“What happened to you?”
“Ugh!?”
“…?”
I met Midori in the morning and just asked her.
Well, I was curious, after all.
“Y, you surprised me…”
“…Why do you say that?”
But she looked way more shocked than I expected.
I just thought she would give me a normal response, but I guess not?
I wasn’t worried at all since last time I saw Midori, she looked so happy.
But seeing her surprised like this, it was a bit awkward.
“Was there a problem?”
“N, no! You suddenly popped up from behind, so of course, I was surprised!”
“…But you have good hearing, right? I thought you would know I was coming.”
Midori didn’t even think for a second that I could sneak up on her.
She had excellent hearing after all.
She was so good at hearing that she could catch whispers in the same room, so I naturally thought she would hear me approaching from behind.
That’s why I just spoke up…
“Well, normally, I’m not really focusing on anything else. But when I’m totally concentrating like this, I can’t pay attention.”
“Is that so…?”
Honestly, I didn’t know either.
I wasn’t an agent after all.
I just knew that agents had developed physical abilities and some kind of amazing powers.
So I really didn’t need to worry about it.
I just thought if I did my job and operations well, that was enough.
“So what were you concentrating on? So much that you couldn’t even hear me coming?”
“…Talking to Nana.”
“Aha.”
“You’re not shocked at all…?”
“Why would I be shocked? I was watching you two on a date over the weekend.”
It was exactly as I said.
There was no reason to be surprised if it was about Nana…
It seemed like Midori expected me to be shocked.
But for me, it was no big deal.
Honestly, I was a bit surprised that she was so focused on a simple conversation.
“So what happened? The date.”
“Huh? That? Uh… um…”
“…?”
She seemed to hesitate a bit.
What could it be?
I really shouldn’t be this curious about someone else’s love life, but I was more interested than usual.
“Did something bad happen?”
“No! It’s not bad… really…”
“…?”
Then why was she hesitating?
Because she liked it? Liked it too much?
Aside from that, I couldn’t think of anything else.
I couldn’t help but show a curious expression to Midori, and after a bit of hesitation, she spoke.
“It felt too ordinary… like usual, so maybe that’s why I felt a bit disappointed…?”
“…Was that ordinary for you?”
I asked seriously.
The date I saw between Midori and Nana over the weekend was way too close for just friends.
They were petting each other’s heads, holding hands, hugging…
“……….”
“…What’s wrong?”
I turned to look at Dolores on the opposite side.
Dolores was looking at me with a “What’s with your sudden stare?” expression.
First, I walked over to Dolores.
Even though it seemed like she was going to freak out, I had to do my experiment.
“W, what is it?”
“Hmm…”
After thinking it through, I gently placed my hand on Dolores’s head and started to pet her.
Not too hard, but slowly and softly.
“W, what are you doing!?”
“Just as I thought.”
“Just as you thought…? Why are you doing this all of a sudden?!”
Dolores jumped back in her chair as I petted her hair, looking horrified.
She looked like she really didn’t like it, totally different from how Midori reacted yesterday.
Of course, I wasn’t as close to Dolores as I was with Nana and Midori.
“This is a normal reaction. Even if it’s the same gender, people don’t just randomly pet each other’s heads or hug.”
“Excuse me??”
Dolores looked utterly perplexed, but I had to say it.
I mean, Midori really didn’t know that it was unusual.
“Miss Dolores. Is it normal to suddenly pet each other’s heads, hug, and even hold hands between the same gender?”
“Uh… well… not really…?”
“Exactly.”
“Do you understand? What happened with Nana yesterday was definitely not normal.”
“No, that’s always how we’ve been…?”
“………”
That alone was odd, I mean.
It was frustrating that she couldn’t understand.
Even Commander, who watched with me, acknowledged that; why couldn’t the main character get it?
“Miss Dolores. Midori and Nana were way closer than expected. It didn’t feel like just ordinary friends. If they were of different genders, everyone would see them as a couple.”
“Eh…? Really?”
“Yep. They were walking around arm-in-arm, holding hands… it was a sight to behold, really.”
“That’s all pretty normal…”
“They don’t do that…”
“……….”
I didn’t know how girls usually interacted, but I was sure of one thing.
At least the agents on the ship didn’t do that.
