A Late Bloomer's Powerful Restart ~My Second Life Starts at a Prestigious School Where the Gender Ratio Is Totally Off, and for Some Reason, All These Talented Girls Get Attached to Me...!?~ - Chapter 41.2: Our First Date!?

Chapter 41.2: Our First Date!?

See? She really was similar.

The heroine in this light novel was also loved for her slightly airheaded, clumsy charm.

The series had been running for a long time because the heroine was so beloved… She was basically the same as Sasa at school.

If the current Sasa kept growing like this, maybe even that ruthless Kokonoe Group would change a little.

“Ahh—the illustration spoiled something! I guess with a long series you really have to read the previous volumes first… But it can’t be helped, right? I’m dying to know what happens next!”

“Sasa… you’re standing out. Can you keep your voice down a bit?”

She jumped as if realizing she’d done it again, then quickly covered her mouth.

Suddenly, worrying about the future felt ridiculous, and even I started to smile.

But when she attracted this much attention from everyone around us, it became harder and harder to stay comfortable.

If we got banned from the store, that would be a problem. Maybe we should just leave?

—Thud!

Luckily, someone far away dropped a book, and the eyes around us naturally turned in that direction.

Still, there was no telling when Sasa might raise her voice again.

“Seriously… Have you decided which books you want?”

“Of course not yet! I still haven’t heard your recommendations. And I’m not buying them right now, you know?”

“Huh? You’re not buying them?”

“They’d just become baggage.”

Right— we had put clothing stores later precisely because of the bags.

I saw how much fun she was having and just assumed she would buy them.

She had looked so eager every time she picked up a book.

“I don’t mind carrying two or three. You can read them whenever we have some free time later.”

“T-Taiki, I’m never going to feel bored when I’m with you, you know?”

“That’s flattering. But don’t hold back just because of that.”

“…If you’re going to say that much, then I really won’t hold back, okay?”

For some reason she stared intently at me for a moment, then—without holding back at all—she picked up the continuation of the light novel I had lent her before.

After that, I also recommended a few easy-to-read single-volume novels outside of light novels. She chose two that she liked from their summaries, so in the end we bought three books total.

She still looked like she wanted more… but in this era, people still talked about “tsundoku” piles of unread books. Even if she bought a lot, she probably wouldn’t finish them quickly. It would be better to come back later after she finished reading and maybe find new releases.

After leaving the bookstore, we ended up near the game section where kids were gathered.

It seemed Sasa was also very interested in games from Yashima Electronics and wanted to take a look.

…It couldn’t be because of Shika’s influence, right?

But right before we went in… I realized it was already almost lunchtime.

“Looks like we should grab something to eat first.”

“Oh? Is it that time already? Time flies! Do you know any good places?”

She looked at me again with pure, excited eyes.

Even if she stared at me like that, I didn’t really have a favorite spot I could confidently recommend.

…I really hadn’t planned enough.

A little farther in there was a Western-style sweets shop I liked going to… but since Tsukimi might be working there, I couldn’t just carelessly bring another student from the academy.

Actually… why hadn’t we been found out yet? It felt strange.

At the very least, for the sake of staying on good terms with Tsukimi, I should have checked with her beforehand.

I decided against deciding on the spot and ruled out the sweets shop.

What other places were there that could satisfy a light hunger…?

I hurriedly searched my memory, but the only thing that came up was ramen shops.

Damn it… this wasn’t a college guy’s lunch.

There was no way I could recommend that to an ojou-sama.

Well, Sasa would probably like it… but since this was supposed to be a date, I wanted to show off a little too.

But Sasa’s gaze had naturally drifted behind me.

“Taiki, what’s that over there?”

“That’s… a fast-food place.”

As expected from a sheltered ojou-sama who lived in her own world… not knowing what a fast-food restaurant was felt like a total cliché!

It was the place that had been in pre-opening before… Apparently it had officially opened at some point.

But now I was in trouble.

Compared to a ramen shop, was fast food really okay for a first date?

No—I loved fast food too… I loved it, but the youthful dates I knew weren’t like this…!

Still, judging from the look on Sasa’s face, the decision was pretty much already made.

No helping it… She might actually be surprisingly moved by the taste of a hamburger she’d never eaten in her life.

“This looks perfect. Let’s go here!”

“Settled! Actually, I secretly ate here once with my little brother a long time ago~… I wonder if it’ll taste nostalgic.”

…So she had eaten it before.

It looked like moving her with a hamburger was going to be difficult.

I’d completely forgotten that she’d had some experiences of normal life too.

She just hadn’t recognized the name because it was a new chain that wasn’t famous yet.