intensifying stomachache made him instinctively cross his legs.
Seeing his obviously distressed state, Minami shook her head and said, "Geez, you should have been more careful. Hurry up and go. It'll probably be a little while before the young lady and Kim Yoo-Sung move to the next spot."
"Thanks..."
GURGLE-GURGLE-GURGLE!
"Ugh!"
There was no more time to hesitate.
Having gotten his sister's permission, Akagi Shinjiro immediately headed for the second-floor restroom and entered a stall.
About five minutes later.
He had just finished his urgent business and was about to leave.
Swoooosh!
He heard the sound of someone washing their hands outside.
Assuming it was just another customer, Shinjiro nonchalantly flushed the toilet and stepped out of the stall.
'Huh?'
But the moment he saw the familiar back, his body froze like a stone.
Standing right in front of him was Kim Yoo-Sung, the very target he and his sister were supposed to be secretly monitoring.
Kim Yoo-Sung, who was in the middle of washing his hands, must have spotted him in the mirror, because he spoke with a surprised expression.
"Mr. Vice President?"
Akagi Shinjiro realized their surveillance mission was a failure.