Chapter 4: Nice Guy
“I’ve been thinking.”
At the sound of Megumi’s carefree voice, Kyouya looked up from the book he was reading.
“You’re a really nice guy, aren’t you, s.h.i.+nomiya-kun?”
“Eh?”
Kyouya was bewildered from having that said to him all of a sudden.
Thinking that he was obviously misinterpreting the meaning of the compliment, his cheeks heated up a bit.
With Mao, s.h.i.+on and Kirara being his uppercla.s.smen, Megumi was the only one who was in the same year as him. Even if she was from another cla.s.s, they were both fellow first years. They shared some affinity.
“Here, have some tea. It’s a.s.sam tea, it’s recommended that you drink it with milk. Would you like me to put some in?”
“Oh, sure.”
Before his eyes, Megumi poured the milk into the black tea.
A white whirlpool swirled around the cup. The scent that spread through the air gently gave rise to a sweetness deep within his nose.
Kyouya didn’t know the names of any of the teas that Megumi came out with day after day, as if by magic, but by drinking them every day, even an amateur like him had become able tell differences in the taste and aroma.
He dimly gazed at the girl’s back as she went about her work.
Megumi was a girl who liked to be helpful to someone. At the moment, there was no one else in the room but him, so he was hogging her all to himself.
Looking either from a conservative point of view or from an objective point of view, Megumi was very cute. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she was a beauty.
“Me? A nice guy? I wonder…”
“Yes, it’s true.”
Megumi gave a large, a.s.suring nod over her shoulders.
“My sister might bite you, but you don’t get mad.”
That’s where she was going?
Having the expectations that were floating in his heart broken in an instant, Kyouya gloomily drooped his shoulders.
From the moment he joined the GJ club or even earlier, from that first day when he was kidnapped and forcefully inspected, he’d been made to realize that Megumi was a girl with an angel’s heart.
In this girl’s pure heart, everything was seen in a compa.s.sionate light.
It wasn’t just a case of a rich lady with a kind heart. It was something more extraordinary, a kindness on a global scale. In the GJ club they called it “Angelic Love”. (1)
And, for this girl with the angel’s heart, there wasn’t anybody whom she disliked.
He had never tried asking her directly though Kyouya was sure, that if he did, the answer would simply be “I love everybody in the world.”
That’s why it was impossible.
To begin with, if he even started to think about boy and girl issues while being faced by Megumi’s bright smile, he’d feel ashamed.
“Did you know? Lately, my sister has stopped biting people.”
No. She still bites.
“I guess she’ll only bite you, right?”
Well, yes. Once every three days.
“Why do only I get bitten?”
“That’s because you don’t get angry, s.h.i.+nomiya-kun.”
“Hmm…”
“Because you’re a nice guy.”
“I see.”
Usually he’d think that was because he had no self-confidence, but if Megumi was telling him that, he’d start thinking that way.
“s.h.i.+on-san also teases you a lot, right?”
“I get the feeling she’s toying with me.”
“That’s because she takes a fancy to you.”
“Really?”
Perhaps one could see things that way. It would be fantastic if that was the case.
“Kirara-san is very interested in you too.”
“Is that so?”
That was hard to believe. The big girl’s thoughts were the hardest to understand.
“After all, you are the only one she’ll give her meat to.”
“This doesn’t feel so bad.”
Being played around with by s.h.i.+on, getting special treatment from Kirara, being condemned to a full-course black tea tasting by Megumi and getting bitten by Mao…
“I’m also very happy that you’re here with us. I have a reason to make tea.”
Megumi smiled while letting out a giggle.
While they were talking, she had already prepared the next tea.
While they were talking, Kyouya had already emptied his cup.
It was the fourth cup already. The next would be the fifth.
“I wonder what the next tea will be?” were Kyouya’s thoughts as he patted his flabby belly.
CHARACTER PROFILE:
Amatsuka Megumi – Part 1
Calm and easygoing.
She enjoys being helpful to everybody so much that she can’t help herself, becoming the GJ Club’s resident meddler.
A girl with an angel’s heart.
All sorts of affairs are reflected in a positive light through the girls eyes.