Translator: raggykoshka
Editor: Vie
“Christmas is near but the one I’m with is a guy who’s passed the age of 20. How miserable…”
“Well, it can’t be helped, can it? It’s for work. If we’re going to talk about that, then I’d also prefer being with a girl. Or would you have liked it better if I was a guy under 20, Nishihara-san?”
The man called Nishihara pushed up his small-framed glasses and glanced at the man sitting next to him. In the passenger seat of the car that Nishihara Toshiki, a detective, was driving, sat Yashihiro Hiroto. He had child-like facial features retained.
“I wouldn’t. I’m doing this because of work… I was waiting because I hoped that the lone woman of your group, Mutsu would come.”
“I just got a message from the lone woman Mutsu.”
“Oh?! For me? What is it?”
“It’s ‘If he asked about me, tell him that I’m busy.”
“How coldhearted… She’s not really busy, is she?”
“Well, it’s as usual. But… Mutsu-san is at the office lately. She hands me the work that she thinks I can handle.”
“…So, what’s the truth?”
“She told me to go acquire experience if my exams are over. And that I should work if I have free time.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to go out due to the cold.”
“Could be that too, but also because there are lots of paperwork piled up. Her health might also be a little bad… Sometimes she seems, how do I put it… lifeless, or quiet somehow.”
“Maybe she has a cold?”
“Hmm. She does wear a mask. Probably because of the dry-cold weather.”
“She does? By the way… I wanted to also ask if there’s anything that Mutsu-san wants?”
Maybe he had wanted to ask casually, but Nishihara’s voice sounded a little excited. To Hiroto who met Nishihara a few times a month, that small difference was apparent immediately.
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