"Ow..."
As we made our way down the stairs with me supporting Hayasaka, we could see Miyuki and Shinomiya staring at us in shock.
Shinomiya, in particular, looked deeply worried.
"H-Hayasaka?! What happened to you...? Are you okay?"
"Mm-hm. I slipped on the stairs and broke my heel by accident. I twisted my ankle too, so I think I should head home for today..."
"Then let me take you home right away..."
Just as Shinomiya was about to say something that sounded like she wanted to take her with her, Hayasaka started blinking furiously.
Shinomiya seemed to catch on to the situation to some extent, and her face went, "Ah..."
I also gave Miyuki a quick look and said,
"Come to think of it, I should probably head home too. I'll take Hayasaka with me, so you two can keep hanging out and then go home together."
At that, Miyuki gave me a look that practically said, nice one, and casually wiped his nose.
Shinomiya probably understood what was going on, but since the surface-level situation was that Hayasaka had hurt her ankle, she looked at me with concern.
"...Please take good care of Hayasaka."
"Yeah, I'll get her home safely. We're heading out first."
"Take care, Hotaro, Hayasaka."
"Mm-hm, sorry for leaving early like this~ Let's hang out again next time~"
With that, the two of us slipped away from them. Once we reached a spot far enough away, we sat down on a bench and I let go of my support.
"We can't exactly go home like this. What kind of shoes do you need?"
"Just some sneakers, anything."
There was no way she could walk around with one broken heel.
She needed something to wear, so I took her card and bought a pair of decent sneakers from a nearby store.
That wrapped up the supporters' schedule. The sun had already set, and all that was left for us was to go home.
"...Good work."
"...Yeah, you too."
"Heading home?"
"No, I have somewhere to stop by. See you."
After that simple exchange, Hayasaka said goodbye first and turned away to go her own way.
"Yeah, take care."
I was about to leave too, but something about Hayasaka's gait seemed off.
She was limping with every step, as if something was bothering her.
"Hey, Hayasaka."
"...What."
At my call, she stopped and looked back.
"Were you hurt back there?"
"It's nothing."
So she really had gotten hurt while acting. That was honestly unexpected.
"Where are you going? I can at least help you that far."
"It's fine. It's not that far to the movie theater."
"...Movie theater?"
Did she really have to go out on a day like this? But her expression looked a little lonely.
"If it's not today, I won't have time. Anyway, take care."
The moment she finished speaking, she started walking again.
She let out a few soft groans along the way, so her condition clearly wasn't great.
But what was I supposed to do? I'm not the type to go around insisting someone's not okay when they say they are, and I couldn't be bothered to meddle for no reason.
And yet, for some reason, I didn't feel right about it.
Was it because Shinomiya had asked me to take care of her? Or was it just because I couldn't shake the feeling of leaving an injured person behind?
I knew what I was about to do wasn't very like me.
But it was better than going home with this weird feeling stuck in my chest.
I hurried over to where she was limping along and called out to her again.
"Hey, Hayasaka."
"...I told you not to wor—!?"
The moment Hayasaka turned around, I scooped her up.
In the so-called princess carry.
"W-What, what, what... what do you think you're doing?!"
Her face turned bright red in an instant as she thrashed and protested.
But I was holding her pretty firmly, so it was pointless.
"You were going to keep walking like that? We'd have to take hundreds of steps before you got home."
"It doesn't matter...!"
"..."
We were only temporary allies. It wasn't like we had any reason to care about small things like this.
"And you didn't even ask permission... There are people watching too...!"
Fair enough. It was rude to do this without asking. And people watching, huh.
There were quite a few couples out here, since this was apparently some kind of date spot. A lot of people were staring at us with interest. In that case—
"Then I'll use my wish."
"Now...? For this?"
When she asked if I was really going to use a wish on something this trivial, I nodded calmly.
"Then it's fine, right?"
"I mean, I guess it is..."
It was a wish, after all, so even while she hesitated, she didn't deny it.
"Then choose. Let me support you, carry you on my back, or keep going like this."
"Tch..."
The choices were very deliberately arranged. One option with little burden, one embarrassing option, and one even more embarrassing option.
The last two would be pretty rough, so she would have no choice but to pick the first one.
Hayasaka seemed to think for a moment, then spoke.
"...Then carry me."
"Right, I'll support you—what?"
Did I just hear that wrong?
"I said carry me."
"...?"
What was this situation?
"It'd be unfair if I was the only one embarrassed."
"That is your reason...!?"
So she was mad about being princess-carried in front of people. That was definitely a bit much, though...
"So you can feel it too. Put in some effort."
After saying that, she stuck her tongue out at me a little.
