I Drink Every Night With a Lookalike of a Popular Idol on the Riverbank
On this day, Nanase and I were quieter than usual. But the silence didn’t feel awkward at all.
Just sitting next to each other, watching the river flow in the same direction, we enjoyed a peaceful moment that felt completely fulfilling.
The distance between us was the same as always, two cans of chuhai. It didn’t get any closer, nor did it get any farther.
I finished the last sip of my canned chu-hi. Nanase seemed to have finished hers as well, shaking the empty can with her fingers.
“It’s gone. Two cans is too much, but one isn’t enough.”
“How about two 350ml cans?”
“No, I want to drink from a 500ml can.”
“You’re so selfish…”
“Next time, I’ll buy two, so you can drink half of one. That’ll be just right.”
“Why don’t we buy two 350ml cans?”
I persistently made my suggestion, but Nanase smiled and said, “Two 500ml cans. We’ll split one.” I could sense that she was quite drunk from her broken smile.
As I reluctantly agreed with a wry smile, I noticed two figures walking toward us from the distant embankment.
At first, they were just vague silhouettes. As they got closer, the joyful voices of a man and woman could faintly be heard carried by the wind.
“…!”
I could tell Nanase had held her breath beside me.
The relaxed atmosphere from earlier instantly tensed up. Her body stiffened like a taut string.
“Nanase-san?”
I looked at her face in confusion, and her eyes were fixed on the approaching figures with a look of fear.
“Yousuke, turn this way for a moment.”
Her voice had a suppressed, tense tone.
“Huh?”
I turned toward her as she said, and in the next moment…
Nanase pulled the brim of her cap down low over her eyes.
And then…
Without warning, she sat closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder.
I could feel the softness of her hair on my shoulder. I could hear her small, rapid breathing right next to my ear. There was a faint, sweet scent.
“I’m sorry, just stay like this…”
She whispered, burying her face in my shoulder.
“I don’t want them to see my face.”
My mind went blank.
My heart pounded loudly and unpleasantly.
It’s close. Too close. There’s not even enough space for a can of chu-hi. It’s the distance between a couple who don’t want to go home at dusk.
As I waited for her to pass by with her face hidden, Nanase made a “gulp” sound.
“…Burp?”
When I whispered, Nanase burst out laughing.
“Haha… fufu… You didn’t have to say that…”
Nanase shook her body to suppress her laughter and tapped me lightly.
“Well… I’m human, after all.”
I blurted out an insensitive remark and panicked, saying something I didn’t understand.
“Yeah, that’s true. I’m not an idol, so I burp and fart too.”
“Idols do that too… Becoming an idol doesn’t stop gas from forming inside your body.”
“Gas release… Hmm. That’s true. This is a gas release.”
Nanase nodded to herself in agreement.
As we spoke in whispers, like a conversation after lights out at a training camp, the sound of footsteps on the embankment grew louder, approaching us.
“Hey, you know…” “That’s funny.” “Really?”
The lively conversation between a man and a woman passed right above us.
I couldn’t move.
All I could do was hold my breath, feeling the weight of her body on my shoulder and her body heat right next to me.
Is this what she meant by “the hardships of being a look-alike”?
Just being seen with a man could spark unfounded rumors about the real Yunagi. That’s why she was so desperate to hide her face.
It felt like an eternity, those few seconds.
Eventually, the voices and footsteps faded completely into the distance.
Silence returned to the surroundings.
“…Did they leave?”
She murmured in a small voice.
“Yeah… It’s okay now.”
When I said that, Nanase slowly moved away from me.
The shoulder she had been leaning on suddenly felt cold.
“Sorry for suddenly… Thank you.”
She said that and turned her face away awkwardly.
Her ear, illuminated by the streetlight, seemed to be slightly red.
“No, it’s really tough, isn’t it? It’s a bit of a problem that we’re so alike.”
“…Well, yeah.”
The usual calm atmosphere returned.
However, there was no space between us, not even enough for a can to fit. we had moved apart, but we were still closer than usual.
“Hey, Yosuke. I just had a thought. Listen to this insight.”
“That sounds like the intro to a song!”
“Well… right now, this place is like a pressure release valve, and I can burp in front of Yosuke. But… I wonder if I’ll eventually be able to burp here anymore.”
“Why? Just do it.”
“It’s just a matter of how I feel.”
Nanase smiled and said that.
“Hmm…”
I tensed my stomach. I felt the carbonation rising in my body, and a burp escaped.
“Huh… Me too, me too!”
Nanase also tapped her chest excitedly. What came out was a cute “kep” sound.
“Nanase, that’s cheating! That’s a cute sound. It’s not like the one from before.”
“Oh, you’re such a pervert…”
“No, I’m not!”
“It doesn’t come out when you try to do it on purpose, does it?”
Nanase tried several times from there, but she couldn’t produce the human-like burp from the first time, and instead, her body only produced cute sounds like an idol.
Maiasa