After Being Dumped With the Insult, “You’re So Clingy!” and Finding Her in Despair, I Kept Encouraging My Beautiful Classmate and as a Result, That Beautiful Girl Started Directing Her Heavy Emotions Toward Me Instead, but Since I Like Emotionally Heavy Girls, It’s No Problem - 32-33

Chapter 32: To Me, Futaba Is…

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“Haa…”

One afternoon after school, I leaned against the rooftop fence, letting out a long sigh as I wrestled with my thoughts alone. The setting sun cast a melancholy light over me. It was late June, and even at this hour, the air was sticky and hot. Futaba wasn’t here. She had some errand today and had gone home earlier.

I had offered, “Want me to walk you home?” but she said her parents had come to pick her up by car. So, unusually left alone, I came to the rooftop to try and sort out my thoughts. My worry… it was about what I should do with my relationship with Futaba from here on.

First, to organize my thoughts, I tried to summarize our relationship from the beginning. At the start of June, I had reached out to Futaba, who had been crying her eyes out after being rejected by Senkawa. Through my desperate encouragement, Futaba had managed to pull herself together and had started saying she wanted to take care of me to heal the wound of her heartbreak. Apparently, she liked taking care of people.

I had accepted her offer, thinking I could make her feel better. Then, two weeks ago, Futaba proposed a certain arrangement to me. She asked me to act as a fake boyfriend to scare off guys who were hitting on her. I had agreed to the arrangement, thinking I could help her ease her worries that way. It had all been done with one thought in mind: 『If doing these could ease her burden…』

…But I had one big regret. Back in elementary school, I had seen a childhood friend crying uncontrollably but couldn’t summon the courage to speak to her. I had left her alone. That girl moved away soon after, and I never knew why she had been crying or what became of her. That incident had left a deep regret in my heart. That was probably why I couldn’t leave Futaba crying.

I hated even seeing her sad or distressed face. When she showed that expression, I actively reached out. I wanted her to smile. Yes, I had acted purely out of a desire to “save” her. But recently, I wasn’t sure if my feelings had really been that pure. I had gradually realized that I had fallen in love with Futaba. I had only consciously noticed it recently. But I think I had liked her long before that, I just hadn’t realized it. Exactly when I had started liking her, I couldn’t tell for sure. 

…A few days ago, Senkawa had said something to me.

『You only reached out to Futaba because you had ulterior motives.』

I couldn’t fully deny that. I couldn’t deny that my active efforts to help Futaba were because I had feelings for her. I was wrapped in self-loathing. To think that actions I had believed were purely to help her had actually been driven by desire made me feel disgustingly wrong.

Doesn’t that make me the same as that Hachioji guy?

On top of that, I was currently playing the role of Futaba’s fake boyfriend. She had trusted me as “someone who would help purely as a friend” and asked me to take on that role. That meant I was betraying her trust. What I hated most was causing Futaba pain.

If I continued this relationship, it was easy to imagine that it would inevitably lead to hurting her.

I agonized over it. I even considered resigning from taking care of Futaba and ending the fake boyfriend arrangement. But if I stepped back, who would heal her wounded heart? Who would keep the guys hitting on her away? I could easily picture her suffering. Even if I stepped aside, Futaba would still end up in pain.

And lastly… my own feelings. I liked Futaba. I had fallen for her. I liked her so much that even being unable to see her face for a single day made me overwhelmingly negative… no, I could say I loved her. Could someone in my state possibly step away from Futaba?

I wanted to stop, but I couldn’t. I wanted to leave, but I didn’t. Continuing or ending this relationship… Either way, she would suffer. I was trapped in an unbearable dilemma.

“What should I… what should I do?”

I asked the setting sun. Naturally, the sun only cast its red light over me, giving no answer. My emotions were a mess. My head hurt. It felt like I was straining my brain harder than solving a difficult math problem.

“Futabaaa…”

“Yes? Did you call me?”

Unable to bear it any longer, I called out the name of the girl I loved. Then, an unbelievable thing happened. The voice of Futaba, who had supposedly gone home, reached my ears.

Startled, I turned around. There she was, standing at the entrance to the rooftop.

