Chapter 12: An Angel and a Long-Awaited Game

Knock knock.

There was a knock on the door.

But I didn’t hear it.

With our fingers entwined, lips pressed together, lost in each other, it didn’t register in my ears. Murakumo-kun probably didn’t hear it either, too absorbed in the moment.

“I’m coming in~”

My mom said as she opened the door—and froze.

After staring at us, completely absorbed and oblivious to her presence, for a brief moment, she came back to her senses and hurriedly closed the door.

Bang!!

The door slammed shut with a loud noise, finally making us realize what had happened.

Snapping back to reality, I hurriedly tried to pull away. Murakumo-kun seemed to have noticed too, and almost simultaneously, our lips and bodies separated.

Feeling lightheaded from the lack of oxygen, I wiped around my mouth while trying to get my brain working again. Murakumo-kun was also straightening up his appearance.

After fixing ourselves up, I exchanged a glance with Murakumo-kun.

We nodded at each other in perfect sync—a rare occurrence—then took a deep breath to check our voices and called out to my mom, who was probably just outside.

“You… you can come in now~”

The door slowly opened, and my mom peeked in apologetically, carrying a tray with drinks and some cookies.

“Sorry for disturbing you… I brought some drinks…”

“Ah, thanks.”

I stood up and took the tray from my mom.

“Sorry, Mom, bad timing.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I’ll get lunch ready too, so come down when it’s time, okay?”

That’s all she said before quickly leaving and closing the door behind her.

Just before pulling her head back in, she gave a big wink and a thumbs-up, and although she didn’t say it out loud, I could clearly read her lips saying, “Good luck!”

Mom!? That’s not it, okay!? You’ve got it wrong—no, I don’t want you to misunderstand, but really, it’s not like that!!

Ugh… I feel like she’s totally misunderstood everything…

—No, well, thinking about it calmly… yeah.

I’d completely forgotten, but I actually accomplished my goal. This is fine.

The goal of making sure Murakumo-kun wouldn’t make a move on my mom.

By having Murakumo-kun look at me, get tempted, get all lovey-dovey, and show that to my mom—I think that mission was a success.

Sure, the kiss was unexpected, but by showing that we’re at least close enough to do something like that, even Murakumo-kun wouldn’t dare try anything with my mom.

Even if he tried, no way would he think it’s acceptable to hit on the mother of the person he was just getting all touchy-feely with. And knowing my mom, she’d obviously reject him.

Yeah, that’s right. Mission accomplished!

Anyway, with the immediate objective achieved, I could very well tell Murakumo-kun to head home, but since Mom’s being nice enough to make lunch, I guess I’ll let him stay until then.

I glanced at the wall clock. It was just past 10 a.m. If lunch is around noon… that’s roughly two more hours.

Now, how to kill time…? I thought as I shifted back to my original seat, a bit further away from Murakumo-kun.

“So… we’ve got a bit of time before lunch, what should we do?”

I asked.

Knowing Murakumo-kun, he’d probably be fine sitting in silence for two hours, but that wouldn’t work for me. He might be fine, but I’d be bored out of my mind. A little silence is fine, but two hours is pushing it.

“How about a game? It’s been a while.”

Murakumo-kun suggested. That caught me off guard.

Oh, a game… well, that would definitely help pass the time. Wait…

What’s with that “How about a game?” and “It’s been a while” talk!?

How does he know I have games?

Besides, it’s my first time gaming with Murakumo-kun—it’s not “been a while” at all!

—Or so I thought, but when I looked around, I realized my game console was visible through the glass shelf. Murakumo-kun must’ve noticed when he was scoping out the room earlier.

And if he meant it’s been a while since he himself played games, then there’s nothing strange about his wording.

Maybe I overreacted.

But it was probably because of his tone—it sounded different, like casual, everyday chatter.

Like how you’d casually say to a friend, “Hey, wanna play a game or something?” at their house.

It’s not like the kiss made me let my guard down… or anything like that. Whatever.

“Hold on a sec.”

Saying that, I pulled out the game console and booted up a party game—something we could play together.

This party game could be played solo but also supported up to four players, a board game-style setup with tons of mini-games along the way.

Back in second year of middle school, I used to play this endlessly with my best friend Kurekumo Kiriya (not to be confused with the Murakumo Kiriya sitting here right now—different person).

