Episode 9 – School’s Madonna Lean Over

“Zzzzz, hmm?”

I can feel the weight and warmth of Watanabe san on my shoulders. Her hair touches my neck, and it’s so soft that it makes me feel warm and itchy.

“……I’m done for.”

I let out a sigh and looked out the window .

We had finished our fishing in the afternoon and were taking the train back to our hometown.

At first, Watanabe san seemed to enjoy talking about the day’s fishing, but then, perhaps because she had been active since early in the morning, she began to doze off and finally started to sleep.

No wonder. Fishing is surprisingly exhausting.

You are constantly moving the rod, and sometimes you have to stand still for a long time.

Even I, a seasoned angler, was tired, so it was not surprising that she, a beginner, would have run out of energy by now.

“Ehehe, I caught another fish, Aikawa kun. It’s a Kisu.”

The problem is that Watanabe san has been whispering in my ear for a while.

When a cute voice whispers “Kisu” in my ear, it sounds like something else, even though it is not supposed to mean that.

When I looked at her with side glance, I saw her light peach shaped lips, and since then I could not look at her anymore.

“Aikawa-kun, I want a Kisu more and more.”

Watanabe san sounds innocent. Right now, my mental strength is being scraped to the limit.

“I’m sorry, I fell asleep. You must be tired too, Aikawa kun……”

I woke her up just as we were arriving at the local station, and she apologized.

“No, it’s okay. I always wake up when I ride alone so I don’t forget to get off.”

Looking at me with wet eyes from a close distance, I became conscious of the fact that my shoulders had been touching each other until just now, and I was at a loss for how to deal with it.

I was away from her when I woke her up, so she has a normal demeanor.

“You look pretty tired, don’t you?”

A surprisingly astute observation. But she doesn’t seem to realize that she is the cause.

“Even so, is it really okay if we don’t bring back the Kisu?”

“Yes, I wouldn’t be able to have it at my house, and…well, you know, at my house…….”

She puts her hand over her mouth and makes an apologetic sound, then looks shunned and depressed.

Watanabe san would probably like to try her own fish, but her words contained some sort of circumstance that she was not allowed to bring home.

“Well, never mind. Luckily, I have enough to consume.”

Two Inada and twenty Japanese whiting. That’s a lot, but Aizawa would have been happy to eat them.

“Boys eat a lot, don’t they? I’m glad you ate the whole sandwich earlier.”

Watanabe san clasped her hands together in front of me and happily reminisced about the meals at the facility.

Considering the time and effort that Watanabe san had put into making each sandwich, there was no way I could have chosen to leave any of them.

I savored every last one.

Standing at a local train station like this, I could feel the eyes of the people around me.

I guess I stood out in front of the station because of the conversation between me, with my fishing gear, and Watanabe san, a beautiful girl.

Perhaps because it was the evening of a holiday, many people are coming and going.

She is wearing a hat, so I don’t think the people from the school will see her and immediately associate her, but after some time, some people might recognize her as the school’s madonna.

If that happens, they may become suspicious of us being together.

“Then, let’s part ways here for the day.”

She was so tired that she fell asleep on the train. Watanabe san would probably want to go home and take a rest. I ended the conversation.

“Thank you very much. I had a lot of fun today.”

Watanabe san bowed her head politely.

“No, it was fun for me, too. I used to think that fishing was something you did alone, but it’s fun to fish with someone else.”

I realized that the bad memories of the past had been pushed to the corner of my mind.

“Then I’ll see you…….”

I hesitate whether I should continue my words. My relationship with her is outside of school. I didn’t want to spread the word about fishing with her, and I also didn’t want people to find out she was friends with me and talk about fishing even though they weren’t interested.

Perhaps this came out on my face, Watanabe san said with a soft smile,

“Let’s go fishing together again !”

She understood my intentions and responded accordingly.

“Well, today is a good day.”

As usual, Aizawa came to the table with two plastic bottles and started eating his lunch.

“Today, we’re having rice cooked with Inada fish and fried fish balls.”

“Oh, oh, oh ! They look as delicious as ever.”

When I told her the menu and opened the lid of the lunch box, Aizawa was impressed.

“This time, I’ve traveled across the prefecture. I can assure you it’s delicious.”

I tried it all at home, including in miso soup, and it was very tasty and fatty, straight from the producing region.

Aizawa was eating the lunch I had prepared with a single-minded devotion.

While watching Aizawa, I was thinking about the fun fishing …….

“Speaking of which, is that all you caught this time? I thought you would have caught several more kinds of fish, Aikawa?”

I usually fish for a long time and change my tricks depending on the time of day, so I often catch more than one species of fish. Aizawa caught me off guard by the fact that his lunch box contained only Inada.

“Well…..I did catch some.”

“Eh? What did you catch?”

“About twenty……Japanese whiting.”

“What, no Kisu tempura?”

I confessed, and Aizawa mentioned why there was no Kisu tempura.

“Sorry, that one was consumed over the weekend.”

I told him honestly that I had already eaten it.

“Hmmm, the Kisu must have been very tasty for Aizawa, who is tired after fishing, and devours it without a second thought?

Aizawa looks disappointed, but still extends his chopsticks to the fried Inada fish.

“Well, it had a special taste,……I guess?”

The reason is that I didn’t feel like giving away the Japanese whiting that Watanabe san caught. He tilted his head at that.