“I feel bad, after all.” Honami looked around the room in an unsure way.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. More importantly, I’m sorry it’s such a foul room.”
“Oh, no, it’s a simple and splendid room… but this is the room Suou-kun uses, isn’t it?”
“Don’t worry about it. There’re other open rooms, so this guy can just sleep there. Like the closet, for example.” Kusanagi said with a smile to Honami, who was tilting her head in an unsure way at the entrance to the room. Suou was smoking while leaning against the wall of the hallway, without complaining.
Honami, looking at the bed which was covered in fresh new sheets, turned around in Suou’s direction.
“Suou-kun, do you want to sleep here, too?” Honami asked that in a completely serious way.
Suou looked at he like he just swallowed a lemon.
“Are you an idiot? I’ll attack you.”
Saying it roughly, Suou went into the room that was turned into a closet across the hall. Kusanagi smiled wryly at Honami, who had her eyes wide.
“Please don’t tease the young guys~”
“Oh, come on, of course I wouldn’t do something like that.” Honami said with a smile. It wasn’t like she was playing innocent, it was just from her trust and the easiness that came from Anna being there as well. Either way, it was just a pain for Suou, though.
Ever since Honami had gotten off work and come to the bar, Anna was stuck right to her. Even now, they were holding hands, and Anna was halfway hidden behind Honami. While Anna appeared to have let her guard down towards the Homura guys a bit, it seemed as though she was able to relax most around Honami after all. Like this, she appeared to be a child fawning on her parent.
“Anyway, I’ll be leavin’ Totsuka here tonight, too, so if you need somethin’ or there’s a problem, go right ahead and ask him. Since Mikoto won’t pay attention to somethin’ like that.” When he said that clownishly, Honami smiled softly. Kusanagi was a bit unsettled by how that smile was not just kindly, but somehow kind of delicate.
“Really, thank you for everything. Even though I’m the teacher here, I’m just being helped by you guys.”
“…that’s not true.” As he replied, Kusanagi felt like he had seen Honami’s weak side for the first time.
To Kusanagi, ever since highschool Honami had been someone who, despite being fuzzy and hard to get ahold of, was an existence that never wavered. She could scold Suou, and she was airheaded and missing some screws, but she was profound and strong. That was the kind of person she was.
Even now, surely that hadn’t changed.
But Suou thought that probably, this person was also uneasy. Her brother and his wife had died, and even though she was single and working, she was suddenly turned into the guardian of a seven year old girl with a difficult illness, so there was no way she wasn’t feeling uneasy.
He thought that there wasn’t a shred of untruth in the love Honami showed Anna. You could tell that from how Anna, who had the power to ‘see’, innocently trusted Honami this much. But, because of that love, she must have been concerned about her ability to raise and protect the girl.
“…Honami-sensei.” When Kusanagi spoke up, Honami hid the delicateness she had shown just now, and tilted her head, returning to her usual smile.
“If there’s anythin’ we can ever help with, let us know.”
Honami thanked him with a happy expression. Anna pulled on the hand she was holding.
“Ah, I’m sorry, Anna. Are you sleepy already?” Honami kneeled down to be on the same eye level as Anna. Anna looked into Honami’s eyes and opened her mouth.
“Read me a story?”
There wasn’t any change from her usual tone, but Anna gave off the sweet atmosphere of a child her age. Honami replied to her request with a smile. From a large bag, she pulled out several books. Anna chose one picture book from them. Honami took that, and moved to the bed. The two of them sat on the bed, with Anna on Honami’s knees so she could see the book well, and began to read.
Honami’s voice seemed to flow softly. Kusanagi suddenly remembered his highschool days. Honami was the English teacher. Her voice as she read off the English literature was nice, and even amongst students who didn’t like the subject Honami’s voice as she read was popular. He thought it was a songlike voice.
The contents of the picturebook seemed to be a cliche fantasy. A story where a princess gets stolen away by an evil king. Anna quietly leaned up against Honami, and listened with a childlike face. That face of hers wasn’t a doll-like one that created walls between her and ther people, it was a young child’s natural expression.
Watching the lady and the girl sitting together and reading, Kusanagi felt oddly guilty, like he was peeping, and quietly said ‘goodnight’ so as to not interrupt and left the room.
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