The barbeque party began.
The living room filled with the dense smoke coming from the six persons worth of meat grilling on the gas stove. The ventilation fan wasn’t nearly enough to take care of it.
The smoke had been stinging Mari’s eyes for a while now.
Because they were going to Yuuji’s apartment today, they had purposely closed shop early at Kikuchi Cleaning.
Takumi wasn’t that interested, but it appeared that at the very least he preferred it over working.
Mari told Takumi and Keitarou about everything yesterday night.
I have a boyfriend. He’s one of our customers, so you’ll probably recognize him once you meet him.
I want to introduce you two to him, so let’s all go hang out at his apartment tomorrow.
Takumi didn’t seem to care about the shocking reveal whatsoever, which annoyed Mari a slight bit.
Keitarou was surprised to hear that Mari’s boyfriend was one of their customers, but upon learning that it was Yuuji Kiba, it made sense to him and he was happy for her. He had met with Yuuji multiple times when he brought his laundry in.
He’d be a good boyfriend, I think. He seems kind and sincere.
He didn’t say anything further than that.
Yuuji simply introduced Yuka and Naoya as his friends and didn’t delve into details.
Maki was a little disappointed that Yuuji didn’t ask much about Takumi or Keitarou. His own girlfriend had brought along two boys with her. You’d expect him to at least be a bit curious.
It’s not that I want him to be jealous or anything, though…
After the two groups made their introductions to each other, they got right to barbequing.
Mari’s group had brought the drinks. They toasted each other with oolong tea for the time being.
As the barbeque went on, Mari couldn’t help but be curious about Yuka.
She was just too pretty.
Saya Kimura back at Ryusei School was really pretty too, but this was on completely different level.
But despite that, she was wearing extremely plain clothes. Her outfit consisting of a navy skirt and a white blouse was so out of fashion that it was basically as weird as walking around town naked.
But she had to admit that her beauty was drawn out even further because of that fact.
If that was all within her calculations, then she’d be quite the cunning woman.
There was one more thing that Mari was curious about Yuka.
She was awfully quiet. For the whole time since Mari’s group had arrived at the apartment, Yuka had yet to speak even a single word.
Takumi at the very least said hi when he bowed his head in greeting.
There was something divine about the silent beauty. She looked really mature.
Mari wanted to know more about Yuuji and Yuka’s relationship.
They were friends, but what kind of friends? Why were they living together here?
But she felt that asking that would be like admitting her defeat, so she decided to say nothing about it.
“Hey, Mari.”
Naoya suddenly called out to her. “Man, nothing beats barbeque during the summer, huh? There’s something special about breaking a sweat while blowing on that piping hot meat to cool it down. Are you a kalbi kind of girl? Or maybe you prefer tanshio? Oh, did you know that tanshio’s actually beef tongue? How the heck did ‘tongue’ even become ‘tan’, anyway. You’d think it’d be easier if they just called it tongue-shio or something.”
Geez, this guy never shuts up, Mari thought to herself.
Screw your tongue-shio or whatever nonsense. That just makes it sound unappetizing.
Also, I only just met this guy. Why is he acting so chummy with me?
And everything that comes out of his mouth is so pointless.
“But man, I’m surprised to see Kiba actually managed to snag such a cute girlfriend. You’re too good for him, honestly. Don’t you think I’d be a better fit for you? Besides, he’s not even human. Well, neither am I, I guess.”
What the heck is he talking about?
“Oh, you probably just went like, ‘what the heck are you talking about’, huh?”
You bet I did.
“I’m not lying, he’s not human. He’s a perverted demon king, wahaha!”
Ugh, I’m just gonna ignore him…
But why isn’t Yuuji coming to the rescue?
His girlfriend over here’s getting hit on, yet he’s just standing over there with a big smile on his face.
Looking for a way to escape Naoya’s attack, she went to grab some meat for Keitarou.
“Here, Keitarou. Some freshly grilled tongue-shio.”
Crap… I accidentally said tongue-shio.
“Hell yeah, Mari. You got the picture.” Naoya immediately followed up.
Keitarou didn’t pay attention to the meat at all as he stared at Yuka’s face in a trance.
“U-Um… O-Osada…”
He finally squeezed out the courage to call out to her.
“I-I run a dry cleaner. I-It’s really cheap and delicious.”
Idiot.
Mari couldn’t stop herself from dropping her jaw.
Why the heck are you advertising your dry cleaner? And cheap and delicious? What does that even mean?
You’re unbelievable.
Even so, Mari suddenly felt like wanting to cheer Keitarou on.
That flower’s probably a bit too out of reach for you, but do your best.
There was no doubt that Keitarou had never gone out on a date with a girl before. He was the type of guy that was so nice that girls didn’t even see him as a man. The only thing Keitarou was capable of was making an email penpal on some site. Keitarou loved talking to Takumi and Mari about his penpal. Every time he received a message, he’d report to them as if it was the biggest news ever.
