{Satou-san’s Treasure (1-2)}

“It’s not bad, but… I’d prefer if you chose a nicer picture.”

“This is a good picture to me,” Satou-san said, placing the two cups on the desk and taking the photo frame from my hand. She then carefully returned it to its original spot with a tender touch.

“Did you not like it, Yamaguchi-kun? If so, I could change it…”

“It’s not that I don’t like it, but, how should I put this…”

Satou-san seemed so genuinely happy, it made it hard for me to say anything negative.

And the fact that she had a picture of me in her room, well, it kind of made my heart race a little.

I wondered if she ever looked at my picture when she was alone… though, maybe that thought loses its charm when it’s a picture of me in a mouse costume. It’s hard to feel completely happy about that.

“But won’t your family get the wrong idea? They might think you’re dating some weirdo in a full-body suit.”

I expressed my concern subtly, and Satou-san blinked before responding.

“Not at all. My mom said this is a really nice picture.”

“You already showed it to her!?”

I hope she didn’t get the wrong impression.

That costume is absolutely not a representation of my personality.

Since there was only one chair, Satou-san told me to sit, but since I didn’t want to sit far from her, we both decided to sit on the floor.

Once I sipped some of the cold tea and started to feel more comfortable, I couldn’t help but notice how quiet the house was.

It was just the two of us here.

It wasn’t unusual for us to be alone together when we met outside, but being in her room like this made me strangely restless. If her family were around, I’d be nervous, but now that they weren’t, I felt equally anxious.

Maybe Satou-san felt the same way. Sitting next to me, drinking her tea, she blinked repeatedly. Even at home, she kept her hair tied up in her usual single ponytail, without any makeup or fancy clothes, but that somehow made my heart race even more.

Perhaps it was because I could imagine this was what she looked like on any normal day.

I also didn’t know when her family would return, which only added to my restlessness.

“…Yamaguchi-kun,” Satou-san suddenly called out to me.

Feeling my heart skip a beat, I turned to look at her. She was sitting right next to me, staring intensely as if she had something on her mind.

As our eyes met, she spoke before I could say anything.

“Do you think my room is strange?”

I was surprised she’d worry about something like that.

“Why? Not at all. It’s not strange.”

Maybe a bit plain, though.

But if anything, it suited Satou-san. It wasn’t too far from what I had imagined her room to be like, which made me feel more at ease. It reminded me that I was in Satou-san’s room and not just any girl’s room.

The only unexpected thing was the number of stuffed animals on the shelf. Then again, Satou-san had always liked character goods. I remembered how she once gave me a bandage that was so cute, I found it hard to use.

“You have stuffed animals, huh?”

When I pointed this out, Satou-san looked a bit embarrassed.

“Y-Yeah, I do.”

“I think it’s cute. Very girly.”

I reassured her before she could ask if I found them strange. I didn’t think it was weird at all—maybe just a bit childish.

I glanced over at the shelf, curious to see exactly what kind of stuffed animals she had.

There were three on top of the shelf and four inside, seven in total. All of them had white bodies, though their outfits varied—one wore a suit with a tie, another had a sailor’s outfit with a cap, one was dressed casually in a hoodie, and another looked like a prince with a crown between its ears.

All of them had round ears, small beady eyes, thin stiff whiskers, and pointed noses.

“…Are these… mouse plushies?”

My question was more of a mutter to myself.

Satou-san nodded slightly.

“They’re pet mice.”

“Why do you have so many mice? Are you collecting them?”

It seemed silly to ask.

The answer was obvious, and I wasn’t so dull that I needed her to spell it out for me.

Still, I wanted to hear it from her own lips.

Instead of answering, Satou-san stood up and took one of the mice plushies from the shelf. It was dressed in a black jacket and red pants, like a member of a marching band.

She returned to sit beside me, clutching the plushie, and after a quick glance at me, she said, a bit shyly:

“I can’t help but buy them when I see them… because they remind me of you, Yamaguchi-kun.”