Surprisingly, Mikura accepted that explanation quite readily.\nWell, itās not like sheās a spy or a detective.\nEven considering the fact that I think itās unnatural, there wouldnāt be such excessive amounts of investigation.\nĀ \nIf anything, I think Iām the one thatās overreacting.\nIf I just behave confidently about it, nothing will happen.\nĀ \nāā¦ā¦Aoto-kun isā¦.um, wellā¦.After all, do youā¦ā¦do you like girls like Yuunagi?ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāWhatā¦.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nOnce again, the conversation has turned in a weird direction.\nĀ \nMaybe, as I was thinking before, Mikura is now interested in love.\nAnd I think sheās trying to find out from me, who she is close to to some extent, what kind of woman is attractive from a manās point of view.\nĀ \nIf thatās the case, Iām curious about the person that Mikura has feelings forć\nĀ \nHowever, thatās a delicate topic.\nKnowing who that person is doesnāt necessarily do me any good.\nLetās not pursue it.\nWell, Iām pretty curious, though.\nĀ \nāNo, well, rather than love, itās probably closer to attraction. I mean, she seems to be nearly flawless.ā(Sakuraba)\nI made a point of adding an extra bit of emphasis to the ānearly.ā\nYuunagi certainly is a flawless beauty, but she also has this part of her thatās a bit overbearing and pushy. Well, the scary thing is that she somehow makes that also look like one of her good points as well.\nĀ \nāI, I seeā¦ā¦ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāYep. But I do think youāre quite similar to her, though.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāHuh? Th- thatā¦ā¦what do you mean by that?ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāThe two of you are different types, but I canāt think of any faults that you have either. To me, youāre really attractive like her.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāOh!ā¦ā¦Is that so! Eheheā¦ā¦ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāYeah. Thatās why I think itās good to be confident in yourself. Well, you might feel like Iām not a part of this and that Iām giving you unwanted advice.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāN-, no! I donāt feel like that at all! Iām really happyā¦ā¦!ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāIs that soā¦Well thatās a bit of a relief.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāYe-, yeahā¦ā¦.Plus, I mean, Aoto-kun, umā¦ā¦I think youāre really amazingā¦ā¦!ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāAhaha, thanks.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nWhile this was happening, I finished up my cafe au lait.\nIt seems like Mikura only has a bit of her coffee left as well.\nĀ \nI guess itās pretty much time to part ways.\nItās almost past 8 too.\nĀ \nāUh-, umm.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāHm? Whatās wrong, Mikura-san.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāA-, Aoto-kunā¦ā¦well, um, I was wondering what you think about relationships with the opposite sex!ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nFor some reason, Mikura asked me this with a ghastly expression.Ā \nI feel like sheās being a lot more emotional than usual today..\nĀ \nāWhat do you mean by āwhat do I think?āā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāWe-, well, umm, I guess I was wondering if you were interestedā¦ā¦Or I guess whether or not you approve of them.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāUm, hmmm. Thatās difficult to answer. Well, I guess I approve of them, but Iām also not really interested.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nI decided to answer honestly.\nIām of the opinion that you should be free to do whatever you want in regards to dating, but personally Iām not that interested.\nĀ \nāOhā¦ā¦I see.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāIām probably not cut out for something like that, I think. Because Iām quite free-spirited.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāFr-, free spirited, huhā¦ā¦ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāYeah. I read on my own, watch movies on my own, and more than anything I love getting absorbed in my own thoughts. If I start dating someone, my time for stuff like that will decrease, and I donāt really want that.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāHm, I seeā¦ā¦ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāSo, well, if someone were to go out with me, itād probably be boring and there would be no supply and demand, so itād probably be unenjoyable for the other person.ā\n[TLN: Yes I know the āsupply and demandā portion sounds weird but thatās literally the kanji that the author used. Based on what I heard from asking in neosekai server(thanks semp), itās something close to the author just emphasizing that heās constant and boring. Lmk if you have a better way to translate it]\nĀ \nāS-, Something like that isā¦ā¦ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nAfter saying all that, I realized that I had said more than I had planned.