I bet he’s just getting tricked by some porn site or something.
That was Takumi and Mari’s conclusion.
Mari once stole a peek at one of the emails sent to Keitarou, and she caught a glimpse of the sender’s username.
CloudyThenSunny.
It sounded a bit too elaborate for a porn site.
Takumi and Yuuji were doing things at their own pace as usual.
Yuuji refrained from talking more than necessary, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t say anything at all. He interjected at the right times, and he stayed quiet when the situation called for it.
Takumi was just watching the news on the TV that had been left on, with a bored look on his face.
“Do you not like meat?”
Yuuji asked Takumi after noticing that he hadn’t touched the meat on his plate.
“Leave me alone. I do what I want.”
“No, Takumi’s just cat-tongued. He’s waiting for it to cool down.” Mari quickly tried to follow up on Takumi’s rude response.
Grilling meat is hard, Mari thought. If you grill for too long, it goes bad. If it’s too raw, it tastes bad, too. The timing’s annoying.
Mari felt exhausted and headed out into the veranda.
There were multiple potted plants of purple flowers laid about the wide veranda.
Mari sniffed her clothes thinking that the meat smell might’ve gotten onto it. She couldn’t really tell. It’s not like she knew what she normally smelled like.
Mari suddenly felt a little sad and began to tear up.
Huh? Oh geez… What the heck am I doing right now…
Mari was sad over feeling like there was a wall between Yuuji and her. Other than telling her that he was attending school to become an architectural engineer, Yuuji hadn’t told anything about himself to Mari.
But the same went for Mari.
Whether it be how she lost her parents in a fire when she was little, or how she grew up in an orphanage called Ryusei School, Mari always avoided mentioning her past. She didn’t want Yuuji to pity her over things like that.
She hated the idea of him seeing her as a poor little girl.
“Are you not feeling well?” Yuuji came to Mari’s side.
“No, that’s not it, I just…”
Mari quickly wiped away the tears that had accumulated under her eyelids.
“This is the kind of veranda I wanted.”
Yuuji continued as he looked at the purple flowers.
He was saying that he wanted his veranda to be filled with flowers.
“That’s why I bought those seeds, but I ended up completely forgetting about them… But thanks to you, it didn’t have to end like that.”
“I’m happy to see you’re still watering them.”
“Yeah. I don’t want to become the kind of person that lets their flowers wither.”
“Hey, Kiba…” Mari stared straight into Yuuji’s eyes.
“What is it?”
“…Never mind, it’s nothing.”
She didn’t know what she wanted to say. Something like “I want to know more about you”? No, that wasn’t quite it. Something like “I want you to know more about me?” No, that’s not it, either.
What did she really want to say to Yuuji? If she knew the answer to that, then maybe she’d be able to close the distance between them.
“Um, there’s something I should tell you about Osada…”
Yuuji suddenly changed the subject. “She’s… mute, you see.”
Mute? Huh?
“Wait, but why?” Mari responded in surprise.
“She’s gone through some things.”
Yuuji couldn’t say any more.
“Yo, what’re you guys up to over here? Not anything naughty, right?”
Naoya called out from within the living room.
Upon returning to the room, Keitarou and Yuka could be seen making bizarre hand gestures towards each other. It looked like they were playing some kind of game, but Keitarou probably learned that she was mute and was having her teach him sign language.
All the barbeque was gone. There was hardly any oolong tea left as well.
Just as they were thinking about wrapping things up, the sound of a guitar could be heard.
It was a beautiful sound.
A delicate melody.
It was coming from Takumi.
He had picked up Naoya’s guitar that was laying against the wall and sat down to begin playing it.
Everyone was watching Takumi in surprise.
Upon sensing everyone’s eyes on him, his fingers immediately stopped in embarrassment.
“Hey, not bad. You should play some more.” Naoya sidled up to Takumi and encouraged him to keep going.
“I’m done.” Takumi then handed the guitar back to Naoya.
“I want to hear it, too. There’s no need to be shy.”
“Shy? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Takumi’s face grew red from Yuuji’s words as he stood up. “Don’t talk like you know what everybody’s thinking.”
“Sorry, I hope I didn’t offend you.”
That casual apology got Takumi even more upset. At this point, he didn’t have anywhere to release that anger anymore.
“Yo, Mari, dump this guy. He’s just pretending to be a goody-two-shoes.”
“Huh? What do you know about him?!”
It feels kinda awkward here now, Mari thought to herself. That’s not good.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to sound like I was pretending or anything.”
“Shut up! I know your type, you can never tell what guys like you are really thinking!” Takumi’s angry voice filled the room.
Keitarou then noticed something off about Yuka and shouted out.
“Y-Yuka!”
Yuka’s body was shaking.
It happened whenever people yelled at each other or got into fights. Yuka couldn’t stand it. She hid her head under her arms with her body bent over as she trembled.
She then let out a voiceless cry before collapsing onto the floor.
Kamen Rider Novel Translations 