Chapter 408 Ideas
“Huh? Really? I was just saying it casually.”
Takuma Fujiyui looked at Noyoru Yokota with disbelief. He had just wanted to make a joke to lighten the mood seeing his friend looking so dejected, and he actually got it right?
“Yes, come, have a drink with me.”
Picking up Takuma Fujiyui’s glass, Noyoru Yokota picked up the wine bottle, poured it full, and handed it back. His fierce face now showed an extremely bitter and dejected expression, and he replied in a quiet voice.
“Okay, did you order the food? Tell me in detail while we eat then.”
“I ordered a few things casually, you can add more.”
Nodding, Takuma Fujiyui took the menu handed to him by the other person. After selecting a few common dishes, he handed the menu to a waiter not far away, then picked up his wine glass and took a sip, turning his gaze to Noyoru Yokota, who was drinking with his head down opposite him.
“What’s going on? Didn’t you and Kazumi Shimizu have a good relationship? Did you confess your feelings early and get rejected?”
Takuma Fujiyui was quite curious about Noyoru Yokota’s current state. Setting aside the overly love-struck descriptors like “salvation” and “kindred spirits,” he could infer the relationship between the two from their brief exchanges. At the very least, it was an ambiguous relationship slightly closer than friends. If it weren’t for Noyoru Yokota being too impatient and causing the girl to reject him, he really couldn’t figure out why they ended up like this.
“No.”
Looking up at Takuma Fujiyui, Noyoru Yokota pursed his lips as if wanting to say something, but his eyes dimmed again. He put down his glass and picked it up again, drinking it down with a gulp. He answered bitterly and unwillingly.
“She has a boyfriend.”
“Are you sure? There wasn’t any misunderstanding?”
Noyoru Yokota’s words made Takuma Fujiyui’s eyes narrow slightly. As the closest friend of the young boy, Takuma Fujiyui was basically the first person to share his pretentious love life. From his perspective, the way they interacted was enough to show that they had mutual feelings.
“No, I saw it on the last day of my internship. A guy came to pick her up, and they walked home together under the same umbrella.”
Letting out a long breath, Noyoru Yokota slumped onto the chair as if recalling that scene was enough to exhaust all his strength.
“I see… Did you ask Kazumi Shimizu?”
“What?”
“Ask her if she has a boyfriend, didn’t we say you were going to ask her before?”
“I… I haven’t yet…”
“…”
Looking at his stunned friend with a speechless expression, Takuma Fujiyui sighed with a hint of disappointment. He could understand why the other person was hesitant to ask that question to a girl he liked, but the result was that the young boy, who didn’t understand the situation, had invested too much emotion, leading him to act as if he was in despair after a breakup.
“Sigh, it’s no use saying this now.”
A moment later, Noyoru Yokota returned to his dejected state and refilled his glass with the wine bottle. Actually, technically, the two minors were not allowed to drink, but considering their not-so-short stature, and Noyoru Yokota’s overly mature appearance, no one naturally said anything to them.
“Who says it’s no use? You just got too caught up in love for the first time.”
“You’ve already defined it yourself without even asking? What if he’s her brother or a close friend? At least you need to get a definitive answer.”
“Furthermore, even if that guy is really Kazumi Shimizu’s boyfriend, so what? It still depends on how you think about it.”
Seeing his friend, who had finally regained a shred of spirit, slump back down, Takuma Fujiyui ruffled his hair in thought for a moment, then seriously began to persuade him.
“How I think about it?”
Heeding Takuma Fujiyui’s words, Noyoru Yokota’s dead eyes regained some life, and he leaned forward, asking what his friend meant.
“Yes, things aren’t as bad as you think.”
“No matter how dejected you are now, you can’t deny the relationship you had before, and the actions you took when you were together.”
“Um…”
Noyoru Yokota didn’t quite understand this statement and could only give a vague agreement, waiting to hear what his friend wanted to say.
“The intimate actions you mentioned, they don’t seem like something ordinary friends would do. So, there are only two possibilities: either she has some ulterior motive towards you and wants to use your feelings to get closer to you, or she’s the type of person who doesn’t maintain much distance with the opposite sex, which is why she behaves that way.”
“Kazumi isn’t that kind of person!”
He instinctively interrupted his friend’s defamation of the girl he admired. Noyoru Yokota realized that his voice had become a little too loud. He sat up straight and continued to explain.
“Then tell me, what about me is worth her using?”
“Ummm… the internship opportunity?”
This question did stump Takuma Fujiyui. After thinking for a long time, he faintly offered this as the only possibility, as the internship opportunity at the Muscled Agency was one of the few things the young boy had of some value.
“Impossible. Kazumi has connections that can handle someone being beaten into a vegetative state. With that kind of energy, she wouldn’t need to get close to me to get such an opportunity.”
He denied Takuma Fujiyui’s suggestion with finality, his eyes seeming to blaze as he spoke.
“Ah… you’re right about that. If she has that kind of energy, she really wouldn’t need to do something like that.”
“Then she’s that kind of girl who doesn’t maintain much distance, like Yoko from our class. In that case, the guy you mentioned is very likely to be her friend. You should ask her about it later, maybe it’s a misunderstanding.”
“The same personality as Yoko-san?”
He recalled the cheerful and energetic girl in their class. Indeed, as Takuma Fujiyui had said, she was close to everyone she chatted with, completely unconcerned about the distance between the opposite sex.
“Misunderstanding…”
A hint of life finally appeared on his dejected face. But then he seemed to ponder something, his relaxed brows furrowed again, and he immediately looked up, as if he had found his last glimmer of hope, his eyes shining intently at his friend.
“Then, Takuma, what about your previous statement, about the situation if Shimizu-san really has a boyfriend?”
