Explanations to Childhood Friends

The sports festival was held on a Sunday, and the next day, Monday, was a substitute holiday.

Minato thought this would be a good time to explain to Kazuma and Momose, so he contacted them beforehand and asked them to clear their schedule.

As Minato left the house, he apologized again to Airi.

"I'm sorry, I promised to explain."

"It's no problem, please take care of them."

"Yeah, I know."

If he suddenly took Airi with him, he was sure to have some trouble before he could explain, and since Minato and his friends didn't usually have any other outsiders, she would naturally be out of the conversation.

Airi seemed to trust Minato, but he guessed she was still worried. Then, Airi looked at Minato with concern.

"Don't worry, like I said before, they're not the kind of people that go around spouting off."

"…I understand. Have a good day."

"I'll see you later."

Minato smiled at Airi to reassure her and then left the house.

He was sure that they were not the kind of people who would tell on him, but they would definitely ask a lot of questions, Minato thought with a sigh as he walked.

●●●●●

They chose Kazuma's house as the meeting place.

Minato couldn't go up to Momose's house, no matter how long they had been childhood friends, and he didn't want anyone to hear the result of his explanation outside.

When Minato entered Kazuma's room, Momose was already there relaxing herself.

"Hello, Minato-kun."

"Yo, Momose."

Without so much as a greeting, Kazuma sat beside Momose and Minato sat in front of him.

Both of them had serious expressions on their faces instead of their usual cheerful mood.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I need an explanation."

"I know, I know. So, what happened on the day of the entrance ceremony was–"

He then told them that he was living with Airi, leaving out her parent-child relationship, which would have been too complicated to explain from Minato's point of view.

When he explained everything that had happened up until today, including the fact that they had not been able to study together during the last midterm exam, Kazuma and the others' expressions hardened in astonishment.

"–That's basically it."

"How do I put this… I didn't think it's possible. Feels like fiction to me."

"I know that myself the most."

Minato himself knew very well that something very unusual happened to him.

When he responded to Kazuma's dumbfounded words with a chuckle, Kazuma's face clouded over in an apologetic manner.

"I'm sorry I forced you to explain. Was it hard to convince Ninomiya-san?"

"No, I had to explain at some point, so don't worry about it. Ninomiya gave me the okay easier than I thought she would."

"I'm glad to hear it. But it's just the two of you in your house… Are you okay?"

"…About what?"

When Minato tilted his head, unsure of the meaning of the question, Kazuma looked at Minato with concern.

"I know that being you, you're probably very careful not to cause any trouble, but aren't you tired? Not to mention with the way Ninomiya-san deals with men, I have a feeling you're treated coldly at home too."

Kazuma had a point. In fact, Minato himself thought it would be difficult at first.

However, he had never felt tired and Airi's attitude towards Minato was different from that towards others.

Minato didn't explain about the massages or the post sports festival, nor did he intend to, so he left out the details.

"Everything's normal. We're getting along better than I thought we would."

"Hmm, that Ninomiya-san…?"

From the way Airi was acting outside, it was hard to imagine them getting along. So Kazuma twisted his head in surprise.

When the conversation between Minato and Kazuma died down, Momose, who hadn't said a word since the explanation, became curious.

Minato didn't know what Momose's expression was at the moment because she kept her face down while Minato and Kazuma were talking.

"Momose, what's wrong?"

"…Not fair."

"What?"

"It's not fair that only Minato-kun is getting along with Ninomiya-san! I want to be friends with her too!"

"Even if you say that…"

Momose had invited Airi to hang out with her at school, but she had simply refused, so she must have been envious of Minato getting along with her.

However, Minato wouldn't have gotten involved with Airi if he wasn't in this situation, also he didn't want her to get jealous. When Minato was pondering what to do, Momose looked at him with steely eyes.

"Hey, how can we be friends?"

"Ninomiya said she doesn't need friends, so maybe you can't?"

"I thought so…"

"But she said you're not a bad person."

"Really?!"

Momose's face started to come alive as Minato honestly told her what he had heard from Airi the other day.

He would have to nail her firmly as he could not let her misunderstand him.

"She also said that you're not her type. By the way, if you talk to Ninomiya aggressively and make her feel uncomfortable, I'll get really angry."

"…Yes, yes, I know. But, I'm shocked that she said I'm not her type."

Momose was blatantly depressed by Minato's words.

Due to Momose's cheerful personality, it was inevitable that there would be some people who wouldn't fit her.

But the good thing about Momose was that she could communicate well even with those people.

She seemed to be so shocked that she forgot about it, so Minato reminded her.

"Momose, this is your chance to show us your communication skills. I'm not going to help you this time, but I'm not going to stop you from getting along either. Nevertheless, you've gotten along with a lot of people in your life, haven't you?"

His childhood friend Momose was very important to him, but Airi was someone Minato felt he had to take care of.

He didn't want to disturb Airi's peace, so he couldn't help Momose this time.

However, he still thought that Momose would be okay.

And as expected, when she heard Minato's words, Momose's face was instantly filled with motivation.

"…Now that you mentioned it, all right, I'm going to do my best!"

To be honest, Minato had high expectations for Momose.

He didn't find life with Airi mentally difficult, but he still wanted her to have good friends who were different from the ones she had before, and not just himself.

And Minato believed that Momose would be able to do that.

●●●●●

"I'm sorry, Kujo-senpai. I have a request."

A few days after explaining the situation to Kazuma and the others, Airi came to apologize to Minato.

It was unusual for her to ask Minato for a favor, and when she looked so apologetic, he couldn't help but wonder what kind of favor it was.

Minato had no intention of refusing, so he allowed her to do so while keeping a smile on his face so as to not make Airi uncomfortable.

"A request? Sure. What is it?"

"Can I invite Momose-san and Mutsura-senpai here this Sunday?"

"…I don't mind if you do, but I'm surprised to hear that it's not just Momose, but Kazuma too."

Perhaps there had been some approach from Momose in the past few days.

Minato didn't know because there was no particular change in Airi when she was at home, but he didn't expect her to ask him if she could invite others over. He couldn't help but look dubious.

And not just Momose, but Kazuma as well. It was unthinkable given Airi's character of not wanting to have anything to do with men.

Minato thought he should ask her why.

"Just to make sure, you're not forcing yourself, are you? Just because they are my childhood friends, there is no reason why Ninomiya should be involved, okay?"

"I'm not forcing myself, I asked senpai because I judged that it would be okay to invite Momose san. Though I haven't talked to Mutsura-senpai."

"Then even more so, I don't understand why you would call Kazuma. How could you want to get involved with a man you haven't even talked to?"

"It's not that I don't trust him, but Kujo-senpai told me that it would be better to confirm with him in person at a place where I can take my time. What you said was true and I agreed to it, so I decided to also invite Mutsura-senpai who already knows about the situation anyway."

"I see."

Airi looked at Minato awkwardly. She seemed to feel guilty about the fact that she had said that she trusted Minato, but still had to talk about such things.

It's true that no matter how much she trusted Minato, from Airi's point of view, Kazuma and Momose were strangers. As for Momose, Airi seemed to have spoken to her somewhat, but she was probably worried that she hadn't confirmed anything definite.

"All right, but don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

"Yes, I know."

Airi laughed softly at Minato's words, as if she found Minato's behavior of making sure over and over again to be strange.