As originally planned, Arisa borrowed a room in the Takasegawa house to change into her yukata.
Yuzuru decided to change as well while she was doing so, but…
As expected, girls seemed to have a lot more preparations to deal with.
Yuzuru finished changing first.
He took a moment to check himself in the mirror.
His yukata was made of dark navy fabric—so dark it was almost black—with a pattern of white and deep blue bamboo leaves. The obi was a muted red.
His hair, unusually, had been styled with wax.
“Well, this should be fine.”
At least good enough that walking beside Arisa wouldn’t be embarrassing.
After that, Yuzuru waited for her, feeling a little restless.
“Takasegawa-san, sorry to keep you waiting.”
Her voice sounded slightly stiffer than usual.
Her expression was the same calm one she always wore, but faint traces of nervousness and anxiety could be seen beneath it.
“No, it’s fine. …Oh.”
Yuzuru took his time looking over Arisa in her yukata.
The fabric was deep indigo.
Large pale-purple morning glories were printed across it, along with white nadeshiko and hagi flowers. Her obi had a hemp-leaf pattern and was colored in a shell-purple hue.
Her hair had been beautifully arranged and pinned up with a kanzashi decorated with red beads—likely coral.
The overall colour scheme and design of the yukata weren’t flashy.
If anything, it gave a calm and refined impression.
In contrast, the colour of the obi was striking—vivid and beautiful.
Rather than “cute,” the impression it gave was elegant and mature.
An ordinary girl might have been overshadowed by such a subdued design, but Arisa—who possessed a composure and subtle allure far beyond her age—wore it perfectly.
The elegant kanzashi only enhanced the effect.
“…Does it look strange?”
“No, it suits you really well. You look beautiful. You seem more mature than usual.”
Even though Yuzuru praised her, Arisa’s expression didn’t brighten.
Instead, she turned her back to him.
Her neatly tied obi came into view.
“Did I… tie it properly?”
She asked anxiously.
The question didn’t sound like—“Does it look good?”—but rather—“Did I actually manage to put on the yukata correctly?”
“Yeah, you did it well. I see my sister in yukata every year, so I can judge that much. Don’t worry.”
When Yuzuru said that, Arisa let out a sigh of relief.
Then she added, almost as if making an excuse—
“To be honest, I haven’t worn a yukata in years… so I looked it up online.”
“I see.”
That would definitely make anyone nervous.
(If she’d told me earlier, I could’ve asked Mum or Ayumi to help,) Yuzuru thought—but it was too late now, so he kept it to himself.
“By the way… Takasegawa-san, you look very good as well. I think you look very handsome.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
Yuzuru realised that being complimented on his clothes by a girl was surprisingly embarrassing.
When it was his mother or sister, he didn’t feel anything at all.
“Sorry to interrupt your moment—may I come in?”
A cute voice called out.
Turning around, they saw Ayumi standing there in a goldfish-patterned yukata.
She spun around in a quick little twirl.
“Well? What do you think, big brother?”
“It suits you. You look cute.”
“Hmm, that sounded pretty lukewarm compared to what you said to Arisa-san.”
Despite her complaint, Ayumi walked over to Arisa with a bright smile.
Then she stared closely at her yukata.
“Just as I thought, Arisa-san—you’re beautiful. Yep, I officially approve of you as my future ane.”
“Ahaha… thank you.”
Ayumi puffed out her chest proudly for some reason.
Arisa, on the other hand, looked like she didn’t quite know how to respond.
After all, she couldn’t exactly say that she had no intention of actually marrying him.
“Still, Arisa-san, your taste in yukata is pretty similar to my brother’s. You didn’t coordinate with each other, right? You just naturally match… Maybe the day I get called ‘aunt’ isn’t so far away.”
(You’re already acting like an aunt.)
Yuzuru hurriedly swallowed the words before they could escape his mouth.
Meanwhile, Arisa—being spoken to as if marriage were already a given despite having no intention of marrying—seemed uncomfortable, so she changed the subject.
“By the way, Ayumi-san… you’re not planning to go to the festival in the clothes you were wearing earlier, right?”
“Huh? Of course not… I’m not going to a festival in a hakama. Traditional Japanese pleated, wide-legged trousers or skirts worn over a kimono You have to wear a yukata.”
At home, Ayumi usually wore a hakama.
