I Was Sleep-Deprived at a Matchmaking Meeting and Ended Up Engaged - Chapter 21

While watching the intense match, Hideko brought me some ice cream she’d bought at the venue as a thank you.

That’s when I noticed an unfamiliar woman approaching Keiki, who was talking with an acquaintance.

Both of us instinctively strained to listen.

“Shiragane-san! Thank you so much for the other day! Um, would you like to get dinner sometime? Here’s my phone number.”

“Hey!” Hideko shouted in their direction. “Shiragane-san is going to marry this girl!” she said, pointing at Ayato, and laughed triumphantly.

Hamako, who had come over while drinking an ice slurry, said to Hideko, “Why are you trying to one-up her?”

…What’s with these two? Do they actually get along well? They seem to be saying the same thing in their own ways. As I thought this, Ayato caught the ice slurry Hamako tossed to him with a “Here.”

Before I knew it, we had ended up agreeing to go look at a house.

“Next weekend, we’re having an event too, so please come!” the earnest, good-natured young man enthusiastically promoted.

Could it be that he took a liking to us and that’s why we ended up deciding to tour the model home?

As I wondered, I glanced sideways at Ayato.

Ayato looked back at me and bowed apologetically.

I felt like I could hear Ayato’s inner voice: “I’m sorry. I went ahead and decided without asking.”

Somehow, it seems we’ve become able to communicate without words!

Ayato, desperately pressing his hands together in apology, is so cute!

Feeling quite pleased, Keiki said to Masaharu, “Well then, shall we go? Tell me the details like location and time later.”

While watching the beach volleyball game, Keiki thought, Everyone’s so energetic in this heat.

As he chatted with work acquaintances, he glanced over at Ayato at the reception desk.

Ayato seemed to have spilled the water he was drinking quite spectacularly on his clothes.

“Aah, jeez, what are you doing?!” Hideko said.

“You spilled curry in the company cafeteria the other day too, didn’t you?” Hamako added.

Ayato was staring intently at his wet event T-shirt, blue and soaked.

“It’s fine! It’ll dry quickly. Spilling water is allowed in summer, it’s the rule,” he said, showing no intention of wiping it off.

“No, it’s not! There’s no such rule!” Hideko and Hamako said in unison, teaming up to wipe him down.

Ayato let them do as they pleased, but eventually grinned and said, “Kinda feels like ‘goo-goo ga-ga,’ huh?”

To a furious Hideko who retorted, “I don’t need a toddler bigger than me!” Ayato said, “There, there, I’ll treat you both to something cold later.”

“Ah, there’s a place I want to go to more than the ice cream here. You don’t have to treat me.”

“In that case, there’s a place I want to go to too.”

“It’s a new place that opened near here.”

“The place I want to go to is also new and nearby.”

“What? It’s not the same place, is it?”

“It’s the place I found first!”

“I did! I saw it on the evening news program!”

“I saw it there too! Don’t copy me!”

“Ah, it’s about time to wrap up. Let’s start cleaning up,” Ayato said, leaving the two behind and beginning to pack up the reception area.

With a smile, he said, “It’s great that you both want to go to the same place~” as he carried packed cardboard boxes to the car.

…Chaos. That guy really doesn’t listen to people…

In the end, Keiki treated all four, including Masaharu, and they all had dinner together.

On the way back from the meal, Ayato, in the passenger seat, spoke up. “I think I might be a robot.”

Looking over, I saw he was holding his smartphone.

“I’ve been trying to register for that shopping site Hamako and the others mentioned. But I can’t get past the ‘I’m not a robot’ part. It tells me to select images with bicycles. I am selecting them!”

He’s getting angry at his smartphone. He’s so gentle with people, though.

“There are no more traffic lights!” …Calm down.

“It seems like this site doesn’t want me to register. Maybe I really am a robot?! If I’m a robot, I can’t get married!”

“Seriously, calm down.” I found myself asking, Are you really the sharp, capable one at work…?

On the weekend, Ayato visited the event with Keiki.

Various housing manufacturers were welcoming guests with all sorts of creative displays.

A child dragging a giant stuffed rabbit from in front of one model home, repeatedly taking it to other model homes.

A packed elevator.

A long, snaking line in front of a food truck.

Hordes of children playing with water guns and bubbles.

It was pure chaos.

“…There are so many people who want to build houses,” Ayato murmured, watching the scene vaguely from a slightly removed spot.

They really were a bit alike, after all.

“Ah, thank you for coming, even though you must be busy!” Maa-kun, with his sparkling eyes, approached.

“Please fill this out,” he said, handing them a questionnaire and a free gift.

Ayato filled it out at a long table set up in a tent.

“Relationship with the person you came with.”

We’re not married yet. “Friends” doesn’t seem quite right either.

“Lovers”… That feels presumptuous.

“…Strangers?” he muttered, pen in hand.

“Hey…” Keiki, standing beside him, said reproachfully.

“Well then, are you matchmaking partners?” he suggested.

A person from the same housing company as Masaharu, who was nearby, looked at them with an expression that seemed to say, “I’ve never seen anyone write that before.”

“Come on… Wouldn’t ‘lovers’ or something be fine?” But both the one who said it and the one it was said to were embarrassed.

Unable to watch any longer, Masaharu interjected, “Um, ‘Betrothed’ would be fine too. Or ‘Husband (planned)’. They just want to know the relationship of the person you’re building the house with.”

“…That ‘(planned)’ is scary,” Keiki muttered, turning pale. Could that be overturned? he wondered.

“Umm, well, next question. Family structure… Dad, how old is he again?”

“Why are you writing about your family? From now on, the family living in this house—no, I don’t know if it’s this house, but the family living with you will be me!”

Family!

It was the first time he’d been so shocked by that word.

That’s right. If things continue like this, this person and I will become family. For the first time, he truly understood that.