Lunch break ended, and the first class in the afternoon was P.E.
It was only the second day after spring break, so most students had lost a lot of strength from lying in bed all day. Even so, the P.E. teacher still pushed everyone to the field for the usual one-kilometer run.
"Hey, look, the girl in front—is she really that 'once in three thousand years' beauty? She's so pretty! She feels on a whole different level from us," one first-year whispered.
"Uwaa... who's the boy running beside her? He's so fast!" another asked.
"You don't know him? That's Shimizu Ken from Class 2-B," a third girl said.
"So that's Shimizu Ken-senpai? It's my first time seeing him in person. He looks cold and doesn't show much on his face, but he's really handsome."
"You're such a fangirl. You're fine with a playboy?"
"So what if he's a playboy? He won't play you. Just answer—he's handsome, right? If you could date him, would you say no?"
A small group of younger girls hid in a corner of the field as they talked in low voices. Normally, their voices should not reach Ken's ears from that distance, but he still heard them.
To be exact, he didn't hear them in a normal way. It was like a tape played in his head, word for word.
Even after he removed the system, any gossip about him came into his mind as game information that pushed the story forward. It worked like a passive skill that never slept.
Back then, it even saved his life when he was kidnapped and dropped into Yokohama Port. But there was a problem: he could not turn this useless skill off. His head often filled with random voices, and at night they kept him awake. His dark circles would never go away. When he said he felt sick at lunch, it wasn't all a lie—his head really hurt.
The girls' words were not exactly praise, but everything they said was true.
In fact, even before the game's story began, Shimizu Ken already had a name in Haikawa Training Academy. The two school beauties from the last two years had both had love-and-hate drama with him. That part of the story before this timeline was fixed, and he could not change it.
Still, he had never done anything too bad, and no one died. Many younger girls still said, "He isn't a jerk, he just hasn't met the right person," and kept trying to chase him.
Just this morning, two first-years stopped him at the restroom door and gave him love letters.
Because he had skipped lunch, Ken was tired. After he finished his laps first, he walked to rest under a tree where Kondo Yuuichi was hiding.
People rarely noticed Yuuichi, so even when he turned on his "power-saving mode" during practice and hid in a corner to slack off, no one found him. Because of this, his body was far weaker than a normal high-school boy.
"You're being lazy again. You should move a little," Shimizu Ken said as a friend, hoping for Yuuichi's future happiness.
"No thanks... You know I'm bad at sports. If I go, people will laugh at me," Yuuichi answered.
This is why people keep leaving you out, Ken thought, but he didn't say it. It would only hurt Yuuichi.
If he wanted to help Yuuichi get his HE (happy ending), he still had a long road ahead.
"What are you looking at?" Shimizu Ken asked after he noticed Yuuichi staring in one direction.
"N-Nothing..." Yuuichi said, turning his head away.
Ken followed his gaze, and the reason was clear.
Yuuichi had been looking at Amamiya Iori, who was running.
Maybe because this was a dating-sim world, there were many cute girls. But without a doubt, Iori shone the brightest.
She was running on the inside track, sweat on her face. Even in a loose sports shirt, he could still see two big... puddings inside bouncing with each step.
For some reason, she had loved sports since she was small, especially running. No wonder her body was so good. She broke the usual anime rule that long-haired pretty heroines looked cute but had small chests. The only "sad" part was that she lost her airport-flat figure at a young age.
"You care a lot about Amamiya, don't you?" Ken asked.
"Ken..."
If anyone else had asked, Yuuichi would not answer. But since it was Ken, he gave a small nod.
"You think she's very pretty too, right?" Shimizu Ken said, nudging him with his elbow.
"Eh?! Um..."
Yuuichi's face went bright red. He looked away in shy panic, and Shimizu Ken couldn't help laughing.
"Hahaha, you're really something..."
There were no other students near them, and they were close friends, so Ken could talk so freely.
"Ken, can I ask you something?" Yuuichi suddenly said in polite speech, which felt a bit strange to Ken.
They had not known each other as long as Ken and Iori, who were childhood friends, but they had always been tight.
Yuuichi stayed quiet for a long time before he spoke. "The one who saved Iori on the train yesterday... it was you, right?"
Shimizu Ken did not act surprised. If anything, he was surprised Yuuichi realized so late. Ken had even handed him the baseball bat at that time, and they wore the same school uniform. It wasn't hard for Yuuichi to guess.
Seeing no point in hiding it, Shimizu Ken nodded.
"Thank you for saving her..." Yuuichi said. He stopped for a moment, then added, "Does Iori know?"
"I didn't tell her," Shimizu Ken said.
He saw Yuuichi's face and knew what he was thinking, so he added, "I don't plan to tell her later either."
He had changed. Without the game system to control him, he would never cut in and steal love again.
"Thank you," Yuuichi said with a small breath of relief, thanking him again.
"I wish I could be like you one day..." Yuuichi whispered, almost talking to himself.
But Shimizu Ken didn't hear that part, because another voice entered his head.
"Hey, look, look! That Amamiya girl from Class 2 really is huge!"
Notes:
• Kondo Yuuichi - Original main protagonist; timid; Iori’s childhood friend; freezes despite push.
• Amamiya Iori - JK heroine; targeted; her mother is the hostage. Long-haired and busty.