Episode 21. Secrets
“Sakura, stop it!”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Get off me, already! You’re almost strangling me.”
Tomo watched as Sakura held her arms around Tatsumi’s neck. Her weight shifted from his back as she slowly slid down, pulling Tatsumi back. Tatsumi said she almost strangled him, yet Tomo could see Sakura had left plenty of room to avoid just that, pulling at his shoulders rather than his neck.
Tomo couldn’t tell if Tatsumi had noticed Sakura’s crush or not — either he pretended he hadn’t, or he was oblivious to it. It didn’t surprise him. Sakura had a strange way of showing affection, bothering the ones she liked. Perhaps she was the definition of an elementary-school-aged boy teasing a crush.
It was all good with Tomo and Ken, who had become her friends, but who could say if Tatsumi would eventually snap at her.
However, Tomo envied her ability to be so true to herself. He was hiding a big part of who he was, with only a few knowing him fairly well. Ken wasn’t much different. His carefree attitude was all a front, while he always considered things.
He leaned over his desk and rested his head on his arms as he watched them. Tatsumi who tried to free himself from her odd embrace.
“That’s so nice.”
“Momo seems to want your clinging, go cling on him!”
“But Tomo-chan has a partner.”
Immediately classmates began asking whether he had a girlfriend or boyfriend. Tomo stared into his desk, wishing he could disappear into thin air.
“Saku-chan is stupid,” he muttered while the questions were shot at him from every direction.
“Hey, guys, you’re bothering Momocchi,” Yuu said. “If he doesn’t wanna talk about it, let him be. If you didn’t know already, it’s not something he’ll open up about right away.”
“That’s true. Momoi is pretty shy.”
“Sorry we asked.”
“Let me know when you wanna tell me about your girlfriend!”
“It could be a boyfriend, since it’s Momoi.”
“Anyone can have a boyfriend or girlfriend, you know. It’s not like that would be the case just because it’s Momocchi. You even met my brother’s boyfriend during the festival.”
“I guess you're right…” someone said and others muttered agreements before they returned to their own seats. Tomo felt a hand on his upper back. He looked up at Yuu.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, thanks.”
“Any time.”
He went back to observing Tatsumi and Sakura, now talking to Susumu.
#
“Momo-kyun!”
“Ririi.”
“Look!” She sat down in Shibata’s seat. She held her up much-decorated phone. He could see a profile that he recognised.
“You found Mina-chan’s account.”
“Huh?”
“She regularly comes to my workplace to see Hana-kun. You’d think she’d come for someone else, but apparently she wants the most normal person to serve her… I don’t get it.”
Ririi turned to Sakura.
“Ah, no.” He waved as he laughed. “A university student. He’s called ‘Hana-kun’. Wait a second.” Tomo got his phone out of his bag and searched for Tachibana’s work profile and showed her. “He doesn’t really use his account, but everyone who works at the café has one.”
“Wait, Momo, is that fine for you to say?”
Tomo looked at Tatsumi in confusion.
“That means you have one too, right?” Ririi asked, excitedly.
Tomo coughed awkwardly to get rid of the lump in his throat. “That would be embarrassing to show.”
Fortunately, Tachibana’s profile didn’t say where he worked, and his username — Hana_Yoshimi — gave little away. But Ririi could possibly make a reasonable guess, which worried him.
He thought for a way out, but couldn’t think of one.
“Ririi, give me your username.”
He handed her his phone. Surprised, she took it.
“Mine’s really just Katou Ririi, but…”
She handed it back to him. He looked at the profile of katoh__lily and tapped on the friend request button.
“I added you,” he said, as she picked up her own phone again. “So you write your name
“Since it sounds like the English word for lilies, I thought, why not?”
Tomo got a notification that LILY had accepted his request as she replied to him.
He searched up his own work profile and then tapped share.
I know you’ll try to find it so here’s my work profile.
