Soul for a Girlfriend?

Chapter 53 - Under The Same Umbrella

I stood in front of the entrance as other students passed by me with umbrellas in their hands. I was dumb to not believe Lilith after seeing what she is capable of with her magic and stuff.

Looking back at Yasurouka and Ts?men talking, I remembered that she also didn't have an umbrella with her, so how is she going to go? Kizhashi and Gaisen were on their way, so she couldn't have shared an umbrella with them.

Ts?men walked towards me and stood next to me, looking outside with a troubled expression.

"Don't tell me you forgot your umbrella." Yasurouka asked him while taking out a small three fold umbrella from her bag. It was a black umbrella with flowers printed on it.

"Well… I forgot." He said with a lame tone and a straight face.

She brought an umbrella? And why are Ts?men lying about forgetting his umbrella? I'm pretty sure he bought it with him, because I trust his laziness more than him and I know that he doesn't actually take his umbrella out of his bag.

"Well, he forgot too." He pointed towards me and shook his head from left to right.

"Ah, not surprised about him." She glanced at me and then returned her gaze to him again.

"Eh?" is the only word I could utter.

"Well, you two can share your umbrella." Ts?men suggested calmly. As he said that, I got the idea of where things were going and decided to play along because this was going to be useful for me.

"And how are you going to get home?" She questioned him.

"Don't worry about me, I'll just take one from my club or will probably share one with one of my club mates." He said. Even though he was annoying sometimes, he was a really good wingman.

"Alright, Sakamaki-kun let's go." She nodded, and opened her umbrella as she stepped outside in the rain.

Ts?men subtlety smiled at me as I gave him a small nod with a slow blink of eyes. It was a gesture for saying 'well done'. I walked out in the rain and got under her umbrella as she raised the level she was holding the umbrella to match my height.

"See you later, Ts?men." I waved at him as me and Yasurouka started walking. 

The sound of rain hitting the ground was all around us and only the frequent sound of our wet footsteps. There was a slight smell of petrichor and the walk was silent. None of us had uttered a single word yet.

As I was walking, I felt the umbrella touching my head slightly. I bent down and looked at her as she again raised her hand high to hold it but I could tell that she was struggling to keep it holding at that height.

I was slouching a bit, since standing at my full height will just crash my head into the umbrella. My left shoulder was getting wet from the rain and the water dripping from the umbrella. The umbrella wasn't that big that two people could easily fit in, and on top of that she wasn't holding it properly.

I moved my right hand over to my left shoulder to unstick the shirt which was stuck on my skin due to it being wet. Yasurouka noticed this and looked at me for a few seconds.

"What is it?" I asked her while running my wet hand through my hair.

"You are getting soaked." She said with a frown.

"Well, this umbrella isn't big for two people."

"It is." She said, as she closed the distance between us. Our shoulders were touching each other now, but the umbrella was over both of us.

"See, it isn't small." She said. I looked at the red tint on her cheeks and her dark-coloured eyes which were focused on the road, but I know that she was embarrassed to make eye contact with me.

Her hand was shaking from holding the umbrella at that height level for so long. 

"Give me this." I took the umbrella from her.

"Wh… What?" She looked at me, a bit embarrassed, as my hand touched hers during the exchange.

"You're having a problem holding this, so let me." I held the umbrella normally above us. We were still in close proximity to each other. I never thought sharing the same umbrella with a girl can be so awkward.

"Tha...thanks I guess." She said in an indirect tone.

"Anyways, how tall are you again?" I glanced at her blushing face.

"I'm not that short." She was annoyed.

"That's what a short person would say." I chuckled as our walk continued. The downtown was still far and our pace was slow because of the rain.

"Shut up. It's not my fault I'm short." She pouted. "I drank plenty of milk too," She added.

I glanced at her, and she was already looking at me. Our eyes met, and it seemed like the blush on her face became prominent for that instant. Looking at her chest, I think all the milk nutrients went somewhere else other than her height.

"St...stop staring at me. It's awkward." She said, averting her eyes from me. I realized that I might have made her uncomfortable.

"I… uh… my bad. Sorry." I apologised. She just nodded without saying a single word.

"How did you forget your umbrella?" She asked, breaking the silence between us.

"Um… in the weather forecast they showed 55% chance of not raining… but I guess they were wrong." I sighed.

"What?" She tilted her head with a confused look on her face.

"What?"

"Which weather forecast? They clearly said it was going to rain." She said, and narrowed her eyes at me.

"Huh!?" Now I was getting confused because I couldn't make sense of what she was saying. But looking back, most of the students in the class had brought their umbrellas. I might've seen some old news or something else.

"Then I might have seen the wrong news."

"Are you blind or something?" She said in a sharp tone. Of course she doesn't let chances like this get away from her hands.

"Probably" I shrugged. I didn't really mind her saying these things because if she can say these to me, that means she is quite comfortable around me.