READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 28 - Call With a Childhood Friend
After a bath, I sit on the sofa, roughly drying my hair with a towel.
In my right hand is my smartphone.
I tap the screen, open LINE, and stare at Akane’s account.
“……”
A few days ago,
“By the way, you… you’ve exchanged contact information with my sister, right?”
“Yeah, I have. We sometimes message and call each other.”
“Huh? Really…?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait, shouldn’t you exchange contact information with me too? I mean, you should ask for my contact information before my sister’s! You’re my-”
“It’s okay, I got your contact information when I exchanged with Aoi-san.”
“Why haven’t you contacted me!?”
“Wha!?”
“If you can call and talk to my sister, you can do it with me too, right? If you know my contact information, it’s okay for you to call me, right? Hey!? Why!?”
“Whoa! Don’t shake your head! Calm down… Do you really want to talk to me that much?”
“Yes!? Is that bad!? So hurry up and give me your contact information!!”
“Eh, okay…”
That’s what happened.
Well, if I’m going to call her… it should be today.
I tap my smartphone and make a call to Akane.
……
…………..
……………She’s not picking up.
“He-hello!? I-it’s me, Akane Shinjo!”
“No, I know that.”
Why is she panicking so much? This girl.
“W-what do you want!? Calling me out of the blue…!!”
“Eh? Oh… I just wanted to hear your voice?”
“What!? Splutter!?”
There’s a loud splashing sound.
…Could it be, she’s taking a bath?
Come to think of it, Nakano mentioned that a lot of girls watch videos, listen to music, and use SNS on their smartphones while in the bath.
Wait, does that mean she’s naked right now? I try to imagine Akane’s current state.
Hmm… I don’t feel anything.
If it were Nakano or Aoi-san, I might have been a bit flustered or aware, but it’s Akane…
“Akane-chan~? What happened? Are you okay?”
I can hear Aoi-san’s voice from far away.
She’s probably worried and has come to the bathroom door.
There’s the sound of the door swinging open.
“Oh, so you were on a call with Itsuki-kun~ Maybe I was intruding?”
“N-no, sister…!! It’s not like that!!”
“Wow, Akane-chan. In front of Itsuki-kun in that state…”
“Eek!? Don’t look, Itsuki!! Pervert! Pervert! Hentai!!”
I can’t see anything, you know. I’m going to smack you.
“W-wait a minute!! I’ll call you back!!”
Right after saying that, she abruptly ended the call.
Can’t be helped… I guess I’ll wait while brushing my teeth and preparing for bed.
An hour later, as I was lazily messing around with my smartphone on the sofa, a call came from Akane.
“H-hello? It’s me…”
“Ah, sorry about earlier. Calling you while you were in the bath.”
“That’s right!! I was in my bath time!! And suddenly a call comes in…!! You got to talk to me while I was in the bath, even if it was just for a bit! That’s something people in the school would kill for! It’s stab-worthy!”
It would really suck if I got stabbed for something like this.
“You took quite a while to call back. Did something happen?”
“Ah, you don’t understand at all~ Girls have to dry their hair, fix their hair, take care of their skin, clean their room, choose clothes, and do a lot of other preparations.”
Aren’t most of these things unrelated to the call?
“……So? Why did you call me out of the blue? Is there something urgent?”
“No, not really. Like I said earlier, I just wanted to hear your voice. Is it wrong to make a call if there’s nothing urgent?”
“Eh, n-no, it’s not wrong but… is that the real reason? I thought you were joking.”
“I’m not joking. You told me before to call you if I have your contact, so I thought it was a good time.”
“I-is that so… I see… W-well? That thoughtfulness is good, isn’t it?”
“Well, thank you… But, it’s not completely true that I didn’t have a reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, today the poll results for the approval rating weren’t good, right? I just thought I’d check in and see how you’re doing.”
She was visibly down when we saw the results together.
“Well, I was just worried if you were pushing yourself too hard and wanted to hear your voice.”
Saying it out loud is quite embarrassing.
“……I’m not pushing myself too hard. Of course, I’d be lying if I said I’m not bothered. But I’m fine…… thanks for worrying about me.”
“……Yeah.”
It seems my worry was unnecessary.
She seems to have switched her mindset effectively.
“So, was that all you wanted to discuss?”
“The main topic is over, yes.”
“I, I see……”
“………………”
“………………”
“Alright, since the main topic is done, I’m going to hang up.”
“W-wait a minute!! Don’t you want to talk a bit more since we’re already on the line!? Isn’t there anything else!?”
Eh, there isn’t. I want to dive into my futon right now. I want to sleep.
“……sigh. Okay then, what did you have for dinner today?”
“I-it’s quite casual, but okay…… For dinner, we had hamburg steak. I helped make it.”
She sent a picture of the uncooked hamburg steak.
Oh, it’s nicely kneaded. Seems like she’s keeping up with her cooking practice.
“……and this is it after being cooked.”
“……Ah.”
“Don’t say it like that! Don’t sound so disappointed!”
The picture she sent was of a hamburg steak that was slightly burnt.
“W-well…… I’m still practicing cooking…… But the taste wasn’t bad! ……although the one my sister made was tastier.”
Indeed, the hamburg steak that Aoi-san, visible in the picture, made looked delicious.
“Oh, that’s right…… I still have some hamburg steak left. I’ll put it in your lunch box for tomorrow, so try it!”
“W-Wow……!!”
“Why are you screaming like that!? It’s okay! I’ll bring the one that’s less burnt!”
“But still…… Wow……”
“Geez!!”
……somehow, it reminded me a bit of the old times. We used to have these kind of trivial conversations back in kindergarten.
I never thought we’d be able to do this again.
“Sigh…… okay, okay. I’m looking forward to it then. I’m going to hang up now.”
“Eh, w-wait a minute!”
“What is it? Is there something else?”
“Uh, tomorrow…… I’m counting on you for the support speech. So, good night.”
“……Yeah. Good night.”
The call ended, and I let out a sigh.
That’s right, tomorrow is the day of the support speech.