I Don't Understand How to Fall in Love, so I Help Others Do.

Chapter 5 - The Hectic Friend Group

"I'm home!"

"Pardon the intrusion."

I unlocked the front door to my apartment with Nanami-senpai behind me. To my surprise, someone was already home.

"Ah! Welcome back!"

"Yumi??? Why are you in our kitchen?"

As Nanami-senpai closed the door, I was confused about what was happening. Another one of our friends, Izayoi Yumi, was cooking in the kitchen. I've known her since high school through a friend.

It wasn't an unfamiliar sight since she cooks every time she visits, but it caught me off-guard.

"S-Sorry. I wanted to get started on tonight's dinner."

"That so? Don't mind me. Let me know if you need help or anything."

"Thank you, Yuto-kun."

I placed a few items on the dining table I bought with Nanami-senpai during our mini shopping spree. A few were from a bakery, and I happily took a croissant from the batch.

"Hey! I thought we were going to eat those later with everyone!"

"It's fine! Plus, we have extras."

"It's not good manners."

"It's just one..."

Nanami frowned at me while I simply shrugged and ate it.

"I wasn't expecting the two of you to come simultaneously."

"Ah, that? We just happened to go to the same event together. Since we were all meeting later, we decided to stick together."

"Was it fun?"

"It was. Especially Yuto..."

Nanami-senpai answered the question. The front door and one of my roommate's doors opened as Nanami-senpai finished her statement.

"was having fun talking with a girl."

At that moment, silence filled the room. I let out a small sigh as I saw two more girls entering the apartment.

"Hoh? I didn't know that Yuto had a girlfriend. And you didn't tell us?"

"It's not like that, Mayumi! I was just talking since it'd be weird not to!"

The girl who was poking fun at me was one of my roommates, Suzumiya Mayumi. She's a person who beats to her drum and is almost always on her computer—fitting given that she is a computer science major. I wished that Nanami-senpai didn't say anything since she was going to tease me every chance she got whenever we played online together.

"You don't get to brush it off that easily, Aniki!"

"Et tu, Hana?!"

I exclaimed to the girl who barged in through the front door. She was Nakamura Hana, a petite girl with an aptitude for sports. Currently, she's trying to be a sports instructor. She's younger than most of the group, so she looks up to us a little, though I often ask her for workout tips.

"The hell is going on?! It's like someone says something about my relationships, and all of you jump on me!"

"It is rare that you talk about your relations to girls outside work."

"That's because I don't find that sort of thing interesting, Yumi."

I plopped on the couch, exhausted, though I could tell the girls weren't done tormenting me.

"So, Aniki! Tell us about the girlfriend! Is she pretty?"

"How far have you two gone?"

"Have you two kissed?"