“…But I do hold hands with girls sometimes, but hand-holding…”
“So I heard.”
“No, but I’ve been like that with Nana since we were kids…”
“”……….””
Hmm.
Hmm…
How should I respond to this?
I didn’t know.
She had said they had been like that since childhood.
Since childhood… well, I could understand a bit, but it carried on into adulthood.
That was just baffling.
The thought that it was normal to hold hands, hug, and pet hair from childhood was just too much for me to process.
How do I respond to be nice here?
I felt sorry for Midori, but it was just so absurd.
“…At that point, don’t both of them like each other?”
Both Dolores and I ended up thinking the same thing.
No matter how I thought about it, it really didn’t feel like an ordinary childhood friendship.
Even if they were same-gender friends… isn’t it a bit excessive?
The closeness of their relationship didn’t feel ordinary at all.
Midori didn’t seem to think that way though.
“…Honestly, if you confessed, there might be at least a 5% chance she’d say yes.”
“Whatever the percentage, I’m sure it’s not 0%.”
“Exactly. I don’t know the details, but even long-term friends feel way too close.”
“Eh…? Uh….”
Midori was listening to our conversation and mumbling some odd responses.
But…
“…Regardless, there’s really no need to worry too much. Just like before the date, I think we should not overthink it… Maybe it would be better for Dolores to…”
“…Why are you suddenly putting this on me?”
“It’s not my fault. Midori is just so clueless.”
“That is true…”
I felt bad for Dolores, but it was really to that extent.
Honestly, there was no need to worry about it…
Let alone with no guys around, it would be way more appropriate to direct it toward Dolores.
“By the way, when is the Commander coming? He hasn’t shown up since after lunch.”
“Oh, he’s getting a little punishment.”
“…?”
Because I had a promise with him.
We had agreed that he would get a little punishment for scaring me and making me cry over the weekend.
But it wasn’t dangerous or weird at all.
He was just running somewhere hard to get sandwiches during lunch.
-Swoosh!
Just then, while I was working in the afternoon, the office door suddenly opened.
And in walked the Commander, of course.
It was 2:33 PM.
“…You’re late.”
“Ugh… uh… what…?”
“You are three minutes late.”
We had made plans that he would come by 2:30 PM.
Actually, I instructed him to come by that time, but…
“Well, the sandwich shop… it was during lunch…”
“Hmm…”
“Could you cut me a little slack…?”
“Hmm…”
“I seriously ran really hard… haah…”
After being genuinely terrified in the haunted house over the weekend.
I was super mad at the Commander.
I mean, I was just so shocked that I ended up crying my eyes out when I got outside.
So I was really upset, and the Commander said to take it out on him, so I did.
He wanted to do it, so there was no issue.
Anyway, I had sent the Commander to pick up sandwiches from a recently opened shop.
I asked him to grab sandwiches within 30 minutes after lunch was over.
Considering how scared I was at the haunted house, wasn’t that a pretty generous task?
I literally cried even more than during a horror movie.
And when I got out, I was so shaken that I couldn’t walk for a while.
…Thinking back, I was slightly annoyed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing major. Just a bad person doing bad things.”
“…Huh?”
“Ha… haha…”
“The Commander really went too far. That time was… ha.”
“…I’m sorry…”
Upon hearing my words, the Commander wore an incredibly remorseful expression.
At the same time, he was still holding a sandwich in one hand.
“…Then may I have a sandwich please? I purposely skipped lunch for this.”
“…I’m really sorry. I was trying to come faster.”
“………”
It was true that I had asked the Commander to get it, yet seeing him looking so guilty made me feel bad.
…Was it because he was handsome?
Something inside me wavered.
“…It’s fine. You must have had a hard time running, so please take a sandwich and a drink.”
“Okay…”
“…sigh… Please don’t take me to places like that again. Really…”
“I understand. I’ll seriously be more careful next time.”
“Just understand that.”
The haunted house… aaah.
That place is a hard pass.
Honestly, I’d prefer a scary movie over that bizarre, foolish thought.
All the fun and joy came from the amusement park, but when it came to the haunted house, it was a definite no-go.
If the Commander were just a bit more unlikable to me, I would’ve never forgiven him.
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