Case of the Summer-Exclusive Tropical Parfait Chapter 5: Sweet Memory (Part 5)

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Chapter 5 Part 4 | Contents | Afterword

In the end, only I remained in Cecilia.

Osanai-san had left. I probably wouldn’t see her again, at least during this summer. When the second trimester begins, we would return to being just fellow students in the same grade.

I could become a petit bourgeois on my own. Osanai-san was not an essential, indispensable existence for that end. On that topic, I wonder it’s even possible for anyone to be irreplaceable or indispensable.

However, I felt that she was being a little unfair. Osanai-san, the sixteen year old high school student who was as tall as an elementary school student, had a childlike face to match it and could get into the cinema at half-price, had said this while her back was turned towards me.

“But this sweets pilgrimage with Kobato-kun… was not unenjoyable.”

It was a phrase that didn’t need to be said. Those are unnecessary words, Osanai-san. If you were going to lie, you might as well have become a con artist and hid any inconvenient truths all the way to the end.

I made no mistakes on that front. I did not say the words, “I had quite some fun too.”

Thus the case ended, the curtains lowered, and with that the actors left the stage. All that remained was Kobato Jougorou, the summer sun that was starting to set, and the half-eaten Summer-Exclusive Tropical Parfait. I inserted the long spoon, scooped up some of parfait that had melted and mixed into a faint pink fluid, and put it into my mouth.

“…Urgh.”

Disgusting.

It was saccharine-sweet. Way too sweet. It was not something that I could tolerate at all. My stomach tightened, my chest constricted. Wiping my mouth with a paper napkin, I endured the horrible taste at the back of my throat.

It was revolting. An absolutely nauseating taste.

…From that day onward, I became unable to eat parfaits.

As we’d expected, Isawa Hasemi was sent to a juvenile home. Her exact crime was not reported, and the case of Osanai Yuki’s kidnapping was only published as a minor story in the local-news section of the newspapers. It mentioned that Isawa and her gang had kidnapped a fellow girl who had caused them trouble, but I had no idea how Osanai-san reacted to being treated as an associate of Isawa. In other news, Doujima Kengo stopped hiding the fact that he was dating Kawamata Kasumi.

As for me, even seeing the picture of a parfait in a restaurant menu would cause those memories to return. The sweet, sweet memory would unceasingly well up in me, causing my heart to burn, and that is why I became unable to eat a single parfait.

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Chapter 5 Part 4 | Contents | Afterword

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Editors (Tier 2) : Joshua Fisher

Assistants (Tier 1) : Definitelynotme, Rolando Sanchez

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