Pls don’t share what you see on it with anyone.
http://profile.horizonsocial.co.jp/momosan_yoshimi?share
I haven’t told that many about it.
My workplace has a policy that they share nothing private unless the staff member decides so, so please respect that.
Ririi probably checked the link and started tapping her phone with her phones with surprising speed.
OK.
You’re like waka. That’s cool.
I won’t tell anyone.
Can I come by sometime?
He looked at her. “Sure. But... eh... my workplace is a little strange.”
“Momo, the place you work at is very strange,” Tatsumi pointed out, and Tomo laughed awkwardly.
“Whatever. Momo, if you know this girl, can’t you have your nails done? That’d be soooo awesome!”
He didn’t feel it would be awesome at all. Just awkward.
“Nail art is a bit... I’ve never worn coloured nail polish either.”
“There are plenty of people who have their nails done nowadays!”
The girl was getting closer, and the suggestion was completely outside his comfort zone to begin with. He wanted to disappear so she would stop.
“I don’t know, Ririi…”
“Consider it!”
“You’re kind of… Could you… You’re making me uncomfortable.”
The cultural festival had brought him closer to his class, and thanks to Yuu and Tatsumi he could at least sometimes tell someone when they crossed the line of comfort.
Fortunately, his classmates did listen. He could be one of them now, even though they had little left of their year. Soon the classes would change, and he wouldn’t feel any sort of safety anymore.
“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to. I just think it’d look good.”
“Thanks, Ririi. I’ll think about it, but I don’t think it will happen soon, if ever.”
Ririi gave him a bright smile and got up to go to her seat and talk with her friends.
Tomo saw the screen on his phone lit up before he put his phone away.
When do you work next time?
#
Ririi stared at a waitress dressed in a blouse and skirt. The pink lace of petticoat peaked from underneath to give the black skirt a little more colour. To give the outfit more personality, the waitress also wore a belt with stars and matching necklace instead of the usual ribbon.
“That waitress looks kinda familiar.”
“That’s because you’ve met Fuu-chan.” Tomo sipped his tea before he waved Fujiki over to them.
Fujiki smiled happily as he hurried over.
“Momo-san, did you need something?”
“Ririi-chan finds you familiar. Have you been at a school recently?”
“You know school festival season just passed, right? There was the cutest crossdress café that I visited!”
“I think that answers the question. Thank you.”
“Would you like anything?”
“I would appreciate some tea.”
“I’ll find the cutest pot just for you, Momo-san!”
They heard a chuckle from the table behind them. Tomo looked over the seat to see a man. Tomo guessed he was doing some assignment while waiting, since he had his laptop.
Tomo had never asked, but after seeing Yuu’s brother so much, he guessed the medium brown colour and amber eyes were natural. The young man was also pale, even compared to Tomo, who didn’t really go out much.
In the two years he had worked at the café, he had wondered many times if it didn’t bother Makoto that he stood out, even though Makoto also wore clothes that caught people’s eyes.
“How are you doing?” he asked.
“Momo-san, you have another customer. Please pay me no mind.”
Tomo turned back to his classmate.
“Ririi-chan, have you figured out why Fuu-chan looks familiar.”
“Eh… I guess…”
She looked at Makoto, who had gone back to his work. She couldn’t have forgotten him.
They sat quietly until Fuu-chan returned with a teapot for Tomo.
“Thank you, Fuu-chan.”
“That’s it?” Fuu-chan pouted.
Makoto chuckled.
“Fuu-chan is adorable sometimes,” he said.
Tomo didn’t need to see Fujiki walk over to hug Makoto tightly to know it. He’d likely sit down, losing himself to his boyfriend’s company. Tomo found it amusing that no matter how many times Makoto came by, Fujiki would give him his full attention as soon as he could.
#
That place is crazy. I wanna go again!
Tomo laughed at Ririi’s message as he sat on the sofa with Chika after dinner. They had been watching a variety show when Tomo got the message.
