Extra 3: Silence and Eloquence
(Note: Published in Ichiho Michi’s blog to celebrate Valentine’s Day in February 2017.)
“Wow, ya really got a huge haul.”
“They’re pretty much all courtesy chocolates.”
“There’s gotta be a few that are serious.”
“Eh, who knows. Unless they tell me outright, I just pretend that I don’t know anything. Valentine’s Day has become, like, so ingrained in our society, that if you reject someone’s chocolate, you’re the weird one for being overly self-conscious. Like it’s more of a disgrace to say, ‘Sorry, I don’t share your same feelings.’ …Doesn’t it feel like it’s become such a pain in the butt?”
“Popular guys sure have it hard, huh~”
“What? I’m pretty sure that most people feel the same way. Which reminds me, when I was in 5th grade, I once got chocolates from 12 of the 15 girls in my class.”
“Hnn…”
“Wha, wait, don’t reply back so flatly! Use some intonation in your voice, okay? I don’t think it was because I was popular, just that we were children, and I would yell, ‘Yayyy, thank youuuu,’ really happily when I got them.”
“Oh, I guess I kinda get it? If ya get shy and say, ‘I dun want it,’ ya only make the girls feel bad.”
“Yeah, yeah, that.”
“I suppose there’s somethin’ mature ’bout acceptin’ things without makin’ a fuss ’bout it.”
“Hmmm, but that’s not always the case.”
“Why not?”
“Because I would always get called out on Valentine’s Day. I remember one time it was suuuuper cold, and I got asked to meet behind the pool. And when I went, there were like 10 girls there and they nearly scared me! I was wondering if I did something to them.”
“Normally, ya’d think it’s a confession.”
“But I didn’t know that. I was pretty nervous, and then one of the girls stepped forward and said, ‘Please go out with me.’”
“So it’s just a story ’bout ya bein’ popular.”
“No, no, listen to the full story first. I liked her just a little at the time too.”
“Congrats. G’night.”
“Wait, you have to keep listening! I liked her, but I didn’t understand what it meant to be going out! I was like… What do you do when you go out? I couldn’t imagine anything concrete that we’d do, and I just fell silent. That was probably the only time in my life that I ever went speechless.”
“Oh, that’s pretty cute.”
“Right?”
“So how did ya end up so tainted?”
“What? I’m not tainted… We were by the pool, so my mind wandered to things like, is this what they mean by silence as still as water?”
“You prolly thought that up just now… So then what happened?”
“Another girl walked over and whispered to me, ‘This is where you say, Please let me think about it.’ So that’s what I said.”
“W-Wow, she’s so mature…!”
“Girls are pretty amazing, huh~”
“…So then what?”
“What do you mean?”
“So what did ya do after ya thought ’bout it?”
“Oh~”
“What’s with that happy look on ya face? Ugh, ya piss me off…”
“Nothing happened.”
“Huh?”
“More than half a year passed after I understood what going out meant, and I thought it would be ruder to give her an answer after all that time passed. She never mentioned it again to me, and we graduated from elementary school, junior high, and went our separate ways for high school. And that’s all there was to it?”
“Hnnn. So you dun regret it? Never thought that it was too bad?”
“Huh? Nope. We’re still friends. She even asked me to emcee her wedding, and I did. Had we gone out back then, we wouldn’t be friends like this, so I’m glad that things happened the way that they did.”
“Is that really all it is?”
“Maybe because I couldn’t say anything back then, that’s why I can be together with you, Nacchan.”
“How can ya say somethin’ like that so easily…? I see that ya gotten better with ya words now that ya an adult.”
“I haven’t really changed all that much. Back then and even now, if I don’t think anything or understand it, I don’t say anything. And if there’s something that I think, then I’ll say it. That’s all there is to it.”
“Ahhh, somethin’ ’bout ya really pisses me off!”
“Don’t worry about that, just hurry up and give me your chocolate!”
“Why would I have any!?”
“If you don’t, I’ll play a trick on you~”
“Ya mixin’ it up, ya mixin’ it up. With another holiday.”
“Well, even if you did, I’ll still play a trick on you~”
“So ya doin’ it anyway!?”
It was good to be an adult.
Tatsuki, sometimes you just need to keep some things to yourself, lol.
yhank you for the chapter! Oh we have a callback for the wedding chapter~
You’re welcome! This is probably a different wedding. Tatsuki emcee’d an afterparty for a fellow announcer in volume 1. He gets invited to a lot of weddings!
Lol a lot happened when he was in 5th grade huh.. was it that wedding when the bride was still in love with him? Hahahaa
Thank you so much for the chapter!!!~ 🙇🙇🙇🙇
Tatsuki didn’t emcee that wedding in Vol 2; he just seems to go to a lot of weddings! And had lots of girls in love with him too, lol.
Aiyaaaaa gahd Tatsuki such a flirt (but doesn’t mean it) hahaha I pity the ones he ensnared with his beauty xD