The Love Life of Saiki K. [Saiki Kusuo]

💜 Chapter 4 💜

Saiki Kusuo was restless, completely and utterly restless as he paced around the length of his living room and the kitchen, glancing at the clock on the wall every second to try and figure out when would be the right time for him to head over to the Minamoto home so that he could greet Nadeshiko and her family now that they had returned from their long vacation in Kyoto.

It had been a torture for Kusuo to be away from Nadeshiko for over a month. He had contemplated several times to make his family drive all the way to the city for an impromptu vacation but it was too obvious. He could only use his powers to watch her from afar at odd days through the holidays.

Nadeshiko had spent most of her time at her family home with her extended family, and they had gone on cultural trips around Kyoto with her overseas relatives. Even if Kusuo had not spent time visiting her from time to time, Nadeshiko had gone out of the way to send him pretty pictures.

Those pretty pictures were of beautiful landscapes and cultural sights – and so Kusuo did what he had never thought he would do: he decided to sign up for online social media to follow Nadeshiko.

Social Media – the ultimate bane of Kusuo's life and the one activity that he simply never wanted to partake in. Yet he found himself making an account for himself and sending Nadeshiko a request.

A treasure trove – that was that Kusuo discovered beyond that 'accepted' notification. Pictures of Nadeshiko being herself, taken by her and her family. They were all carefully curated by the girl, each post containing the perfect theme, with the cherry on top being the presence of Nadeshiko.

One of those caught his eyes at once, a post that she had made recently: it started with a picture of the Kiyomizudera temple against the blue sky, the second was an evening picture of a beautiful Japanese fountain, the third of Nadeshiko's dainty and pretty finger held by a child's hand, the fourth was the night sky beneath which a lovely picnic was laid out and lastly was the picture that captured all of Kusuo's attention: Nadeshiko, standing in front of a gigantic purple hydrangea bush.

It was with this newfound interest in social media that Kusuo spent many of his vacation days – it was intriguing for him, given that these were pictures taken from Nadeshiko's vision. Something that he could never personally comprehend simply by observing her. At the same time, Kusuo wished that he had gotten to witness all of this with Nadeshiko rather than looking from afar.

There was a sudden doorbell, snatching Kusuo out of his thoughts rather aggressively. He snapped around to see who it was, a hope budding in his heart that it would be Nadeshiko with that beautiful smile of hers, coming to tell him how much she missed his mere gaze – but it was all squashed in a heartbeat.

Kurumi had already opened the front door and in stepped the vexatious presence of none other than Nendou Riki into their home when Kusuo wanted to reserve himself only for Nadeshiko that day.

"Hey, pal!" greeted Riki, dressed up in beachwear and carrying an orca float as big as him. "Let's go to the beach! I just happened to be in the neighbourhood and I saw 'Saiki' on the nameplate. So, I figured this was your house,"

"Y-Y-Y-You're Kuu-Chan's friend?!" asked Kurumi, appearing taken aback but also emotional as she realised that someone had come to visit her son.

"He is not my friend," pitched in Kusuo but was completely ignored by the two of them.

"This is the first time one of Kuu-Chan's friends has come over to visit," Kurumi continued, crying as she wiped her eyes with a handkerchief. "I'm so happy!"

"Me and Saiki aren't friends," Riki said, and Kurumi looked at him in surprise as he threw his arm around the unimpressed Kusuo's shoulders. "We're pals!"