Chapter 20: Barley Tea

♦♦♦

Right after the cultural festival, I started a part-time job.

It’s at a live bar near the central terminal station where we had our three-person date. You can listen to piano or saxophone while sipping drinks.

School rules prohibit part-time jobs, but a live bar is unlikely to be spotted by high school students, and with its high price range, teachers wouldn’t come either—or so I thought.

That day, too, I hopped on a train after school to head to work.

Down a side alley from the main street, I descend a staircase. The underground space is surprisingly spacious, with a stage, tables, and a bar counter. It’s still before opening, so there are no customers.

I change into a shirt and slacks in the locker room. These clothes are provided freshly cleaned every day. It’s the owner, Rei-san’s, policy—no cutting corners, even in the details.

I put on an apron, head to the kitchen, wash my hands, and peel a bucketful of potatoes with a peeler. The potatoes I peel are transformed by the chef into a delicious dish called Hasselback potatoes.

“I’ll help.”

When I’m halfway through the bucket, a woman with the inner layer of her hair dyed pink comes over and says.

“What about the bar counter?”

“Nothing to do until customers arrive.”

Saying that, she crouches down and starts peeling potatoes with me.

Her name is Kunimi Mei.

She’s twenty, attending a university in Tokyo while working as an apprentice bartender here.

She has a cat-like face, with a chest size somewhere above Tachibana-san’s but below Hayasaka-san’s.

Her casual clothes and way of talking give a laid-back impression, but when she’s in uniform behind the bar counter, she’s remarkably refined. Her posture is impeccable, and her white shirt and black vest suit her perfectly. The pink in her hair and silver ear piercings add a pop of color, standing out in the dim hall. It’s a very urban sense of style.

“I was reading a book on the train on my way here today.”

Kunimi-san says while peeling potatoes.

“What book?”

“Something by Hermann Hesse. Makes me look smart, right?”

“How was it?”

“Felt like I became an intellectual. Don’t I look like a PTA president now?”

“Now that you mention it, kinda.”

“Right? I’m starting to feel like I could win a Nobel Prize~”

By the way, she apparently gave up after a few pages. She looked up Hesse on her phone and felt like she’d read it all.

Kunimi-san calls herself a “degenerate college student” and won’t tell me her university or major. She often practices pouring beer at the bar counter and drinks it herself. Her straightforward personality and short haircut give her a slightly boyish vibe.

“Hesse apparently said something like, ‘I want to be a poet, or else I’d rather die.’ What do you think, Kirishima?”

“Sounds like an artist to me.”

“So serious. I bet Hesse was like, ‘Nah, I wanna be an oil tycoon~’ three seconds later.”

“That’s a bold interpretation.”

“I’m an intellectual, after all.”

Kunimi-san pulls a notebook from the back of her vest, where it was tucked into her pants, and under a section titled “Hesse’s New Interpretation,” she writes, “Actually wanted to be an oil tycoon.”

“You write everything in that notebook, don’t you, Kunimi-san?”

Sometimes she jots down beer brands or dish types to help with work, but often it’s random stuff like this.

“They’re all seeds for ideas~”

Tucking the notebook back, she says proudly, waving the peeler around. Potato peels stick to my face.

Eventually, the bar opens, and Kunimi-san returns to the counter. I wash dishes in the kitchen but get called to take orders when the floor staff is short.

Wearing a vest and holding a notepad, I go from table to table. When I pick up drinks from the bar, Kunimi-san is pouring beer. It looks simple, but controlling the foam and such requires skill, and Kunimi-san, though an apprentice, is trusted with it because she’s so good.

“How’s today’s sax?”

Kunimi-san says, tilting a glass with a serious look while operating the tap.

“I don’t know anything about jazz.”

“Me neither. This place is too fancy. It’s hilarious.”

Kunimi-san deftly places the poured beers onto the tray I’m holding.

“Go on, Kirishima, get to it.”

The amber liquid in sparkling glasses glows uniquely under the indirect lighting, like a work of art.