"...Haah."
This woman really wasn't easy.
I couldn't exactly complain, since I had brought this on myself.
"Come on, get on."
Hayasaka hesitated, then climbed onto my back. As expected, she was pretty light.
"How is it? Light as a feather, right?"
Of course, once she asked like that, I didn't feel like giving her a straight answer.
"Weird. I think the feather swelled up in water."
"...Do you want to die?"
Cold. A knife flew straight in and stabbed me.
"No, I'm sorry..."
My little attempt at teasing got me nowhere, and I ended up carrying her to the movie theater.
After walking about five minutes with Hayasaka on my back, we reached the movie theater floor.
Sure enough, carrying her around made me feel all the stares gathering on us. Pretty embarrassing. While I was thinking that, she asked,
"Are you going to watch a movie too?"
"I can't just wait around for two hours. What are we here to see?"
"...The Snow Queen."
"What?"
"...Frozen."
Looking at the poster, it seemed to be Disney's new movie.
But if she was going to watch it, why was she so embarrassed?
I let Hayasaka sit down, then went to the ticket machine and bought two tickets. She was still wearing an embarrassed expression.
"Do you think it's childish?"
"No, Disney's pretty mainstream. I've seen The Lion King too."
"Really...? Was it good? Did you enjoy it?"
Hayasaka suddenly leaned in close, her eyes sparkling. I was caught off guard for a second.
"Huh? Uh... yeah, it was fun."
"Really...!?"
She immediately brightened up and started chattering excitedly about The Lion King.
And when she smoothly moved on to other Disney movies after that, it was obvious she was a serious Disney fan.
So that was why she had come even with a twisted ankle...
There were about ten minutes left until the movie started when I realized I hadn't eaten dinner.
"You want popcorn?"
"Yeah. You?"
"I'm hungry, so I should probably get some."
"If we're getting some anyway, can we get that set?"
She pointed at a set with Frozen artwork on it. So she was going to make sure she got the merch too.
"I don't mind. What flavor?"
"I like sweet."
"I want savory. Let's do half and half."
I took the popcorn, then picked her up again, planning to go straight in. She still had no intention of switching back to support. And so I carried her into the screening room and all the way to our seats.
Her seat was G23. And mine was...
"Why are you sitting there?"
G25, one seat apart.
"We're not close enough to sit side by side all cozy like that. Us."
We weren't total strangers, but we weren't friends either. I thought this was the appropriate amount of distance for us.
"...But we only bought one popcorn, didn't we?"
"Then just hold it up over the middle seat."
"...Do whatever you want."
The movie finally started. Holding the popcorn up the whole time made my arm ache, so I sped up my eating. Seeing that, she matched my pace and started eating like it was a competition, and before long the popcorn was gone.
Once we were done eating, we finally focused on the movie.
I usually didn't watch many 3D animated films, so I hadn't expected much, but...
"...This is fun, isn't it?"
It was more entertaining than I'd expected.
The story went something like this.
In a kingdom, two princess sisters, Elsa and Anna, were getting along happily.
But then they hit that turbulent phase, and Elsa became the Snow Queen. She ignored Anna, who wanted to build snowmen and play, and Anna, resentful toward her older sister, grew to hate snow and became the Fire Queen instead.
The two of them fought a superpowered battle in a snow-versus-fire showdown, until a wicked prince from a foreign land named Hanzo appeared.
The sisters reconciled, joined forces, and defeated Hanzo with a finishing move to restore peace. That was basically the story.
When we came out after the movie, Hayasaka was overwhelmed with emotion.
"I'm so glad we came to see it in the theater..."
"It really was fun. I think I get why people watch it now."
The impact of Elsa and Anna's combined finisher, [Snow Fire], against Hanzo's dragon strike was definitely impressive. When I told her that, she looked like she was about to die of happiness.
"Right...? The last movie I saw was..."
Even while being carried, she launched into a long story. Just how much did she love Disney?
I went out to the main road near the theater and waited for a taxi.
Hayasaka, still on my back, asked,
"Which part of town do you live in?"
"Bunkyo Ward."
"Opposite side, then. I'm in Minato Ward. We can't ride together in a taxi."
"Yeah, I guess not."
A taxi came quickly. Hayasaka climbed down from my back and opened the rear door. She looked back and said,
"Take care."
"Yeah, you too."
With the door about to close, the two of us finished our cool little goodbye.
After watching the taxi leave, I turned around. I should probably head back on the subway too.
I wondered if Miyuki was doing okay, so I called him.
He answered within seconds.
"...How's it going?"
"Uh, well..."
He hesitated for a moment.
