A Beautiful Girl Confessed Her Love to Me as a Punishment Game, but After We Started Dating, She Started Getting More and More Obsessive - Chapter 3

I, Numata Karasu, always go home early.

That’s because I’m an introvert without any initiative to join clubs and a loner with no friends to hang out with after school.

As soon as the sixth period ends, I toss my textbooks into my locker and prepare to head home. My well-practiced routine could almost be considered the highlight of the “going-home club.”

Well, it’s not like I have anything I want to do at home, so there’s no real need to rush. But watching my classmates chat about where to hang out or make excuses because of clubs or part-time jobs makes me feel a little pathetic.

Honestly, I also want to experience the kind of youth where you buy snacks in your school uniform.

That said, today, I didn’t feel as envious of my classmates as usual.

Because today, Kiryu confessed to me.

It’s not that I feel superior or anything like that.

Kiryu doesn’t seem to have any feelings for me, and we’re just in a fake relationship because of a penalty game, so it’s not something I can get cocky about.

It’s just that I was too tired to even feel inferior.

I was picked as Kiryu’s penalty game partner, and we even talked during lunch.

Thinking back, it had been about a month since I last talked to a classmate.

Yet here I was, talking with Kiryu, of all people, in such an unusual situation that it unnecessarily drew attention from the whole class.

If you’re an awkward person like me, you’ll understand that conversations require something like MP (mental energy), and talking to Kiryu in that situation was like casting Madante.

What do you do when your MP is drained? You rest at an inn, right?

I felt the same way—I just wanted to go home and sleep soundly, even if it meant I wouldn’t be able to sleep later and would regret it tomorrow.

As I was thinking this on my way home, a male student suddenly blocked my path.

He had dyed brown hair and silver earrings on his earlobe. Despite getting scolded by the school for it, his cheerful personality usually got him off the hook. It was Yasumura.

“Hey, mind sparing me a minute?”

“Uh…”

“I’ve got something to talk to you about.”

I wanted to tell him I didn’t have the MP left to talk to anyone, but if I had that kind of courage, I wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

Swallowing the sigh I wanted to let out, I nodded silently.

Yasumura led me behind the gym.

A place usually reserved for confessions or shakedowns! (Complete prejudice.)

Given today’s age of diversity, I can’t rule out the possibility of the former between two guys, but in this case, I think it’s the latter.

“I didn’t bring my wallet, so…”

“Huh? Wallet?”

Yasumura looked confused. Apparently, it wasn’t a shakedown.

“So…does that mean you’re gay?”

“Gay!? No way! What the hell are you saying all of a sudden?”

He grabbed my collar and shouted at me.

“S-sorry.”

When I apologized, he let go of me.

I realized I was saying weird things because my MP was drained, but strangely, I didn’t mind not wanting to be disliked by Yasumura.

“So, what do you want?”

“You know what this is about, right?”

“…?”

“Tch. You need to break up with Kiryu.”

“Uh…”

“You know what I mean. Kiryu only picked you because Dachi was messing around. She doesn’t actually like you. If you two keep going like this, you’ll both just end up unhappy.”

“So, you’re telling me to dump Kiryu?”

“Don’t get it wrong. You’re not dumping her; you’re turning down the relationship.”

“Well, I don’t really care about the wording, but you’re saying I should propose breaking up with her, right?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Seriously, Yasumura? Are you for real? I glanced at his face to check, but he looked completely serious.

I closed my eyes and sorted through the information.

① Just like Yasumura said, Kiryu doesn’t like me. So, this relationship is bound to naturally fizzle out sooner or later.

② Yasumura almost certainly likes Kiryu. He’s also really close with Fujisaki.

③ Fujisaki also likes Kiryu. Apparently, Dachi only made it a penalty game because Fujisaki suggested it behind the scenes.

Even though Yasumura and Fujisaki knew the relationship would naturally fade away, they couldn’t stand the fact that their beloved Kiryu was dating some random introverted nobody like me. That’s why Yasumura went as far as to call me behind the gym to say all this.

Yeah, I kind of get how they feel.

But still…

“Sorry, I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“If I bring something like that up, Kiryu will get mad at me…And I don’t have the guts to suggest something like that in the first place.”

“Huh?”

Yasumura started kicking at the ground slightly. His irritation was starting to show.

“Why would Kiryu be mad about breaking up with someone like you? She’d definitely be happy to get rid of you.”

“Well…”

Would Kiryu really be happy if I broke up with her? I’m not sure, but I feel like if I did, she’d ask me for a reason.

Then again, maybe she’d understand and not ask at all.

After all, the only reason I’d want to break up with Kiryu is that Yasumura or Fujisaki pressured me into it.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense for me to have accepted Kiryu’s confession only to break up with her so soon. If I was going to do that, I should’ve turned her down in the first place.

So, I think Kiryu would realize that if I brought up the breakup, it was because Yasumura—or the one behind him, Fujisaki—had put me up to it.

And Kiryu doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would tolerate underhanded behavior like that.

I don’t know if it’s out of a sense of justice, or if she’d just be mad because she’d think, “You really thought I wouldn’t notice? Don’t underestimate me.”

If it’s the former, she’d pity me. If it’s the latter, she’d despise me as a coward.

Either way, it’s unbearable, so there’s no way I can suggest breaking up with Kiryu.

But I didn’t feel like explaining all that to the irritated Yasumura.

“Oh, I know! How about you go talk to Kiryu yourself and ask her to break up with me?”