I carry drinks from the bar and food from the kitchen. When glasses are empty, I collect and wash them, wiping them clean with a fine-fiber cloth. It’s busy, leaving no time to listen to the saxophone or piano.

A different flow of time from school, a different sense of fulfillment from studying.

In a space full of adult customers and staff, I feel a bit grown-up myself.

But that’s not why I started this job.

Closing time approaches. The bar is nearly empty, except for a woman quietly sitting at the backmost table. I bring her a Hoegaarden poured by Kunimi-san.

“You’re getting the hang of it, classic boy.”

“I don’t listen to classical music.”

“Starting a job to buy a Christmas present for your lover? That’s as classic as it gets.”

It’s the owner, Rei-san. She’s wearing a thin knit sweater and tapered pants, with gold earrings peeking through her loosely tied long hair. She exudes an adult woman’s aura, but her age is a mystery.

“I’m thinking of raising your hourly wage a bit.”

“Huh?”

“Buy your lover something nice.”

“But is that okay? I just started working here.”

“Why do you think I’m sitting here like this?”

Rei-san rotates through her three Tokyo establishments, including this one, daily. She comes as a customer, sits at the back table, listens to music, and sips a drink.

“I heard you’re checking what the bar needs or what’s missing.”

“Exactly.”

I have a knack for sensing that intuitively. Rei-san says.

“The trick to making a great bar is obsessing over quality in every detail and not skimping on the costs to achieve it.”

The chef and bartender here earn higher wages than at other places.

“And the same goes for your potato peeling and glass polishing.”

And so, my hourly wage goes up.

I feel a little validated by adults and am happy about it. I started this job to buy Christmas presents for Hayasaka-san and Tachibana-san, but I’m starting to love this bar.

New relationships, a new sphere of life—it’s refreshing, open, and maybe what I’ve been seeking.

But—

“This is definitely bad, isn’t it?”

“Huh? Why? Is your big-chested girlfriend the jealous type?”

Kunimi-san says casually, her arm linked with mine.

On the way back to the station, she clung to me, saying it’s cold.

“But seriously, I didn’t expect you to actually have a girlfriend, Kirishima.”

“You didn’t believe me?”

“I thought you were just showing off.”

Kunimi-san laughs heartily.

“If you were single, I’d have let you cop a feel, too bad for you.”

Her words make me glance at her chest. The thick hoodie hides it now, but during work, her white shirt always looks snug around her chest.

Seeing through my thoughts, Kunimi-san laughs amusedly.

“Your face is all red!”

“Stop teasing me.”

“Go touch your girlfriend’s. Christmas is gonna be fun, right?”

“It’s not exactly like that……”

“What? You haven’t done it yet? So innocent~”

Kunimi-san keeps walking with her arm linked through mine. Being a college student and older, or maybe just her personality, she’s like this.

This place is full of adults, it was lonely. Let’s be friends, okay? Friends.

From the first time she talked to me, she’s been super friendly.

But she only approached me after confirming I was serious about work, so she might be surprisingly calculating. The type to choose her company carefully.

“Let’s hit the arcade.”

“I’ve got school tomorrow.”

“Weekend, then?”

“Sure.”

Talking with Kunimi-san is simple. Straightforward, with no hidden meanings or emotions beyond the words.

So I can be honest and chat freely.

“I’m thinking of changing my hair color soon.”

“I think the current style’s pretty cool.”

“Really? Guess I’ll keep it for a while then.”

We talk like that, waiting among the crowd for the crosswalk light to turn green.

That’s when i noticed.

My eyes fell on two girls ahead. Cute silhouettes—one wearing a camel peacoat, the other in a navy duffle coat.

Come to think of it, Hayasaka-san and Tachibana-san were excited about revisiting the parfait they ate last time……

I realize it instantly and try to slip away, but—

“Huh? Kirishima-kun?”

Hayasaka-san turns around, reacting to my voice.