"...?"
"Shinomiya ran away..."
What?
"No, what did you do to her? Were you trying to do something perverted or what?"
"Do I look like that kind of guy?! We had dinner in a nice place, then went to a place called Cosmo Planetarium. You know, the place where you can look at the stars. Ever heard of it?"
I think I'd heard of a place where you could get the feeling of looking up at the night sky indoors. I also remembered hearing that it had a nice atmosphere and was popular with couples.
As expected of an astronomy nerd, he even took her on a date somewhere like that.
"I've heard of it. So?"
"I got swept up in the mood of the night sky and said something, and the moment Shinomiya heard it..."
"She ran away?"
"Yeah, that's right..."
What on earth could you possibly say to make a girl run away in the middle of such a good atmosphere?
"What did you say?"
"I, uh... I can't remember..."
I could understand getting swept up in the mood, but how do you forget what you said too...?
I felt my blood pressure spike and grabbed the back of my neck.
After Hayasaka got home and was treated by the doctor on standby before heading upstairs, Kaguya was already in her room.
Kaguya's face, as she sat on the bed, was flushed bright red.
"H-Hayasaka...!"
"Kaguya-sama? Is something wrong...?"
"The president, the president..."
"...Yes. The president?"
"He told me he loves me!"
"——What!?"
Hayasaka's eyes went wide, and she couldn't keep up with the sudden turn this conversation had taken.
Curious, she urged Kaguya to continue.
"What on earth happened?"
"Well..."
After hearing the rough explanation, Hayasaka's own flushed expression gradually soured.
"...So you're saying he said, 'The moon is beautiful,' right?"
"Yes, yes! That's basically the same as saying he loves me! It's practically a confession!"
"So that's what this was...!"
Anyone who knew a little literature knew that Natsume Soseki had translated "I love you" as "The moon is beautiful tonight."
But that wasn't the only way it could be used!
He might have just meant the moon really was beautiful.
Looking more closely, Kaguya was in full [Baka Kaguya] mode.
In other words, she wasn't in a state where she could think rationally.
Feeling the need to make Kaguya realize how foolish she looked right now, Hayasaka let out a long sigh and sat down beside her.
"Kaguya-sama."
"Mm?"
"What if, hypothetically, that was the president's trap?"
"The president's... trap?"
She sank back into her delusion once more.
--- Kaguya's delusion ---
"President, can I take what you said yesterday as a confession?"
"...?"
Kaguya spoke to the busy Shirogane with a triumphant expression.
But Shirogane looked completely baffled.
"A confession...? What are you talking about, Shinomiya?"
"No, yesterday you confessed your love to me..."
Shirogane thought back carefully about what had happened, then suddenly burst out laughing.
"Puhaha, I was wondering what you were talking about."
"...What?"
"You mean because I said the moon is beautiful?"
"Yes, that's obviously a confession..."
From here, Kaguya began to sense that something was going wrong.
"Why would I make such a literary-boy confession? And what era are you living in, anyway? Natsume Soseki died over a hundred years ago."
"Th-That can't be..."
"I really just meant the moon was beautiful."
Gulp!
Shirogane stood up and walked closer to Kaguya, and she swallowed hard.
"So that's what you wanted to hear, huh? That I love you, Shinomiya."
"N-No! That's impossible!"
She denied it desperately, but it was already too late.
Shirogane's half-lidded eyes looked down at her, and the corner of his mouth slowly curled upward.
"No, not impossible..."
Grin.
"You cute little thing-"
"Kyaaaaaaa!"
"Looks like she snapped out of it..."
With a shriek, Kaguya returned to normal. She trembled all over as if the betrayal had gone straight through her body.
"Ugh, to think he'd set a trap even in such a good atmosphere. The president is absolutely disgusting!!"
"Wasn't that trap something you set yourself...?"
Of course, Hayasaka couldn't say that out loud.
"Ah, fine! I'm going to sleep now, so Hayasaka should go to bed too!"
"Yes, have a pleasant night."
Hayasaka bowed her head and left Kaguya's room.
Thinking that Kaguya was probably going to stay up all night fuming like that, she took off her maid uniform, changed into her pajamas, and lay down on her bed.
"Haa..."
She had definitely done a lot today and should have been tired, but for some reason she couldn't sleep.
She had spent the day on a double date with the boys, but that had all been for Kaguya-sama.
It was strictly business. There was no personal feeling involved. That was how it should be.
And yet, why did she keep thinking about what happened when he carried her?
Why...?
"What is wrong with me, seriously..."
In the beautiful night, with the soft moonlight shining into the room, the girl found herself unable to fall asleep for quite a long time.
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