I Drink Every Night With a Lookalike of a Popular Idol on the Riverbank
As autumn arrived, the quality of the night breeze changed. The muggy heat of summer subsided, replaced by a crisp, cool air that caressed the skin.
From the grassy banks of the river, the cool chirping of insects sounded like the constant jingling of countless tiny bells.
“Hey, Yosuke. Haven’t there been a lot more types of canned chuhai lately?”
Nanase said, looking at the package of Lemon 7%. Neither of them had noticed because they always drank lemon-flavored ones and ignored the limited edition ones, but she recalled the scene of the display shelf from the corner of her memory.
“Ah… that’s true. It used to be just fruit flavors like lemon and grapefruit, but now there’s white peach, pear, and Shine Muscat.”
“Hmm, that’s right. But in the end, this lemon flavor…”
Nanase stared at the package and let out a surprised gasp.
“What’s wrong?”
“This… This is different! It’s not lemon, it’s extra lemon flavor…”
“Extra lemon… Oh, you’re right. It’s different from mine.”
“Let me compare them.”
Nanase naturally took my can of chuhai and took a sip.
“Hmm… It’s a little sour. Well, it’s not that different. Here, thanks.”
“Ah… Uh, yeah…”
I told myself not to think about it being an indirect kiss as I took the can back from Nanase, who was acting naturally.
“Extra lemon… It’s the thirst of modern people who want a stronger lemon flavor.”
Nanase narrowed her eyes and said it like a critic.
“Thirst…”
“Well, but that’s how it is with everything. We end up with bodies that can’t be satisfied unless it’s stronger and more intense.”
“That’s a bad cycle…”
“Hehe. Yeah, there are those kinds of collage images.”
“Huh? Oh… that one.”
“Yeah. That one.”
“You know… the one that keeps looping.”
“Yeah, that one. The one where they’re scratching their heads.”
“Ah, that one.”
The two of us shared the image in our heads without showing each other the actual image. It took some time for us to realize that we were picturing the same image in our heads.
We looked at each other and smiled. Somehow, talking about trivial things like this had become our standard routine.
“Ah… I couldn’t clean my room again this week.”
I opened the second can with a loud pop and muttered to no one in particular.
“Did you plan to clean? Is someone coming over?”
“You clean even if no one’s coming, Nanase-san.”
“Oh, you figured it out. That I hate cleaning.”
Nanase stuck out her tongue and smiled shyly, joking around.
“Well… I also swore last week that ‘this weekend, I’ll finally tackle that pile of unread books,’ but before I knew it, I’d spent the whole day playing games.”
“Haha, I get it. I also often say, ‘This will be the last one,’ and then end up eating the whole bag of potato chips.”
“I also say, ‘I’ll get serious starting tomorrow.’ Like with dieting or studying for a qualification. I really do have the motivation. But that first step feels as far away as the summit of Mount Everest.”
“Like when I buy clothes saying, ‘I’ll definitely wear them,’ but they end up sitting in the back of my closet with the tags still on.”
“Oh, I get that. In my case, the dumbbells I bought for health reasons are now just stylish doorstops.”
“Is your stomach sticking out? Are you okay?”
Nanase smiled mischievously and poked my stomach with her finger.
“It’s not sticking out…”
“Well… but in a way, this kind of thing is a lie, right? A lie to yourself.”
“A lie to oneself, huh. That’s true.”
We burst out laughing at this conversation, which was like an exhibition of “lies to oneself.” It was trivial and commonplace, but that’s why it felt so good.
“When we were kids, our lies were cuter. We believed that Santa Claus was real, and when we got bad grades on tests, we’d tell our parents, ‘The crows took them away.’”
“Haha, cute. I once ate my family’s chocolate but didn’t confess, even though I had chocolate all over my mouth.”
“It was obvious.”
“Yeah. But I had the strong will to stick to the lie.”
Nanase said that with a mischievous smile. Her smile was truly joyful, and I couldn’t help but laugh along.
“Well, they say lies are sometimes necessary. Sometimes you need to tell yourself a lie to indulge yourself.”
When I said that casually, Nanase’s laughter suddenly stopped. The cheerful atmosphere from earlier disappeared as if it had been blown away by the wind on the river.
“…There are lies you have to tell, too.”
She muttered quietly.
Her voice was different from the cheerful one from earlier, slightly lower and tinged with sadness. She continued, her gaze fixed on the can in her hand.
“There are things I want to say but can’t. There are times when the real me is different, but I have to pretend to be someone else… Those kinds of lies aren’t convenient at all.”
Her fingertips traced the surface of the can she was holding. The movement seemed unusually slow.
“It’s not Lemon 7%, it’s Chaser Lemon. They’re similar but different. Different but similar. That’s how it feels.”
Nanase muttered, still staring down at the ground.
Similar but different… The names are almost the same… Could she be thinking about the indirect kiss from earlier?
Kisses are sometimes called lemon-flavored, so maybe Nanase-san is just trying to hide her embarrassment. Maybe it’s because she didn’t realize it, but Nanase-san is speaking in a rather heavy atmosphere.
This… Maybe I should just laugh it off.
“Haha! It doesn’t matter if it’s lemon or extra lemon. In the end, neither of them has much juice in them. It’s just the fragrance that makes you think it’s lemon. So don’t worry about it.”
Nanase stared at me blankly.
“Um… that’s just an example, Yosuke.”
“Yeah, I get it. You mean what happened earlier, right?”
“Earlier?”
“Well, um… this!”
I hesitated to say it, so I pointed to my elbow.
“Elbow?”
“Joint.”
“Joint?”
No good! It’s too indirect to get the point across!
“Um… earlier, you drank my lemonade, right? I was wondering if you were worried about that…”
“Huh? Lemon… elbow… joint… oh, indirect kiss… ah!!!”
Nanase’s voice echoed across the riverbank.
“Ah, wait! That’s not it…”
“Yeah, that’s right! That’s also… Oh my… Right… Yeah… No, Yousuke. It wasn’t like that, I just wanted to compare the flavors. That’s all… Uh…”
Nanase’s face turned bright red and she looked down.
“I’m sorry… I should have pretended I didn’t notice…”
“Yeah, that was exactly the kind of lie you had to tell.”
“Exactly…”
“But Yousuke is the kind of person who can’t help but speak his mind.”
“Well… I’m not very good at lying.”
“Yeah. That’s right. So he hasn’t noticed yet. If he had, he would have said something already.”
“Huh? What?”
“Hehe. I wonder. Besides the indirect kiss, I must be doing something else.”
I hurriedly touched the back of my head. In situations like this, it’s standard practice to hide it in a place where it can’t be seen.
“Huh!? There’s nothing there!”
“Huh… Well, well. What could it be?”
Nanase-san said that, then gulped down the lemon-flavored drink and wiped her mouth.
“They say the first kiss tastes like lemon, but a lemon that’s just a illusion from the fragrance is a bit off. It’s… kind of fake.”
“I wouldn’t do that…”
“You don’t? Maybe trying to trick yourself into thinking it’s lemon isn’t so bad?”
Nanase looked at me, closed her eyes, and stuck out her lips. This person is drunk…
“Nanase, you’re taking it too far.”
When I tapped her forehead, Nanase smiled softly. In the end, I had no idea what lie Nanase was telling, and the day ended with us parting ways.
Maiasa