Ch.409IF Side Story: Seems I’ve Arrived a Bit Early (106)

“…….”

“……Why?”

I asked back as I noticed Souta looking at me with very suspicious eyes.

No, even though I might not be the best-looking in the prefecture… but I’m considered fairly good-looking within our class, so being stared at like that feels a bit unpleasant.

It’s not hurtful. I know what this look means—it’s similar to how my younger sister used to look at me.

Though by college, she seemed to have matured a bit and her way of speaking became gentler.

Or maybe it was because I had taken care of various things for her since she was my sister…

……

Well, I should stop thinking about that. Continuing those thoughts only brings back unpleasant memories.

“Yuka would be better for this, right?”

“……No, isn’t this situation a bit strange?”

Souta maintained his suspicious attitude while slumping his shoulders as he spoke.

To be honest, I was starting to think the same thing. Maybe we’ve been dragging this out too long?

They might be a stalker, but they haven’t done anything dangerous yet…

Since there’s no setting in the original work where Souta gets killed by a stalker, maybe there wouldn’t have been any major problems even without me.

But at the same time, I was genuinely worried.

I don’t think I did anything that would cause a stalker to appear around Souta, nor do I think anyone connected to me did anything.

Yet simultaneously, since this was a setting I’d never seen in the original work, I couldn’t help wondering if my presence was somehow influencing things—a somewhat self-centered thought, perhaps.

“So let’s finish this quickly.”

I said that and started walking.

“What’s your plan?”

“If we walk side by side, the stalker will probably react. Actually, we’ve just lacked confirmation until now, right? We need to find concrete evidence that they’re following you and tell them to stop.”

The person is around our age.

I’m not saying teenagers can’t commit violent crimes. In fact, being a teenager might make them less reasonable.

Even male celebrities have stalkers.

But if they do something similar while we’re aware of them, then we should report it to the police or ask for protection for Shii and Souta too.

The best outcome would be for them to get scared and stop appearing altogether.

……

Now that I think about it, we really do seem quite reckless.

“Shall we… start walking?”

When I asked, Souta nodded.

*

Despite his sullen expression earlier, Souta managed to keep up a conversation with me. He was a good kid at heart, so that was natural. And once we started talking, we were able to smoothly continue with trivial conversation.

We sometimes get together to play video games against each other. If I had to say, we’re pretty close.

Trying hard not to look back, we slowly walked into the residential area.

Even though it was the weekend, there weren’t many people walking around the residential area. We deliberately came this way knowing that.

If there’s too much noise, people would look—

“Ah!?”

When we heard that sound from behind us, the stalker couldn’t make much noise by the time we turned around.

They just stood there with hands clasped in front of their chest, looking anxiously at Yuka, Koko, and Shii who surrounded them.

Well, at least it doesn’t look like they’ll pull out a knife. Then again, they didn’t bring a separate bag either.

Still, when they saw Yuka, Shii, and Koko, they just looked surprised, but when they saw Souta and me turn around, their expression changed to complete shock.

“Wait.”

As the girl quickly tried to turn away, Yuka reached out and grabbed her arm.

Actually, if she had angrily shouted “What are you doing?” at this point, we would have been in much more trouble, but she seemed too flustered to think of that.

“Huh?”

That was Souta’s reaction.

How should I put it… a completely non-serious voice, lacking any tension that would deflate anyone listening from the side.

“Shall we go see?”

“Ah, well…”

I wasn’t doing this expecting gratitude, but with such a lukewarm response, I briefly wondered if it would have been fine not to help at all. But I quickly shook my head to dismiss the thought and approached them.

“Ah, aah…”

The girl, too flustered to properly use her language functions, looked even worse after seeing Souta’s face up close.

“Huh?”

Souta gave that deflating response once more.

I mean, no matter how harmless they might appear, they were still a stalker.

But I couldn’t tell Souta to “be scared,” so I just observed the situation.

The girl covered her face with her hands.

