I Was Sleep-Deprived at a Matchmaking Meeting and Ended Up Engaged - Chapter 2

Night.

When Ayato returned home, his aunt’s car was parked in the parking lot.

Clomp clomp clomp clomp! He rushed inside.

“Hanami! Is it true I’m getting married?!”

In the dining room, his mother and Hanami were at the large dining table with numerous wedding venue pamphlets spread out.

His mother turned around and, without even saying “welcome back,” declared:

“Ayato.

Mom likes this one.

A white sanctuary overlooking the ocean!”

She showed him the pamphlet with a beaming smile.

“No, no, no!

You’re not the one getting married, Mom.

And I’m not getting married either!”

He shouted, but…

“Quiet!” Hanami snapped at him.

“When I asked you back then if it was okay, you nodded and said ‘uh-huh, uh-huh’!”

“At the point it’s ‘uh-huh,’ isn’t that just some vague agreement?!”

This was Hanami, after all.

She must have brought up the marriage topic while discussing something else and drawn a careless “uh-huh” out of him while he was sleep-deprived and spaced out.

“Anyway, things are already moving forward.”

“No, why?!”

“Because neither of you said you didn’t want to.”

“That’s ridiculous!

Besides, I had a tough day today—I ran into Mr. Shirakami at work.”

“Oh, really?”

“It’s fate.”

Faced with their casual remarks, Ayato recalled the day’s events.

“Um, good morning.”

That morning, when Ayato encountered Yoshinori in the hallway at work, he bowed to him.

Yoshinori seemed to be looking at him while thinking about something, but eventually said:

“Good morning.”

But he has such a well-proportioned face.

It’s kind of an intense face.

He’s scary, Ayato thought, just as the department manager asked Yoshinori:

“Oh?

Yoshinori, do you know Fujimiya?”

“Yes,” said Yoshinori, gesturing toward Ayato, “She’s my fiancée.”

“Whaaat?!”

The manager, their coworkers, and Ayato were all shocked.

The manager looked at Ayato and said:

“…Why are you surprised?”

Well, first of all, this guy just said,

‘Could it be you?!’

I don’t think that’s something you say to your fiancée, Ayato thought, but the manager didn’t seem to find it strange and said to Yoshinori and Ayato:

“I see. Congratulations.”

“Can I ask how you met?”

Amid the manager’s celebratory mood, Yoshinori replied nonchalantly:

“It was a matchmaking meeting.”

Well, at least that part wasn’t a lie.

“Manager Yoshida—”

The manager was called away, and Yoshinori seemed to be going with him, so they parted ways there.

As Yoshinori left, he lightly raised a hand and said:

“Well, see you sometime.”

I don’t think that’s something you say to your fiancée either, Ayato thought as he watched him go.

When he returned to his own department, his supervisor, Manager Tanezaki, said:

“I heard about you.

Seems you’re marrying Yoshinori.

Landed quite a catch, didn’t you?

Well, your family is good too.

Was it a matchmaking meeting?”

“Uh-huh.”

Well, that part wasn’t a lie.

But he had to deny this story somewhere.

If this spread through the company, his marriage would become company fact.

The kind middle-aged woman at the next desk smiled and asked:

“My, how wonderful. Are you getting married, Ayato? What will your new name be?”

“…What is his name?”

Ayato asked Manager Tanezaki.

“Yoshinori is his given name, right?”

“Huh? Oh, it’s Shirakami.”

“It’s Shirakami, apparently,” he told the woman.

“Shirakami Ayato. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?”

“No, wait a minute. Why don’t you know Yoshinori’s surname?”

“…I didn’t get his personal history form.”

Well, maybe that’s how matchmaking is these days, Manager Tanezaki tilted his head thoughtfully.

“Yoshinori and my son went to the same university. Now that you mention it, the photos for my son’s matchmaking meeting were just snapshots too. But you’d normally at least ask his name, right? How were you introduced?”

“Um, let’s see. As so-and-so’s cousin, so-and-so, I think.”

“Actually, I’m impressed you remembered the ‘cousin’ part,”

muttered Yuya, who had been making a sour face behind him this whole time.