12th Piece – “In the Same Frame As You”

Pre-Chapter Notes: I reverted back to the old way of doing in translation notes since it seemed more people liked that variant. I’ll try to keep the in-line jokes to a minimum.
Second, this chapter is in Sato’s perspective rather than Oshio’s. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to figure that out. This chapter is a return to the normal length, as WOW last chapter was -long-.

With that, here we go.

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「aytim 9」

In our town, there’s only one place you can get rolled ice cream.

In the first place, rolled ice cream is made by spreading a thin layer of liquid cream on a cold plate, scraping it up with a spatula, rolling it, and then serving it in a cup.

Of course, the process of making the ice cream decorated like tulip petals also looks great.

That kind of fancy sweet is popular with high school girls…… or so says a web article I saw.

「With this… alright……」

After hesitating a lot, in the end I resolved myself and I uploaded a picture of rolled ice cream to Minsta and sighed deeply.

Toutou, toutou went my heart.

The tiredness is crashing down on me.

It was only one photo being uploaded to the net, it’s impossible that I should be this tense……

……what kind of reply would come back, I wonder.

Did I take a good photo?

What about a comment? Or tagging?

Was I able to do it?

Feelings like regret were wrapping around my head.

In the first place, since I can say with confidence I have 0 followers, it was a mistake to think about what kind of reaction I’d get.

「As expected, Oshio-kun is amazing…」

My mouth naturally said those words.

—amazing, Oshio-kun was amazing.

While I was worried about having 0 followers, Oshio-kun had 5000 followers. Almost every day he’d post stylish pictures. That is to say, he was aware of the expectations of 5000 people, and continues to respond to them.

5000…… I can’t imagine it.

Even our classmates only have around 40 followers.

Oshio-kun is truly amazing.

I noticed I was trying to open the official Minsta account page of “cafe tutuji” very naturally and I could feel myself blushing.

「T……!」 [T/N: The actual text is just the character for “tsu” so I just nabbed the first letter.]

I hurriedly turned off my smartphone.

Again, I……! Even if I came here alone to eat ice cream, in my head is only Oshio-kun!

……maybe this is how a stalker is born, with such things like falling into self-loathing?

「Let’s eat ice cream, okay……」 [T/N: Sato uses 「tabe-yo」, which generally has a kind of 「You know?」 feeling to it, so just imagine that she’s saying 「okay」 kind of trailing off.]

Ah, after all, the ice cream is the main thing here. With the plastic spoon, I lift the ice cream into my mouth.

「……」

……「It’s delicious」, I think. Yes, maybe it’s delicious, isn’t it?

But…… what is it?

To me, it doesn’t feel delicious.

I don’t know the difference from the ice cream that’s melting on the top of my tongue and the ice cream that’s sold at the supermarket.

I also paid 800 yen… [T/N: ~8.00 USD, that’s some expensive ice cream.]

Incidentally, I look at the neighborhood.

At the thin tables where high school girls were sitting, they said things like 「It’s delicious, it’s delicious」, laughing while putting ice cream in their mouths.

Has my tongue gone crazy, I wonder?

「……」

One more bite. As expected, it isn’t delicious.

This kind of experience, I haven’t had it before.

It wasn’t that I could leave the ice cream behind, so I continued to shave pieces of it off with a spoon and put it into my mouth repeatedly.

Rather than eating, I felt like I was consuming it.

Completely like a robot lacking sentience, I was putting the ice cream into my mouth. As expected, I think of him.

—Oshio-kun.

He really is kind.

And then, I acted like a spoiled child to him…… dammit. [T/N: Too strong of wording? It’s a set phrase in Japanese (pronounced “shimatta”) so I wasn’t sure what to use.]

Oshio-kun, at any time, was always kind.

For a person like me who was always troubled, he never left me alone, he was that kind of person. I’m sure he hasn’t changed since the day he gave me a grain of konpeito on the entrance exam.

Oshio-kun, to everyone, is kind.