She stares intently at my arm linked with Kunimi-san’s. I try to come up with excuses, but Kunimi-san, unaware of Hayasaka-san, keeps talking.

“By the way, your girlfriend’s pretty funny, Kirishima.”

Her topic choice is painfully timed.

“She’s super jealous but won’t let you do her.”

That’s exactly the kind of thing to set Hayasaka-san off.

“Well, that’s kinda cute, though~”

Her follow-up praise is too late.

Hayasaka-san glares at me with an icy expression.

“Won’t let you do me? Me? You’re the one saying that?”

Kirishima-kun, you’ve got a great sense of humor. Hayasaka-san says with a serene, Buddha-like expression.

“Fine. Let’s do it right now. No running away this time.”

♦♦♦

“Why the hell am I getting kicked out of the student council room!?”

The student council president, Maki, says.

It’s lunchtime, on the rooftop.

Apparently, while Maki was handling clerical work in the student council room, Hayasaka-san and Tachibana-san came in and said, “Let us use the room.”

“Why the student council room?”

“Probably because they wanted to talk without other students—or you—hearing.”

Maki says he handed over the key and left, but lingered by the door to eavesdrop for a bit.

“That’s bad manners.”

“They’re the ones using me like a tool. They’re the only girls who treat me like your sidekick, Kirishima.”

Apparently, Tachibana-san even stopped Maki in the hallway with, “Shirou-kun’s friend…… what’s-his-name-kun.”

“And they were super pissed at you, Kirishima.”

They were holding a strategy meeting on how to deal with me.

“What the hell did you do?”

“They saw me walking arm-in-arm with a woman.”

“You’re wild!”

“She’s my senior at my part-time job. A college student, and it’s not like that.”

Back then, Hayasaka-san snapped at Kunimi-san’s “girlfriend who won’t let you do her” comment, and Tachibana-san quietly fumed about me touching a woman other than them.

“We can’t do that now because of the rules, right? But have I ever refused you, Kirishima-kun? Is my memory bad because I’m an idiot? Answer me.”

“Even though our word is absolute, Shirou-kun isn’t listening……”

I explained repeatedly that Kunimi-san is just a work senior and that I started the job to buy Christmas presents for them, and somehow the situation calmed down. But their anger hadn’t subsided, apparently.

Maki says they started their discussion right after kicking him out of the student council room.

“They said it’s all your fault for cheating, Kirishima.”

“I’m not cheating at all.”

“They were fired up about never letting anyone call them ‘the girlfriend who won’t let you do her’ again.”

“That’s scary. We’re actually going out together today, the three of us.”

It’s to test whether we can enjoyably spend time as a trio.

Last time, it ended in a kaiju war. If this fails too, we’ve agreed I’ll spend Christmas with just one of them.

“You don’t want to choose, do you, Kirishima?”

“Yeah.”

“Why not split it between Christmas Eve and the day itself?”

“Both want to be together from Eve through the day.”

“They’ve got no intention of following that no-sneaking rule, do they?”

That’s why they’re so set on us being together as a trio.

“From their perspective, they don’t want to make you choose. It’d make it obvious who you prioritize.”

The sharing arrangement itself is built on that psychology, Maki says.

“Both Tachibana and Hayasaka think they’d be the one dumped if you had to choose. That’s why they can’t stop this sharing. And you can’t choose either, because you know how much it’d hurt the one left out.”

“I know I’m a pathetic guy.”

“But realistically, that’s how it goes, right? Especially since they’re saying they don’t want you to choose.”

But how far can you keep dodging it? Maki says.

“There’s a topic the three of you have been avoiding forever, isn’t there?”

“……Yeah.”

“Hayasaka, obviously, but Tachibana’s not exactly great at this either.”

“I know.”

We’re ignoring a lot to keep this sharing relationship going.

How far we can keep dodging, I don’t know. Whether continuing this is even a good thing, I don’t know. Probably no one does. But we can’t stop now.

