My Japanese Childhood Friend Is Too Flirty

12. At 14, We Slowly Begin to Realize Our Feelings for Each Other (3)

About 30 minutes later, after running an errand for my mom, I came back to my room to find a familiar scene unfolding.

“Aki, I’m sorry. I won’t tease you like that again, so please forgive me, okay, okay?”

“Hmph…!”

Aki, with her cheeks puffed out in a sulk, had her arms crossed and was turned towards the wall. Kim Yuna-sensei, who was tutoring both Aki and me, was clinging to Aki, begging for forgiveness.

“……Hmm.”

I don’t know exactly what happened while I was away, but I can roughly guess why this situation unfolded.

No doubt, Ms. Kim Yuna must have teased Aki, and Aki got upset.

Ms. Kim Yuna has been tutoring us for almost four months now, and ever since we became close after dropping formalities, this kind of thing has happened frequently, so it’s clear as day.

“Teacher, did you tease Aki again?”

I deliberately made a loud noise as I sat down in my seat.

For a moment, the gaze of the two women turned to me.

One of them, Aki, pretended not to see me and let out a deep sigh, while Ms. Kim Yuna made a gesture as if she was relieved to see me.

“Uju! You came at the right time, come here and comfort Aki…!”

“Comfort her? How am I supposed to do that?”

“You two are dating, aren’t you? Just tell her you love her or give her a kiss or something to comfort her, okay?”

“The teacher caused the trouble, so why do I have to clean it up… And we’re not dating…?”

I answered with the words that had become a habit from being asked so often.

“We’re just really close childhood friends.”

“……”

-Zing.

Aki turned her body slightly and started staring at me silently.

For some reason, her gaze felt a bit prickly.

“Well, whether you’re childhood friends or a girlfriend, the point is you’re close, right? So, just comfort her, okay? Uju, Ju Uju~!”

“……Ugh.”

It was already awkward enough because of what happened earlier, and now she wants me to comfort Aki.

To be honest, I wanted to leave it to the teacher and stay far away, but if Aki kept sulking like this, it was obvious that nothing would progress, tutoring or otherwise.

It’s not like there’s someone else causing trouble and someone else cleaning up, and I hated being the one to take the blame, but there was no other choice. I couldn’t afford to waste the day, so I had to do what I had to do.

I deliberately cleared my throat to get attention.

“Hey, Aki…?”

“…What?”

“I’ll buy you something delicious later, so can you please cheer up?”

“Uju~chan, I’m not a kid who gets happy just because of food-.”

“I’ll buy you whatever you want, how about that?”

“…Then, maybe, can I have tanghulu?”

“No, that’s too unhealthy. But anything else is fine.”

“Geez, then it’s not ‘anything else,’ is it…? Uju~chan, you’re a liar.”

Though she snapped back with her words, Aki seemed to be in a better mood at the mention of sweets, and she stopped crossing her arms and turned towards me.

I looked at Teacher Kim Yuna with a gaze that said, ‘Is this enough?’ and Teacher Kim Yuna took the opportunity I created to approach Aki.

“Aki, you’ll forgive your sister, right…?”

Teacher Kim Yuna, who was much more mature than us, came out in a low posture, and Aki, unable to stay angry any longer, let out a deep sigh.

“…Don’t play such pranks again, Yuna-sensei.”

“Got it! Thank you, Aki!”

“Thank Uju~chan, not me. If it weren’t for Uju~chan, I’d still be angry….”

“Oh, I see. Thank you, Uju~”

“Yeah, well….”

“Alright, shall we start again from where we stopped earlier? Woojoo, could you read this passage out loud?”

“Um, when x plus y is 6 and xy is 7, the square root of x minus the square root of y over the square root of x plus the square root of y is…”

* * *

“Okay, that should do it. Any more questions?”

“No, I don’t have any. Aki, do you?”

“I don’t either, Ms. Yuna.”

“Alright then, let’s end today’s lesson here.”

The current time is 7 PM, and the tutoring session, which ran later than usual, has ended.

Ms. Kim Yuna gathered the materials used in the lesson and stood up, and Aki and I also packed up our workbooks and followed Ms. Kim Yuna out of the room.

“Mother, the lesson is over~”

“Woojoo~chan’s mother isn’t home right now, Ms. Yuna.”

“Oh, really? Where did she go?”

“Yes, she sent a text earlier saying she went out with father and would be back a bit late. She told us to have dinner on our own.”

“…?”

What? I didn’t hear anything about that.

While I was puzzled by the unexpected news, Ms. Kim Yuna nodded.

“Ah, I see. Then shall we just say goodbye here? Woojoo, Aki, good job today. Rest well and see you next Friday~”

“Goodbye, teacher.”

“Ms. Yuna, take care!”

Click, thud-.

After leaving a brief farewell, Ms. Kim Yuna exited through the front door.

As the three people became two, the once noisy house quickly fell silent, and Aki and I looked at each other after seeing her off.

“Uju-chan, what should we do now?”

“Huh? Do what?”

“What do you mean? Of course, it’s dinner. Didn’t I say earlier? Since your parents are coming home late, we have to eat dinner by ourselves.”

“Oh, right. You did say that…”

Realizing that I was left alone with Aki, I suddenly felt nervous and spaced out without realizing it.

‘…Normally, I wouldn’t be this nervous.’

Maybe it’s because of what happened earlier, but I’m not acting like my usual self…

“Uju-chan, is there any rice left at home?”

“I’m not sure. Why? Are you going to cook?”