“Did Ken-chan write something funny? Tell him to study.”
“I don’t think you have any right to say that. And it was Ririi from my class. She’s pretty cute.”
“You aren’t so lonely you’re going to cheat on Ken-chan, are you?”
Tomo looked up to see his sister look at him with narrowed eyes.
“What? That’s awful! Why would I even do that? Idiot!”
He angrily hurried to his room, throwing himself on his bed, and opened his conversation with Ken, wanting to write something, but not sure what.
Chika thinks I’m cheating on you.
The message was instantly read, and he immediately smiled. He added ‘I like you’ before he needed to write more:
Um... actually I love you very much. I miss you. I hope winter break comes soon so I can see you every day. I can stay at Shouji’s so we can spend winter break together. If that’s not too much.
A moment later Ken called.
“Hello?”
“Tomo, I…” Ken coughed. “I love you too. Maybe we could go somewhere during winter break if the finals go well.”
“Don’t you have the trip with your class next term already?”
Ken laughed. “How did you plan on coming along then?”
“Oh. I don’t know…”
“Think about it. What was that about cheating?”
Tomo told him about Ririi, and Ken laughed.
“That’s so like her! And she calls me a jerk. This is too funny!”
“It’s not that funny.”
“It is, because it’s Chika.” Ken let an audible sigh to stop laughing. “Just don’t start kissing your friends, or I could get jealous.”
“Would you come running if I did?”
Ken laughed again. “If you’re that desperate, just let me know and I’ll find time.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll message you later.”
“Good luck studying. Bye.”
“Good night.”
The call ended and Tomo looked at his screen. He got up and sat by his desk. If Ken worked that hard, he’d do too.
#
“Momoi, can you help me with English?”
Tomo looked up and saw someone from 1-A who he had seen a few times eating with some guys in his class. The fact he called Tomo ‘Momoi’ meant he probably was used to hearing him being called that.
Tomo hesitated. “I guess…” He wasn’t certain this wasn’t some ploy to make him feel bad.
“Thanks. I heard from Abe that you were great at English and I’m not that good.”
Ugh. Abe Rieko again.
“You are in 1-A though… Shouldn’t you be better than I am?”
“I think the rest of my scores did me a favour.” He laughed in embarrassment. “I’m really not that great. Besides, didn’t you do well on the mid-term exams last term?”
“If you help me with science and math, I can help you with English. And Japanese if you need it.”
“Momocchi, can you help me with Japanese then?” Yuu asked, though Yuu did better in Japanese than he did. “We can study here after school?”
“I live close by. We can go to my place, if I’m allowed to join your study group,” Tatsumi said. “Susumu too.”
“Huh? You’re holding a study group?” Miyake in front of Tatsumi asked. “Let me join! I need help with English, Momo!”
“Kazu, what you need help with isn’t your studies,” Tomo heard Itou say. “Glad you’re not bothering me about it this time.”
“I’ll come here. If it’s fine, I’ll bring a friend.”
Tatsumi smiled. “Sure. One or two more shouldn’t be much of a problem.” He suddenly looked pretty hateful. “But if that friend is Abe Rieko, you’re not welcome into my home.”
The guy from 1-A laughed. “Abe is kinda weird. I don’t like her much. I was going to bring Fukushima Shouta from 1-D. Oh, I’m Fukushima Yuuta. Shouta is my older brother.”
“Oh, twins?” Tomo asked.
“Triplets, but Ryouta went to G High.”
“G High? That’s pretty far away,” Susumu said.
“He lives with our uncle so he can go there. Anyway, I’ll come by after school with Shou.”
“I wonder if he’s called Yuu... Maybe I need to call you Yuusuke, Yuu.”
Yuu laughed. “I think you’re thinking too much.”
#
“I’m home!” Tatsumi shouted. “Not that anyone is home at this hour.”
