Adachi to Shimamura - Volume 2 - Chapter 3.2

Bonus chapter: "Meat Shop: The Visitor - Part 2" 

It wasn't uncommon for the cute mascots of various delis to cause mixed emotions in me. 
The adorable little piggy wearing a chef's outfit that the tonkatsu shop had, for example. Or the smiling octopus at the takoyaki place. 
"I mean, you do sell the meat of those things, right? Besides, a mascot needs to have some expression on its face. Or rather, hmm... It's kinda difficult to put in words. Anyway, while it is cute, something about a mascot that doesn't hide the fact that it's also being sold rubs me the wrong way. It's like, I'm feeling bad for it, if you get what I'm trying to say." 
"Wow, Hino. You think about some pretty difficult stuff at times." 
"Don't put me in the same group as you", I said while shaking my hand. Nagafuji's eyes moved from left to right, following it. Though it was common for people to comment that she looked intelligent, no one had ever praised her for actually being smart. Even on her report card it had been written that the only mature thing about her was her appearance. That had been quite the harsh thing to write, and Nagafuji's parents had immediately contacted her teacher, leading into a minor scuffle between them. As for Nagafuji herself, well, she'd been too busy enjoying the spring break and playing Mario Kart with me to care. 
"Right. I understand what you're trying to say, Hino. Now, let's think about the mascot more." 
"No you don't." 
This was how it always went. I'd been talking mostly to myself like I usually did, and as such, the fact that she hadn't been listening hardly hurt my feelings. 
Having come to Nagafuji's place after school, we were now trying to come up with a cute mascot character. Her family's store was going to use it, apparently. I didn't know whose idea it had been originally, but as her parents had asked me for help, I'd found it impossible to say no. Unless I was mistaken, the reason why I had been dragged in was quite simple; her parents had felt that if they were to leave this task to Nagafuji alone, she'd end up making something weird. Well, I couldn't really blame them. It was easy to imagine her going with a sea urchin mascot or something, which would be really bad since they ran a meat shop. Even just now, she'd drawn a parrot that, to be frank, looked way better than it had any right to. 
The various colours of pens and stacks of drawing paper lying on top of the kotatsu kinda made it look like we were simply having fun doodling. I was reminded of the past. There was one thing that Nagafuji had always loved drawing: hamburgers. That, and French fries. 
"Did you come up with something?" 
"Hmm... What if we made it like you, but a cow?" 
"Okay, show me." 
Wait, huh? She was willing to consider it? Even though I had only meant it as a joke, Nagafuji was now staring closely at the pen I was holding. What was I supposed do here? Panicking slightly, I began drawing. Again, as this had meant to be nothing but a joke, my mind was completely devoid of any actual ideas. The decision of what to draw was left completely to my right hand, and soon enough, Nagafuji's face formed on the paper. It was a little simplistic, sure, but otherwise, not bad. 
"I've seen this before somewhere", Nagafuji stated after staring at it for a while. Did they not have mirrors in her family? Or perhaps she was implying that I was so bad at drawing that she couldn't tell what it was meant to portray? You wouldn't do that to me, would you, Nagafuji? 
But seriously though, how could she not see that it was meant to be her when I had literally said as much before I began drawing? Much like usual, Nagafuji's reaction filled me with things that I wanted to say. Was she pretending to be an idiot, or just actually dumb? We'd been in middle school when I had become aware that there was something slightly strange about her, that her tempo wasn't like that of the other girls. Don't get me wrong, she wasn't dull or anything. No, she just liked taking things at her own pace, more so than was reasonable. In a way, that was something she had in common with another friend of mine who I had met in high school: Shimamura. Perhaps it was this similarity that had led Shimamura to become friends with us in the first place. Yet, whereas Shimamura did have some parts to her that aligned with other people, Nagafuji had basically none whatsoever, making her quite the difficult person to deal with. Regardless, comparing my masterpiece to her, I could spot one difference; the drawing version of her wasn't wearing glasses. It seemed that from my perspective, her not wearing glasses was the norm. 
"How old were you again when you started wearing glasses?" 
"Sixth year in elementary school. At some point, my eyesight just dropped." 
Dropped where? As this was Nagafuji we were talking about, it wouldn't have surprised me at all if she meant that her eyesight had physically fallen off while she'd been rolling in bed, and had then been crushed under her body. Or perhaps she'd yawned, and her tears had flushed it out. The fact that these ridiculous and idiotic explanations actually sounded somewhat plausible told you a lot about her. 
Anyhow, if that's how late she'd started using them, then it did make sense why I felt the way I did. I'd spent a long time with glassless Nagafuji. While she wasn't taking them off and putting them on all the time, I did wonder if she had some sort of a rule for it when she did. 
"So, is this thing supposed to be related to the store in some way?" 
"Oh, right. It's not. Nope. Now, what about this?" 
I picked up a blue pen and began drawing. What formed on the paper was a caricature of a blue-haired girl holding up a steaming croquette with a big smile on her face. She'd been coming in as a customer pretty often lately and had definitely earned quite a bit of attention, and so, in a way, you could argue that she was a part of the store. Of course, capturing the actual person and forcing her to pose as a mascot seemed like a far faster way to draw in customers, but that wasn't really an option, was it? 