Therefore, at “cafe tutuji” he rescued me, taught me how to take a photo in his room, went to drink tapioca milk tea together, all of that was kindness.

But even with all of that, it didn’t mean I was special.

I should have understood that……

I remember that day.

With Oshio-kun, the two of us drank tapioca milk tea, that day.

Mistaking Oshio-kun’s kindness deep inside my heart, I spit out that decisive line.

「—th, this time on Saturday, I’m going out to eat rolled ice cream! I wonder if Oshio-kun wants to come along!」

I… invited Oshio-kun for a date.

Oshio-kun, with a very much troubled look on his face, responded.

「……I’m sorry, that day, I have an errand to do.」

I was disappointed with this, but I may have received the meaning exactly as it meant.

But, he continued to worry about me.

「B-but, don’t worry. Sato-san can surely take a photograph in this way, even if I’m not there to help……」

If you say that much, even I, who is ignorant of romance, understands.

I—with Oshio-kun, I crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed with friends, and made the kind Oshio-kun reject me.

「……」

With a shakushaku sound, I continued to shave off ice cream.

The rolled ice cream that originally looked pretty, is starting to become soggy.

…..In the first place, why was I aiming to be a Minstagramer, anyways?

I wanted to make friends…… that was it, of course, but don’t think that was the true end goal.

After all, for me, because I don’t have friends, I don’t have troubles.

If that’s the case, what was it?

I think about it a little, and then, immediately I remember.

That is—I wanted to get a little closer to Oshio-kun.

For the sake of getting a little closer to the cool and kind-to-everyone Oshio-kun, I acted the way I thought a high school girl would act and started doing this stupid thing.

Even though I have no friends and no amiability, if I became a shining Minstragramer, I could stand on the same level as him.

But that was shallow.

Oshio-kun, even from a long time ago, has always been out of my hand’s reach.

And now, out of my sight.

「……aaah, I see.」

The ice cream I eat is salty, while I come to a full understanding.

For something that costs 800 yen, it isn’t delicious.

Oshio-kun was saying something like that, wasn’t he?

It wasn’t the tapioca milk tea itself, but where you drank it that was important.

I didn’t especially want to eat pancakes, drink tapioca milk tea, much less lick ice cream.

I wanted to be in the same frame, together with Oshio-kun—

「……tsu…」

That emotion endlessly overflowed, and I couldn’t bear it anymore, my head looking down. My whole body was wrapped in a strange feeling, bad enough that I wanted to throw up. The high school girls who were having a friendly chat felt like they were distant, like they were in a completely different dimension. I felt as if I was the only person in the world like this.

I remember this feeling.

But, the feeling of being crushed in this deep sea was not the same as that day.

Because my first love had just fallen apart—

「……Oshio-kun…」

As if I wanted him to help me, I said his name. That signalled the dam in me was about to collapse, but at that time—

—Something covered my face in a jacket.

「Eh……?」

The upper half of my vision was suddenly covered, and the emotions in me that were about to overflow were pulled back.

Eh? What? What is……?

「—It’s bad if your body gets cold, so use this.」

I suddenly heard a voice from over my head.

The voice I dreamed of.

At that time, I had the illusion my heart had stopped.

He slowly sat down at a seat on the other side of the table, putting his ice cream on the table.

I understood it, from his gentle voice and beautiful fingers.

With a plastic spoon, he scooped ice cream and put it in his mouth.

Here, for the first time, I lifted my face, and then—I saw.

With a spoon in his mouth, he looked mischievous, however kind.

「Ah, I ate it before taking a picture…… ah, it’s fine. It’s not very delicious, this one.」

Oshio-kun said that, giving me the usual smile.

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Post Chapter Notes

Ended up staying up late to do this chapter, not because I was rushing to meet my deadline, but because when I saw it was getting late, I wanted to sleep, but I just had to know how it ended. Our boy Oshio made it, just in time.

Was a short but sweet chapter. Next chapter is the final chapter of Volume 1, so I’ll see you then! Thanks always for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it.

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