Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ - Volume 2 - Chapter Ep

Final Chapter: Business as Usual

Not gonna lie, but I felt quite nervous. It was Monday morning, and I had my hand on the classroom door. I took a deep breath. O-Okay, let’s do this. I didn’t forget my mental clarity today. That fella is right here!

As soon as I entered the classroom, Nanase noticed my presence and raised her hand slightly. “Good morning, Haibara-kun.”

“Hey, morning,” I replied as I glanced around.

“Oh, Natsuki-kun, morning!” Hoshimiya said as she energetically waved her hand.

“Hiya, morning.”

Uta was standing right next to Hoshimiya. Our eyes met, and Uta’s face instantly flushed as red as an apple. When you react to me so blatantly like that, the embarrassment is contagious, so my face starts getting hot too. Please, stop!

“Good...morning, Natsu,” she said.

“M-Morning.”

After we fumbled out our greetings, I averted my eyes and made my way to my seat. Hoshimiya and Nanase clearly looked suspicious, but I left the explanation to Uta. The mental clarity that I’d been so confident in had fled somewhere. He’s such a fast runner!

I sat down, and right when I’d managed to calm my heart, Reita and Tatsuya came up to me.

Reita looked especially amused, a wide smirk pasted on his face. “You’re here, Natsuki. Now then...what happened at the festival? You’ll tell us, won’t you?” he asked.

“How’d you know? I thought you didn’t go to the festival,” I replied after some hesitation.

“I’ve got a lot of friends. I heard you and Uta were there alone.”

Fair. We did see people from our school besides Fujiwara and Hino. Reita is well-connected, so of course he’d hear about it.

“So, I heard Uta wore a yukata. Did you take a picture? How far did you get with her?” Strangely enough, Reita was the one asking me questions in rapid-fire succession.

This guy only gets excited when talking about other people’s romance! “She did wear a yukata, but we didn’t take a picture. And there’s nowhere to ‘get with her’!” As I said that, I deeply regretted that I hadn’t taken a picture of Uta in her yukata.

“I see,” he replied.

Tatsuya was listening to us with an extremely serious expression.

“Tatsuya, you’re going to get hurt no matter what you hear, so just go over there.” Reita shooed him away like a dog.

This guy is truly cruel! What happened to being my ideal man? It looks like that was just a figment of my imagination.

“Huh?! Don’t fuck with me; I’m not gonna get hurt!” Tatsuya, being Tatsuya, had been egged on by Reita’s attitude and instead postured himself to show that he would be sticking around for the whole story.

This is so awkward! I wish you guys would cut it out. What kind of expression am I supposed to make while talking about this?! I peeked over at Uta—she was being bombarded with questions by Nanase, just like I was. I couldn’t hear exactly what they were talking about, but Uta’s face was bright red, so I had a good idea.

Hoshimiya was regarding me with an inscrutable expression. Our eyes met, and she turned away to actively join in Nanase and Uta’s conversation. I thought something might’ve been wrong, but it looked like we’d just made eye contact by coincidence, judging from how smooth her movement was. I was startled because I’d never seen her make that expression before.

“Natsuki? You shouldn’t ignore people, you know?” Reita threw his arm around my shoulder. He was having the time of his life.

“Nothing in particular happened. We just walked around the festival like everyone else,” I clarified.

I heard Tatsuya crack his knuckles. “Really? Can I punch you?” he asked.

“Hey! You’re the one who told me it’d be okay if I went with her!” I protested.

“Sure, but I didn’t say I wouldn’t clobber you. If you don’t want to get beat up, then spit out the whole story!”

I didn’t have much of a choice, so I recounted my date with Uta from start to finish.

Tatsuya grew paler and paler until finally he said, “I’m gonna go to the roof,” and left.

If you can’t handle the truth, then why’d you make me say everything?! Besides, I didn’t even mention that we held hands... And obviously I omitted the cheek kiss! How the hell am I supposed to admit that happened?!

“Now that Tatsuya is gone, we can get to the nitty-gritty stuff, right?” Reita pressed.

“Please, have mercy...” I moaned.

Unfortunately, though I’d defeated Tatsuya, Reita wasn’t going to budge. I could also hear Fujiwara and Hino talking about Uta and me in the classroom. It felt like the spotlight was shining right on me. So this is the cost of going on a so-called “lovey-dovey” festival date. Quite the heavy price to pay...

“I told you already, Natsu and I aren’t dating!” Uta’s voice rang throughout the classroom.

She wasn’t yelling, more so trying to inform everyone. She likely wanted to avoid rumors being spread about us. If I were in her shoes, I’d be grateful people were setting up the atmosphere for us, but she was honest to the core.

Nanase glanced at Uta and then at me. “So? Why don’t you guys just go out? Right, Hikari?”

Hoshimiya looked hesitant when the conversation was directed at her, yet she clenched her hands into fists before her chest. “Huh? Oh, yeah, right... Of course I’ll be rooting for you guys.”

I forced a smile at that. I see... So she’s rooting for us... Well, there’s nothing I can do about that.

Seeing my strained appearance, Reita leaned towards me and whispered into my ear. “Honestly, I didn’t think you’d take Uta up on her invitation.”

“That’s unexpected. So there are things even you can’t predict,” I told him.

