Episode 27 – Past

The Salty Princess Told Me That I Was a ‘Convenient Keep’, so I Tested What Would Happen if I Introduced the Most Beautiful Girl at Another School as My Girlfriend

Koga Kotone was a boyish girl.

She enjoys running around more than sitting and talking. She prefers playing hero to playing house. She does not like to look at other people’s faces, and her own feelings are most important. There was one girl in class who would play dodgeball with the boys. Koga Kotone was that kind of girl when she was a child.

Sakashima Ochiha, on the other hand, was a somewhat mature boy for his age.

With a father who is a professional soccer player, he has been coached in soccer since before he can remember and has a somewhat serious sense of values.

His words, “When I grow up, I want to be a soccer player,” were not a child’s dream, but an extension of reality. The father also treated his own son as a coach would treat a player, rather than as a father teaching his son to play soccer.

Ochiha and Kotone were childhood friends.

Their mothers were friends, and they had known each other since before they could remember. The quiet Ochiha is taken out by the aggressive Kotone. Ochiha, who was more mature, was able to frolic in front of Kotone without worrying about other people’s eyes.

However, by the time Kotone entered the middle grades of elementary school, she began to isolate herself in class. The people around her grew up little by little, and a kind of faction began to form. Kotone, still a child who could not read the atmosphere, did not fit in with either the boys’ or girls’ groups, and she was always alone.

Ochiha began to take Kotone out with him.

At the time, Ochiha was doing well in soccer and academics, and was very popular with everyone around him. But he thought that the most enjoyable time with Kotone was when he was draining the water on the riverbed, rather than being with someone else.

“Yes!! My win!”

Kotone laughed.

“Kotone is really good at draining water.”

Ochiha looked at Kotone with a slightly more mature expression.

“I’m always practicing on my own, so I’m good at it!　…… recently, no one has been willing to go out with me when I invite them. The only person who will play with me is Ochiha kun”

“No, that’s not true. kokone, you’ll make friends right away.”

“… Really?”

“Yeah. I guarantee it. I will tell everyone that Kokone is a very interesting girl.”

Ochiha opened his hands in an exaggerated manner to cheer up Kotone, who seemed to be depressed. Ochiha’s words cheered Kotone up, and she smiled happily.

“Ochiha-kun, you’re really kind after all.”

“I don’t …… have anything to say about that. It’s normal, it’s normal.”

“That’s not normal. Do you like me, Ochiha-kun?”

“…! No, I’m just ……”

　
Seeing Ochiha at a loss for words, Kotone smiled happily.

“So, promise me? Next time you’re in trouble, Ochiha kun, I’ll help you out. Although I may look like this, I’m strong enough to easily defeat a monster. So you can always rely on me!”

“…I understand. I’ll rely on Kokone when I’m attacked by a monster.”

“Yeah!　I promise!　……Okay, that’s the end of the story!　Ochiha, you lost, so you’re going to be punished, right?　A full body tickle!”

“Hey, stop it!”

Ochiha’s body is tickled by Kotone, who rides on a horse. Ochiha was always cutting corners in draining the water at that time. He knew that by doing so, Kotone would feel better. And Kotone at that time was not mature enough to be able to guess such a thing.

Kotone at that time was really a child, and Ochiha was probably …… unaware of it, but he must have been in love with Kotone. He just wants the girl he has known since childhood to just smile at him. With this thought in mind, he worked behind Kotone’s back in various ways to help her make friends.

Then time passed again, and it was around the time when he was in the upper grades

Thanks to Ochiha’s efforts and the fact that Kotone’s personality had become somewhat more relaxed, she gradually began to fit in with the group of girls. Kotone felt proud that she had become an adult, and stopped talking to the boys so much.

And Ochiha’s relationship with her parents had deteriorated since that time, as it had become increasingly difficult for him to achieve the results his father wanted.

Ochiha was not a bad soccer player. He was an excellent soccer player, not only in school soccer, but also on a nearby team that had no equal. However, his father’s standard was whether or not he could play professionally, and from that perspective, Ochiha was certainly not good enough.

Ochiha knew this, so he broke his father’s rule and practiced late at night by himself. However, this caused him to lose sleep and his performance dropped, and in the end, his father blamed him. Hating it, Ochiha practiced alone late at night again. As Ochiha continued to do this, he grew weaker and weaker, and he found himself alone at school more and more often.

One day, Ochiha invited Kotone to join them for their first water-splitting session in a while.

“I’ve been having a lot of fun lately. Everyone compliments me on how beautiful I am, and I’ve made a lot of friends.”

“I see. That’s good…….”

“Yeah. I don’t do draining any more, I have to get rid of this kind of thing too. We’re not children anymore.”

“…..I see. Then, I’m sorry I forced myself on you”.

“It’s fine, but please don’t call out to me in front of everyone. It’s embarrassing….”

“……Sorry.”

Ochiha had something to say that day and invited Kotone to drain the water. But Kotone’s attitude was different from the old days and he just couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“Ah, I lost.”

And that day, Ochiha was able to reach the stone to the other bank first. Ochiha had always lost on purpose. But that day, he could not afford to lose on purpose.

