(Un) Fortunately the Yandere is Not After Me

Surprises Before the Date

A date... Just thinking about it made Arata feel anxious. He had never been on one before, at least not one planned out ahead of time like this. Though on the day of said agreement to go on one, there was still one other thing he needed to take care of.

That would be to visit Hine for some brunch. That was their agreement now that he was no longer tending to her garden. Though it would be handy for him to ask for some advice as well. While he may have preferred to ask his parents for help, his mom was out of town to visit his sister. Meanwhile his dad was away on business.

Reaching her home, he knocked on the door. Arata didn't have to wait long for a response, though the person that greeted him was far from an old lady. In fact, they were his age. More precisely, they weren't a stranger to him.

"Hi-Hifumi?" His jaw dropped to the floor at this sight. Why was the school librarian of all people here?

"What?" She was just as dumbfounded as him. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh I see Arata is here." Hine walked up to the two of them. Acting as if nothing strange was going on. "Come in, come in." She beckoned him. Arata entered, speechless as to what was going on.

"..." He was unsure of how to word his question. Specifically on why was Hifumi was here.

"So anyway, Hifumi this is Arata." Hine explained to her. "He's the nice young man that was taking care of my garden."

"Um, we've already met." She told her.

"Yeah..." Arata agreed.

"Really?" Hine was taken by surprise, though she saw this as a positive. "That's great. I didn't realize that you two knew each other. You've never mentioned one another before." She brought him to where she was sitting before with Hifumi.

It was a nice small table that could fit four people. Definitely more than enough space for all of them. Atop it was filled with nice freshly baked good along with some tea to wash it all down. Handmade by Hine, no doubt.

The indoors of Hine's house was a bit old fashion. Not that he minded of course, it was well designed and certainly fit the old lady he had grown to know. There were many pictures on the walls, a fair bit of them with her and another man. Presumably her late husband.

"If I may ask." Arata spoke up as they sat down. "How do the two of you know each other?"

"Well she's my granddaughter of course."

"Ah I see... Wait what?!" Granddaughter? They didn't have the same family name. Of course that's probably because Hine had a daughter that got married.

"I thought I mentioned having a granddaughter to you before." She might have, but he would've certainly remembered the name if that was the case.

"You probably forgot to mention my name." Hifumi said. "I realize that you neglected saying his name when you told me about the gardener."

"I did?" She shrugged. "Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter either way." Well now he wasn't comfortable with asking her about his dating problems now. Not when there was another person here, especially that girl.

The two of them awkwardly made idle chat with Hine. A little unexpected coming from Hifumi. That girl was usually very intimate with him, despite his protests. And that included when other people were around.

"Is there something wrong Hifumi?" It appears that Arata wasn't the only one who noticed. "You've gotten much more quieter."

"N-nothing's wrong." She slowly took a cookie and ate it, trying to use it as an excuse to not talk.