"Croquette Girl, huh? Yeah, I think that's good." 
"Hey, don't go naming her all by yourself!" 
"Now then, let me give you a reward", Nagafuji stated, having clearly not been listening to me. Not that I minded. No, I was too happy thinking about the reward I was going to get. Just then, however, I felt a deja vu. 
"Are you gonna kiss my forehead again?" 
"You don't want me to?" 
Did Nagafuji really think of this as a reward? What a weirdo... 
Like, she thought getting kissed on the forehead was more valuable than candy or something? Hahaha. 
What a weirdo... Wait, no, I already thought that. And yet, I just couldn't stop. What a weirdo indeed. 
"Well, sure. I'll let you do it." 
Letting her do it probably made me a weirdo too, but whatever. I moved out from under the kotatsu and lifted up my bangs. Nagafuji crawled towards me, and just like before, placed her hand on my forehead. Her remaining hand landed on top of mine, pushing it down against the cold floor. 
Her face drew closer. The angle made me think she was about to kiss me on the lips for a second, but she soon changed direction and headed towards my forehead instead. A few moments later, I could feel the touch of her lips. It was there that I noticed that her legs had crawled on top of mine as well. I found myself worried that she might soon collapse on top of me and devour me. That's just how much she was leaning forward. Our bodies grew stiff, hers and mine. 
It was as if we were both sculptures. 
All I could see in front of me was Nagafuji's chin, her pale neck. 
How long was she going to keep kissing me for? Well, not that it really mattered. It wasn't like if she kept doing it for too many seconds, her lips would get permanently glued to my forehead or anything. Not as far as I knew, at least. 
"You two sure are good friends, huh?" a voice suddenly called out to us from the side. My shoulders and hips jolted up. My head moved drastically as well, and as a result, Nagafuji ended up biting her lip. That's what I assumed happened at least, based on the way she cursed in pain as she pulled her head away. 
Nagafuji's mom stood in the doorway, smiling at us with a mixture of emotions on her face. How embarrassing. Like, mega embarrassing. I tried backing away, but as Nagafuji's hand was still on top of mine, I wasn't able to put all that much distance between us. Her mom walked inside the room and turned the TV on, and instantly, Nagafuji's eyes turned towards it. Why was she so calm? 
"Make sure you clean all this stuff up, okay?" she said, looking at the pens and piles of papers lying on the table. 
"Okay", Nagafuji replied. Then, she turned to face me. 
There were so many things that I wanted to say to her, to yell to her, but with her mom in the room, I was stuck spinning my gears. They spun and spun, growing hotter and hotter. At last, Nagafuji opened her mouth. 
"We're good friends, huh?" 
"Yeah? Just normal friends", I replied, in part influenced by embarrassment. I could swear that I saw a hint of disappointment on Nagafuji's face. 
As impossible to read as ever, she took off her glasses before correcting her statement. 
"Hmm... Right. Normal, good friends." 
Adding those words together, she'd turned our close friendship into something normal. Tearing them apart seemed like a waste, and so I didn't. 
What sort of a face had Nagafuji been making when she heard me say that? Due to the glasses, I hadn't been able to tell.