Mandarin Orange, Kotatsu, And A Found Cat

Chapter 54 The Cat And Time After Dinner

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“I’m home~”

When I opened the front door, she came running up to me and greeted me.

“Welcome home, Satou-san.”

With that, all the fatigue from today’s work disappears.
…It was not that I’m tired, but at least I felt calm enough to forget about the trivial things.
I was surprised to find out that I am so much influenced by the words of others.

It was only for the first few months of my working life that I felt the loneliness of living alone, and by the time a year had passed, those feelings had completely disappeared.
It was not that I don’t like to hear about my colleagues’ love stories…mainly Sakakibara’s, but it’s as if I’m looking at something above the clouds.

…But now I have someone who was important to me, and I thought the feeling of loneliness was gone.
I wanted to go home as soon as possible, so I began to mind working late, and for that reason I worked harder than ever.
As a result, my colleagues gave me the indescribable title of the guy who leaves work on time for his cat…

“Thank you for your hard work today.
The food is ready and the bath is hot, what do you want to do?”

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Mashiro, the one who had changed my life, came home wearing the apron I had given her and holding a ladle in her hand as she greeted me.

“Let’s have dinner.
It smells so good.”
“I made dumplings today, so I guess that’s what it smells like.”

Now that she said that, it did smell like dumplings.
When I think back, I think that when I went shopping with Mashiro the other day, she bought the skin for the dumplings.
The amazing thing about her cooking was not only the taste, but also the appearance, the nutritional balance, and above all, the repertoire of the menu.
The fact that she was able to provide me with such a lavish menu every day without any compensation was truly gratifying and quite unusual.
After taking off my jacket and hanging it on a hanger, I washed my hands and sat down at the table with the food.
I thanked her and the food as usual, and then took a bite of one of the dumplings, the main dish of the day.

“So good.”
“I’m glad.
It’s been quite a while since I made them.”
It was a while since I had been able to get this much flavor out of dumplings… I’m not very bright when it came to food, but I understood that this was much better than most.
I hadn’t eaten dumplings in a while, but I’d say this one is better than anything I’ve eaten at a restaurant before.
I proceeded to eat my dinner once again feeling grateful for her presence.

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As part of our post-meal routine, after washing the dishes, Mashiro and I usually watch TV together.
Of course, the programs we watch vary from day to day, but we tend to watch specials on animals and nature.
It was not all about watching with Mashiro, but that’s the only program I want to watch myself.
I don’t know much about variety, and my smartphone was currently sufficient for news.
So, that’s where I end up.

The two of us sat on the sofa and watched the cute animals on the screen without any particular conversation.
Even though there was no conversation, it was strangely not awkward, and I quite liked this quiet time.

The program I was watching was a weekly animal special.
Today it seemed to be about cats, and a lot of trivia was being introduced.
It was a strange feeling to watch such a program with a cat being right next to me, but it was surprisingly interesting to hear actual opinions and truths.
As an aside, for example, in Mashiro’s case, commercial cat food doesn’t suit her palate very well.
I didn’t judge the reason being her human tongue.

Today’s theme was about the cat body, and something caught my eye.
It was a comparison of the heart rates of animals, and while humans have a heart rate of about 60 beats per minute, dogs and cats have a heart rate of over 100.

“Cats’ heart rate is more than twice that of humans…Is that right? Mashiro.”

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“I don’t know.
I’ve never paid attention to it…”

It was true that one may not pay much attention to their heart rate in theirr daily life.
This was especially true if she lived her life as a cat.
Mashiro tilted her head and then put her hand on her own chest to measure her pulse for a while, but after a little while she just tilted her head the same way.
Well, I guess it’s natural that you can’t tell without something to compare it to.
There are times when things are different in human form.

It wasn’t something that bothered us, and both Mashiro and I quickly turned our attention back to the TV.
I took a bath just as my stomach, which had been happily filled with dinner, was fully digested, and then Mashiro took turns taking a bath.
The living room without Mashiro.
The show had already ended, and I passed the time by looking at my phone without doing anything else.

After a while, she came out of the bathroom, dressed in her nightgown and with her cheeks dyed red.
Her nightgown was actually my shirt.
It was the one she was wearing the first time I saw Mashiro in person.
I didn’t have the courage to use the shirt that was once on a girl’s bare skin, and Mashiro seemed to like it for some reason, so I only allowed her to borrow it as a nightgown.

“Excuse me.
I’ll go get some water.”
“Y-Yeah, can I have some, too?”
“Sure.
I’ll bring it to you.”

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The smile on her face was strangely alluring after her bath.
Looking at her back while she was getting water, I turned away.
Even though it happened every day, I still can’t get used to seeing a girl wearing only a shirt walking around unprotected in the same room.
…No, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.

I sighed in my mind, and to distract myself, I ran a search on my phone like an adolescent junior high school student for “opposite sex, not nervous”.
I was so absorbed in the search that I couldn’t stop myself from looking up the words.
As I was absorbed in looking at my phone, I suddenly saw silver hair swaying from the side of my vision.

“What are you looking into so seriously?”
“M-Mashiro! N-No, this is…!”
“Eh, Myaa!?”

The timing of Mashiro’s arrival was unbelievable, and I reacted in an exaggerated manner.
She was surprised by my sudden movement and lost her balance due to her peeking posture.
With a small scream, her body fell helplessly towards me, and I quickly reach out my arms to embrace her.

As a result, although the momentum was lessened, Mashiro leaned back on my chest, and I ended up hugging her body.