CGBTS Chapter 15

Chapter 15 – The Only One

Novel Title: あの夏から戻れない (Can’t Go Back to That Summer)

Author：宮緒葵 (Miyao Aoi)

Illustrator：笠井あゆみ (Kasai Ayumi)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists: 櫛原夏生 (Kushihara Natsuo -MC) & 四辻柊 (Yotsutsuji Shuu -ML)

*Please read at knoxt.space, the original site of translation. TQ*

֍֍֍

“You’ve been through a lot today and must be tired. You should get some rest.”

Shuu gently comforted the discouraged Natsuo and laid out the futon for him. Thinking that there was no way he could sleep when the sun was still high in the sky, Natsuo changed out of the yukata. He went to bed with it last night and apparently, he fell sound asleep before he knew it.

The wristwatch—which Shuu had also carefully kept safe for him—was pointing to eight in the morning. …Though there was no guarantee that the time here and in the original world were the same.

“Oh……”

After smoothing down his disheveled hair with his fingers, Natsuo moved into the next room, where a delicious-looking breakfast had been laid out on a well-used round wooden table. There was miso soup with tofu and wakame, dashi-maki tamago served with grated daikon, fluffy freshly cooked rice, and a nicely grilled fish whose name he didn’t know. This might have been the first proper breakfast he had eaten since leaving his parents’ home.

“Did you… make all this for me, Shuu?”

As Natsuo sat down on the zabuton in admiration, Shuu gave a wry smile.

“I’m the only person living here, you know. Who else would have made it?”

“No, I… I just thought… there might be someone who comes over to make it for you…”

The reason his words gradually became quieter was that a dangerous light had entered those green eyes. When Natsuo shrank back, feeling strangely uncomfortable, Shuu gently lifted his chin with his fingertips.

“Natsuo… You haven’t forgotten, have you?”

“F-forgotten what?”

“That you’re the only one I want. …Whether it’s a man or a woman, there’s no way I’d let anyone other than you come into this house, is there?”

“…!”

Natsuo nodded vigorously. Of course, there was no way he could forget, but just imagining what might happen if he carelessly joked that he didn’t remember made a chill run down his spine.

“I see. …Then, good.”

The long fingers slipped away. Just as Natsuo was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Shuu licked the fingertips that had been touching his chin moments earlier. As Natsuo shivered at the sensual movement of the tongue peeking out from between those well-shaped lips, Shuu patted him on the shoulder.

“Eat before it gets cold. There’s no microwave here, so reheating things is a hassle.”

“Ah, …yeah. Thank you for the meal.”

Natsuo put his hands together and picked up his chopsticks. As he chewed the delicious dashi-maki tamago, which tasted every bit as good as it looked, he quietly glanced sideways at Shuu sitting beside him.

Even sitting cross-legged, Shuu’s back was held perfectly straight, and his well-trained physique was evident even through his yukata.

Natsuo’s eyes were drawn toward his crotch. It looked peaceful now, but yesterday, that was where Shuu had been burning with heat and pressing himself against Natsuo.

After Natsuo had fallen asleep so quickly, what had Shuu done about the arousal that wouldn’t subside? Had he taken care of it by himself? Under the same roof as Natsuo… while thinking about Natsuo…?

“…-right, Natsuo. ………Natsuo?”

“Eh? …W-what?”

Shuu suddenly leaned his face close, and Natsuo nearly dropped his rice bowl. Apparently, Shuu had been talking to him the whole time, but none of it had registered in his ears.

“I was asking if you’re going to take a bath after this. …Are you all right? If you’re still tired, do you want to take another nap after you finish eating?”

“N-no, I’m fine. The dashi-maki is delicious, so I was just savoring it.”

Unable to admit that he had been staring at Shuu’s crotch, Natsuo tried to brush it off. Shuu patted Natsuo on the head and placed his own dashi-maki tamago onto Natsuo’s plate.

“You’ve always liked it, haven’t you? You went to sleep yesterday without even eating dinner, so eat plenty.”

“But then there won’t be any left for you…”

“I snacked on some while I was making it, so I’m fine. …I want to watch you eat.”

Shuu smiled nostalgically, and with a hint of sadness. He must have been forced to eat alone all this time. When he was living with Kazuo’s family, he probably sat around the dinner table with them, but no matter how close they became, they weren’t his family… They were people from the other world.

“…It’s delicious. It’s really delicious.”

Natsuo finished all the dashi-maki tamago he had been given and drank his miso soup.

The carefully prepared dashi made it many times more delicious than the kind he occasionally made himself. The miso must have been good, too. It was the red miso that Natsuo preferred.

“I’m glad I put in the effort if it makes you this happy.”

As Natsuo ate, repeatedly saying how delicious everything was, Shuu stood smiling in the kitchen and poured him refills of miso soup and rice.

At that moment, Natsuo caught a glimpse of the kitchen. There was a gas stove and a rice cooker. The appliance on the built-in shelf was quite large, but judging by its shape, it was probably an electric kettle. Yet in the tatami room where they were eating, there was no television—the sort of thing that would be found in most households in the original world.

…What determines what they have and don’t have?

Shuu had said that, in terms of civilization, this world was sixty or seventy years behind the original world. Televisions had existed that long ago. Was it simply that Shuu didn’t own one?

And if electrical appliances worked, that meant electricity existed in this world, too. There were wooden utility poles with electrical wires connected to them in the settlement, but how did they generate their electricity? Somewhere in a village that didn’t even have a convenience store, was there a power plant…?

“Hmm…”

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Shuu returned and placed a rice bowl heaped with rice and a soup bowl in front of Natsuo. As Natsuo gratefully accepted them, he voiced his question, only to receive an unexpectedly surprising answer.

“As for electricity, Odamaki-sama supplies it to us.”

֍֍֍

*GLOSSARY: 

☝🏻The breakfast. I asked chatGPT to generate an image of it because I’m too lazy to explain each one hahaha. Thank God for AI… But it got one detail wrong. It was red miso. The broth is supposed to be darker, like water with soy sauce poured in it.

☝🏻Zabuton

Next update: 2026.10.16

֍֍֍

Would appreciate some donation. Thanks!