About the Cool Beauty in My Class Declaring She Won’t Eat Anything Except My Bento - 11-12

Chapter 11: The Cool Beauty Who Can’t Lie

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“G-Good morning…”

“Ah, yeah… Good morning.”

At school the next morning, I looked away the instant Ayano entered the classroom.

『 What kind of mean thing are you going to do…?』

I could remember it vividly and I had writhed in agony over it several times.

“…Did something happen?”

“Shut up.”

“Since you aren’t denying it, it must be exactly that, Big Brother.”

“Who are you even supposed to be? Also, it’s not like anything happened.”

『I started wondering if, maybe, you were interested in me in that way…』

“…………It’s not like anything happened, okay.”

“Hmm?”

From his position in front of my desk, Shu peered into my face with a smirk. I poked his cheek with my index finger.

“Huh, you aren’t going to hit me?”

“Do you want me to hit you?”

“Am I a total masochist or something?”

“I’ll join in too.”

“Oh… wait, what?”

Kurumi, who had arrived unnoticed, joined the fray of poking Shu’s cheek.

(…What even is this time we’re wasting.)

“…Poking a guy’s cheek isn’t even fun.”

“Well, obviously.”

“Of course it isn’t.”

“Then what is the point of this!?”

“Because it’s Shu’s cheek.”

“Exactly.”

“This is a bit embarrassing… It’s embarrassing!!”

While Shu looked sullen and pouted his lips into a frown, he let Kurumi and me do as we pleased. The way he had a look that said he didn’t entirely hate it was a little too cute. 

(I have no interest in falling for men, though.)

“So, what were Shu-kun and Sota-kun talking about?”

“Please don’t ask.”

“Ask away for m- ow, owowow.”

I forcefully ground my finger into Shu’s cheek as he tried to encourage Kurumi to ask. I really, seriously, wanted him to stop.

“That blunt Sota-kun is genuinely hating this….. Which means, it’s about Su-chan!?”

“Heh…!?”

However, the perceptive Kurumi caught on immediately. Ayano, who had been trying her best to feign composure next to us, let out a strange noise in her surprise at having her name suddenly brought up.

“Wait, seriously?”

“Sota… you, you’re really getting things done, aren’t you…”

“A-Are we getting in the way…!?”

The two idiots whose romantic brains had developed in a bad direction were making the worst kind of misunderstanding.

“You guys, cut it out.”

“Oh my, Shu-san, the boyfriend is blushing.”

“You mustn’t, Ao-san, the boyfriend will get jealous.”

“……Ayano, I can’t keep these two under control.”

Once these two started their own little world, there was nothing even I could do. The only saving grace was that since their voices were dripping with smirks, no one in the class took them seriously… but it was still incredibly uncomfortable.

“A-Aoi-san, Kurata-san… It’s not like anything in particular happened, you know…?”

“Eeeh? Really now?”

Just the topic of whether something happened between Ayano and me drew the interest of the entire class. Since I would be the one killed if I said the wrong thing, Ayano and I had to keep a firm grip on the initiative regarding information disclosure.

“There was just a little bit of stuff after dinner yesterday, but it’s not like anything weird happened………..”

“…………?”

“…………..Eh?”

…Ayano?

“Oh, what’s wrong with everyon-! N-No, it’s nothing, I’m lying, it’s a joke, please forget it!”

She covered her face with both hands, sat back in her chair, and faced forward. That action and her panicked words confirmed what the classmates had suspected but weren’t sure of , the fact that『 they ate dinner together.』

“Wait, for real?”

Shu asked me, looking profoundly bewildered. No… I really wished he wouldn’t ask…

“Well… yeah, we did eat dinner. Yeah…”

As a precaution, I omitted the word “together,” but it didn’t seem to make much difference.

The classroom fell dead silent. They thoroughly chewed over the meaning of Ayano’s and my words.

…I had just tasted this exact same atmosphere a week ago.

“W-What is the meaning of this, Kirihara!!!”

“Dinner!? Not stopping at bentos, you’re even making her dinner!?”

“Hey! It’s no use being vague!”

“A passionate affair… A passionate affair is it!?”

Well then…

“Ayano.”

“Yes.”

“I have an intense urge to run away right now.”

“What a coincidence. So do I.”

Ayano and I left the classroom. The current time was 8:00 AM. I guess there were about seven hours left in this trial…

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Chapter 12: Kirihara-san’s Makeover

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“Lunch break is supposed to be a break, isn’t it…?”

I let out a sigh as a massive crowd of guys surrounded me. I had managed to escape them in the morning, but as soon as lunch break started, I was completely hemmed in.

“Hah? I wouldn’t know.”

