Chapter 19
Kanzaki Makes a Decision
Kanzaki stopped mid-sentence, holding back whatever she was about to say.
“…Kanzaki?”
When I called out her name, noticing something unusual about her, Kanzaki blushed and replied,
“N-nothing, it’s nothing, really!”
She shook her head vigorously as she spoke, then exhaled once to calm herself before starting again.
“Anyway, what I’m trying to say is… if I hadn’t stepped in and bumped into you at that time, you would have just stayed there, being hugged by Yuzumi-chan.”
“That wouldn’t have happened. Even if it had been impossible to discuss things at the time, I would have pulled Yuzumi away and stopped her from hugging me.”
“It would be nice if you could do that, but depending on how Yuzumi-chan pressures you, couldn’t it be impossible?”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“…For example, what if Yuzumi-chan wanted to… you know, do it with you, and came on to you?”
I see… it seems Kanzaki thinks that if Yuzumi approached me like that, I wouldn’t stop her or pull her away, and would just accept it as it is.
—If that’s the case, then Kanzaki still doesn’t understand how much I truly care about Yuzumi as my little sister. And more importantly, I can talk to her about this as an actual, real-life situation.
“Even if Yuzumi came on to me, my answer wouldn’t change. In fact, she already did try something like that before, but in the end, it was resolved because Yuzumi herself didn’t actually want to go through with it… So there’s no need to worry.”
I thought that with both the emotional explanation and the real-life example, Kanzaki wouldn’t have any argument—yet, she looked at me with a cold gaze and said,
“Hmm… so she really did come on to you… I think that’s actually pretty important. Can I ask why you didn’t tell me?”
“Eh? Th-That’s because…”
Right… I still hadn’t told Kanzaki about that!
…But I should probably answer honestly here.
“Honestly, it’s just that there was no timing to tell you. And since it was resolved, it completely slipped my mind.”
“I see… But just because you got through it once doesn’t mean you’ll be able to handle it in the future, right?”
“That’s not the case. Yuzumi doesn’t want to use force if she can avoid it—”
“If she can avoid it, huh? Then what if something happens that breaks that line of avoidance?”
If that line of ‘if she can avoid it’ ever collapsed… I don’t know if such a thing will happen, but even if it did—
“In that case, I’d pull Yuzumi away from the situation myself, no matter what.”
“…Then that’s fine for now.”
…After a lot of discussion, it seems that this is where this particular conversation ends.
At first, I didn’t really understand everything, but after talking it through until the end, it was a good opportunity to整理 my own situation.
“Hey, Ichito… if… if I…”
Kanzaki seemed about to say something, but closed her mouth mid-sentence. Then, after a moment, she opened it again and said,
“No, never mind… it’s nothing… But one thing—if something like this happens again, please tell me the details, okay?”
“Got it.”
“And, I think you already know, but no matter what happens, you can’t lay a hand on Yuzumi-chan, right?”
“That’s more than one thing now… But of course, I’d never do that.”
“…Okay.”
After that, Kanzaki looked a little down, but since we were at karaoke, we spent the time enjoying ourselves together. Over the course of the session, her downcast expression gradually disappeared, so I decided not to worry about it.
After spending about an hour singing with Kanzaki, we each went back home.
“Yuzumi-chan is starting to approach Ichito… This isn’t the time to be jealous of her… I can’t hold it in anymore either—I love Ichito too much already—”
