Chapter 15

The next morning, when I arrived at work as usual, the atmosphere in the office felt different from normal.

Everyone seemed kind of restless, or rather, strangely tense—somehow awkward all around.

The reason for that became known to me come lunch break.

“Onitsuka-kun, here you go.”

As the lunch chime rang, Hosotani-san, sitting in front of me, rummaged through her desk and held something out toward me.

“Eh, what is this?”

“It’s a Valentine’s Day present.”

“…Ah, that’s right!”

Now that I thought about it, today was February fourteenth.

“Did you forget, Onitsuka-kun? Valentine’s.”

“Yes. Completely forgot.”

So many things had happened around me recently that I had completely lost track of Valentine’s Day.

“No fair~. I was getting all strangely nervous about when to hand it over.”

What on earth was unfair about it, Hosotani-san pouted.

“Anyway, here, I’m giving this to you.”

“Ah, thank you very much. I’ll gratefully accept it.”

I received the item wrapped in pretty wrapping paper with both hands and bowed twice.

“At first, I thought about making something homemade, but store-bought ones are definitely tastier, so I just bought it.”

Hosotani-san, saying that with a shy smile, looked cuter than ever.

If I were being greedy, a homemade one would have made me happier, but oh well—I guess I’ll savor this little by little and cherish it.

“Here you go for Okajima-kun, too.”

“Riii-ght. Thanks a bunch.”

Moving his neck forward as if that counted as a bow, Okajima.

“Well then, I’m going to hand out the rest to everyone.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you very much.”

“Wiii-ght.”

Hosotani-san stood up and started going around the desks one by one, handing out chocolates to each person.

The middle-aged male employees accepted the chocolates with smirks on their faces.

I see, so that was why everyone had been so strangely tense.

Excluding the managing director, Hosotani-san was the only female employee in our company.

The male employees must have been nervously waiting and longing for when Hosotani-san would give them their chocolates.

Honestly, it wasn’t like this was an all-boys technical high school.

Well, saying that, if I had known it was Valentine’s Day, I probably would have been jittery and restless the whole time, too.

“Good for you, Yamato.”

While I was answering nature’s call in the restroom, Saeki called out from behind.

“Hm? What is?”

“The chocolate from Hosotani senpai.”

“Whoa, your voice is too loud, man.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s just the two of us in here. Look.”

Saeki opened up a restroom stall door to show it was empty.

“Just because of that, don’t go talking about stuff like that at the office.”

Confessing to Saeki that I had a crush on Hosotani-san had been a blunder after all.

“It’s not like you can get excited over it anyway, since it’s probably just giri-choco.”¹

In direct contradiction to my true feelings, I tried to act completely composed.

I didn’t want to give Saeki any more leverage over me.

Right after that, however, Saeki dropped a bombshell that threw me into turmoil.

“It’s not necessarily giri-choco, you know. Were you watching closely? The chocolate Hosotani senpai was handing out—the wrapping paper for the one she gave you was different from everyone else’s.”

“—Eh, seriously?”

“Yeah. She told the rest of us she bought them, but maybe your chocolate was actually homemade by Hosotani senpai?”

“N-No way, as if.”

Even while saying that, I found myself getting my hopes up way more than necessary.