I handed her the phone, and Kano started flipping through my contacts and the chat history on LIME. She worked through it in silence for a while.
“Hmm. No suspicious-looking message exchanges.”
“That’s what I said.”
“But I mean, there’s still a chance Yuito did some evidence-destruction to throw me off…”
“You literally just told me to hand over my phone a second ago — there hasn’t been any time to destroy evidence.”
There was no way I’d have managed something that dexterous in those few seconds, obviously. And to start with, I don’t have any exchanges with anyone that I’d be embarrassed to be seen.
”…Anyway, do you finally believe I don’t have a girlfriend?”
“For the moment. More importantly — your big-sister-here is a little curious why you’ve got girls’ contacts on here at all. What’s that about?”
“Even I sometimes have to message girls in class for school-event-related stuff.”
So a small handful of girls are registered as LIME friends. The exchanges are strictly business — nothing flirty, just dry coordination texts.
“If you’re not messaging them anymore, no reason to keep their contacts on the phone, right?”
”…That might be true.”
She had a point. There was no real need to keep contacts for people I might never message again. The only reason they were still there was that deleting them one by one was annoying.
“Right? So I’ll go ahead and wipe them clean for you.”
”…Excuse me?”
“No time like the present — deleting now.”
Ignoring my surprise, she went to work on my screen. Whoa whoa whoa, did she really need to go that far? As I was thinking it, she finished and handed the phone back.
“There. Properly wiped.”
“You really did it. They’re actually gone.”
“Yuito’s contact-list spring cleaning, complete.”
I checked the phone she handed back and confirmed that, true to her word, every female chat history and friend entry had been swept off. Now I had this oppressively masculine, sausage-fest contact list. The only female contact left was Kano herself.
“Hey… Suzuno’s contact’s gone too.”
“Oh, I deleted her contact too while I was at it.”
”…What are you doing.”
“I mean — Yuito doesn’t really have any reason to be contacting Suzuno, right?”
I hadn’t anticipated for a second that she’d delete Suzuno of all people. Sure, I know Suzuno’s in love with my brother — but having the contact of the girl I like erased was, frankly, a bit of a gut-punch.
I couldn’t quite let it go, so I made one weak attempt to push back.
”…Suzuno and I do still message sometimes, so this is genuinely a problem.”
“That’s covered. If you want to tell Suzuno something, just tell me and I’ll pass it on. And vice versa — if she messages you about anything, I’ll relay it.”
“That sounds like enormous hassle for you?”
It seemed like a double-handling chore to route every Suzuno message through Kano. Plus, every exchange between Suzuno and me would be in plain view of Kano.
“For my adorable Yuito, I don’t mind how much hassle it takes.”
“But…”
“This is decided. Give it up.”
She said it with conviction. When Kano gets like this, she will not budge an inch — I’ve known that since we were kids. Arguing further was a waste of breath.
Worst case, I can just secretly get Suzuno’s contact again at school. So I’d play along for now.
“Let’s head out. Like I said before, I’m covering everything.”
“Thank you. The meal was great.”
After paying, we stepped outside. We hadn’t been in there that long, so it was still bright out.
“I’m pretty stuffed. Let’s head home, shall we?”
“Ah, Yuito’s not done coming along with me yet.”
I’d grabbed the helmet and was about to sit on the tandem seat when she said that.
“I really don’t remember you saying anything of the kind.”
“Yeah, well — earlier, Yuito lied to me about having a girlfriend. So this is your punishment.”
“I mean, the 2D one is technically real.”
“That excuse… is not going to be accepted, I think.”
I tried to wriggle out, but she wasn’t budging. Looked like I was just going to have to come quietly.
”…So where are we going after this?”
“Hmm, where indeed?”
Ah. So she hadn’t thought about it at all.
“If you don’t have a place in mind, no need to force it. Just go home.”
“Nope. This is also part of Yuito’s punishment.”
So she was determined to punish me one way or another. I had no idea what punishment was waiting, but I’d appreciate being let off easy.
“How about here?”
”…No, absolutely not, what is wrong with you?!”
“Aw — I personally thought it was a brilliant idea.”
The place she’d pulled up on her map app was a lodging facility for cultivating love between adults — a love hotel, to call a spade a spade.
She was almost certainly proposing it to get a rise out of me, but inviting a minor to a love hotel is basically asking to be arrested.
“If our genders were reversed, that would be straight-up sexual harassment.”
“Okay, that was a joke… for now.”
I couldn’t quite catch the last bit, but it probably wasn’t important.
“All right, then how about coming shopping with me. I’ve been meaning to head to the mall and pick up some summer clothes.”
“That much I can manage.”
“Good — then it’s settled. Helmet on, hop on the back.”
I did as told and climbed onto the tandem seat. Once she confirmed I was on, she turned the key, fired up the engine, and the bike took off with real momentum.