The Spicy Omega
Translator: Katie
Editor: Derpy
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 16
Even though I was properly bundled up, the biting winter air still chilled me to my core.
It was even cold enough to release a white puff of air each time I exhaled.
I pulled the scarf bundled around my neck up to cover the tip of my nose.
After swaying in the train for ten minutes, I finally arrived at a local shrine that famously worshiped a god of academic studies.
Although I avoided going on New Year’s Day, the shrine’s busiest day, the number of worshippers didn’t seem to have decreased much as there were still a lot of people dressed in winter clothes passing me.
I noticed the person I was supposed to meet today standing below the large torii gate at the edge of the property. It seemed like he got bored and started reading manga on his smartphone.
I felt the urge to run up to him, but I approached him even more slowly despite my tardiness.
“Were you waiting long?”
“Wah! Good morning, Karasawa. You approached me without making any noise so it surprised me.”
The tip of Amami’s nose was red and he grinned sleepily. I felt guilty for making him wait so long.
Though I say that, I was only a minute off our agreed meeting time. For the time being, I’ll apologize for being late.
“I came early after all. Happy New Year. Shall we go pray at the shrine?”
“Yeah, Happy New Year. Let’s go.”
We joined the stream of people walking into the shrine grounds.
As if going with the flow, he held my right hand—doing it so naturally that I didn’t even notice and only shook off his hand in a panic after 5 seconds.
“I said don’t do it in a place with so many people!”
“You don’t get it, do you? There are so many people here that no one would notice us.”
“…Ugh.”
The flow of people who came to pray already stagnated and we also got swallowed up in a large crowd, so it didn’t look like people would be looking at our hands here.
Our surroundings were also full of people on their smartphones or people talking to their companions, so it really didn’t seem like anyone would notice.
It felt like I was being overly self-conscious, which was embarrassing.
However, whether we were actually holding hands or not was a completely different matter.
“Anyway, we can’t! We came here today to pray for our exam grades, so flirting is strictly forbidden!”
“Aww…”
“Don’t ‘aww’ me!”
Amami’s blatantly depressed expression after my refusal was clearly a facade.
Well, it might be good to let him stay depressed.
I started meeting with Amami ever since winter break began.
The truth was, we had planned on meeting on Christmas day to renew the marking.
But there was a blizzard that day, with the heaviest snowfall we had seen in decades.
It was a laughable amount of snow to those who lived in snowy areas, but it was a big issue in this area where cars didn’t normally install tires with snow studs, so the public transportation system was pretty much paralyzed.
Of course, the train we usually took also stopped running and wasn’t restituted until night time, so we couldn’t meet.
Even though we were already on break, when he went out of his way to invite me over for Christmas, I couldn’t say I wasn’t a little happy about it.
But I thought that it was for the best that we didn’t end up meeting.
Our relationship wasn’t the type to exchange presents, and we couldn’t do the same things as many other couples in this world do.
I wouldn’t want to create an unforgettably bad memory either.
Instead, Amami nagged at me repeatedly to not go into crowded areas so that the marking wouldn’t wear off. On top of messaging me, he even called me about it near the end.
All I did every day was just grind for my studies, either at my desk or at the library.
So I said that I didn’t have the time to be going anywhere dangerous to me, then immediately hung up.
Even if he was only calling me because he was worried, I was still slightly happy about it regardless of the reason.
I would never say a word of it to anyone for the rest of my life though.
“But still, this is a huge crowd.”
“As expected, there are a lot of students who look like they’re preparing for exams here…”
As I observed my surroundings, I noticed a lot of worshippers who looked like students—and next to them were adults who seemed to be their guardians.
Charms for academic success were being sold everywhere, and a lot of worshippers hung up wooden tablets with “I wish I get into my first choice” written on them.
They must’ve wanted to cover all their bases rather than regret not doing it.
I looked at my surroundings with cold eyes like that, but I wasn’t any better than those who looked to the gods in times of need.
The only thing setting me apart from them was the man standing next to me.
“What’s your real situation, Amami?”
“Huh? About what?”
“The truth is, you can get into your first choice pretty easily, right?”
My voice came out a little more bitter than I’d like, but it couldn’t be helped.
Amami, who had never fallen from the upper ranks of the entire grade, already had a relaxed atmosphere around him after taking the mock exams we had when we first became third years.
I also knew that the teachers approached him countless times to ask him to aim for a higher-ranked school.
And also how he refused every time.
Usually, he was someone who should’ve taken exams for prominent national universities. I wonder if he was really attached to his current top choice.
“You’re right. Honestly, I’m not too worried about it.”
“So it is easy for you. I hope you stub your toe.”
“Do you hate me…? Speaking of which, don’t curse me on holy grounds.”
“It depends on your attitude.”
The slow procession to the main shrine could be heard through the crunching of the gravel.
