Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16818093079507847550/episodes/16818622171366547149
A week later.
After fourth period class, I was about to leave the classroom with my lunch box to have lunch when I heard a voice from below.
“Ah, um, Kenmochi-kun …….”
I looked down and saw Amane holding her lunch box and looking up at me.
I learned after she joined the game research club that Amane is apparently a student in the class next door.
Amane came all the way from the next classroom.
“Umm, if you’d like, Wwwwould you like to …..would you like to have lunch …… with me?’
She said shyly, her eyes rolling back and forth and her face turning bright red.
An invitation for lunch?
“With me?”
“Well, we’re in the same club and I don’t have any friends to eat …… with, so if you’re okay with me, I’m …… sorry.”
“No, I don’t mind.”
There is no reason to refuse, so I accepted Amane’s invitation and we decided to have lunch together.
I know I’m being rude, but if I may speak my mind, Amane has a rather bland and unassuming air about her.
I have been involved with several people like her since junior high school, and they tend to isolate themselves.
Because they cannot say what they want to say, they are inevitably relegated to a corner of the class and lose the opportunity to make friends.
No, even if they try to take action, the already established class hierarchy does not allow them to do so.
So I had no doubts about Amane’s words, “I don’t have any friends.”
When I took Amane to the place where I usually have lunch, she had a surprised look on her face.
“Inside the gym ……?”
“I feel at home here. I used to be in the basketball team, so I had a lot of opportunities to eat my lunch in the gymnasium.”
I sat down, leaning against the wall, and opened my bento.
Amane also sat down a little distance away, facing me.
I don’t really care whether we sit close or far from each other, but I’m sure this distance is the distance between me and Amane’s heart.
It seems that she has not yet completely opened her heart to me.
“……”
“……”
Since we have nothing in particular to talk about, we eat our lunch boxes in silence.
I have the usual two layers of pork rice and a healthy vegetable salad in my lunch box.
Amane’s was a cute kyaraben.
“Um,…… Kenmochi-kun. I have a …… dark personality, don’t I?”
I thought the lunch break would end without conversation, but the first thing Amane said was self-deprecating.
“Yeah, I think it’s dark.”
“Yeah… I can’t make friends because of that… I can’t find anyone to play my favorite games with.”
I guess we’re getting into some heavy topics.
But now that she was willing to talk, I decided to shut up and listen.
I’m not good at this kind of pattern.
“I’ve been thinking about joining the game studies club for a while now,……? But I’m not good at talking to …… people, so I joined late …… now that it’s fall.”
Amane squeezed her hands together and smiled wickedly.
“But I’m glad I joined. It’s really fun… playing games with someone.”
Those words made my unfulfilled heart tremble again.
I don’t know why.
But I felt as if my passion for FPS, which was about to cool down, was regaining its warmth.
“Do you like …… games ……, Kenmochi-kun?”
The glorious memories of my middle school days, which had been in a haze, come vividly back to life.
In front of me is a dark, little girl.
But she may be a player who tries to enjoy and love the game more than anyone else.
She is a stark contrast to me.
“Yeah.I love it”
There is no lie in this feeling.
———
It had been just over a month since Amane joined the Game Research Club.
The Game Research Club, which had been inactive until then, had changed dramatically since the girl joined the club, and the members were now engaged in friendly competition with each other.
The club members were motivated by an ulterior motive of wanting to show Amane their good side, but whatever the motive, it was a good trend.
Amane is shy and petite, but this has been well received by the club members, who treat her like a “dark loli character”
She seems to be aware of this treatment, but she does not seem to mind it, especially since the club members are friendly with her.
She has lived a solitary high school life since her first day at school, and she is happy to finally have friends she can communicate with through games.
Incidentally, since the day she first invited me to lunch, we have been eating lunch together in the gymnasium every day.
Amane began to speak more clearly, and the distance that had separated us gradually closed, until now we are talking so close that our shoulders are almost touching.
She began to open up to me.
Every day was going well.
Or so I thought.
Until an incident happened.
On a day when club activities were off.
I went to the club room to pick up something I had forgotten and saw an unexpected scene.
It was an old school building with few pedestrians and hardly any faculty members.
In the back of the building, inside the Game Research Club’s clubroom, Amane…
“…….. stop it,………..”
— was nearly rap*d by Kuramoto-senpai.
–
–
If you enjoy our content, feel free to donate, Thank you in advance !