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Chapter 33: ~Another Side: Futaba~ 4

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“Fufu♪ Fufufufufu♪”

Futaba Jujoji was in an exceptionally good mood. The plan she had envisioned in her mind was progressing smoothly. Nothing made her feel better than that. For a certain purpose, she had asked Ichika Kokonoe, the boy she had feelings for, to play the role of her “fake boyfriend.”

On the surface, it was under the pretext of 『being annoyed by the male students who keep hitting on me, so I need someone to ward them off』, but her true reason lay elsewhere. It was to make Ichika strongly aware of her existence by having him act as her fake boyfriend. More than that, if he were to develop feelings for her because of it, that would be ideal.

Humans were wired to develop affection for those they frequently interacted with. In psychology, this was apparently called the “mere exposure effect.” Futaba had learned about it from some book she had read. She decided to use that knowledge and actively engage in physical closeness with Ichika. With the premise of being lovers, skinship and physical contact became much easier.

Requesting things like linking arms or being carried in a princess carry had also been part of this strategy. By touching him, she could make him feel a greater sense of intimacy. She had also actively shown off their “relationship” to those around them. If the people around them teased or congratulated them after seeing that, then even if they were only fake lovers, he would inevitably start thinking, 『What if we were real lovers…?』

Of course, she hadn’t forgotten to dote on him either. The lover setting had been convenient for that as well. With that premise, she could take one step further in caring for him. Even making him a homemade lunch or feeding him with an “aaahn” wouldn’t seem unnatural.

Rather, combined with the earlier lovey-dovey displays, it would make him even more strongly aware of her. Futaba had employed every trick in the book to make Ichika fall for her. All so that she could be united with him. Thanks to the results of those actions, Ichika had gradually begun to become conscious of Futaba as well.

“…Well, the most effective thing ended up being the ‘kiss on the cheek’ I gave him when I couldn’t hold back my feelings. That part was unexpected, though.”

Futaba said that with her cheeks slightly flushed. In any case, ever since then, Ichika had clearly become aware of her. For Futaba, this had been a favorable development. She had been convinced that Ichika had feelings for her as of last Saturday.

That Saturday, she had errands at home and hadn’t been able to see him all day. Even though it had only been a single day, when he saw her again, he had looked so happy and there had even been tears welling at the corners of his eyes. If he didn’t have feelings for her, there was no way he would have shown such a pained, longing expression.

“Fufu♡ Fufufufufu♡ Fall even more in love with me… Become even more dependent on me…”

Soon. Very soon, her ideal would become reality. The day when the two of them would be united and become real lovers was not far off. That was what Futaba believed.

However… It was true that, just as she had planned, Ichika had come to harbor feelings for her. Futaba had expected that once his feelings had grown strong enough, he would naturally confess to her. But contrary to her expectations, he stubbornly hadn’t confessed. Judging by his gestures and expressions, there was no doubt that he had feelings for her.

“Why could that be…?”

Futaba had agonized over it. Then one day, she happened to have an errand and couldn’t walk home with Ichika. She said goodbye to him and headed toward the school gate, where her parents were waiting.

On the way, she remembered that she had left something in her desk and hurried back to the classroom. That was when she witnessed Ichika leaving the classroom with a gloomy expression. Concerned about him, she sent a message to her parents saying, 『Please wait a little!』 and hurried after him.

He climbed the stairs and seemed to head toward the rooftop. Futaba opened the rooftop door slightly and observed him. He leaned against the fence, letting out sigh after sigh, wearing a troubled expression.

“What should I… what should I do?”

Ichika sank down on the spot, clutching his head in distress. From the sound of his muttering, he seemed to be worrying about his relationship with Futaba. Seeing him like that pained her heart. Just as Ichika hated seeing Futaba suffer, Futaba also hated seeing Ichika suffer.

She wanted to save him from his pain, just as he had done for her.  And at the same time, she thought that if she removed the cause of his suffering, then perhaps this time, they would truly be united…

Futaba felt as though she could no longer suppress the feelings for him overflowing from her chest. And so, she stepped out before Ichika.

“Futabaaa…”

“Yes? Did you call me?”

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