Miko snapped back to her senses.
She took a deep breath and turned around, putting on a well-behaved but slightly stiff smile.
“Ah… Sorry, Fujiwara-san. It seems to be… a love letter.”
She handed the envelope over, but her fingers gripping the corner of the letter didn’t let go.
“Will you… read it, Fujiwara-san?”
Her voice was trembling, and her eyes were screaming “don’t read it” and “throw it away.”
Ai looked at her expression, which was on the verge of tears, and then glanced at the pink envelope.
After his Charm value rose to 73, things like this indeed started to happen.
But his current goal was clear; he didn’t want to waste energy on side characters.
“Not interested.”
Ai let go of his hand, not taking the letter.
“Help me dispose of it.”
Hearing these words, the gloom in Yotsuya Miko’s eyes vanished instantly, and she seemed to come alive in a flash.
“Eh? Is… is that okay? This is a girl’s feelings, after all…”
Even as she said this, her hand had already swiftly stuffed the envelope into the very bottom of her bag.
“A hassle.”
Ai dropped those two words, finished changing his shoes, and walked straight toward the classroom.
Watching the boy’s back, Yotsuya Miko patted her chest and let out a long sigh of relief.
‘Thank goodness…
Fujiwara-san didn’t accept it.’
‘As expected, Fujiwara-san is aloof; ordinary girls can’t even catch his eye.’
‘Only me…
Only I am special.’
This secret sense of superiority caused her internal possessiveness to climb yet another level.
[Ding! Yotsuya Miko Affection Value +30.]
[Current Favorability: 45/100.]
…The morning classes were dull and tedious.
Ai sat in his seat, seemingly dazed, but actually feeling the fingers of his left hand.
After last night’s baptism of Soul Resonance Performance, combined with the system’s integration of muscle memory, a thin layer of calluses had appeared on his left fingertips. Find the original chapter at novelping . com.
They were the unique medals of a guitarist.
This layer of calluses was very thin, impossible to feel without careful touch, but when his fingertips brushed against the surface of the desk, the slightly rough texture gave him an inexplicable sense of security.
“Is this what they call’skills are never a burden’?”
Ai looked at his palm.
It was slender with distinct knuckles, appearing exceptionally fair and attractive due to the boost from his Charm value.
But these hands now possessed the ability to play music that could make one’s soul tremble.
Since he had the skill, it was time to consider how to capture that “pink creature.”
Goto Hitori.
Although he had given her an effects pedal, they still lacked a formal opportunity for natural communication.
He couldn’t just corner her at the musical instrument store every time, could he?
Just as he was thinking, the lunch break bell rang.
Ai stood up.
Instead of going to buy bread as usual, he took out the bento he had prepared last night.
Since he needed to save money for equipment, cooking for himself was a must.
As soon as he opened the bento box, an enticing aroma wafted out.
Yotsuya Miko in the front row immediately turned around, looking at him expectantly like a kitten that had caught the scent of fish.
“Fujiwara-san… is that a homemade bento?”
“Yeah.”
Ai picked up a piece of Tamagoyaki.
“So… so impressive…”
Miko swallowed hard.
It wasn’t that she was craving the food; she was craving the attribute of it being “handmade by Ai.”
If she could just have one bite…
even just one bite…
While Miko was still in the middle of a fierce internal struggle, a sudden commotion came from the back door of the classroom.
“Um… S-Sorry! Excuse me!”
A voice as faint as a mosquito, sounding as if it might stop breathing at any moment, rang out.
Ai looked up. The source of this chapter is g.com.
He saw a girl in a pink tracksuit, clutching a bento box, trying to push through the crowd in the hallway.
Her head was bowed, as if she wanted to bury her face in her chest, and her walking posture was extremely stiff, like a rusty robot.
Goto Hitori.
She was from the class next door, but because of her social anxiety, finding a place to eat every lunch break was like a game of survival for her.
For some reason today, she had blindly run to the entrance of class 2-f.
Just as she was about to pass the window next to Ai’s seat.
“Snap.”
Perhaps because she was too nervous, or perhaps because she tripped over her own feet, the lid of Bocchi-chan’s bento box…
came loose.
Although it didn’t fall off completely, the chopsticks inside slid out.
They landed right on Ai’s desk.
The air went silent again.
Goto Hitori froze in place, her face instantly turning a ghastly ashen white.
It’s over.
Social death.
Dropping chopsticks on someone else’s desk…
this kind of thing…
this kind of thing…
‘Please flush me down the sewer!
Waaaah, I want to go home…’
Just as Bocchi-chan was about to perform a dogeza apology on the spot and then flee the Earth at the speed of light.
A hand picked up the pair of chopsticks.
Ai looked at the pink chopsticks in his hand, printed with cute cartoon patterns, and then glanced at the girl who was about to weather away into dust.
“Here.”
He handed them over.
Goto Hitori looked up tremblingly.
When she saw clearly that the person in front of her was the boy who had given her the effects pedal, her previously ashen face instantly turned beet red.
“Ah… Aah! It… It’s you!”
Ai didn’t show excessive enthusiasm, maintaining his usual deadpan expression.