“……….”

Ochiha pondered for a moment what to say, and then opened his mouth boldly. But the words were blocked by the rain that suddenly began to fall, and did not reach Kotone.

“Wow, that’s terrible. It’s raining so hard. Sorry but I have an appointment tomorrow so I’m going home now!”

Kotone left Ochiha behind and walked away. Ochiha invited Kotone several times to go to the water cut, but Kotone continued to refuse Ochiha’s invitations, giving priority to her appointments with her friends. Ochiha, who had no other friends to turn to, was unable to talk to anyone about anything, and had no choice but to continue struggling on his own.

Then, one day near graduation from elementary school.

It was raining again that day. Kotone was on her way home from a play date with her friends when she happened to pass by Ochiha’s house. It wasn’t that she was listening carefully, nor was she conscious of it. She just heard a voice. It was like thunder, a very unpleasant yell.

Unintentionally, Kotone stopped in her tracks. Kotone realized that Ochiha was being shouted at, but she didn’t know what to do, and she couldn’t move from that spot.

A short time later, a disheveled Ochiha comes out of his house to go for a run, not caring about the rain. He continues to run, not even noticing that Kotone has stopped in front of his house.

“Wait, wait　Ochiha-kun!”

Kotone unintentionally stops Ochiha from doing so.

“…… hmm? Oh, what is it?
Koga-san, huh?”

However, when Ochiha looked at Kotone, his eyes were very cold. It was as if he was looking at a stranger who didn’t matter to him. Kotone’s heart ached at the sight of those eyes, but she didn’t know what to say. Ochiha was no longer interested in Kotone, he ignored her and tried to run away.

“W-ait! That …… sorry, Ochiha-kun.
I …… broke my promise to you. ……”

“I’m …… fine, I don’t really care.”

With that, Ochiha ran off. Kotone was unable to stop him

　
On that rainy day. The last time the two of them drained the water together. Kotone could actually hear Ochiha’s voice. She could hear it, but she pretended not to.

[—-Help me!]

Ochiha had indeed said that on that day. But Kotone put her own enjoyment first and pretended not to hear those words.

She wanted to apologize. But she didn’t know how to talk to him. At school and at home, Ochiha seemed to have no time to be friendly with others, rather rejecting them …….

“Koga-san is so mean too. Sakashima-kun, he liked Koga-san and tried his best, but in the end, she only thought about herself.”

“Haha, don’t say that too much. I’m not interested in an unpopular childhood friend.”

Then Kotone overhears a group of girls she thought were friendly talking about such things.
　

What had I been …… doing all this time?　she wanted to apologize to Ochiha. After apologizing, she wanted to drain the water together again like they used to do.

But she was afraid of being rejected, so she couldn’t speak to him. While struggling with this, time passed, and they graduated from elementary school and went to different junior high schools. They no longer saw each other, and only their feelings for each other grew.

She knew where he lived. But she still didn’t know how to apologize to him now after having ignored him once. Kotone couldn’t bring herself to say sorry to him.

So, Kotone thought. I should apologize after a little more time has passed. If I do it now, he might not even look at me. I’ll apologize when my hair becomes more beautiful. when my skin becomes more beautiful. More, more, more. ……

Someday, I’m sure, we’ll have a miraculous reunion, and then……

While she was thinking about that, five years passed, and on that day, Ochiha and Kotone met again at the riverside. This time, Kotone thought, she won’t make a mistake. He is a precious …… boy, more precious than anyone else. No matter what other people think, she’ll be on his side this time. She want to apologize properly and hang out with him like she used to.

… Or so she thought, but when Ochiha first called Kotone “Kokone,” Kotone realized that he had forgotten about her… about the betrayal.

Ochiha now calls Kotone ‘Koga-san,’ but that is a different distance from before, as an adult, and he does not reject Kotone as he did before. She realized this, and so Kotone wondered whether she should apologize or not.

And in the end, Kotone couldn’t say it out.

[We are both adults now, and if we can build a new relationship and have a good time, that’s fine]. If she apologized for digging up the past now, Ochiha would probably be annoyed as well.

─ ─ I don’t want to be separated from him again, even though we were able to meet again like this.

Kotone likes Ochiha. Because she liked him, she used that feeling as an excuse. Because she loved him and didn’t want to be separated from him, these feelings had held her back, and until today, Kotone hadn’t been able to say anything.

…… No, I apologized to him on the way home just now. And Ochiha kun told me that he didn’t care. The fact that I had been troubled so much was already in the past for Ochiha kun, and there was nothing to forgive or do now.

So I thought it was okay. I thought it was okay to say I like him. .but the heavy rain and thunder reminded me of that day. Since I remembered it, Ochiha kun might remember it too. Thinking of that, I was too scared to move my body.

That’s why Kotone……

“I’m sorry! Ochiba-kun… That day… I actually heard you say ‘help me’. But… I betrayed you! In the end, I was a coward who only thought about myself, so… I’m sorry!”

So Kotone let out five years worth of tears and regret in the darkened room with the sound of rain. She knew that the tears were selfish, but still Kotone couldn’t …… stop them by any means.
　

-Maiban