Chapter 30 Distance

Distance

Sou and Haruki are walking at night along a street bordering a residential area.

Following Ishii’s fleeing back after Seira leaves in front of them, Sou doesn’t let Haruki, who got into a dangerous situation, go home alone. Instead, he takes her home with him. He is cautious of his surroundings and nervously keeps an eye out for suspicious people.

Sou and Haruki walk side by side in silence. They haven’t talked for several minutes.

(Still….)

Murmuring to himself, Sou shifts his gaze to Haruki, who is walking right next to him.

For some reason, Sou and Haruki are less than 10 centimeters away from each other. If one of them moves a few centimeters to the side, they are so close that their hands would touch.

(As expected, it’s too close.)

Sou unconsciously wrinkles his forehead and moves away from Haruki. He moves both feet to the right so that he is away from Haruki.

This creates a space of several tens of centimeters between Sou and Haruki.

“Ugh.”

With a complex expression of dissatisfaction, loneliness, and fear on her face, Haruki quickly closes the distance. They keep the same distance again.

“…”

Unable to calm down, Sou deliberately breaks the state of walking side by side as if to escape and quickly walks forward. This time, a gap appears in the distance, not to the side but in front and behind.

“Ugh.”

Not giving up after such a treatment, Haruki also runs quickly to catch up with Sou. They keep the same distance as before. It seems that Haruki wants to be very close to Sou.

Sou could easily guess that.

“Isn’t it a bit close?”

Unable to remain silent, Sou asks the question openly.

“Uh….”

Shyly looking down, Haruki nonchalantly picks up the hem of Sou’s blazer.

Of course, the feeling of Haruki’s fingers is transmitted to Sou through the blazer.

“Eh, wh-what’s wrong?”

Shocked by Haruki’s sudden action, Sou instinctively stops walking.

Haruki also looks down and stops walking.

“I….”

Just as she was about to say something, Haruki held her tongue tightly.

Since Sou has no information about what Haruki wants to say, Sou can’t even guess.

But as if she had made up her mind, Haruki raised her head and took a deep breath. A deep breath came out of her mouth.

“Hmm, a lot has happened. Hmm, well. I’m scared and restless. So… that… Can I go to my house like this?”

Enduring the shame, blushing her cheeks, averting her moist eyes, and never meeting Sou’s eyes, Haruki conveys her feelings.

Haruki’s confession brings Sou to a point of understanding. At the same time, he blames his own immaturity.

It’s something that can be understood with a little thought.

Although she usually acts like a man, a high school girl is attacked at night. And not by one, but by two.

Even though time has passed, the fear still swirls in Haruki’s heart. The fear must be growing as time passes. Every time he thinks about it, he realizes that it was a terrifying experience.

So Sou had only one answer.

“Okay. Keep doing this until you feel better.”

To calm her down, Sou deliberately smiles gently. He hates his own smiles and grins, but it’s for Haruki’s sake. He can’t help it. It would be good if she felt some relief.

“That’s cheating….”

Seeing Sou’s gentle smile, Haruki quickly looks away and mutters in an inaudible voice. Haruki’s face gets redder and redder. She looks like a tomato.

“Wh-what’s wrong? Maybe you have a fever?”

Confused by the unexpected reaction, Sou tries to put his hand on Haruki’s forehead to see what’s going on.

“N-nothing! Come on, let’s go! Keep it like this!!”

Shaking her head from side to side like a cat splashing water, Haruki grabs the bottom of Sou’s blazer and starts walking without giving him a second thought.

“Hey, if you say it like that, it makes me curious!”

Sou reflexively moved forward when Haruki moved forward. He still couldn’t figure out why Haruki’s face was blushing.