My Childhood Friend, Who I Made a Promise To Spend the Future With, Dumped Me... But Ever Since I Started Dating a Beautiful Girl From School, My Childhood Friend Has Been Acting Strange - Episode 22

“Here we are.”

Tōma Suzuki stood in front of Suzuha’s house.

Her home was in the suburbs, away from the bustling city, in a quieter area.

“Come on in, no need to be shy.”

Suzuha Kamiya opened the front door for him.

After saying a polite “Excuse me for intruding,” Tōma stepped inside.

Though her house was slightly old, it was well-maintained and showed no signs of neglect.

“You can leave your shoes there. I’ll take you to my room now.”

Just like Tōma, Suzuha removed her shoes and headed toward the staircase.

As they walked down the hallway together, a door nearby opened.

“Oh? You brought a friend over today?”

From one of the first-floor rooms, an elderly woman—likely in her late seventies—emerged.

“I’m home. Well, yeah, something like that. Also, Tōma, let me introduce you. This is my grandmother.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Suzuki.”

As Suzuha introduced him, Tōma gave a formal greeting.

“Suzuki, is it? Please, make yourself comfortable.”

Tōma gave a slight bow to the elderly woman.

“By the way, where’s Grandpa?”

Suzuha peeked into the room where her grandmother had come from.

“He went outside. He should be out walking the dog right about now.”

“I see. Oh, and Grandma, I’ll be upstairs, so please don’t come into my room too often, okay?”

“Got it. You two enjoy yourselves.”

After saying that, her grandmother returned to her room, seemingly reading the atmosphere.

Once the door closed, the two of them proceeded up the stairs.

“Your grandmother seems like a nice person.”

“You think so? Well, she is a kind person. Maybe you can just tell from her aura.”

“Yeah, I kind of got that feeling.”

“She’s always been good to me, even since I moved into this house.”

As they chatted, they reached the second floor, where four rooms were lined up.

“My room is just over here.”

Suzuha opened the door to her room.

As Tōma stepped inside, she followed.

Her room was quite ordinary.

A study desk, a computer, and a bed near the window.

There was also a wardrobe, a closet, and against the wall—an oversized plushie.

It was a character from a well-known mascot anime, standing nearly a meter tall.

“How did she even get that? Did she just buy it?”

“Suzuha, how did you get that?”

Tōma pointed at the plushie and asked.

“You mean the plushie?”

“Yeah.”

“That dinosaur plushie? Someone gave it to me.”

“Someone gave it to you? That thing must cost around 10,000 yen, right?”

“Yeah, probably. I mean, I don’t even know if ‘gave’ is the right word, but let’s just say I received it.”

“I see. So you really like that plushie, huh?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Sitting at the edge of her bed, Suzuha nodded.

“Hey, Tōma, you’ve been standing this whole time. You must be tired. Sit down. We walked quite a bit to get here. I’ll get the table ready.”

Saying that, she got up, opened her closet, and took out a foldable table, setting it up near Tōma.

“Let’s eat this together. I’ll go grab some drinks. What would you like?”

“Anything’s fine. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy.”

“Alright, I’ll just grab whatever’s in the fridge. Give me a sec.”

With that, Suzuha left the room.

Meanwhile, Tōma took out the donuts from the bag and arranged them on the table.

“That plushie… it looks a lot like the one I sent to that VTuber a long time ago.”

“Is it just a coincidence?”

Looking at the large dinosaur plushie in the room, Tōma couldn’t help but reminisce.

Back when he used to support a certain VTuber, he had sent the same plushie to her through an online shop.

Suzuha had said someone gave it to her, but she never mentioned who.

If she really was that VTuber from before, that would be incredible.

But there was no way.

There was no way that the person behind a famous VTuber was living this close to him.

“It’s just a coincidence. Nothing more.”

At that moment, the sound of footsteps echoed from the staircase.

“Tōma, there was only tea in the fridge. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, tea’s fine.”

Suzuha re-entered the room, and Tōma responded politely.

“Thanks. I’ll pour it into cups.”

She sat down at the table and poured tea from a bottle into the cups.

“Here, this one’s for you, Tōma.”

“Thanks.”

Now that they were alone, the atmosphere felt more relaxed.

Reaching for the donuts, they began eating.

“I feel bad if I take the biggest donut just because we split the cost. Here, you can have the strawberry one.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s only fair.”

“Then I’ll take it. I love strawberry donuts.”

“Then that worked out perfectly.”

Just sharing donuts and talking made them feel happy.

“Oh yeah, about that manga we were talking about at lunch earlier. I actually bought a plushie of one of the characters. Look.”

Pausing her eating, Suzuha wiped her hands with a tissue and picked up a small plushie near her computer.

It was about 20 cm tall—a chibi-style plush of the main character from an adventure manga.

Unlike the serious expression in the manga, the plushie had a much softer, cuter design.

“What do you think?”

“Oh, so you actually bought it?”

“Yeah. I was reading the manga on my e-reader, and an ad popped up on a shopping site. I saw it and just had to get it. The protagonist looks so cute as a plushie, don’t you think?”

Suzuha beamed at Tōma with a bright smile.

Her natural expression made his heart skip a beat.

Then, a thought crossed his mind.

“Oh yeah, Suzuha… Didn’t you say you had something to talk to me about? Wasn’t that the reason we planned to hang out today?”

“Ah, you’re right. Sorry, I got distracted. Alright, let’s get to the main topic.”

She cleared her throat slightly.

Then, sitting properly in a formal posture, she looked at Tōma with a serious expression.

“I…