Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/822139838626691253/episodes/822139838627188319
“Hey, when did you two start dating?”
“Huh…?”
After school.
As I was getting ready to leave, Aiba suddenly asked me that.
“Don’t play dumb. I’m talking about Nanase Misora.”
“Oh.”
“What do you mean ‘oh’? You two have been together all the time lately. Are you two dating or what?”
“Hmm… I guess you could say that.”
“What’s with that vague answer? If you’re not dating, then what are you doing? You two are always flirting during every break.”
“Well… yeah.”
“It’s rude to keep secrets from your best friend.”
Aiba looked at me enviously.
“Well… there are some reasons. I’ll tell you sometime.”
“How good? Nanase’s plain but cute, and apparently she’s got big boobs too…”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yeah. We were in the same class first year, and it was the talk among the girls. Apparently, she’s got something amazing when she takes her clothes off. Some girl who changed near her in the locker room saw it. She’s got something crazy. She’s the type who looks smaller in clothes.”
“Huh.”
Nanase, wearing her uniform perfectly, doesn’t look like that at all.
Honestly, the idea of looking at Nanase that way never even crossed my mind.
“So, how far did you guys go?”
“Huh?”
“You held hands, obviously? Did you go on dates? What about beyond that? I mean, who confessed first?”
“…The confession… well… I did it.”
“Whoa!! Seriously?!”
Aiba was all ears.
He started grilling me about what I liked about Nanase, where I confessed, all that stuff.
As I was brushing him off casually, Nanase came over to me.
“Kurose-kun, wanna walk home together?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Heehe, see ya, Ren. Take good care of your girlfriend.”
“Shut up.”
Aiba grinned as he said that.
“Let’s go, Nanase.”
“Okay.”
Nanase and I walked side by side out of the classroom.
“Ehehe.”
“Is something wrong?”
Nanase seemed happy about something.
“he said ‘girlfriend’…”
“…”
“I guess that’s how it looks to everyone else, huh?”
“…”
“What do you think, Kurose-kun?”
“Um…”
I couldn’t say anything stupid.
If Nanase’s self-esteem dropped, the Grim Reaper we’d finally gotten rid of would come back.
“Well, we’ve been together forever…”
“Hehe. I knew it. We look like a couple, right?”
Nanase tentatively reaches out her hand.
She seems to want to link arms.
When I offer my arm, she gently places her hand on mine.
“Hehe… This kind of thing feels… couple-like… It’s nice, right?”
“Yeah.”
I give a half-hearted reply.
It was extremely against my will to keep pretending to be her boyfriend while deceiving Nanase, but for now, I had no choice but to continue this charade.
The reason Nanase hadn’t gone through with her suicide was because she believed she was “needed by me.”
Nanase, whose self-esteem was extremely low, couldn’t feel she had any value unless she was constantly needed by someone.
For now, I was fulfilling that role, but eventually, I planned to have someone else take it over.
For example, if Nanase makes a female friend.
If she gains a close friend who makes her feel “needed,” Nanase will naturally drift away from me.
Or it could be someone who likes Nanase showing up.
If I can successfully bring that person and Nanase together, I’ll finally be freed from this situation.
Until then, I have no choice but to keep pretending to be her boyfriend.
“Hey, Kurose-kun. Got plans after school today?”
“Huh…?”
“I-if you’re okay with it… I kinda wanted to go somewhere with you…”
“Somewhere?”
“Anywhere… is fine. Grab a bite, go to karaoke, shopping… If you don’t like that, just the park or something…”
“…”
“I, I kinda wanted to try… an after-school date… Is that… bad?”
Nanase looked up at me with hopeful eyes.
I didn’t have plans after school, but this was a hassle.
As I searched for an excuse to refuse, something suddenly caught my eye.
“kyaaa! Senpai!?”
“Senpai looks so cute!”
“Please take a picture with us!!!”
A group of girls, likely juniors, swarmed around one female student.
“Sure, sure—let’s all take one together.”
“Yay!!”
“Hoshikawa-senpai, you’re truly an angel!!”
“We’re cheering for your idol activities!! Keep it up!!”
“Yeah, I’ll do my best!!”
Smiling and taking photos while responding to the excited screams of her younger female fans was the school celebrity, Hoshikawa Rino.
She was active as an idol, with her group’s channel exceeding 400,000 subscribers.
Her personal SNS followers also surpassed 100,000. Recently cast as the heroine in a romance drama and appearing on a dating reality show, she was a high school idol on the rise.
“Ku, Kurose-kun…?”
Her voice snapped me back to reality.
Nanase was looking at me with anxious eyes.
“Wh-who were you looking at…? Was it… Hoshikawa san…?”
“Ah, no… it’s not that… it’s just…”
“You don’t have to hide it… she’s… cute, right? Hoshikawa san… you just can’t help but look…”
“…Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine… I’m not attacking you… I mean, it’s natural, right? Guys… like girls like Hoshikawa san… Someone like me…is just”
Nanase slumped her shoulders and looked down.
Apparently, she’d misunderstood that I’d been staring at Hoshikawa.
“Someone like me… compared to Hoshikawa san…”
“Don’t say that.”
I took Nanase’s hand.
“Kurose-kun?”
“Nanase is cute. You’re number one to me. To me, Nanase looks cuter than Hoshikawa!!”
I plucked up the courage to say it.
“Huh?”
Hoshikawa must have heard too, because I heard a confused voice.
“Ku, Kurose-kun…!?”
“Don’t put yourself down, Nanase! You’re way cuter than you think you are!!”
“…!”
Whoo-hoo! The surrounding students started jeering.
It was incredibly embarrassing, but I couldn’t back down now.
“Sorry for making you feel insecure, Nanase.”
Then I hugged Nanase.
“Thank you, Kurose-kun.”
Nanase hugged me back.
“I like Kurose-kun.”
This is intense.
They’re really putting us on display.
Amidst the teasing from the surrounding students, we held each other for a while longer.
“S-should we… go now, Nanase?”
“…Yeah.”
I patted Nanase’s back.
Nanase reluctantly pulls away from me.
“H-hold on, I just remembered something I need to do. See you tomorrow!”
“Ah, wh-what… Kurose-kun…?”
I leave Nanase behind and start running.
At the end of my gaze, I spot Hoshikawa Rino just about to slip through the school gate.
And right behind her, clinging to her like glue, is the back view of the Grim Reaper.
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