Chapter 36 - Sato-kun is Too Sweet
After school, Mogami-san and I went to a café a short distance away from the school.
“I-isn’t this place kind of stylish?”
“Yeah, it is.”
The café seemed to have a ‘hideaway’ sort of concept. It had a cozy, homely atmosphere, the kind that looked like a re-purposed old house, or maybe the owner just turned their home into a café altogether. I’d actually had my eye on it for a while.
This habit came from my previous life. Back then, whenever I had extra time before a meeting with a client, I’d often kill time in coffee shops. Because of that, I developed the habit of looking for cafés while walking around town. And that was how I discovered this one.
Besides us, the only other customers were an old man engrossed in a newspaper which was a rare sight these days, and a guy with glasses working on his laptop in the corner of the café. He looked like a day trader. I just got that vibe, or maybe I was just stereotyping.
In any case, the place had a nice atmosphere.
“Here you go.”
While I was busy observing the café's interior design, a gentle-looking old man, who I assumed was the owner, brought over our drinks. I'd ordered an iced coffee, and Mogami-san had a milk tea.
“You two are young. Are you students?”
"Yes, sir. We go to the school nearby."
“I see. Well, take your time and relax.”
Unlike the big city, people in smaller towns really were warmer. His kind words made me smile. As for shy little Mogami-san, she froze up completely and couldn’t say a thing.
“...Sato-kun, you seem kind of mature, don’t you?”
“Do I seem that way?”
“Yeah. You carry yourself confidently, even in a place like this, and you don’t get flustered when strangers talk to you.”
“Maybe it’s just that you’re being such a nervous wreck every time?”
“I-I… um… uuu… I’m sorry for being shy…”
“It’s fine. You’re cute, so you’re forgiven.”
"...You're too sweet. Sato-kun, you're way too sweet to me." [TN]
Well, it fits my name, doesn’t it? “Sato” literally means sugar, after all—wait, hold on.
(Is this the kind of thing that’s messing up the romantic comedy between Sanada and Mogami-san?! Have I been unconsciously flirting with her without realizing it?!)
Originally, my only goal was 'it'd be nice if I could help her with her negative thinking,’ so I was always just validating her like this. Of course, I meant everything I said and nothing I’d told her was a lie. However, if you look at it from a different angle, those encouraging words could sound a lot like flirting.
And Mogami-san is... it feels weird for me to be the one to say it, but... she's really easy. I guess that's probably how we ended up in this situation.
(...Calm down. I can always beat myself up about this later.)
This wasn't the time to get lost in my own head. I needed to talk to Mogami-san, properly. That was the whole reason I invited her to this café.
I needed to cool my head a bit, so I took a small sip of my coffee. Apparently, even that didn’t escape her notice.
"You’re sweet but you don’t like sweets, right? You even drink your coffee black."
‘You seem mature.’ It sounded like she was saying that and was seeing me positively based on that. Still, I couldn’t help but think she was overestimating me a bit.
"It might just be me trying to look cool, you know? People often say drinking black coffee makes you seem experienced with life, after all.”
“If that’s true, you don’t show it at all. If you were just pretending, you’d at least make a bitter face, right?”
"...What if I told you it's actually not bitter?"
"Really? Then let me try some too?"
Before I could stop her, she snatched my glass and took a sip. Ah, Mogami-san, wait—.
“—Byittir!”
One sip. That's all it took for her expression to twist in agony. Maybe it was because her tongue was so used to the sweetness of her milk tea that she felt the bitterness extra strongly.
"I-It's so bitter, Sato-kun...! You know I love sweet things! You're so mean!"
She glared at me with teary eyes, looking like a pouting kitten.
M-man, this girl is so cute. Every little reaction she has is so freaking cute.
Stop it, me. What was this situation? How had we suddenly ended up in a typical lovey-dovey rom-com scene? Also, one more thing.
(…She’s awfully relaxed around me now.)
Snatching my drink.
Looking at me with that sulky expression.
It was all the kind of behavior that showed she completely trusted me, that she knew she could act like that around me. I could feel, genuinely, how deeply she had become attached to me.
…Which was exactly why I was so confused.
At this point, what kind of existence was Sanada to her? That was what I planned to ask about in detail next—.
Translator's Note
Just here to explain something.
When Mogami said “...You’re too sweet. Sato-kun, you’re way too sweet to me," she used the word甘すぎる (amasugiru), however, she is not using the English idiom "being sweet" (implying a romantic interest).
She's using the Japanese word's very common idiomatic meaning. While 甘い (amai) literally means "sweet" (like sugar), in this context, it means "too lenient," "too indulgent," or "you're a softie."
She's essentially saying, "You're way too indulgent on me" or "You spoil me."
Still, since there's Sato's next thought, where he internally makes a literal pun on the word "sweet," I had to use the word "sweet" itself than "indulgent," because his name (佐藤, Sato) is a perfect homophone for the Japanese word for "sugar" (砂糖, sato), and using other word than "sweet" doesn't really makes sense.