According to her, it was easy to move in, stylish, cool, and cute all at once.
Still, no one would expect that a girl—let alone an entire family—would casually wear traditional clothing as everyday wear in this day and age.
“Our family just wears traditional clothes as everyday clothes.”
So Yuzuru added that explanation for Arisa.
Understanding immediately appeared on her face.
“That’s quite unusual… Um, is it something like a family rule or tradition?”
“No, not really. Well… we just copied our parents because they wear them.”
“We’ve been like this since we were little,” Ayumi added. “Besides, don’t you think traditional clothes suit this house? I don’t know if time, place and occasion is the right term, but… something like that.”
Incidentally, Yuzuru wore regular clothes in his flat room.
Wearing traditional clothing there would feel strange.
As Ayumi would put it, it was a matter of TPO.
“It doesn’t really mean anything, so you don’t have to imitate us, Arisa-san. …By the way, your yukata looks lovely.”
“That’s right. And if Arisa-chan marries into this family someday, you can break silly old rules like that if you want. Still—you’re just adorable, Arisa-chan. It suits you so well.”
Just then, Yuzuru’s parents arrived.
As they both praised her yukata one after another, Arisa’s expression became complicated.
She was happy to be complimented.
But it also hurt to feel like she was deceiving them.
That was the kind of face she was making.
Deciding it would be better not to linger here any longer, Yuzuru took Arisa’s hand.
“Alright, we’re heading to the festival.”
“Ah—um… please excuse us.”
In a somewhat forceful manner, Yuzuru led Arisa away from the scene.
“Sorry about that, Yukishiro. …You really don’t need to worry about it.”
After they had left, Yuzuru apologised to her.
For someone as conscientious as Arisa, it probably weighed heavily on her that she was deceiving his parents.
“No… I think this is something I should properly acknowledge. I’m the one being dishonest.”
“You’re overthinking it. As usual.”
Yuzuru sighed.
It seemed their understanding of this engagement was slightly different.
“My parents wouldn’t get angry even if you dumped me and broke off the engagement.”
“…Really?”
“It’s not marriage—just an engagement. Of course they’re aware it could fall apart if the relationship goes bad.”
These days, even divorce wasn’t particularly unusual.
Compared to that, an engagement was even less binding.
“Because that possibility exists, our engagement has only been shared between the Takasegawa and Amagi families. We’re not supposed to talk about it casually. Your adoptive father told you the same thing, right?”
“Yes… Is that why?”
Originally, Arisa had intended to keep it secret anyway, so she apparently hadn’t thought much about the meaning behind her adoptive father’s warning not to spread it around.
“That’s right. Engagements and marriages are usually announced to make the relationship widely known—to show that the two sides have a close connection. But ours hasn’t been announced. Which means… this engagement is unofficial. In extreme terms, it’s basically just a verbal promise. If it were official, Tachibana, Satake, and Uenishi would’ve been informed too.”
Tachibana, in particular, was both an ally and a rival to the Takasegawa family.
Not informing them about the heir’s engagement meant that it wasn’t yet formal.
Of course, Yuzuru had mentioned the engagement to Ayaka…
But what mattered was that the heads of the families hadn’t exchanged formal notices through letters or similar means.
A conversation between children at the pool was practically the same as never having heard it at all.
The reason the engagement hadn’t been publicized in the first place was simple:
If Yuzuru and Arisa’s relationship fell apart, they didn’t want it turning into a scandal.
In short, it was meant to protect the privacy of the two involved.
So it wasn’t some secret that absolutely could never be known.
It was simply better not to spread it around.
“Is that really how it works…? I don’t have to take it so seriously?”
“Exactly. Besides, we just graduated middle school. We’re still kids. Forcing an engagement on people who are mentally immature and then demanding they faithfully honour it—that would be unreasonable.”
At the very least, Yuzuru’s parents probably didn’t completely trust him.
Trusting a child who couldn’t yet make proper judgments would be strange.
Reasonable adults trusted children to a degree—but kept some doubt at the very end.
“I see… Then I’ll try not to worry about it so much.”
“That’s the spirit. You’re the victim here. Even if you’re not entirely blameless… you’re definitely not the bad guy.”
Yuzuru said it firmly.
Arisa looked at him with slightly moist eyes.
Her expression softened—like she had been reassured, like something inside her had been saved.
“Thank you… very much.”