After a while, with little conversation in between, we were pushed to the front of the line and prayed for success without much difficulty.
“Karasawa, are you going to buy a charm?”
“Yeah.”
“Then how about we each buy one and trade?”
Amami suddenly asked such a girly question that I probably made quite a baffled face. “Ha?” escaped my mouth.
“What’s the point in doing that if we’re buying the same thing?”
“But you know, don’t you get motivated all of a sudden when someone else gives you a charm?”
“No.”
“Aw, c’mon. Don’t say that. We’re buying the same thing anyway, so isn’t it fine?”
Returning the words I just said back at me… this guy really always had an argument ready.
It was annoying to think of a counterargument, so I let out a big sigh for show and turned toward the shrine booths with Amami following behind me.
There weren’t as many people as there were in front of the main shrine hall, but there were still a lot of worshippers at the shrine booths lining up to buy charms.
Amami stood in front of one selling various charms and was pointing at a tiny blue sachet before paying for it.
When it was my turn, a cute shrine maiden, who had the air of someone who was obviously a short-term part-time worker, prompted me to choose something. I pointed at what I wanted as I took out my wallet.
“Karasawa.”
When I left the booth, Amami was waiting beneath a tree next to a bridge.
Without any hesitation, he held out the charm he had just bought in a small paper bag.
I never said I would definitely trade him for what I bought, but it looked like Amami firmly believed I would. So when it was time for me to purchase it, I was being conscious of him and picked a mature one. I handed it over to him in a similar paper bag.
I broke the seal and pulled out a dark blue charm with “academic success” stitched on it with delicate embroidery.
I faked a casual glance at Amami, who was opening the paper bag in a similar fashion.
“Hey, Karasawa! This isn’t for academic success, it’s a prayer for good health!”
“Ahahaha!”
The charm Amami held up was pure white with “prayer for good health” stitched on it in gold thread.
Seeing Amami’s surprised face and wide eyes, I laughed harder than I expected.
“Isn’t this too cruel? I even properly bought you one for academic success.”
“Shut up, you don’t even need to rely on the gods to have it easy. Or are you trying to find fault in what you got?”
“…”
Amami glared at me, perhaps realizing my reference to the words he twisted around earlier.
Though I say that, the corners of his mouth were curved up, so I knew he wasn’t actually mad at me.
“Well, it’s fine… More importantly, come here.”
“Uwah!”
As I tucked the blue charm away into my coat pocket, Amami tugged on my arm and I stumbled into him.
I was pulled into the shadows of the tree my back was facing.
Behind the tree was also the back side of a shed adjacent to the booths, a space where neither light nor people could reach easily.
I was trapped in his arms as usual, and the realization that this was his original objective appeared in my mind.
I almost forgot about it since I ended up being more excited to celebrate the new year together if we met up at the beginning of the year.
“As expected, the mark disappeared… Even with a tight hug, the mark only lasts up to a week it seems.”
Amami muttered while gently caressing my nape.
The way Amami’s breath brushed against my ear was way worse for my mental health than the fact that the marking wore off. I wanted to quickly get away from him, but it wasn’t like I could send him flying.
“A-Are you done yet? We might be seen in a place like this.”
“I don’t mind being seen though.”
“I do!”
“Gosh~ You’re so hard to please. I guess I’ll stop with this.”
With a few more pats on my back, he released me.
I could never seem to get used to this… Though it would be bad if I did.
I smoothed the wrinkles of my somewhat rumpled coat as I let out a light and stifled sigh.
“Take good care of the charm I gave you. I put in a ton of love so that you wouldn’t get nervous for the actual exam.”
“Love… Don’t do something so unnecessary.”
“I’ll think of this charm as you, Karasawa, so I’ll take good care of it.”
Think of a charm as me? What was this guy up to? It made me burst into laughter though.
The white charm still clutched in Amami’s fingers received a kiss from him.
Amami, who had his eyes closed while kissing the fabric, slowly opened his eyes and made eye contact with me.
What was the meaning in kissing a charm you said you’d treasure and think of as me…!?
“Wh-what?! Stop that immediately! Return it!”
I jumped for the white charm in Amami’s hand, but he immediately raised his hand higher.
This guy was around 10 cm taller than me, so doing that made it harder for me to take it by force.1
“Nope, too late. This is something I got from you.”
“B-but even still, you can’t do something like that!”
“Then you wanna trade back?”
“Ugh… I need the blessings for academic success…”
“If you don’t like it, we can’t trade, right?”
“Ughhhhh!”
“This is what happens when you try to be mean to me, you know?”
Seeing how I couldn’t take the charm back no matter how much I stretched my arms, Amami laughed at me mischievously.
So this was what you call… regret.
On a day when I should’ve been happily celebrating the new year, all I could do was hang my head in dejection.
A/N: Next is Kijima’s POV.