“Natsuki, what on earth do you think of me? No one can predict everything!”

His was a reasonable rebuttal, but I felt like if anyone could do it, it’d be Reita.

“You like Hoshimiya-san, and you have a sincere personality. I thought you wouldn’t go on a date with someone you weren’t in love with and give them false hope... Oh, I get it.” He grinned and then asked a question he already knew the answer to. “I’m guessing you’ve come to like Uta as much as you like Hoshimiya-san?”

“If you know it already, then please don’t say it out loud...” I held my forehead. I’d already vaguely realized what he had deduced, but I’d been trying to deny it. Now that he’d put it into words, I was forced to become self-aware. Reita really is a wicked guy!

“Well, no matter who you pick, I’ll cheer you on.”

“Really? I feel like I can’t trust your words, Reita.”

“Don’t you think you’ve been a little too harsh with me lately?”

Hey, it’s not my fault that it’s hard to figure out what you’re thinking!

“I’m serious. Between Uta and Hoshimiya-san, I’ll cheer you on no matter who you choose. Though, it looks like you’ll need a lot more time to break through Hoshimiya’s inner fortress. However...”

Ah, Reita thinks so too, huh? I have a long way to go, I thought lightheartedly.

“That means I can have Miori, right?”

I’d just heard a shocking statement come out of Reita’s mouth. I did a double take in my surprise, but he appeared to be genuine.

“Huh? You like Miori?” I asked.

“Mm-hmm, she’s really caught my eye lately. Plus, she talks to me often.”

Huh? Then that means Miori’s accomplished her goal! What the— Does that mean I didn’t need to fuss over her side of things? Maybe we didn’t even need the double date plan.

“So, your answer? Is that okay?”

“Uh, you don’t have to ask for my permission... If anything, I’m very happy about it!”

Reita’s eyes fixed on my bewildered expression. Finally, he relaxed and shrugged his shoulders. “You’re Miori’s childhood friend, so I asked just in case, get what I mean?”

“Yeah. But childhood friends are still just normal friends...”

This was an unexpected development, and my head was having trouble processing the new information. But I’d confirmed that Miori and Reita shared mutual feelings. Now all they had to do was get to know each other over time. I guess this means Miori’s gonna have her happy ending for sure! I’m really glad for her, I thought. As her fellow conspirator, naturally I want her love to bear fruit.

“I’ll cheer for you and Miori too,” I told him.

“I’m glad to hear you say so. I was worried about that.”

“What do you mean? Did you think I’d complain about it?” I asked with a laugh. Of course not! Looks like Reita can be blind as a bat sometimes. That kinda gives me peace of mind.

“Hmm, who knows?” He smiled thinly and patted me on the back. “I’m going to call Tatsuya back down from the roof. Homeroom is about to start,” he said and left the room.

Now alone, I looked over at Hoshimiya and the others. All three girls were staring at me. Nanase beckoned me over, so I obediently went to them.

“What is it, Nanase?” I asked.

“Oh my. Do I need a reason to call you over? We’re friends, right, Uta?” she questioned.

“Y-Yeah... We’re friends, so it’s fine,” Uta said in agreement.

I didn’t know what else to do but nod. Silence floated between us. Umm, excuse me... Being under this awkward atmosphere in front of everyone is just way too grueling! I want to do something that’ll get Uta back to her normal self. If I don’t, I’m going to be infected by her vibes too.

“U-Ummm... Do you want to talk about our plans for summer break?” I suggested.

“O-Oh, right! We thought it’d be nice to go to the mountains or the sea!” Uta piped up. We’d somehow started a normal conversation, albeit a bit of a stilted one.

“Yeah. Personally, I’d prefer going to the sea,” I replied.

“Oooh, the sea sounds good! I haven’t gone swimming in a long time either!”

Our conversation carried on, and we slowly regained our normal communication abilities. Right as the discussion started to take off, our homeroom teacher entered the room.

“Hey, all of you, get to your seats. I don’t know what you’re so excited about, but finals begin next week. If you’ve got time to jabber, then study up instead!”

Everyone grumbled at our teacher’s spiel. The buzz in the room was instantly doused. I was also eager for our vacation to come, but that had forced me back to reality. I bet everyone has high expectations for me because I scored first place during the midterms...

When I was about to return to my seat, Hoshimiya called out to me. “Natsuki-kun.”

I turned in her direction, but she didn’t say anything. I could tell she was hesitating over what to say.

“I want to go to the ocean too,” she finally said before heading to her own seat.

“C-Cool...”

I wonder if there was something else she wanted to say? I didn’t have time to ponder, though. I hurried back to my own seat. Once homeroom ended, our teacher left us to our first period, math. Another boring day of classes began.

***

The rainy season ended, and summer kicked off. It was generally considered to be the season of youth (according to my research). And of course I had no intention of letting my summer end uneventfully like it had the first time!

Finally, my glorious summer vacation with all the free time in the world was coming. To the mountains, to the sea, to fireworks displays—I could think of countless events full of youthful vigor. I hadn’t decided what I’d do yet, but I had confidence that it would be an absolute blast. After all, I had friends to spend my days with. They were all coloring my life with vibrant colors.

This summer would never come again—and I was sure it would be an unforgettable one.

End of Volume 2