Together with a girl I had become acquainted with just an hour ago, I walked to the school gate. A distance at which occasionally, our shoulders would accidentally touch. It might have looked like two people both conscious of each other but unable to take that one step forward, or even two innocent people who had just started going out.
With behaviour that still retained a slight sense of distance, the girl opened her mouth.
「Umm… you really helped me out earlier. Chitose-kun, it looks like you’re good at studying too.」
Riding a pre-spring breeze that had warmed ever so slightly, the scent of a high school girl drifted through the air.
「There’s no need to worry. As a principle, a request from a girl is not to be turned down.」
After school, I had been in the library studying for tests. Next to me and studying in the same fashion, while being awfully nervous, she had approached me saying, 「Um, can I ask you a few things?」. Apparently, there was a mathematics problem she couldn’t answer.
Looking at the colour of the school badge on her blazer, she was in the same year as me, so I taught her a few problem solving techniques within the extent of what I knew.
「Still, Chitose-kun, weren’t you in the middle of studying? Why did you spend that much time for my sake, despite me having only just spoken to you for the first time?」
She looked up, peering at me.
「Why, you ask? It’s because you said you’d treat me to coffee as thanks. That made it an even trade.」
The girl made a slightly dissatisfied face.
「Hmm… does that mean, as long as they treated you to coffee you’d have taught another girl in the same way? I can’t quite come to terms with that. Well, I suppose Chitose-kun has many cute girls around him, and thinks nothing of someone like me…」
「Nope, had it been a guy asking then coffee wouldn’t be enough. Unless they at least treated me to ramen as well, it wouldn’t be worth it.」
I said this even as I knew it wasn’t the kind of response she was seeking.
My intention had been to skillfully sidestep the question, but looking at the girl so openly disheartened, feeling a little sorry I added on a few words.
「…Also, for your case, ordinarily anyone looking at you would think you’re cute. The pink-coloured scrunchie also suits you well, it’s lovely.」
The girl made an easy to understand, bashful smile.
「You mean it!? Rather, Chitose-kun, you don’t have someone you’re going out with at the moment?」
「Unfortunately. And you?」
「Hmm… to put it simply, I do, but…」
The girl spoke falteringly. And then—
「OI!!」
As if with the intention of preventing her sentence from continuing, someone grabbed my shoulder violently, and I was forcibly pulled away from behind.
「—」
Due to the surprise attack, I was on the verge of falling over, but somehow regained my footing and turned around.
Standing there was a boy whose name I didn’t even know.
His height was slightly above that of the 175-centimetre me. He had a hairstyle casually set with wax, thinnish eyebrows, and slovenly clothing that felt tacky, all of which attempted to present his not particularly first-class face as somewhat handsome. Perhaps incomplete on the whole, but given a choice between riajuu and non-riajuu, he would unmistakably be classified as the former.
「What do you think you’re doing!」
For some reason, the boy spoke in a raised voice. From the colour of his school badge, he was an upperclassman in the second year.
「Even if you ask me, I’m only about to go on an after school date with a cute classmate?」
When I gave that reply, without even waiting for his reaction, the girl raised her voice.
「Hey! What’s with this all of a sudden?」
In an irritated fashion, the boy advanced towards the girl.
「Haa? That’s what I should be asking you! Do you think it’s okay to go out and have fun with another guy even though you have a boyfriend? Not only that, but isn’t this guy the first-year Chitose Saku? The one rumoured to be making passes at girls all the time…」
It would seem that the other party had heard about me, but since I believed it was definitely my first time meeting him, let’s call him Kamase Yarou for now.
Just as I was thinking that, the girl took a single step forwards towards the boy.
「I was just going to treat Chitose-kun to coffee because he helped me study. Why do I have to be restrained so much that I can’t even do that much?」
「At least be selective with who it is. Even just now, wasn’t he calling you cute and stuff like that? Apparently, this guy will make a pass like that at anyone.」
「Ah, is this about how you were stealthily listening to us behind our backs? Lame.」
For the time being, I decided to try cutting into the conversation with that.
「Stop it, please don’t fight for my sake!」
「… Are you kidding me?」
It would seem that it had the opposite effect. Kamase Yarou turned to focus his attack on me.
「Don’t you go laying your hands on someone else’s girlfriend.」
Ah, so that’s the story after all.
In other words, these two are going out. Perhaps because their relationship wasn’t working out so well, and perhaps because I was simply more appealing, it would seem that the girl was being conscious of me as a man. That was probably what didn’t sit well with him.
Different from how it was for this rogue of a stinkymen-riashoe school-caste-twerp, to the real deal ikemen-riajuu school-caste-top me, this was a high school event about as commonplace as getting confessed to by a girl.
In other words, this was a guy venting his anger on having his girlfriend stolen from him.