“Hey, Kirishima, no matter what you do, I won’t think less of you, and I don’t care if Hayasaka and Tachibana treat me like a side character. But let me say one thing—”

Maki leans against the railing, looking up at the clear winter sky.

“Middle school, when it was me, you, and Yanagi-senpai hanging out together—I still kinda love those days.”

Maki says just that and leaves the rooftop.

Watching his back, I say:

“I know.”

♦♦♦

After school, I’m sitting side by side with Tachibana-san on the train.

We’re heading to a soccer stadium for a friendly match of the Japanese national team. Since it’s not an official game, tickets were easy to get at a convenience store. Hayasaka-san will join us later.

The final test of whether the three of us can have fun together.

“But Tachibana-san, what are you doing?”

“Erasing.”

Tachibana-san is fiddling with my smartphone. She asked to borrow it, so I handed it over.

“But I barely have any girls’ contacts, right?”

Aside from Hayasaka-san, maybe my little sister at most, but Tachibana-san says, “That’s not it.”

“I’m a big-hearted girlfriend, so I don’t check my boyfriend’s address book.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Shirou-kun, you only listen to female artists.”

“Female vocalists have clear high notes, and they go well with electronic sounds.”

“Every time you talk about other girls, my heart aches deep inside.”

Looking over, Tachibana-san has opened the music streaming app on my phone and is deleting albums and songs by female artists from my library one after another.

“From now on, registering female artists requires my permission.”

“Isn’t that a bit strict for a cheating verdict?”

“Idols are absolutely banned.”

“Am I being suspected of hardcore idol obsession?”

“Guess I’ll check your address book after all.”

“Where’s the big-hearted girlfriend now?”

After thoroughly inspecting my phone, Tachibana-san hands it back.

“You didn’t save that college girl’s contact, huh?”

“She’s just a coworker from my part-time job.”

“Should I dye my hair too?”

“No need. I like you as you are, Tachibana-san.”

“I know.”

“You asked knowing that, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

Tachibana-san takes my hand. She stays silent, lightly stepping on my sneakers with her loafers. She seems like she wants to say something but can’t. That kind of vibe.

I have something I want to ask too, but time passes without me saying it.

Eventually, the train reaches a station with multiple lines, and Hayasaka-san boards. We’d coordinated which car to meet in beforehand.

“This far from school, it’s fine, right?”

Saying that, Hayasaka-san sits next to me, sandwiching me between the two.

“I already checked Shirou-kun’s phone.”

“Thanks!”

The two give each other a thumbs-up across me. It’s great that they get along. But then—

“Tachibana-san, hand, hand!”

Hayasaka-san says, looking at my hand linked with Tachibana-san’s.

“Y-you’re forgetting the principle of equality!”

“……Hayasaka-san, you can hold his hand too. Shirou-kun’s right hand is free.”

“I object to that.”

We’re on a train. A high school boy holding hands with two high school girls on both sides would create a perverse scene. I explain this, and Hayasaka-san, next to me, nods vigorously, “Yeah! Exactly!”

But Tachibana-san, with a nonchalant expression, takes the next step—

“Guu.”

She pretends to be asleep.

“Oi, that’s way too obvious.”

When I try to pull my hand away, she grips it tighter. She won’t move her head from my shoulder either.

“Ugh!! If that’s how it’s gonna be, I’ll do it too!”

“Stop, Hayasaka-san!”

Of course, Hayasaka-san doesn’t stop, and I end up holding hands with both girls. I don’t mind meeting their demands, but confusing other passengers isn’t my intention.

“The office workers coming home are freaked out by this incomprehensible situation.”

Tachibana-san cracks her eyes open to glance around. She must’ve thought to make this explainable somehow.

“…………Onii-chan.”

“Onii-chan!?”

So it’s safe because we’re family holding hands!?

“Shirou-onii-chan, I love you.”

“That’s a stretch!”

But Tachibana-san presses closer, acting even clingier. Hayasaka-san, seeing this, nods like she’s convinced, “So that’s the setup you’re going with, Tachibana-san.” Oi, stop it. But—

“K-Kirishima-onii-chan! Ch-chuki!”