At least, it didn’t seem like she was just following him around hoping to confess, as Yuka had initially guessed. She seemed to know that she was doing something shameful.

I felt a little hopeful about that. Maybe if we reasoned with her well, she would stop following him.

“Hey, haven’t we met before?”

Souta’s words were too gentle for speaking to a stalker, but at least they weren’t strange. After all, they must have seen each other at least once for her to become a stalker.

But what he said next was a bit more puzzling.

“No, that’s not it… We actually know each other.”

“…Ugh.”

The girl groaned with her face still covered.

Yuka, Koko, Shii, and I looked back and forth between the girl and Souta. Yuka had already released the girl’s arm.

“I’m sorry, but could I see your face?”

“……”

At Souta’s words, the girl’s fingers parted slightly. The eyes revealed between her middle and ring fingers were prettier than expected. Well, when seen from a distance, she had a face that made it hard to understand why such a pretty girl would become a stalker.

Rather than being an exceptional beauty, she had a vibrant atmosphere that suggested she’d be popular at school, receiving multiple confessions per semester and lots of chocolates.

“Phew.”

After making eye contact with Souta, the girl sighed deeply and finally lowered her hands. Although she was still slightly bowing her head, her gaze looking up at Souta was quite intense.

Rather than glaring, it contained some kind of longing…

Hmm.

How should I put it? Somehow, looking at them like this, neither of them seemed like a stalker and victim. Why is that?

But I soon understood the reason.

It was because Souta’s expression brightened considerably when he saw the stalker’s face.

“Could it be, Nanami?”

“Y-you remember?”

Nanami?

I tilted my head.

It seemed familiar somehow…

……

Ah!?

Only after hearing that name did I remember. One of the heroines from the original work. Nanami, the childhood friend heroine who symbolized Souta’s ordinary daily life.

Sorry, but I don’t remember her last name well.

“Of course I remember! We played together every day when we were little!”

How young does he mean by “when we were little”? Maybe he’s talking about when we were as young as me, Harumi, and Yuu. Souta and I have known each other long enough to be called something like childhood friends too.

More precisely, we would be long-time acquaintances. Based on our current age, we haven’t known each other for that long.

“Nanami… sister?”

Shii tilted her head. She doesn’t seem to remember well. Maybe it was too early in her childhood, and Shii had little time to know people around Souta because she lived apart from him.

The tension had completely drained from Yuka’s face, and she was looking at me with an amused expression. Koko kept tilting her head as she listened to the conversation between the two.

And I—

“…Kotone.”

—I had a bright red face.

“See? Just a friend I’ve known since childhood. I didn’t expect to meet like this so suddenly.”

To be honest, I did have something to say.

Violent crimes can happen even between friends. Stalkers can be among acquaintances, and sexual assault cases actually occur more frequently between people who know each other.

Besides, wasn’t Nanami’s behavior suspicious enough? If they were childhood friends and knew each other so well, there was no reason to secretly follow him for a whole month.

But.

But you know.

I remember the original work.

And while the Nanami in the original work did show some stalker-like tendencies, frequently barging into Souta’s house and causing trouble, I know she’s basically just a heroine who really likes Souta.

At least she’s not the type to stab him in the stomach with a knife because she saw him with another girl while stalking him.

So, because of my own logic, I couldn’t refute it.

“Um, Souta. Who is this…?”

Besides, maybe that month-long period was because she couldn’t approach him, thinking he might have a girlfriend.

If her logic was that she didn’t want to hurt him because she liked him, well.

“She’s… like a little sister to me.”

“Who are you calling a little sister?”

I snapped at Souta’s words.

“Pfft.”

Yuka let out a small laugh watching this.

Shii was looking at Nanami with an even more tense expression—but naturally, Koko just kept tilting her head, not really understanding the situation.

Yes, Koko.

It’s okay to learn about these romantic entanglements later.

I tried to escape reality a bit, thinking I should make sure Koko doesn’t become a heroine.

But the embarrassment didn’t go away. Sadly.