「Apologies, I was utterly ignorant of the fact that she was your girlfriend, senpai. It’s precisely as you say, I’m the type who can’t help but make a pass when I see a cute girl.」
When I said this, Kamase Yarou’s expression turned an even darker shade of anger. As for the girl, she was shyly sneaking glances at me.
「To you this might be nothing more than a small attempt at a pass, but to me it’s my one and only important girlfriend! As if I’d let you cause her harm over a simple whim of yours!」
Kamase Yarou seems to be saying something cool.
I’m sure he’s not a bad person. After that line filled with passion, it would seem that the girl was slightly moved. The expression in her eyes as she watched her boyfriend was as if she was looking at something marvellous.
The students on their way back from school surrounded us at a distance, watching.
In order to help his girlfriend who seems about to be deceived by a bad guy, the boyfriend speaks his inner thoughts which are normally too embarrassing to say out loud. With that, the girl wakes up from the bad dream. A lovely, youthful situation.
I decided to finish playing my part as well.
「This is the point where a duel by the riverbed comes next, but I’m not good with hot-bloodedness. That’s no good, senpai. If you really love your girlfriend so much, you should treasure her at all times in a way that she won’t be approached by an undesirable insect like me.」
As if to say ‘I don’t need to get advice from someone like you’, Kamase Yarou placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. The girl was apologetically whispering「Chitose-kun…」, so I called out to her as well.
「As for you, I’ll comfort you if you ever get tired of senpai so feel free to drop by at any time. Allow me to put the coffee and afterschool date on hold until then.」
Upon my saying this with a broad grin and a wink, Kamase Yarou flung his school bag at me.
「You little!!」
「Ooh, sca-ry.」
Casually dodging, I dashed towards the school gate while waving my right hand.
Something like ‘all the best to your future together’, I suppose.
So upon me helping her out with studies after being requested to, I was favoured by the girl of her own accord. As a result, the boy placed the blame on me and made me out to be the bad guy.
Hum, truly an everyday development.
Feeling uplifted for some reason, I kicked the ground strongly and picked up speed.
Leaving behind one by one the other students on their way back.
Casually glancing at the sky, it was blue. Announcing the end of winter, the Sun was nice and warm, and even the clouds of dust streaming from the sports grounds felt pleasant.
Liked by someone somewhere, disliked by some person someplace.
It would seem that today, yet again, the world that encircled me was safe and peaceful.
Together with a girl I had become acquainted with just an hour ago, I walked to the school gate. A distance at which occasionally, our shoulders would accidentally touch. It might have looked like two people both conscious of each other but unable to take that one step forward, or even two innocent people who had just started going out.
With behaviour that still retained a slight sense of distance, the girl opened her mouth.
「Umm… you really helped me out earlier. Chitose-kun, it looks like you’re good at studying too.」
Riding a pre-spring breeze that had warmed ever so slightly, the scent of a high school girl drifted through the air.
「There’s no need to worry. As a principle, a request from a girl is not to be turned down.」
After school, I had been in the library studying for tests. Next to me and studying in the same fashion, while being awfully nervous, she had approached me saying, 「Um, can I ask you a few things?」. Apparently, there was a mathematics problem she couldn’t answer.
Looking at the colour of the school badge on her blazer, she was in the same year as me, so I taught her a few problem solving techniques within the extent of what I knew.
「Still, Chitose-kun, weren’t you in the middle of studying? Why did you spend that much time for my sake, despite me having only just spoken to you for the first time?」
She looked up, peering at me.
「Why, you ask? It’s because you said you’d treat me to coffee as thanks. That made it an even trade.」
The girl made a slightly dissatisfied face.
「Hmm… does that mean, as long as they treated you to coffee you’d have taught another girl in the same way? I can’t quite come to terms with that. Well, I suppose Chitose-kun has many cute girls around him, and thinks nothing of someone like me…」
「Nope, had it been a guy asking then coffee wouldn’t be enough. Unless they at least treated me to ramen as well, it wouldn’t be worth it.」
I said this even as I knew it wasn’t the kind of response she was seeking.
My intention had been to skillfully sidestep the question, but looking at the girl so openly disheartened, feeling a little sorry I added on a few words.
「…Also, for your case, ordinarily anyone looking at you would think you’re cute. The pink-coloured scrunchie also suits you well, it’s lovely.」
The girl made an easy to understand, bashful smile.
「You mean it!? Rather, Chitose-kun, you don’t have someone you’re going out with at the moment?」
「Unfortunately. And you?」
「Hmm… to put it simply, I do, but…」
The girl spoke falteringly. And then—
「OI!!」
As if with the intention of preventing her sentence from continuing, someone grabbed my shoulder violently, and I was forcibly pulled away from behind.
「—」
Due to the surprise attack, I was on the verge of falling over, but somehow regained my footing and turned around.