“Excuse the intrusion,” Tomo said. “Yuu, don’t push.”
“Huh?” Yuu and Yuuta asked.
“See, Yuu! Now it gets confusing! I should call you Yuusuke. Or Sakuraba.”
The Fukushimas laughed.
“It’s like when someone says ‘Fukushima’ and we both reply at school.”
“Isn’t this going to be crowded?” Itou asked.
Miyake had dragged him along against his will. Tatsumi had said he could go home, but the class representative had said he would make sure Miyake didn’t bother the rest of them, at least. Apparently they had been in the same middle school, so they were friends. In some way.
“It’s fine,” Tatsumi said. “We’ll just sit in there.” He pointed. “I’ll go get some drinks.”
“Tatsumi, let me help,” Tomo said and stepped out of his shoes to follow Tatsumi to the kitchen.
“Can you get the cups from that cupboard? I’ll boil water. Oh, I guess I should ask if anyone wants coffee...”
“You don’t have people often, do you?”
“Not really.” Tatsumi shrugged. “The guys have come over a few times. But I thought my place was better than yours for you.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem.”
Tatsumi left and was soon back after having asked what everyone wanted. Tomo rubbed the rim of a cup with his thumb while he waited for the water to boil.
“Tatsumi…” he said with hesitation. He only dared to continue when Tatsumi urged him to go on. “Are you and Saku-chan a couple?”
Tatsumi sounded surprised before he laughed. “Sakura and I? That’s hilarious. She’s more like a clingy friend.”
Tomo looked into the cup.
“I just thought it seemed Saku-chan likes you.”
“How?”
“She isn’t usually clingy. I mean, she has clung to me and Ken, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her do that with someone else. Maybe her brothers.”
“Really? But how did that make us a couple?”
“You started calling her ‘Sakura’ instead of ‘Hana’.”
Tatsumi looked at him in thought.
“Now that you mention it, I guess I did. I never really noticed.”
He looked like he was about to say something when the water finished boiling.
They made two cups of coffee and six cups of tea. Tomo asked for a tray and fit in all the cups on it, to Tatsumi’s surprise. Tomo was just used to it, though.
He walked to the living room.
“Here’s your coffee, Yuu... suke. The other is for Tatsumi, right?”
“Yeah, that’s mine. I didn’t say Yuusuke, and I wanted coffee.”
“I just remember what people usually order. You both ordered coffee in the past.”
“I’ve drunk coffee twice around you, and you remember that? That’s pretty amazing.”
It impressed Tatsumi, but Tomo didn’t really think it was anything special. It didn’t help him with his studies, after all.
“I hope you will enjoy—. Oh, I don’t have to say that.”
“Momo-san, you work too much. Take a break and just be Tomoki for a while,” Yuu laughed.
Tomo sat down, holding the tray, like he was used to, then put it behind him, before he picked up his cup.
“I told you to take a break!” Yuu said.
“Oh... I’ve spent most of my free time working since my second year of middle school, so I guess it’s all just become habits.” Tomo chuckled.
“You’re doing it again!” Tatsumi said. “That was the Momo-san chuckle.”
“How is it different from my usual laugh?”
“Isn’t the Momo-san laugh somewhat less cute?” Tatsumi asked Yuu.
“Yeah. If it had been the only one I had seen and heard, I would have thought it was natural, but the natural laughs just kinda look and sound cuter.”
“That doesn’t make me happy, Yuu, Tatsumi! How can you even say things like that?”
“I think cute suits well to describe you, Momo,” Susumu pointed out.
Tomo wasn’t sure about that, but at least he could say he did like cute things.
“What’s this ‘Momo-san’ thing?” Miyake asked.
“Momo-san is what Momocchi’s called at work.”
“Is that why Momoi’s called Momo? I?” Miyake looked really confused when he realised some said Momoi.
“It’s because his name is Momoi Tomoki, Kazu,” Itou said and sipped his tea. “Sensei said his mother was harassing the principal until he gave in.”
