「Are you free, You-kun?」
「That’s a malicious question.」
「No, it’s just a simple question.」
A warm, sun-dappled park.
As I rest my chin on my hand at a table set there, I watch Sakasegawa-san, whose antennae are bouncing up and down.
For someone like me who isn’t in any clubs, weekends are literally free. Time I can use for myself after escaping weekdays dominated by study.
Not that I have anything particular I want to do, so I was just stretching my legs and stylishly reading in the park.
Sakasegawa-san, who happened to pass by, gave me a look as if she was seeing a bored person, even with her compound eyes, so I expressed my discontent.
It seems she had just borrowed some books from the library.
She sat across from me with several books packed into a familiar eco-bag──perhaps she learned from last time, as they weren’t too thick.
She casually takes out a book, assuming a reading posture.
「Are you free, Sakasegawa-san?」
「That’s a malicious question. But I’ll answer. The answer is, “For now, there’s nothing I want to do more than spend time with You-kun.”」
「So you’re free.」
「Well, yes.」
A gathering of bored people, huh.
This table is set in a corner of the park, far from the noise of elderly people playing gateball and boys playing catch.
Reading in this peaceful time, perhaps because we’re both book lovers, was extremely comfortable.
「Aren’t you joining any clubs?」
「I was interested in the literature club, but…」
「But?」
「They were making knitted items rather than novels for some reason.」
「Knitted items.」
「Knitted items.」
Of course, they were making novels and haikus too. But more than that, they were making knitted items.
She muttered.
I wonder if it’s normal for the literature club to make knitted items. I thought she might have mistaken it for a handicraft club, but our school doesn’t have one. It must be the literature club.
「That’s troublesome.」
「It is troublesome.」
「Then I guess it’s inevitable that you’re free.」
「It’s inevitable.」
It was inevitable.
The conversation was so brain-melting, but that just proved how much the sunlight had seeped into our bodies, creating a relaxed atmosphere.
In fact, even though I’m reading, I can’t really grasp the meaning of the words. My eyes just glide over the paper, and my eyelids gradually become heavier.
Although we both pretended to be reading, it seemed Sakasegawa-san was getting sleepy too, as she occasionally nodded off.
Of course, as a mud dauber wasp, she doesn’t have eyelids like humans do.
Therefore, it’s hard to tell if she’s awake or asleep, but her movements clearly indicated she was about to fall asleep, so I knew she was in the same state as me.
「…You-kun.」
「Nnn.」
「Why don’t we take a nap?」
「In the park?」
「In the park.」
「That’s quite…」
Careless.
I swallowed the words because there was a man lying on a bench nearby. Probably suffering from the aftereffects of a drinking party last night.
Seeing that, it felt wrong to call it “careless”.
──Light Novels──
──Read Here──
「I’m sure it will feel nice.」
「It probably would feel nice, yeah.」
「Yes.」
「…If there’s two of us, it should be fine.」
Even if sleeping in the park is criticized as careless, having multiple people makes it somewhat more cautious.
Plus, we’re not carrying any valuables, so it’s even more cautious.
As I pondered this foolish thought, my eyelids grew heavy as if being pulled underwater, harboring darkness, and my shoulders became heavy in sympathy.
When I rest my cheek on the sun-warmed table, it feels faintly warm.
My consciousness gradually drifts away, I lose sense of my boundaries──.
「──Good night, You-kun.」
With those words, my memory fades.
◇
Not that it led to any serious developments.
Sitting side by side on a bench, watching crows fly across the evening sky, Sakasegawa-san and I were at a loss together.
「We slept quite a bit.」
「We did sleep quite a bit.」
「To think we’d sleep until evening, maybe that was a bit too careless.」
「I thought it was cautious because there were two of us.」
She’s thinking the same thing as me.
In other words, it’s a silly thought, but from my original position, it’s hard to point out. Because it would be like, “Who are you to say that?”
So, deciding to lock away the “cautious vs. careless debate” in a mental box, I stand up from the bench and stretch my body. My lower back ached dully, probably from staying in a strained position for so long.
「It was supposed to be a day off.」
「Um, we started sleeping around early afternoon…」
「About three hours.」
「Waa.」
Sakasegawa-san seems embarrassed at having exposed her sleeping face outdoors for three hours, “Just to be sure, you didn’t look at my sleeping face, did you?” she whispers.
I kept to myself the answer that I wouldn’t know the difference whether I saw it or not.
「Well, using time like this once in a while isn’t bad.」
「You think so?」
「I do.」
「…Indeed.」
「Fufu. I ended up sleeping together with a boy.」
「That’s a malicious expression.」
「What I have is goodwill, you know?」
「Who knows.」
It seems the sleepiness has finally gone away.
Sakasegawa-san stood up a bit later, placed her hands on her overly thin waist, and stretched with a “Hmm”.
Her silhouette was exactly like a mud dauber wasp. Except for the fact that she walks on two legs.
「Shall we head home?」
「Yeah.」
「…I wouldn’t mind if you walked me home.」
「You’re a girl after all.」
I try to be gentlemanly for the sake of a heroine who might appear someday.
Even if she’s a mud dauber wasp, she’s still a girl… she’s still… she’s not.
I was going to say it doesn’t change anything, but it changes everything drastically. If there’s anyone who would sexually assault a monster, the attacker would be more of a monster.
I’m a gentleman who is far removed from being a monster, so even when I saw a mud dauber wasp cutely tilting her head at the park exit, I felt no emotional disturbance whatsoever.