The Villainess Reika-sama

[103]

I met Aira-sama in a café the next Sunday in the early afternoon.

"Sorry for making you come out here, Reika-chan."

"There is nothing to apologise for. Being able to meet with you is a pleasure."

I ordered a latte. This café did latte art, so I asked for a sheep.

"Cute sheep. Speaking of which, you wore sheep ears during the school festival didn't you?"

"Yes."

The reception that my sheep butler costume received was surprisingly good, so I had become a little fond of sheep since. Hmm, it was a bit of a shame to ruin this by drinking it.
While I was appreciating my latte art, Aira-sama began speaking hesitantly.

"So you see, I'm sure you've already guessed why I've called you out today. It's about Yurie and Masaya."

Here it was... I had pretty much guessed it. I took a gentle sip to avoid ruining the sheep. It was delicious.

"You've noticed too that Masaya's been acting strangely, right?"

"...Yes."

After seeing that it would be stranger if anybody failed to notice. He was like an empty cicada shell of himself. Even if I had somehow missed that, Enjou had already told me about how he went on a journey, and then handed over those unlucky souvenirs.

"You see, Yurie has finally given him her decision."

"Aahh..."

I thought so...

"Yurie cares about Masaya a great deal as well, but it's always been the love for a younger brother. That's why she thought it was about time to make things clear. I mean, the two of us are already twenty. In a sense you could say she was taking responsibility."

"Hahhh..."

It was more or less the same in Kimidol. 'I can't see you as anything other than a brother, so I can't answer your feelings' or something. Kaburagi had still replied "No! I won't give up!" and was pretty persistent about it. In the very end though, Yurie-sama wouldn't take back her words, for both their sakes.

"It happened a little while after the school festival. Truthfully though, Yurie's been trying put some distance between them since Masaya entered high school. She's been trying to create chances for him to notice other girls as well. Remember the girl she brought with her to the school festival?"

"Ah, Maihama Ema-san."

"Right. The two of them studied under the same tea master and go back quite a while. Ema-san looks up to Yurie and adores Masaya too, and has been to his house a few times with Yurie. Since Yurie dotes on her, Masaya can't flat-out reject her either..."

"I see..."

"Originally we had planned to come with just Yurie and I but Ema-san came along to the school festival as well. Masaya was really unhappy about that. He had planned to walk around with Yurie but then Ema-san was stuck to him the whole time instead. And then later when he went to Yurie's house to visit, Ema-san was there again... Eventually the stress built up and he demanded that Yurie tell him what was going on."

"..."

"And so Yurie told him that she could only see him as a little brother and asked him to give up on her. It went something along the lines of telling him that her feelings wouldn't change no matter how much he pined after her. She thought it was a good opportunity to set things straight."

"So the exam results..."

"...Yeah. Masaya of all people dropped ranks, didn't he. I heard about it later. Yurie was worried too. What's worse is that after that a young man we met in the UK came to Japan on business. Yurie and I had gone to welcome him, but then Masaya saw. He assumed that Yurie had said all that because she had found a boyfriend and flipped out. The guy took a lot of care of us while we were overseas so Yurie was furious at how rude Masaya had been. So she went and said, 'Who I date is none of your business, Masaya! I don't want to see you anymore!' Of course, they weren't actually dating, you see."