“Harassing… sounds about right, yes.” Tomo smiled awkwardly. “I think she tries to make me change my name, but Seki Tomoki sounds odd.”
“And you’d lose the right to the Momoi land too, I heard from Shouji.”
“I guess there’s that too...” Tomoki thought. “But I would have changed my name the other way even if I lost that. I don’t really want it. And Shouji has cousins who could take over if great-grandfather dies, so that’s not really something I worry about.”
“Momoi land?”
“My great-grandfather buys up land and renovates and restores buildings. Next in line to inherit it would be my grandmother, but she has said that if it would go to her, she’d just give it to her son, so Shouji and his cousins are considered next in line. The entire point is for the Momoi family to buy up and sell off land by creating more value on it.”
“That’s interesting. I didn’t know Momoi was important!” one of the Fukushimas said.
“I’m not. And my great-grandfather is really just a landowner. He doesn’t sell much off, since he focuses on maintaining what got restored. He’s not a businessman. At best you might be interested if you work in real estate.”
“I thought we were going to study, not chat.”
Tomo chuckled.
“That! That’s the real one!” Yuu exclaimed. “Wasn’t it cuter?”
“I didn’t really notice any difference,” Miyake said.
“That’s because you wouldn’t care unless it was a girl, Kazu. Momoi-kun definitely had a slightly higher pitch, and the way he held his fist and index finger to cover his mouth differed from when he used the tips of his fingers. Both seem natural for him, but the one just now is more fitting for him as a person, I suppose.”
“You look too closely, Sakuya. You notice the strangest things.”
Itou got a slight pink tint to his cheeks. “I just observed because they said it was different!”
Tomo chuckled. Then realised it and pursed his lips. “I’m not cute. Let’s study,” he said with a pout.
“I know someone who would have loved to see that just now,” Susumu said, and Yuu and Tatsumi agreed.
Tomo knew they were talking about Ken.
#
“Momo,” Tomo heard and turned to Tatsumi. “What would this paragraph be in English?”
He read it a few times before he wrote the translation.
“Hmm...”
Reading it over, he noticed a few things that seemed off. Reading it again, he felt satisfied.
“Something like this?”
Tatsumi didn’t look convinced.
“That looks way longer than what I asked about?”
“That’s because English uses more characters. And this requires more words too.” Tomo wrote in his notebook again. “If we sum it up in one sentence, it would look like this in English, but like this in Japanese.”
One of the Fukushimas leaned over the table. “Let me see, too. Can you explain why?”
“Yuu, that’s rude.”
Tomo noticed Yuu looked up when hearing his name, but when he realised, it wasn’t him they were talking to, he went back to focusing on what he was studying. Tomo had noticed it before, but Yuu could focus surprisingly well even when no one else was.
“But I asked for help with English, so I might as well look. Right?”
Tomo smiled, and noticed Itou tried to ignore the boy that was essentially right in his face, while also trying to avoid him. It looked fairly uncomfortable and counterproductive. He hadn’t though the strict class representative would have acted that way. If Tomo would have guessed, Itou would have told Yuuta to sit down, but he was quietly staring into his book, frowning with a tinge of red on his cheeks.
It wasn’t as if he wasn’t aware of the boy, that much was clear, because when Yuuta moved to get closer for a proper look, Itou carefully avoided any physical contact.
“Come on, Yuu, sit down.”
“What? I’m not bothering Momoi, right? I can take a look, right Momoi?”
“It’s fine,” Tomo said, his gaze moving to Yuuta as the boy almost was on top of the table, trying to look over to where Tomo sat. Meanwhile Itou’s face was turning redder and frown worse, yet he still said nothing. “I think you’re bothering Itou-kun, because you’re almost in his face,” he said and held his notebook toward the boy.
“Oh! Sorry, Itou,” Yuuta said and sat down with Tomo’s notes in hand. “You should have said something.”