“Yes, I can cook well now. I learned directly from my mama!”

“Wow, really? That’s amazing…”

As for me, the only things I can cook are ramen and kimchi fried rice.

So, genuinely impressed, I looked at Aki as if seeing her anew, and she, feeling proud, straightened her chest and smiled brightly.

“Normally, I wouldn’t cook for just anyone, but Uju-chan is special, so I’ll cook for you!”

“Thanks! But what are you going to cook?”

“Hmm, first, I think we need to check the fridge. Uju-chan, can I open the fridge?”

“Of course, go ahead, Aki.”

We moved from the living room to the kitchen.

Clunk-.

Aki, with quite familiar hand movements, opened the refrigerator door, looked around here and there, and tilted her head with a sound of ‘Huh…?’

“Uju-chan, there’s not much in the fridge.”

“Oh, really? Maybe mom didn’t go grocery shopping…?”

“This is a problem… Do we have rice?”

“Wait a moment, I’ll check.”

I approached the rice cooker with a large brand logo on it.

I pressed the button firmly and opened the inside. Then, I saw the empty inside of the rice cooker.

“Aki, there’s no rice either.”

“What, no rice? Uju-chan, is your rice cooker a pressure cooker?”

“Huh? What kind of rice cooker?”

“…Come out for a moment, Uju-chan.”

Aki looked around our rice cooker here and there, cutely touching her chin and making a ‘Hmm…’ sound.

“It’s a warm-keeping rice cooker. Hmm, this means it will take at least an hour to cook the rice… Uju-chan, are you very hungry?”

“A little. How about you, Aki?”

“Well, I’m not really…”

Growl-.

Someone’s stomach clock rang loudly.

Of course, it wasn’t my stomach, but the sound came from Aki’s stomach in front of me.

“……”

“`

“…….”

Whoosh.

Aki’s cheeks turned bright red.

I pretended not to hear anything to be considerate of Aki, and naturally turned my body while fiddling with the magnet on the refrigerator.

“……Should we just order dinner?”

“Uh, uh-huh…. That sounds good….”

Aki’s murmuring voice came from behind me.

Judging by how her voice was almost crawling, she must have been really embarrassed.

‘……If I say she’s cute, she’ll get mad, right?’

I thought to myself how adorable my childhood friend was, as I took out my phone from my pocket and opened the delivery app to order food.

When I was younger, I used to go out with my mom and dad, but after I turned ten, they started saying things like, ‘Wooju, you’re old enough to be alone now, right? No, you’re not really alone, you’re with Aki-.’ and they would go out together, just the two of them.

In other words, it’s not uncommon for Aki and me to be alone like this. So, I’ve gotten quite used to ordering food with the delivery app.

“Aki, what do you want to eat?”

I asked without looking at her on purpose.

Aki hesitated for a long time, then mumbled in a voice that sounded awkward to anyone.

“Anything…?”

“Anything…. Then I’ll just order pizza, okay?”

“Uh-huh, okay….”

“Let’s see, the order button…. Ah, done. I ordered it. It’ll take about 40 minutes.”

“……Woo, Wooju~chan.”

“`

“Uh, why?”

Hearing my name being called, I thought maybe the embarrassment had finally worn off, so I turned around without much thought.

Our eyes naturally met, and Aki’s cheeks were still flushed.

“That… about earlier…”

“Earlier?”

“…Ha, at school. I never thought Uju~chan would say something like that in front of friends. I was really surprised!”

Aki, trying hard to hide her embarrassment, took a step closer, fidgeting.

“You know. That means Uju~chan likes me that much, right…?”

“…Huh?”

“There’s no use pretending. I heard everything. Uju~chan shouted loudly that we would get married…!”

“Uh…”

It’s not wrong, but why is she bringing up that story in this context?

While I was briefly pondering over my sudden embarrassing past,

‘…Ah, no way.’

I suspected that she was trying to change the subject because she was embarrassed about the sound her stomach made──.

“Uju~chan, be honest. Uju~chan likes me, right…?!”

“….”

Seeing Aki’s tension rise a bit too much, my suspicion turned into certainty.

“You’re not saying anything, so it must be true, right? Right, huh, huh~?”

‘…Pfft.’

Originally, I would have been flustered and mumbled my way through, but seeing my childhood friend’s intentions so clearly, I wasn’t embarrassed at all. Instead, I found Aki to be incredibly cute.

So, I decided to play along with Aki’s desperate attempt to take the lead.

“Ah… really, that story again? I told you to stop…”

“Heh, I’m not going to stop.”

“I told you, it was just something I said without thinking. How long are you going to keep this up?”

“Hmm, until Uju-chan dies?”

“Are you saying you’ll stick by my side until I die?”

“Of course, Uju-chan belongs to Aki!”

Aki said these words, either to tease me or in earnest, I couldn’t tell.

As I looked at Aki, pretending to be distressed and twisting my body, I thought of something else.

“Uju-chan, I’m so moved. You said so coolly, ‘Aki has decided to marry me’…! You didn’t say it, but really…”

“Stop, please stop… Aki…!”

“No, I don’t want to, I’m going to keep going~”

Aki, deliberately acting more mischievous to hide her embarrassment.

My childhood friend.

“Hey…! Uju… chan~!”

“Uh… Aki? Wait a minute. If you cling to me like that, it’s dangerous…?”

“Uju-chan is tall! …Heh, hey, hey~!”

‘…Ah, so cute.’

Too cute.

Stop, I feel like I might have other feelings…