I Drink Every Night With a Lookalike of a Popular Idol on the Riverbank
After finishing my conversation with Manager Kuroda, my head was filled with one big question mark.
“She’s lying because she doesn’t want to be recognized.”
Kuroda’s words kept replaying in my mind. It was ridiculous. Nanase was Yunagi Nagi, the national idol? Impossible. The person I was meeting was supposed to be her “lookalike.”
But in the back of my mind, the events so far were clicking into place like puzzle pieces. The time she forgot the lyrics at the festival. The strong garlic smell. And that night when she appeared before me as Nagi
I have to confirm it.
It’s rude to pry. Exposing a lie is the worst thing you can do. But I want to look at her face again with my own eyes and come to a conclusion within myself. Nagi and Nanase-san. Are they really a “look-alike” and the “real thing”?
With that resolve in my heart, I headed to the usual riverside. There, a familiar figure was already sitting there.
“Nanase-san, good work.”
“Oh, Yosuke. Hey.”
I sat down next to her. Usually, this is where we would start a casual conversation. But today, I’m different. I have a mission.
I sat silently, staring at Nanase-san’s profile.
Her long eyelashes, illuminated by the soft light of the streetlamp. Her straight nose. Her slightly shaped lips. In my mind, I compared her face to the one I had seen in a magazine of Nagi, desperately trying to analyze it.
“W-w-what? Is there… rice on my face? Or is it potato chips?”
Noticing my overly obvious and serious gaze, Nanase shifted uncomfortably. Her voice was slightly trembling.
“Ah, no, it’s not like that…”
When I mumbled, she turned her face away as if to say, “That’s enough,” and stared at the other side of the river. Her ears were slightly red. This is bad. I can’t see her face.
“Nanase-san.”
“…What?”
“No… nothing. I just called you.”
I tried to see her face by slowly leaning toward her. When she noticed, she turned away even more stubbornly.
There was nothing I could do.
I stood up abruptly. Then I walked around and stood in front of her.
“Hey, Yousuke, what’s wrong!?”
Nanase-san let out a startled cry at my sudden appearance in front of her. Her face was clearly flushed with surprise and embarrassment. Now’s my chance. I stared intently at her face, as if trying to burn it into my memory.
The photos on social media are probably edited, so they can’t be used for comparison. When I compared them to the Nagi in my memory, they were indeed similar. I had known that all along. There were no decisive features like moles or the shape of her nose.
“…”
“…So what’s the point of all this?!”
Unable to bear it any longer, she turned her face away again, this time in the opposite direction. Her cat-like gesture made my heart skip a beat. No, no, I’m in the middle of an investigation.
I didn’t give up.
I circled around her, following her turned-away face. Right and left. Every time she turned her face away, I followed her and circled around.
In front of the bench on the riverbank, a quiet and strange battle was being fought between a man who wanted to see her face and a woman who absolutely did not want to show it.
And finally, her patience snapped.
“Mouu!”
A scream-like shout. She stood up abruptly and came right up to my face. Then she grabbed my cheeks with both hands and held them firmly.
“Okay, I get it. I get it. If you want to see it so badly, you can look as much as you want. But you have to give me your honest opinion. Got it?”
She shouted, her voice filled with frustration. But her eyes were tightly closed, filled with embarrassment. Her hands, touching my face, trembled slightly and were incredibly hot.
I felt my heart racing from the sudden turn of events. But this was my chance. I stared at her face in front of me, this time as if I could see right through it.
Her closed eyelids slowly opened. There were large, moist eyes.
Those eyes, filled with a complex mix of anxiety, shame, and a hint of expectation, were fixed solely on me.
The face of “Yunagi Nagi,” the perfectly crafted idol I had seen in magazines, overlapped with the expression before me in my mind, and then melted away.
A long, long silence.
Finally, the final conclusion of my investigation quietly slipped from my lips.
“…Well, you are cuter than the real thing.”
No, that’s not what I meant! I slipped up!
At my words, Nanase’s wide-open eyes widened even further, as if they might fall out of her head. The hand that had been gripping my cheek suddenly relaxed.
“Huh!?”…Ah…”
“Ah… I, um, what I just said… well, it’s the truth, but that wasn’t my intention! And, um, it’s not what you think… um… let’s drink!”
She couldn’t utter a meaningful word, only trembling her lips slightly. And in the next moment, her face was flushed a shade of red I had never seen before.
Maiasa