“It’s fine,” Itou muttered, seemingly completely out of character.
Tomo noticed Miyake giving Itou an odd look, confirming to Tomo that Itou would normally react differently.
Tomo turned his head down, but glanced at Itou who seemed to take a silent deep breath as if to calm himself down. He then glanced at the twins before he tried to study.
#
Tomo needed to follow everyone in the station's direction to get home, since Tatsumi turned part-way on Tomo’s way home. He was pretty tired. He stopped at a vending machine and checked his phone. He saw Ken had called. He called Ken while putting in money to buy juice.
“Tomo! Were you busy?”
“Hey Ken! Did you have something you wanted to say?”
“I love you.”
Tomo felt how he flushed.
“I can’t reply to that right now.”
“Oh, are you out around people? Where?”
“Eh? I’m on my way home from Tatsumi’s place?”
“You had a study group? More than just Tatsumi?”
“Yeah.”
“Never mind, then.”
“Did you want to meet up?”
“I just was at your place and I’m on my way home. But it would be weird if you follow everyone to the station just to see me.”
“Oh... I guess I missed my chance to see you.”
“I called you because I wanted to know when you were coming home.”
“I miss you,” Tomo said quietly.
“We’ll just get through the finals.”
“Bye.”
“Bye Tomo.”
Tomo hung up and picked up the juice he had bought. He was about to turn and continue after everyone else when he heard.
“Who was that?”
Tomo turned to see Miyake, and Itou were waiting for him nearby. Miyake looked curious while Itou looked away.
Tomo laughed awkwardly. “Aren’t you going to the station?”
“We live around here, so Satou thought we could wait for you,” Itou muttered. “Sorry.”
“What are you apologising for?” Tomo said and forced a smile. “It’s nice you wanted to wait.”
“But that was senpai, right?” Itou said.
“Senpai?” Miyake asked.
“You’re an idiot, Kazu. You go home. You live in the wrong direction, anyway. I’ll go with Momoi-kun.”
Miyake shrugged and turned at the first corner.
“Did he really need to wait?” Tomo asked.
“No, he just did because he tries too hard to be friendly. Kazu isn’t very good at making friends that last.” Itou muttered. “Sorry again. Kazu probably didn’t connect the dots, but we probably shouldn’t have heard that.”
“Well, you did, so what can I do? But yeah, it was Ken.”
“So I suppose the ‘lover’ Hanakawa mentioned is senpai?”
Tomo flushed and chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah.”
“I guess I can get it, though. Senpai’s pretty handsome.”
Itou seemed to say it without realising it. Tomo watched his face as something seemed to dawn to him.
“But it’s not like I like senpai or guys or anything!” Itou said.
“I don’t care if you do. If you do, isn’t that good for you? If you did,” Tomo said and smiled teasingly, “who from the group would have been your type?”
“Isn’t that a strange question?”
“I’m together with the guy who takes girls on a few dates with a certain set of rules and refuses serious relationships. I think my question is pretty normal.”
“If you put it like that... Hmm... Sakuraba or the Fukushimas maybe?” Tomo saw Itou’s cheeks turn a little pink, and he turned away from Tomo. “I answered, now you should too.”
“Whoever is the most like Ken,” Tomo chuckled. “Ken is my only type as far as I know.”
“Isn’t that cheating the question?”
“But I can’t really answer. If someone asks, all I think of is Ken. Regardless of whether it’s boy, girl or nonbinary we’re talking about.”
“So you’re open for any?”
Tomo thought as he walked.
“I don’t think it matters. But I’ve only been interested in Ken, so I can’t say.”
“You must really love senpai.”
“I guess...” Tomo stopped. “I can’t really talk about whether people are my type, but you can talk to me about your types any time, Itou-kun. Regardless of what or who they are. See you tomorrow.”
Tomo turned a corner after waving, smiling to himself.