Having successfully courted death and knocked a big chunk off the girl’s opinion of him, Mir wisely started changing the subject.
“By the way, looks like you’ve got class tomorrow.”
Seeing that Xia Ye had taken the bait, Mir went on.
“Our Special Class uses hands-on field training, so before the training kicks off there’s no need for lessons. But the basics still have to be mastered, so tomorrow you’ll be the only one with class.”
At those words, Xia Ye’s mood seemed to sour, her face gradually clouding over.
After all, finding out only after being assigned to a class that everyone else gets to slack off while you’re the only one stuck in lessons—anyone would feel that was unfair.
“I understand.” Xia Ye’s voice came out a little glum.
Even though it didn’t sit right, her basics really were poor—she hadn’t even mastered this world’s language yet.
“But don’t worry too much. I’ve got nothing on tomorrow, so I’ll go with you.” Mir had actually started comforting someone, and this incredible behavior seemed to catch Xia Ye a little off guard.
It still didn’t change the fact that she now saw him as a disgusting little pest, though.
But she was the tiniest bit touched.
“Oh right, that quilt I gave you yesterday—it’s brand new, I never even used it.” Mir brought the matter up while he was at it.
The quilt?
If he hadn’t mentioned it, she might have forgotten about it entirely.
“Yesterday… when did you tuck the quilt over me?” Xia Ye asked, a little shyly.
This was a very important question.
Mir, this genius who considered his own EQ to be off the charts, of course knew exactly what Xia Ye was fishing for, and he figured a moment like this called for playing dumb.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t see you crying yesterday.” His grasp of “playing dumb” seemed to be a bit off, though.
So in Xia Ye’s eyes he was deliberately teasing her, and Mir got chased out by a red-faced Xia Ye—whether from embarrassment or anger, or both, who could say.
Women really are strange creatures, Mir lamented inwardly.
So even EQ like mine can’t crack them.
“I’m back to play cards again.”
Mir waved a greeting at the two losers he’d mocked before.
The pair were currently watching TV—where they’d dug up the disc, who knew.
Even Mir, rarely, caught secondhand embarrassment.
“Are you two really this bored?
Nothing better to do than watch this?”
“Sak brought the disc, said it was pretty popular in the modern world, but it’s still nowhere near as good as my magical-girl show.” Carlo frowned, clearly resentful that Sak had wasted so much of his time.
“You really can’t blame me, this show gets talked about a lot in the modern world… By the way, weren’t you off to see Xia Ye?
Why’d you come back to us two losers?” Sak deliberately leaned on the word “losers.”
Mir shrugged helplessly.
“Got kicked out by the girl. Guess even the highest EQ can’t crack a woman’s mind.”
EQ?
That word will never have anything to do with you.
The loser duo thought in perfect unison.
“You weren’t the one who flew over to the girls’ dorm building just now, were you?” Sak narrowed his eyes at Mir.
“Damn it, you actually pulled off something that enviable! How’d you break through the barrier magic that keeps males out?”
Beside him, Carlo glared with an equally envious, resentful look.
Even though he kept insisting he couldn’t appreciate three-dimensional women, what Mir had done was undeniably the kind of feat only a harem protagonist could manage—how could he not feel jealous?
“…Talk about it more and it’s all tears. Can we drop it? Let’s just get back to poker.” As he spoke, Mir pulled out the cheating card he’d wedged into the door—a chunk of it had snapped off inside.
The moment he mentioned poker, the two got mad.
“You cheat even at penalty-free poker?! You’ve mangled the cards this badly and you still want to play?!” Carlo grabbed a few of the cards set aside—five threes.
“So are we just gonna sit here waiting for Vers? Let’s find something fun, brothers!” Mir slapped the table and shouted.
“How about we play video games instead?” Carlo pulled out a Famicom.
“I’m sick of every cartridge you’ve got.” Mir scratched his backside with dead-fish eyes.
Carlo felt himself getting a little annoyed.
“Then what do you want to do?”
Mir didn’t answer.
“Come to think of it, all three of us are single, huh. What do you suppose those girls are thinking—three handsome guys like us, and not one of them’s interested.” Lying on the sofa, Mir started making idle conversation.
Though he’d long known how shameless Mir was, Sak still had to get his gripe out.
“I have serious doubts about your ‘three handsome guys.’ A third of that sounds pretty bogus.”
“Sak, how can you look down on yourself like that?!” Mir clapped a hand over his mouth in shock.
“He’s talking about YOU!” Carlo smacked him hard across the forehead, then crouched on the floor clutching his hand.
“So why is it we can’t get girlfriends?” Mir ignored the pair’s doubts about his good looks.
Sak pinched his chin, then gave what he considered an objective assessment.
“You don’t even need explaining—not handsome, personality all over the place.
Carlo’s probably because his otaku aura is too thick… Me, I’ve actually dated twice, but my first love dumped me after she heard I was on good terms with you two.”
“Is my otaku aura really that thick?” Carlo said with a look of disbelief.
The other two nodded at the same time.
“Women really are strange, huh. How could anyone possibly appeal to every woman?” Mir scratched his backside with dead-fish eyes.
“So what type of guy do girls actually go for?”
Sak hesitated a moment, then said, “There are plenty of girls at our academy who are into other girls, you know.”
“For real?” Carlo’s eyes went wide, seemingly a little excited.
“My ex left me for another girl—would I lie to you?” Sak helplessly dropped the bombshell.
The other two stared at Sak in shock.
They’d heard his last relationship ended because she cheated on him; Sak had been furious, but he’d never gone after the other party—which had seemed odd, since he wasn’t the type to take something like that lying down.
So the one she’d cheated with was another girl.
Mir’s eyes went wide as he crooned in a mocking, sing-song lilt, “Ohh~ no wonder no girl likes yours truly.”
“Which means we might just stay single our whole lives, huh. At least my Meri-chan would never betray me.” At the mention of Meri-chan, Carlo started chuckling foolishly.
The two tacitly ignored his creepy, lovestruck grin.
“Decided!” Sak said with a completely serious face.
“Let’s cross-dress and go pick up girls!”
Carlo and Mir stared at Sak in shock, unable to believe such words had come out of his mouth.
Carlo even toppled over onto the floor from the shock.
If Mir had been the one to say something like this, Carlo would’ve been surprised but wouldn’t have reacted so violently, because he was already used to Mir’s abnormality.
But for Sak, that straight-laced fellow, to blurt out something so outrageous—had he finally been assimilated by Mir?!