“Hey, hey. We aren’t letting you go until you spit out… I mean, tell us about your relationship with Ayano-san, okay?”

“My… my Ayano-san is…”

(She isn’t yours.)

Meanwhile, Ayano was at the opposite end of the room near the back window, surrounded by the girls in our class. She was likely in a situation similar to mine.

“Wait, did you really eat dinner together?”

The first to charge in was Shu, who rested his arm on my shoulder from behind. I answered him while thinking to myself. 

(At least you could try to be on my side.)

“Well, yeah… I guess that might be the case?”

“And so, you attacked her?”

“I didn’t attack her. Stop with the biased reporting.”

I had no intention of being the kind of man who would attack a girl just because we spent a little time together at night… though it wasn’t really the kind of thing worth putting into words. Even if I had my own thoughts as a teenage boy, Ayano was still a girl. Whether we were in a romantic relationship or not, it was only natural to treat her with care.

“I mean… are you dating?”

“Listen here, you…”

I really wished they understood the concept of self-restraint.

“No, because you ate dinner alone with that ‘cool beauty,’ right? That’s totally a ‘there’s no way nothing happened’ situation.”

“Nothing happened.”

“No, no, that’s a stretch.”

(It’s not a stretch.)

For the time being, I kept insisting that “we aren’t dating” and that “nothing happened,” and I somehow managed to scrape through the situation. Though, in exchange, I ended up being labeled as “spineless” and things like that.

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“Wait, you’re running with me today?”

That night, when I greeted her in my jersey, Ayano greeted me back with a hint of surprise in her voice. 

“I’m a bit mentally exhausted, so I thought I’d exhaust my body too.”

“Ah… the lunch break thing.”

Ayano, immediately realizing what I meant, nodded with a resigned smile. Since they hadn’t even given me time to eat my lunch and had bombarded me with questions, I was quite worn out emotionally.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just rest quietly?”

“You add excessive fatigue to existing fatigue. It’s best to sleep like the dead.”

” I don’t think that’s very healthy. Besides, if you sleep like the dead, I’ll worry, so please don’t do that.”

“Well, that’s quite a perk for me.”

“I’ll have to resort to slapping you awake.”

“Is there no other way to wake me up?”

Ayano giggled. This was a side of her I would absolutely never want to tell the guys in my class about.

“But surely running together is a bad idea?”

“I’ll just wear a disguise.”

“That only works in the world of fiction.”

“No, but if I take off my glasses and style my hair, my impression changes quite a bit. I haven’t changed either of those since starting high school, so no one will know it’s me.”

I usually just wore my hair down and had thick-framed glasses. I knew that contacts made a better impression and that I’d look more polished if I styled my hair to some extent. It was just that I didn’t do it because it was a hassle. I thought my features weren’t bad thanks to the genetics from my parents, but I didn’t think they were great either. And since I wasn’t looking to appeal to girls, I hadn’t styled my hair once in high school.

“…Let me see it first as a test. We’ll decide whether to run together after that.”

“Why am I being screened?”

“…To make sure you aren’t found out?”

“Well, that makes sense. Alright, wait a bit. I was just getting ready.”

I decided to have Ayano wait in my room for a moment. It wouldn’t even take ten minutes, but I hated making people wait, so I hurried as much as I could.

Then, in less than ten minutes.

“Sorry to keep you. Did you wait long?”

“Why are you saying that like we’re meeting for a date?”

Ayano, who had been looking at her phone in the living room, turned around. I was a bit exasperated that she so easily teased me about something I had hesitated to say before. I had only put in contacts and used wax to give my hair a soft, casual messy-mash look, but it was a little embarrassing to be checked over by the school’s number one “cool beauty.”

Ayano stared at me intently. She stood in front of me and peered into my face as if looking up at me.

“…Isn’t it pointless to look from that close?”

Even for peering in, she was too close. She could barely even see my newly styled hair this close, and a faint scent from Ayano drifted toward me, making me feel restless. When I looked forward, Ayano’s face occupied my entire field of vision, so I looked away, trying to create even a little bit of space.

“…………It’s no good.”

“Eh, no good?”

“You aren’t allowed to go outside today.”

“What if I just run alone then?”

“…No.”

“What…?”

Since her feedback was several times harsher than I had imagined, I actually felt a bit depressed. Was it really that bad…?

“Ah, but please stay like that even after I come back.”

“Why that, of all things…?”

“The reason is… it’s a bit difficult to say…”

Ayano spun around and headed toward the entrance. Her ponytail swayed gracefully.

“I think you look much cooler that way, you see?”

Click.

I only returned to my senses after Ayano had left the room.

“You basically said the whole thing without difficulty…”

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