Standing there was a boy whose name I didn’t even know.
His height was slightly above that of the 175-centimetre me. He had a hairstyle casually set with wax, thinnish eyebrows, and slovenly clothing that felt tacky, all of which attempted to present his not particularly first-class face as somewhat handsome. Perhaps incomplete on the whole, but given a choice between riajuu and non-riajuu, he would unmistakably be classified as the former.
「What do you think you’re doing!」
For some reason, the boy spoke in a raised voice. From the colour of his school badge, he was an upperclassman in the second year.
「Even if you ask me, I’m only about to go on an after school date with a cute classmate?」
When I gave that reply, without even waiting for his reaction, the girl raised her voice.
「Hey! What’s with this all of a sudden?」
In an irritated fashion, the boy advanced towards the girl.
「Haa? That’s what I should be asking you! Do you think it’s okay to go out and have fun with another guy even though you have a boyfriend? Not only that, but isn’t this guy the first-year Chitose Saku? The one rumoured to be making passes at girls all the time…」
It would seem that the other party had heard about me, but since I believed it was definitely my first time meeting him, let’s call him Kamase Yarou for now.
Just as I was thinking that, the girl took a single step forwards towards the boy.
「I was just going to treat Chitose-kun to coffee because he helped me study. Why do I have to be restrained so much that I can’t even do that much?」
「At least be selective with who it is. Even just now, wasn’t he calling you cute and stuff like that? Apparently, this guy will make a pass like that at anyone.」
「Ah, is this about how you were stealthily listening to us behind our backs? Lame.」
For the time being, I decided to try cutting into the conversation with that.
「Stop it, please don’t fight for my sake!」
「… Are you kidding me?」
It would seem that it had the opposite effect. Kamase Yarou turned to focus his attack on me.
「Don’t you go laying your hands on someone else’s girlfriend.」
Ah, so that’s the story after all.
In other words, these two are going out. Perhaps because their relationship wasn’t working out so well, and perhaps because I was simply more appealing, it would seem that the girl was being conscious of me as a man. That was probably what didn’t sit well with him.
Different from how it was for this rogue of a stinkymen-riashoe school-caste-twerp, to the real deal ikemen-riajuu school-caste-top me, this was a high school event about as commonplace as getting confessed to by a girl.
In other words, this was a guy venting his anger on having his girlfriend stolen from him.
「Apologies, I was utterly ignorant of the fact that she was your girlfriend, senpai. It’s precisely as you say, I’m the type who can’t help but make a pass when I see a cute girl.」
When I said this, Kamase Yarou’s expression turned an even darker shade of anger. As for the girl, she was shyly sneaking glances at me.
「To you this might be nothing more than a small attempt at a pass, but to me it’s my one and only important girlfriend! As if I’d let you cause her harm over a simple whim of yours!」
Kamase Yarou seems to be saying something cool.
I’m sure he’s not a bad person. After that line filled with passion, it would seem that the girl was slightly moved. The expression in her eyes as she watched her boyfriend was as if she was looking at something marvellous.
The students on their way back from school surrounded us at a distance, watching.
In order to help his girlfriend who seems about to be deceived by a bad guy, the boyfriend speaks his inner thoughts which are normally too embarrassing to say out loud. With that, the girl wakes up from the bad dream. A lovely, youthful situation.
I decided to finish playing my part as well.
「This is the point where a duel by the riverbed comes next, but I’m not good with hot-bloodedness. That’s no good, senpai. If you really love your girlfriend so much, you should treasure her at all times in a way that she won’t be approached by an undesirable insect like me.」
As if to say ‘I don’t need to get advice from someone like you’, Kamase Yarou placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. The girl was apologetically whispering「Chitose-kun…」, so I called out to her as well.
「As for you, I’ll comfort you if you ever get tired of senpai so feel free to drop by at any time. Allow me to put the coffee and afterschool date on hold until then.」
Upon my saying this with a broad grin and a wink, Kamase Yarou flung his school bag at me.
「You little!!」
「Ooh, sca-ry.」
Casually dodging, I dashed towards the school gate while waving my right hand.
Something like ‘all the best to your future together’, I suppose.
So upon me helping her out with studies after being requested to, I was favoured by the girl of her own accord. As a result, the boy placed the blame on me and made me out to be the bad guy.
Hum, truly an everyday development.
Feeling uplifted for some reason, I kicked the ground strongly and picked up speed.
Leaving behind one by one the other students on their way back.
Casually glancing at the sky, it was blue. Announcing the end of winter, the Sun was nice and warm, and even the clouds of dust streaming from the sports grounds felt pleasant.
Liked by someone somewhere, disliked by some person someplace.
It would seem that today, yet again, the world that encircled me was safe and peaceful.
