A Woman’s Grudge

Hah~~ Again, huh…

When he woke up in the morning, Minato inwardly let out a sigh at the fact that he couldn't feel one of his arms, which had been happening occasionally.

He hadn't been able to sleep at all since then, and had even been prepared to stay up all night, but he seemed to have fallen asleep before he knew it.

He looked over to Airi, who seemed to be sleeping quite comfortably.

He didn't have any special plans for today except to report to Kazuma and Momose about what happened after yesterday's fireworks display.

Maybe it was because he became aware of her fondness towards him, but her innocent sleeping face looked even cuter than usual.

As he kept stroking her softly for a while, Airi slowly opened her eyes, probably because she could feel herself being caressed.

"Hmm…?"

"Are you awake?"

"…Fuh."

The crystal clear blue color that reflected nothing melted and debauched the moment she saw Minato's face. Seeing her defenseless and innocent smile at close range stopped him from thinking.

As Minato froze, Airi leaned in closer to him.

"O-Oi, get away from me."

"Hya~a…"

Minato made a small call to her, but Airi didn't want to leave him.

She moved her body and firmly buried her face in Minato's chest before she started to fall asleep again.

He remained still for a little while, and when he was sure that she was completely asleep, he slipped out of the futon.

"Uuu…"

"Sorry, sorry"

"Nnn, fuh…"

As he waited for the blood to return to his numb arms, he stroked Airi's head to soothe her when she became cranky as usual.

After seeing that she was sleeping peacefully, as if she was completely at ease, he started to prepare breakfast.

I'm glad Airi's still the same in our everyday life, Minato thought to himself with a small chuckle.

"–And that's how it went."

They met at a diner in the early afternoon and he explained to Kazuma and Momose what had happened yesterday. Of course, he left out the details of what happened at home.

When he finished speaking, both of them raised their eyebrows in displeasure. Momose's face was particularly awful. She looked as if she was about to start a fight.

"I heard from Ninomiya that those guys have a bad reputation. Is there anything we can do to keep Ninomiya out of trouble?"

"Okay, leave it to me. I'll make them regret messing with Airi."

"Can you do it? I hate to put it this way, but Momose must be in a lot of trouble right now, right?"

He had heard that Momose was being somewhat harassed because of her position as 'the person closest to Airi' at school.

When Minato looked at her and wondered if it was really okay to leave her in such a situation, Momose smiled brightly.

"It's okay. Not all of them are harassing me, and the number of such people has been decreasing since before the summer vacation. There are a lot of people who were targeted by those guys in the first place. I'll remind them of the power of the girls."

"…I'm sorry, Shiori-san."

It wasn't that Airi did anything wrong, but she was certainly part of the cause of it, so she turned her face down and apologized to Momose.

Momose was taken aback for a moment by the apology, but quickly shook her head and followed up with Airi.

"Why are you apologizing, Airi? You didn't do anything wrong, so you don't have to worry about it at all! …With all that said, I'll gather up the people who were affected and those who are against them, and purge them. Leave it to me."

"Then, I'll leave it to you. By the way, what are you going to do?"

He trusted Momose, who had a confident smile on her face, and left her to it. Having made an enemy of Momose, who had many friends, Amamiya and the others would probably become quiet.

However, he was curious as to what method she would use. He didn't want Amamiya to retaliate against him for holding a grudge, so he asked Momose.

Then, Momose grinned and made an evil face.

"Well, it's not a big deal. It's just a matter of consolidating the damage throughout the school and making sure that all the girls in the grade know who Amamiya is, including the ones who don't know about him. Since he'll be an enemy of all the girls in the school, he won't be able to do what he's been doing, so I don't think there will be any retaliation against Airi and the other. Also, I'm going to ask the girls who have friends in other high schools to pass the information on to them as well. I'll show them that there are things in this world that can't be solved by face and money. Girls' grudges are scary, you know? And…"

"And?"

Seemingly reluctant to say it, Momose cut off her words.

When he urged her to continue, Momose said, "Airi, I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, okay?" She then continued.

"I know Airi may not like it, but there are still a lot of people who want to be friends with Airi. Airi doesn't get along with men, so much so that some people are determined to protect her from their hands. …He hurt Airi, who's so popular, so he's probably going to suffer more than I think."

"…I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I mean, I didn't know there were such people."

Airi, who had been dealing with the situation by putting up a wall outside, must not have noticed. Her expression was more complicated than words could describe.

She was happy to have someone who could help her, but she couldn't be positive about people who wanted to be friends with her because of what she had been through.

She thought that attracting attention was not a good thing, but she didn't expect to benefit from it here.

"Well, don't worry about it, Airi. If you want to get involved, you can do so!"

"Yeah, thank you."

Momose laughed softly, not wanting to force her to get involved. Airi's complicated expression changed to a smile, and that was the end of this debriefing for now.

Minato let out a sigh of relief that they had managed, though he wondered what he would do if they couldn't find a solution.

"Also, aren't you too close to each other?"

Kazuma looked at Minato and Airi suspiciously.