“……No little sister calls you by your last name.”

Also, what’s with Hayasaka-san’s little sister vibe?

In the end, I ride the train stuck to two completely unconvincing little sisters.

I thought today would continue with this giddy tension.

But it didn’t.

It was while walking with the crowd from the station to the stadium in the evening twilight.

“Tachibana-san gets to flirt at school, so she’s fine!”

“Hayasaka-san, you’re the one doing…… all those naughty things, so hold back!”

“D-don’t make me sound like that kind of girl!”

“Aren’t you!?”

Their usual fight starts. They even seem to be enjoying it, which is fine, but Hayasaka-san, caught up in the heat, goes too far.

“Kirishima-kun is all I have! You’re fine, Tachibana-san, you still have Yana—”

That’s the name we’ve deliberately avoided.

A few seconds of silence follow.

“S-sorry, I didn’t mean……”

Hayasaka-san hurriedly shuts her mouth. Then, in an overly bright voice, she rephrases, “Kirishima-kun is mine, okay~!”

But it’s too late. The heat has drained from Tachibana-san’s expression.

“Tachibana-san, I didn’t mean it like that……”

“It’s fine. It’s the truth.”

Suddenly, reality crashes back around us.

The winter cold, the crowd heading to the stadium, the white streetlights.

Our sharing relationship probably isn’t actually that fun. It’s a compromise born from emotions we couldn’t handle. Like snow piling up to make everything look beautiful, we have to cover it all with fun interactions—youthful girlfriend antics, comical fights.

Ignoring real emotions and inconvenient truths—

“I’m looking forward to the match.”

I try saying that, pretending it didn’t happen. But Tachibana-san doesn’t seem able to go along with it. Shirou-kun, sorry. she says, letting go of my hand.

“I’m still in touch with Shun-kun.”

Her expression shows she doesn’t know what to do with her aimless emotions.

“He said it’s fine as friends, and I couldn’t refuse. I did something awful to Shun-kun.”

Yanagi-senpai believed his beloved fiancée was his, only to see her kiss someone else on stage. Even then, he reportedly told Tachibana-san, “I won’t tell your parents about this. Please stay like this for a while.”

Senpai had every right to be angry, to despise us, but his love for Tachibana-san won out. He bowed his head, asking for just the chance to remain someone she might like, despite everything. Imagining his internal conflict makes my chest tighten.

“So I’m still meeting him. Even though I know he loves me…… But I feel so guilty toward Shun-kun…… I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize. I did something awful to Senpai too.”

From there, we couldn’t lift the mood.

It’s like slipping back to the destructive feelings right after the cultural festival. We’re stuck, going nowhere.

“Sorry, Tachibana-san, I said something weird……”

“You know about me and Shun-kun, don’t you, Hayasaka-san?”

“Since we play futsal together……”

But I’d never blame you, Tachibana-san, Hayasaka-san says.

“I’m still by Kirishima-kun’s side because of your feelings. You feel guilty for hurting Senpai and me, right? That’s why you let me share, isn’t it? I understand. I’m grateful. So I’d never think you’re bad.”

Hayasaka-san falls silent, her gaze on the crowd heading to the stadium. Among them, a couple our age walks hand in hand, looking happy.

“Three is a bit unbalanced, huh?”

She says quietly, letting go of my hand.

“Hey Tachibana-san, let’s not do Christmas together, shall we?”

“Yeah. That’s probably best.”

The final test of whether we could spend time together as three ended abruptly. The test, in essence, was about how long we could keep up the fun act, and we couldn’t make it to the end.

The soccer match became a formality for us. Beautiful turf, night game, anthem. While the crowd around us cheered, the three of us stood motionless, just watching. Their faces, lit by the field’s lights, were blank, and I couldn’t tell what they were thinking.

A downer tone. I thought the night would end like this. But—

“This isn’t right. It’s our last date as three, so I want it to be a fun memory. If I’m with someone I love and it’s not fun, that’s a lie.”

