I Was Sleep-Deprived at a Matchmaking Meeting and Ended Up Engaged - Chapter 3

“You wouldn’t think ‘Could it be you?’ means marriage partner, right? Normally.”

Yuya and Ayato were walking down the hallway as they had this conversation.

They had something to bring to the sales department.

Ayato didn’t know where Yuya had business, though.

Come to think of it, Ayato realized he didn’t know why Yuya had come to his department either, since it seemed like he didn’t have any particular business there.

“Don’t you have some deep circumstances or something?”

Uncharacteristically gently, Yuya asked.

“Because suddenly talking about marriage is weird, right?”

…No deep circumstances.

While it was certainly an abnormal situation, there wasn’t any complicated background that led to this.

If he had to pursue the cause…

“Recently, Harada-san suddenly quit her job, right?

Due to circumstances with her family home.”

“Ah.”

Yuya made a solemn face as if wondering if Harada-san’s resignation was related to this marriage situation.

“Then the temp worker, Fukui-san, got mumps from her niece. That’s really tough to get as an adult, you know. So, she’s been taking time off. Our department suddenly lost two people and was in complete chaos. So then—”

Yuya seemed to expect there was more to the story.

He stayed silent for a moment looking at Ayato, but eventually asked back,

“Why!?”

“Ah, sorry. Was my explanation insufficient?”

“It’s completely insufficient!?”

“Well, then I was sleep-deprived and my judgment was impaired, you could say.”

Everything was vaguely just bothersome, and he was sleepy.

Even now he couldn’t remember it well.

Actually, was that whole drum bridge incident, everything, just something that happened in a dream?

Ayato tried to escape from reality.

But from the other direction, Yoshinori was approaching.

…It should have been something from a dream.

Their shoulders bumped as if they were two delinquents making contact.

“Why didn’t you avoid me?”

Yoshinori asked.

“Well, I thought you might be a hallucination.”

He hadn’t avoided because he wanted to believe Yoshinori was a hallucination.

Yoshinori looked down at his own shoulder and said,

“You got lipstick on it, didn’t you?”

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

“No, it’s not a noticeable color so it’s fine.”

Yoshinori gently pressed his handkerchief against the lipstick mark on his suit shoulder, trying to remove it.

“Ah, your handkerchief will get dirty.

My handkerchief…

I don’t have a handkerchief.”

Since this suit didn’t have pockets, he hadn’t brought one.

From behind, Yuya offered,

“I have one,”

and presented his handkerchief.

…Right in front of Ayato, who was shocked at being outdone in femininity by Yuya, Yoshinori looked at Yuya as if appraising him and declined,

“No, that’s alright. Thank you.”

At that moment, Murakami Hamako, a petite, round-faced cute senior from general affairs who seemed to have been watching the whole thing from a distance, came rushing over.

“Shirakami-san! Are you alright!?”

In a way that felt like she was pushing Ayato aside, Hamako secured the position directly in front of Yoshinori.

The slender Ayato was literally sent flying and stumbled.

Yuya supported him from behind.

“This is terrible!

Lipstick stains are hard to remove, you know.

Shouldn’t you send it to a professional?

Ah, if you’d like, shall I remove it for you?”

…Is Murakami-san a dry cleaner? Ayato wondered.

She’d just said it couldn’t be removed unless sent to a professional, though.

Yoshinori was looking at Yuya rather than the noisy Hamako.

Maybe because they were at eye level height-wise.

Meanwhile, Hamako wasn’t looking at Yuya at all.

Murakami-san, normally when Yuya’s around, she appears from nowhere and starts talking to him while ignoring me, Ayato thought curiously as he watched, when suddenly Hamako turned to Ayato and said,

“Honestly, Fujimiya-san, you can’t do this to a customer. You’re really so absentminded.”

Well, he couldn’t deny that right now.

Hamako looked up at Yoshinori as if probing and asked,

“If your girlfriend saw something like a lipstick mark, she’d get angry, wouldn’t she?”

“Girlfriend… I don’t have one.”

When Yoshinori said that, Hamako’s eyes sparkled.

“But I do have a marriage partner.”

Eh? Hamako made a strange sound.

Like the many frogs in the river behind his relative’s house that were so noisy.

When he stayed over, he couldn’t sleep because of them.

Those frogs definitely made sounds like that.

Like “Vehh” or something.

Depending on how you listened, it could be considered artistic vocalization.

Murakami-san’s quite unique, contrary to her cute appearance, Ayato was thinking when suddenly Yoshinori grabbed his wrist.

Like declaring the winner in a boxing match, Yoshinori raised Ayato’s hand and said,

“This is my marriage partner—”