Living with the Arrogant Queen from High School is Surprisingly Not Uncomfortable

“Dinner is in the fridge. Don’t take a long bath. Do the laundry with the leftover bathwater. And, only one hour of cleaning per day!”

“Are you my mom?”

Just before I left the house, I conveyed the necessary instructions to Yamamoto. As a result, Yamamoto complained that I was acting like his mom. Honestly, I’m not his mom… I’d rather be his lover, just kidding.

My face is hot. It’s time to leave, and it’s all because of Yamamoto.

“Alright, I’m going now.”

“Yeah, have fun.”

“Mm.”

Feeling a bit nostalgic, I left the room.

As soon as I stepped out of the room, I checked the current time on my phone… Maybe I spent a bit too much time relaxing in that room.

I hurried to the station.

After a few stations by train, I reached the meeting place with Akari.

“Meg!”

Akari was already there.

“Sorry, did you wait?”

“No, not at all.”

“I see.”

“Yeah. …It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“… Yeah.”

There was a bit of an awkward atmosphere between us.

To Akari, this awkwardness must be like a domino effect.

Because the reason we became a little distant was because I had one-sided feelings of jealousy towards her.

From her point of view, it was a disagreement she didn’t understand.

But still, I… deep inside, I still had a bit of an unusual feeling towards her.

“…Let’s go, Meg.”

“Okay.”

Akari started walking with a joyful smile.

I followed her.

…In high school, I used to lead Akari around, didn’t I? But I didn’t think I was leading her to places that would suit her feelings, like Akari is doing now.

I just went wherever I wanted to go. Akari, on the other hand, would follow my selfish lead. That’s all I thought.

…Yamamoto once sarcastically called me self-centered.

I wonder what made him think I was self-centered. I suddenly thought about it.

We wandered around the streets of Shibuya.

By the way, I don’t like Shibuya or Harajuku, especially Harajuku. I really dislike it because young people usually gather around there, so there are too many people. Especially before the renovation of Harajuku Station. I used to come here to play from my hometown occasionally, and at that time I first went to Harajuku without knowing much about it… I often felt irritated by the fact that so many people gathered in such a narrow station building.

After having lunch, we went around a few clothing stores.

But in the end, neither of us bought any clothes. It was just about the time when autumn clothes started to come out…

I’m broke to begin with.

And Akari said, because it’s heavy.

So, in the end, we just window-shopped at the apparel store and continued our stroll.

“We still have two hours to go.”

“Eh, that much? Meg, you’ve become even more disinterested in material things, haven’t you?”

“Is that so?”

Well, because of a certain incident, my financial situation isn’t great, and after being cut off from the world for a while, it’s true that there’s nothing I particularly want.

“Don’t you want anything?”

“…Let’s see…”

I looked up at the sky and thought for a bit.

We still had plenty of time. I wanted to have a reason to detour, no matter how trivial.

After some consideration, an idea popped into my head.

“Cleaning supplies.”

“Cleaning supplies?”

“Yeah. Yamamoto mentioned recently… he wanted a water repellent spray. It’s for removing stains from mirrors and preventing them from fogging up.”

“Oh, I didn’t know such a thing existed.”

“Yeah. …Well, he already has like five different types of those sprays though.”

“Eh, that many?”

“Yeah. No matter how much I tell him he doesn’t need any more, he says they’re different or that they’re high-grade. He’s always so nitpicky, for a guy.”

“I see.”

“I wonder what attracts him to those things. I don’t understand him at all.”

…After a long talk, I realized that Akari wasn’t saying anything. But strangely, I could feel her gaze.

When I glanced at her, she was looking at me with warm eyes.

“What?”

“I was just thinking, you guys get along so well.”

“Sh-shut up!”

I raised my voice in a way I hadn’t done in a while.

But unlike before, my cheeks… no, my whole face was hot.

“Come on, let’s go!”

“A variety store?”

“No, karaoke! Let’s go to karaoke!”

“Eh, what about the spray?”

“It’s okay. I don’t understand the details.”

“I see.”

It seemed Akari understood.

“Then next time, when you go on a date with Yamamoto-kun, buy it for him.”

At Akari’s cheerful voice, my cheeks turned red again.