13th Piece – “The Second Time of First Love”

Pre-Chapter notes: Still from Sato’s POV. This one’s short but sweet. I probably could’ve put this one up earlier, but in order to keep with my two week pace, I wanted a bit of time to finish up the next chapters, as while they were short are pretty rough on the translation-sense.

How rough, you ask? Well, let’s just say the terms “real seal fur”, as in the seal animal, came up and really confused me for a while. Fun times. Anyways, here we go!

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「……tsu.」

I don’t like the simplicity of myself who had suddenly been uplifted just a little. I squeeze the jacket over my head, not wanting Oshio-kun to see my face.

「Ha… haha, Oshio-kun, how did you know I was here?」

I squeeze out something in a shivering voice.

If I was a little careless, I might explode again.

「……besides, didn’t you have an errand today……?」

From when I said that, I could feel myself being fed up with my bad character.

But if I didn’t act that way, I might misunderstand again.

It’s just how it is, isn’t it? Oshio-kun felt pity for the gloomy girl who was eating rolled ice cream alone—

「—Mhm, but, since Sato-san wanted to eat rolled ice cream, I finished it early and came.」

「Eh……?」

I unconsciously lifted my head up.

Oshio-kun puts his hand to his chin and looks down diagonally with a look I’ve never seen before. [T/N: Literally translated he “held his mouth in his hand”]

Huh? Oshio-kun’s face is red……

「……I’m sorry, it seemed like I was arguing about it, now.」

「Eh? How?」

Suddenly, my face became flaming hot, and sunk into the jacket.

No, that isn’t it.

That isn’t how a high school girl would talk.

「Oh…….that’s—……ahaha.」

Ahaha, as if!

I don’t even know what kind of response I should have.

I can’t look at Oshio-kun’s face.

I was sadly looking down at the emptied cup of ice cream—that’s when—

Overhead, the sound of two or three breaths could be heard, and immediately, something slid into my field of vision.

「Eh……?」

It was Oshio-kun’s smartphone.

On the display was the photo of rolled ice cream I uploaded to Minsta.

Oshio-kun knew my Minsta account, but even more surprisingly, that photo had been uploaded almost thirty minutes ago.

It seems like I had lost track of time.

「……’How did you know I was here’, you said, but—」

To me, Oshio-kun said.

「First of all, in Sakuraniwa, there aren’t many rolled ice cream stores, you know? Furthermore, with mint cream as a garnish, you can tell even if you don’t have a tag, there’s no choice but 「aytim 9」.」[T/N: Not sure if I translated the town right, might have screwed it up.]

Oshio-kun says it like he’s a detective, and points to the tags I’ve set. I saw that I had certainly forgotten to add the store’s name to the tags.

……Oshio-kun knew that adding where you were eating was important, but what an elementary mistake. I don’t like it.

That store…

「……As expected, Oshio-kun is amazing, isn’t he?」

I mumbled that with self-deprecation.

It’s no good, I can’t contain this emotion.

「You’re not only working as the employee of a fancy cafe, but you’re always more knowledgeable than me, and you’re skilled at taking photos… haha, I, I’ll lose confidence in myself, you know?」

That’s a lie.

The truth is, whatever small amount of self-confidence I had was smashed ages ago.

The more I learn about Oshio-kun, the more I realize he isn’t within my reach.

「……the crappy photos I upload to Minsta, wanting to become a Minstagramer, I got a little carried away… haha, it’s better to erase it, right?」

My voice shakes as I say that.

There, Oshio-kun—

「—Yeah, they’re crappy.」

I tightly hold my mouth shut.

……I knew that, I should’ve known that.

「First of all, the picture is from directly above, and the 「aytim 9」 logo is on the side. But, it isn’t reflectly properly and the filter is also strange.」

……I knew that, I should’ve known that.

But as expected, from Oshio-kun’s mouth came something sad.

From the corner of my eyes, at any moment, a single drop would spill over, but at that time—

「—but, much better than me.」

The picture on the smartphone changed completely.

From what was projected, I gasped in surprise.

「This is…」

—Reflected on the display was a pancake from “cafe tutuji”.

But, it was different.

This, how should I put it…… compared with what was on the official Minsta account……

「I was unskilled, you know. This is the first time I took a picture of a pancake.」

「Eh!?」

Oshio-kun had a bitter smile as he said this and I unintentionally raised my voice.

「This…… Oshio-kun took this?!」

「Yep.」

「B-but “cafe tututji” has such beautiful photos……」

I let it slip.

This makes me think I’m the unpleasant person who is checking the more than 300 photos uploaded to the official account of “cafe tutuji”……! However, Oshio-kun doesn’t seem to care about, fortunately.

「Yep, I was too embarrassed to upload it, so I didn’t… look at this.」

As he says this, Oshio-kun scrolls through his Photographs folder.

I’m surprised.

From one end to the other, many pictures of pancakes are lined up.

「This one is when I took it from too directly above and it ended up with a Hinomaru composition, this pancake was back-lit, and this… wow, the butter had melted because I had been shooting for so long, that’s terrible.」 [TN: Hinomaru Composition is literally “Japanese flag composition”, where the subject of the photo simply sits in the center of the photo much like the red circle. It’s simple, but it can be rather boring to look at.]

「W……wait a second! Oshio-kun, how many photos do you have?!」

「Ending when I first uploaded to Minsta, around 1000 photos?」

「A thou……!?」

It exceeded more than double the amount of uploads “cafe tutuji” had on Minsta.

For the sake of uploading even just one photo, Oshio-kun, this kind of—

「I started with Minsta because I wanted to help my dad, even a little, but when I tried to do it, everyone was good at taking pictures. When I first uploaded a photo, I couldn’t stop sweating for a while. How many times did I want to delete it?」

「……I wonder if Oshio-kun can even do that kind of thing.」 [T/N: I assume she refers to being nervous about uploading.]

「Haha, that’s an unreasonable decision, isn’t it? Even so, I was anxious, but—」

Oshio-kun manipulated the smartphone, and again I saw another Minsta upload.

Then—

「—Sato-san uploaded, and at that point in time compared to me, is more of an Minstagramer.」

As he said that, he gently smiled.

When I saw that smile, I… ah…… I was such an idiot, wasn’t I?

「By the way, Sato-san, in the neighboring town, there’s a shaved ice store that’s shown up on Minsta. Next week, would you like to go together? This time, I wasn’t able to eat rolled ice cream together with you, so I’m sorry for that.」

There was a pain in my chest, and my body naturally shook.

「But…… I’m bad at taking photos.」

「I’ll teach you, you know?」

「I can’t say anything interesting when I talk, and I don’t have any friends…」

「I can’t say anything interesting when I talk either.」

「I’m not at all like what a high school girl should be like, but even so…」

I lift my face and see Oshio-kun.

「Even so…… I’d like to go together.」

Towards Oshio-kun, I was shy.

「—I, with Sato-san, will go together.」

That smile is foul play.

I couldn’t stand it and looked down.

I didn’t want him to see my face now.

I’m such an idiot, I really am such an idiot.

—no way, I’ll fall in love with my first love again…

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Post Chapter Notes

And that’s the end of Volume 1! Next time will be Volume 2 in Chapter 14. As something to look forward to next chapter, we’re meeting some new characters, with the titles of Chapter 14 and 15 being “A Man’s Appearance” and “A Woman’s Appearance”. Make of that what you will.

It was interesting to learn about photography composition when I did some research for the translation notes. I even had to ring up an old friend of mine who does professional photography to make sure it was somewhat on the right track. Either way, as always, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! See you guys next time.

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