At halftime, Hayasaka-san says with her usual troubled smile.

“I’m gonna get some drinks.”

“I’ll come too.”

The two leave their seats together, probably to strategize how to make things fun. Knowing them, the more they think, the more chaotic it’ll get. Or so I thought, but they return surprisingly quickly with drinks in hand.

“Here’s yours, Kirishima-kun.”

They hand me a large plastic cup, saying it’s barley tea.

The two settle back on either side of me.

Hayasaka-san stares intently at her barley tea, then, with resolve, brings it to her lips. Tilting the cup, she grimaces and starts chugging it down.

“Phaa!”

Phaa!?

On the other side, Tachibana-san, with furrowed brows and eyes tightly shut, is chugging hers too.

Don’t tell me—

I take a sip from the cup they gave me. Oi—

“This is beer!!”

These two really have no brakes, I think to myself.

♦♦♦

Working at the bar taught me that not everyone gets hyped up from drinking. Some get sleepy, some get depressed. And me? I get headaches.

“My vision…… it’s all distorted……”

Tachibana-san and Hayasaka-san, though, are the type to get absolutely wired.

“Woo! Goal, goal, they scored!! Yay, Kirishima-kun! I love you!”

“Amazing! One point? One point! Haha, Shirou-kun, let’s kiss!”

They’re going wild over the soccer match, hugging me out of nowhere.

After the match, as we head from the stadium to the station—

Since the two started fighting without caring about onlookers, we’re deliberately walking down a quiet back alley.

“Hikari-chan’s unfair!”

Hayasaka-san says, her face red and her speech slurred.

“You’ve got Kirishima-kun and Yanagi-senpai, playing girlfriend at school, and in the end, you have everything!”

“A-Akane-chan’s bullying me~!!”

Tachibana-san, acting like a kindergartener, hides behind me.

“Shirou-kun, save me~!”

Tachibana-san’s also the type to cry when drunk, making her doubly troublesome. And I’m not reckless enough to step into a fight between two drunk girls.

“A-Akane-chan’s the unfair one!”

Using me as a shield, Tachibana-san fires back.

“You always act all broken, and Shirou-kun can’t just ignore that!”

“Hikari-chan, saying only Kirishima-kun can touch you, maybe it’s a childhood promise, but if that exists, of course Kirishima-kun would feel responsible and keep loving you!”

“That’s not true! Even without that, Shirou-kun loves me!”

“Who knows~?”

“A-A-Akane-chan, you idiot~!”

“Idiot!? Now I’m mad!”

Hayasaka-san charges. Naturally, she crashes into me, the shield. From behind, Tachibana-san flails her curled-up hands like a dog’s paws, throwing limp punches. These two get physical when drunk. I’m never letting them drink again.

“Akane-chan always uses her body! That’s how you seduced Shirou-kun, right!?”

“D-don’t make me sound like a naughty girl!”

“But you are! Always showing off to me!”

“H-Hikari-chan, it’s just because you’re too shy to do it, isn’t it? That’s why that college girl laughed at you as ‘the girlfriend who won’t let him do her’!”

“I-It’s Shirou-kun’s fault! Sure, I’m shy, but…… if he forced me, I wouldn’t mind.”

Forcing it is tough on me, okay?

“I even prepared myself for it! And yet, and yet……”

Their resentful glares turn to me.

Wait, this is coming back to me?

“Shirou-kun, I’m not ‘the girlfriend who won’t let you do her,’ right!?”

“Kirishima-kun, why won’t you do it? Everyone’s doing it! Let’s do it!”

These drunks are saying some wild stuff.

Pulled from both sides, my neck grabbed and shaken, my drunkenness intensifies, and my head throbs. My vision flickers.

I have to get these two alcoholics home safely. Thinking that, I keep walking.

And when I realize it—

The three of us are in a love hotel room.

Hamanami’s voice screams in my head:

Why!?!