\nMaybe Iāve become more talkative about this because the amount of opportunities Iāve had to think about romance has increased recently.\nĀ \nBut I meant what I said.\nI wonāt become proper lovers with Yuunagi, and I donāt intend to accept her feelings either\nĀ \nSo, in reality, I probably shouldāve rejected her more butā¦ā¦\nĀ \nā¦ā¦I couldnāt do it.\nWell, letās stop thinking about that for now.\nIt isnāt something that I can easily figure out while talking to someone, and Iām not that clever either.\nĀ \nāMikura-san, what about you, what do you think?ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāWhat?! Thinkā¦ā¦Think about what?ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāThat, you know, relationships between males and females. Mikura-san, is even someone like you interested in them?ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāUh, umā¦ā¦That is, wellā¦ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nMikura looked very restless and lost, and her eyes darted around, refusing to meet my gaze.\nWhat is this feelingā¦did I ask something wrongā¦.?\nĀ \nāIām interestedā¦ā¦butā¦ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāOhh. Thatās a little bit surprising.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāButā¦ā¦it might not be possible.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāNot possible? What do you mean by that?ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāā¦ā¦I might not be able to become their partner.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nShe said this in a very serious voice, and then she completely cast her eyes to the floor and hung her head.\nSheās normally so resolute, so I wonder if somethingās wrong.\nĀ \nFor even someone like Mikura to say that itās not possibleā¦The person she fell in love with must be someone that is truly unassailable.\nWell, it is the guy that she likesć\nMaybe itās not so strange that heās someone like thatć\nĀ \nāItāll be fine. If itās Mikura-san, Iām sure that that person will definitely start paying attention to you.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāā¦ā¦Oh, maybe.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nIt seems like my ordinary words of comfort werenāt that effective.\nWhile I worried about Mikura, who was becoming increasingly depressed, the two of us left the cafe.\nĀ \nāThenā¦ā¦thank you for today, Aoto-kun.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāSure, thanks for today too. It was fun. When youāre done reading, letās chat again.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāO-, oh, sure.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nThe two of us walked together to the station.\nFinally, after saying our goodbyes again, I began to head home.\nĀ \nāA-, Aoto-kun!ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nSuddenly, I heard a voice coming from behind me.\nWhen I turned around, I found Mikura looking straight at me with her hands clenched.\nĀ \nāWhatās wrong?ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nāā¦ā¦Se-, see you at schoolā¦.ā(Mikura)\nĀ \nāā¦ā¦Oh, yeah.ā(Sakuraba)\nĀ \nMikura smiled somewhat awkwardly and began walking towards the station.\nIām a bit worried.\nĀ \nHowever, when it comes to romance, Iām a complete amateur.\nI really hope that her worries get resolved.\nĀ \nWith that in mind, I took my smartphone out from my bag and began to head home.\nQuite a few message notifications were displayed.\nĀ \nAs usual, or maybe itās closer to say as I expected, the ones that drew my gaze the most were the messages from Yuunagi.\nĀ \nYuunagi-san: I want to call you.\nĀ \nYuunagi-san: Hurry up and look at your messages.\nĀ \nYuunagi-san: I love you.\nĀ \nSheās just the same as always, huh.\nĀ \nThat is what I was thinking on the inside, but, even so, I felt a little bit happier.\nĀ \nWhen I come home. Just a little bit, okay.\nĀ \nThat was all that I sent in response before I put my smartphone away\nĀ \nMaybe the reason I put my phone away so quickly was because I knew that I would be embarrassed by the replies that would soon come.\nĀ \nāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāā-\nĀ \nTLN:\nNo, Iām not dead yet. We just did a little bit of burning out because my asian parents have asian standards that are too asian for poor weeb me+club shit+I have a yugioh addiction. This chapter shouldāve been done ages ago but wtv man. Iāll try to keep updates consistent but Iāve procrastinated a shit ton of other stuff too so someone plz save me. Anyways, thatās about it.Ā \nBtw, If you want to check if Iām actually dead go to my NU profile and check my reading list. Chances are, if Iām not reading second cutest on an at least bi-daily basis I am fucking dead or something.\n\n