Murakumo-kun stared at the screen, and—though rare—it looked like he smiled just a little. Then—

“This brings back memories.”

He muttered quietly.

Well, it is an older game, almost four years since its release. I hadn’t played it in a while either—actually, not since the spring of my third year in middle school. I played it just once after Kiri (Kurekumo Kiriya) moved away, and then never again.

Playing a party game alone was honestly miserable.

It wasn’t just the game.

The emptiness left by Kiri, who had always been by my side, lingered with me for a long time no matter what I did.

“It’s nostalgic for me too… first time since the spring of third year. It’s boring on your own, though.”

I said that, and Murakumo-kun lifted his head and looked straight at me.

…What? Did I just say something weird?

I thought that but proceeded to start the game.

In this game, you have to input your name at the start and can register it.

I already had my own name saved—“Haruto”—so I picked it.

And there it was: a nostalgic name, “Kiriya.”

Not Murakumo sitting here, but my best friend, Kurekumo Kiriya’s name.

I selected my character, then it was Murakumo-kun’s turn.

Without hesitation, Murakumo-kun selected “Kiriya.”

Maybe it was because it was his own name, but I figured he’d at least pause and wonder, “Why is my name here?”

But no—without the slightest hesitation, no second thought, without saying a word, he chose “Kiriya.”

“…Ah.”

That’s all I said before falling silent.

No, honestly, thinking normally, it wasn’t strange. His name was there, so he picked it. That’s all. Nothing wrong with that.

But to me, that name—was special.

It wasn’t Murakumo-kun’s name.

It belonged to my best friend.

Yet, by Murakumo-kun choosing it—

—it felt overwritten.

That’s what I thought.

Anyone else would probably say I was making a big deal out of nothing, just because of a game. I would’ve thought the same if I weren’t the one involved.

On top of that, Murakumo-kun picked the same character Kiri always used. Again, no hesitation. The cursor immediately hovered over it and clicked.

—Again.

That familiar emptiness crept up on me.

My chest tightened, this sinking feeling of having lost something important.

But… no… yeah.

Murakumo-kun wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was the one getting weirdly attached. It wasn’t like that character belonged to Kiri alone. Besides, Kiri would sometimes change characters depending on his mood. Yeah. No one’s at fault here.

Still… even knowing that, this hollow feeling wouldn’t go away.

I shouldn’t have picked this game. All that was left was regret.

“Hey, you alright?”

Murakumo-kun called out to me, concerned, as I sat there, shoulders slumped.

Oops, no good—this won’t do. I can’t be letting my selfish, one-sided feelings show like this.

“Ah, no, I’m good, it’s nothing. Alright, let’s play! I’m actually pretty good at this game, so I’m not gonna lose!”

“We’ll see about that.”

I pulled myself together, acted like everything was fine, and looked back at the game screen.

And so, the game began.

“Ahhh!! I lost!!”

The result of the party game: I lost. But it was a really close match, just by a hair.

Not that we played at a particularly high level—since it had been so long for both of us, we assumed we remembered how everything worked and ended up skipping through the rules and instructions, forgetting the controls, forgetting how certain games worked… it was honestly a pretty low-skill match.

There wasn’t much of a proper conversation either. Mostly just me shouting, “Ah!”, “Wait, what!?” or “No way!!” with lots of exclamation marks flying around.

But… you know, I think it was good in the end.

I got to see sides of Murakumo-kun I usually never get to see, and most importantly, if he had fun, that’s all that really matters.

As for me, I’d been thinking about all sorts of things when we started, but by the time it was over, I’d had fun too.

I want to cherish my memories, sure, but if that’s the case, I shouldn’t be throwing them out in front of people like that—and if I were going to, I should’ve said something beforehand. I get that now.

Well, this time, it just happened to be the same name, and by coincidence, we used the same character. Rare, but these things happen. That’s all there is to it.

It’s not like my memories were tainted or anything. I’ll just move on without dwelling on it.

Anyway, after that low-level showdown, I glanced at the clock and saw it was almost noon—just about time for lunch.

“Looks like it’s lunchtime. Let’s head downstairs.”

“Yeah, let’s.”

I called out to Murakumo-kun, and we left the room and headed down the stairs.

Come to think of it, I thought he might try something during the game, but… nothing happened.

It felt… anticlimactic, or maybe just kind of lacking in excitement…

—Not that I was expecting anything, okay!?