12: I Got My Confession Rejected by Yukinoshita Right Out of the Gate!
[12] 12: I Got My Confession Rejected by Yukinoshita Right Out of the Gate!
[12] “I was kind of startled by that senpai whose name I don’t know.
Since when does she greet people that naturally…
Wait…
don’t tell me…
you know her too?
But since when??!” After they reached the next floor, Iroha Isshiki suddenly realized it.
So Tadayana even knew women like that—bleached blondes who looked like delinquents now?
Had Tadayana’s social circle been expanding a little too fast lately?
She really couldn’t keep up with how quickly this girl was making friends.
“Yeah.
We only met recently.
We’re just at the level of knowing each other’s names.
Don’t overthink it.” “There you go again…
Honestly, just knowing the name of someone from a different grade already feels hard enough to me.
I’m starting to suspect you’ve been sneaking around behind my back doing something shady lately.
How did you end up knowing so many people…?” “Don’t worry, Iroha.
You’ll always be my friend.
You’ve always been the one by my side, walking with me all the way to where I am now.
I’m grateful for everything you’ve done.
And I hope we can keep this relationship going.” Tadayana had noticed the anxiety in the girl standing before her, so she tried to reassure her.
The moment she heard that, Iroha let out a stunned little “Aaah…” like she’d been hit too hard to speak.
How had she failed to notice that this girl had gotten so good at flirting lately?
Damn this white-haired menace.
Tadayana had no idea what it meant for a girl who could do nothing but chatter, when someone as steady and dependable as a top-tier boyfriend said something like that in her calm, reliable way.
The damage was practically nuclear.
“O-okay…
fine…
I get it.
If you’re going to say it like that, then I guess I have no choice.
Hahaha.
That’s just because I, the great Isshiki-sama, am so magnanimous.
You should be grateful I have such a broad heart…” Little devil Iroha Isshiki was like Pinocchio telling a lie—Tadayana could practically see her nose growing longer.
Honestly, what an easy woman to handle.
Today I want you to feed me.” “That sounds like an unnecessary extra step.
And it’ll make eating a lot slower too, won’t it?” “Shut up and do what I say.” “Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Got it.” And so, amid that mix of teasing and reluctant compromise, Tadayana finally took her seat.
What she didn’t realize was that every word they’d said from the moment they entered the classroom had been heard loud and clear by everyone else.
The room had gone a little quiet during their exchange.
It seemed like everyone had been intentionally or unintentionally eavesdropping on the two girls’ daily banter.
Then, after hearing it, they all died happy.
The way Tadayana and Iroha behaved was practically evidence confirming that the two of them were a pair.
At first, their classmates had mostly treated it as something to joke about, or even mock, but little by little, without Tadayana noticing, something about that had started to change.
It was as if everyone had begun making their own quiet concessions so that this “storyline” could continue plausibly.
Some girls were even staring at Tadayana-san from angles she couldn’t see, smiling with dazed, lovestruck expressions, as though fantasizing that they were the ones being played with by her instead.
But because of the pressure from Iroha Isshiki and the rest of the class, those feelings could only remain buried in their hearts.
And all of it stemmed from the way Tadayana’s beautiful-girl face combined with her tough, almost masculine style of carrying herself, creating that distinctly handsome-woman aura that made this whole atmosphere feel strangely natural.
And was Tadayana really completely unaware of all this?
Not exactly.
She simply thought that if the things she did every day could provide people with a little emotional value and make life a bit happier, then that was just something easy enough to do on the side.
So she didn’t care how other people saw her relationship with Iroha.
As long as the two of them understood that they were simply friends, that was enough.
…
[Yui]: I seriously can’t believe it.
Yukinon actually gave such meticulous notes on that kind of novel, and so many suggestions too.
The moment Tadayana saw the message from Yui Yuigahama, she already knew that over there, the public and transparent judgment of a certain chubby boy’s novel was probably in full swing.
Honestly, it took real courage for that chubby kid to let so many people read something he’d written on a whim and then give their opinions on it.
Whatever kind of person he might be, Tadayana felt that with just the two traits of [thick-skinned] and [good at asking for advice and changing himself], someone like that could probably make something of himself in the future.
Still, because she was a little curious about the genre and rough plot of what he’d written, Tadayana couldn’t help asking: [Tadayana]: By the way, what kind of story did that chubby guy write?
Does the plot have anything interesting going for it?
Over in the Service Club room, when Yuigahama saw Tadayana’s message, she paused a moment to organize her thoughts.
She hadn’t expected Tadayananb to actually seem interested in this kind of thing.
[Yui]: I think it was called something like Phantom Void of the White Blade Flash?
I’m not really sure about the actual plot, but judging from Yukinon’s and Hikki’s expressions, it probably isn’t very good.
There are seriously so many obscure words in it.
That Zaimokuza guy’s vocabulary is kind of amazing.
The moment she saw the title, Tadayana instantly lost all interest.
Good grief.
In that case, never mind.
She had absolutely no desire to know what was in it anymore.
Going by how that kind of disposable pulp usually worked, it was definitely just some trashy power-fantasy story where the male protagonist steamrolled everything.
[Tadayana]: Never mind, then.
I don’t want to read it anymore.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
By the way, did that thing from last time get settled properly?
The conflict between you and your classmates, I mean.
Judging from how the two of you seemed this morning, it looked like things were fine.
Good, then.
When Yuigahama read that, she gave a silly little grin.
[Yui]: It’s fine, it’s fine.
The problem really wasn’t that big to begin with.
It’s just that Yumiko’s a little too sensitive.
Even though she looks like the kind of person who’d clash with people easily, she’s actually a genuine good person through and through, okay?
She’s always looking out for me.
It’s just that that day, Yukinon came over right when I was being questioned, so a conflict was kind of unavoidable…
it was just…
[Tadayana]: Mm, yeah.
I don’t think Miura-san seems like a bad woman either.
Though it does look like she’s got something weighing on her that she’s been keeping bottled up.
Seeing that, Yuigahama suddenly realized that Tadayana was frighteningly good at reading people.
[Yui]: Yeah, yeah, let me tell you—actually, Yumiko’s had a crush on a guy around her for a long time, she just never dares to say it directly.
Maybe she’s afraid of being rejected.
Finding someone you like that early in life is really something to be jealous of.
So the way I see it, her troubles are kind of luxurious troubles.
Oof.
Tadayana looked at that reply with a rather complicated expression.
Well…
what could she say…
Japan really was Japan, huh?
For a high schooler to already think of “having someone you like” as something enviable…
But even though that was what her brain was thinking, her hands never stopped typing.
[Tadayana]: Yeah, yeah.
Then I wish her good luck!