Minato was also thinking that he was strangely close to Airi as they talked.

Minato and Airi were sitting on the sofa side of the table, and their knees had already hit each other a few times, though she didn't seem to mind at all.

By the way, even if Minato tried to run away from her, she immediately closed the distance, so he gave up trying to escape.

"…Well, isn't that just your imagination?"

"I'm pretty sure it's not my imagination."

"Ah, Minato-san. I'm going to get a drink. What would you like?"

"Tea."

"Okay, I got it."

Perhaps not wanting to be pursued, Airi took Minato's cup as she ran away.

As Minato was lost in thought, wondering why she was closing the distance between them, Kazuma and Momose looked at him with a grin.

"What?"

"So Airi usually calls you 'Minato-san'?"

"Then I wonder what Minato usually calls Ninomiya-san."

A cold sweat ran down his back. He hadn't noticed that the way she called Minato was the same as when they were at home.

When Airi returned at an inopportune time, Momose and Kazuma pursued her as if they had found a good story.

" Ne , Airi, why are you calling Minato-kun by his name?"

"Eh? …Ah."

"Did you not realize it?"

Apparently, she hadn't even noticed it herself, and she suddenly started to get frightened.

Her face also turned as red as an apple.

"Did something happen yesterday, by any chance?"

"Um, yesterday was nothing, yeah, nothing at all."

"Then why are you calling him by name?"

"I've been calling him by his name for a while, since before the final exam. So yesterday, really, nothing happened."

"Oi, Ninomiya. You're revealing unnecessary things."

"Eh! Ah, I'm sorry!"

She was completely confused and even said things that she didn't need to say.

And the way Airi reacted, it was as if she was saying, 'Something did happen yesterday.'

Kazuma and Momose looked at her with a warm look that passed through their grins.

"Hee~ Then, what do you call her, Minato?"

"Ninomiya"

"Ninomiya-san, is what Minato is saying true?"

"…It's not."

"Oi."

He knew that Kazuma and Momose would not tell anyone, but he never imagined that Airi would be on their side.

Kazuma's smile deepened and he questioned Minato.

"Hey Minato, I'll ask you again. What do you usually call her?"

"I'm exercising my right to remain silent."

"Minato-san, why don't you call me that?"

She tugged on Minato's hem and looked up at him.

He thought that kind of thing was sly. If the girl he liked asked him to do something like that, there was no way he could say no.

He let out a sigh of no choice and prepared himself.

"…Airi"

" Fufu , thank you very much. Minato-san."

It was bad for his heart to see her beaming with happiness like that.

Momose and Kazuma looked at them with a dumbfounded look.

"…What do you say in this situation? 'Explode,' right?"

"Shiori, don't do it. You'll get kicked by a horse." (T/N: An expression used for people who meddle in others' love affairs. Shoutout to "MaltedBarley" who told me in the Zetro Discord.)

"…You guys."

"Minato and Ninomiya-san were the ones who flirted."

He glared at Momose and Kazuma, but they retaliated with smirks.

Although there was no flirting involved at all, he thought rehashing the story would probably be a bad idea.

"Shut up. Leave me alone. So, that's all I have to say. Is there anything else?"

"Ah, Minato-kun has a bathing suit, right?"

"I do… No way, could it be?"

"That's right! This time it's the pool!"

"You two go ahead. Airi won't go because she doesn't like the way people look at her, and if Airi won't go, then I won't go either.

"Eh, but I intend to go?"

"What?"

She tilted her head as if to say, 'Did I say something strange?'

He had thought that Airi wouldn't go there because she didn't want to be in a crowded place, but apparently not.

He didn't think it was possible, but could it be she didn't know that there'd be a lot of people?

"Airi, do you know there's going to be a lot of people staring at you?"

"Yes, I know."

"Then why are you going? You don't like that, do you?"

"Because I want to go. That's why I have a favor to ask Minato-san."

She gave him a nasty smile.

He was already used to it since he had been given it so many times, but he prayed in his heart that it would not cause any trouble at least.

"Please stay with me the whole time at the pool."

"…I can't ward off other men, you know?"

"You can, you just have to be confident. I mean, I don't care about anyone else… Though I'm sure I'll get quite a few stares. Do you hate the idea?"

He knew she trusted him, but when she said, "I don't care about anyone else," he almost misunderstood her.

Airi was simply saying that she didn't care about anyone but Minato, whom she trusted the most.

She also seemed to be well aware that she was being selfish, and from the worried look on her face as she raised her eyebrows, he could see through her thinking that if Minato didn't like it, he wouldn't go, and that she shouldn't force him.

Minato wanted to fulfill Airi's wishes, and he thought it would be okay if all he got was a lot of jealous stares. He then let out a sigh and told her that he was going to the pool too.

"Hah~~ I don't know what's gonna happen, but you better be ready."

"Yes, thank you very much."

After all, if the girl I like asks me to do something, there's no way I can refuse , Minato thought as he let out a sigh while looking at Airi who was smiling gently.

"Why are they leaving us behind…?"

"How would I know? Ahh, my heart…"