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 - 39

Chapter 39: Study Session in the Room Right Before the Exam

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Sunday. The exams were finally starting tomorrow. I was doing my last round of studying in my room at my apartment. Of course, Futaba was there with me.

“Ichika-kun, do you know how to solve this problem?”

“Let me see? Umm… for this one, you substitute X here, and then…”

“Ah, I solved it…”

“Yeah, yeah. That method works.”

“Thank you.”

It seemed Futaba’s question had been resolved, so I returned my gaze to my own work and continued the problem I had been in the middle of solving. I absolutely wanted to avoid failing grades so we could enjoy summer vacation together. However, someone lightly poked my arm with a little “tap tap.”

It was Futaba.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hey, Ichika-kun. I worked hard, so I want a reward♡”

“Huh?”

Futaba said that in a sweet voice and directed a heated gaze toward me. Every time she solved a difficult problem, she asked me for a reward like this. By the way, the reward she meant was a “kiss.”

…Ever since we became real lovers, Futaba had started acting spoiled like this more often. That itself was not a problem. If anything, I thought it was a good sign. I also had the desire to be closer with Futaba, and when my cute girlfriend made a request, I wanted to grant it.

However…

If I gave her a reward, I would get carried away too, and we would end up getting absorbed in giving rewards instead of studying. It had been about two hours since we started studying, but around thirty minutes of that time had already been spent flirting with each other. We had gathered to help each other with the parts we did not understand, yet spending time flirting instead of studying was clearly a problem.

At this rate, the exams would be bad. If either of us got a failing grade, our fun summer vacation plans would be seriously disrupted. Thinking that, I painfully turned down her request.

“I understand how you feel, Futaba. But right now we should focus on the tests. Oh, I know! We’re so close to each other that it makes us want to touch. How about we study a little farther apart? If there’s something we don’t understand, we can go ask the other person each time.”

We had been sitting at the same table side by side instead of facing each other. The table was small, so our shoulders were close enough to touch. I thought this arrangement would make it easier to teach each other the parts we did not understand, and I also wanted to stay as close to Futaba as possible. But completely against my wishes, it had actually become an obstacle to studying.

In that case, we had no choice but to separate. I picked up my study materials and moved a little farther away. There was only one table in the room, so I ended up spreading my textbooks on the floor to study, but it could not be helped. I looked toward Futaba. She had a dissatisfied expression on her face.

“Ichika-kun… you made a promise, didn’t you?”

“Huh?”

“You said you wanted to be together forever. That you would never let me go… So are you going to lie now?”

“No, no, I only moved a little. And just for a little bit. Only during the exams…”

“You’re two meters away from me. I get lonely if you’re not right beside me, Ichika-kun…”

“Ah, alright, alright.”

If the Futaba I loved said that much, there was no helping it. Carrying my study tools, I returned to my original spot, which was right next to her.

However, even after I returned, she did not fix her mood. She still looked dissatisfied.

“You promised you wouldn’t leave me…”

“Sorry, sorry.”

“I’m angry because you broke your promise.”

Futaba turned away with a pout. She was not actually angry. She was only pretending to be. When Futaba was truly angry, it was nothing like this. Her sulking gesture was so cute that I could not help but chuckle.

“What should I do for you to forgive me?”

“Mmm♡”

Without saying anything, Futaba held out both of her hands toward me. Apparently she meant, “Since you moved away, hug me tightly.”

“That alone isn’t enough. Whisper words of love until I’m satisfied♡”

“Understood, princess.”

I hugged Futaba and brought my mouth close to her ear.

“Futaba, I love you.”

“Ahh…♡ More!”

“I love you more than anyone in the universe.”

“Haa… haa…♡ More! More!”

After that, for about thirty minutes, I whispered words of love while holding Futaba in my arms.

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Before we knew it, it had become noon. Taking a break, I slurped the udon Futaba had made. Udon. Speaking of udon… it was the dish Futaba had made when I caught a cold. It was also the first meal she had ever cooked for me. It had already been a month since then, I thought nostalgically while looking at the golden-colored udon broth.

“Who would have thought Futaba and I would end up dating.”

“What are you talking about?”

“No, I mean, udon was the first thing you ever cooked for me, right? When I caught a cold…”

“Ahh, that’s right.”

“Back then I never imagined I’d end up dating you.”

“Hehe. But I had already started becoming quite interested in you around that time, Ichika-kun.”

“Really?”

I was surprised she had been aware of me since that long ago. I wondered when Futaba had started liking me. Curious, I asked her.

“The moment I became aware of my feelings for you was probably around the middle of June. When I saw you doing various things for my sake, my heart started racing…”

“That was pretty early. …Now that I think about it, you started talking about wanting a spare key and about the impression my parents would have around that time too. So that was the reason. Huh? But…”

If that was the case, something seemed strange. Why had she asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend? If she had liked me even before that, she could have just asked me to be her real boyfriend instead of pretending.

While slurping my udon, I asked Futaba. She answered awkwardly, with an embarrassed expression.

“Umm… at that time, I didn’t know whether you liked me or not, Ichika-kun. So I thought if we started by pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend, you might start becoming more aware of me.”

“Ahh, I think I get it.”

Futaba had experienced heartbreak once before and carried a major trauma regarding romance. Because of that, she probably strongly felt that she did not want to be rejected again. So instead of starting with a confession, she chose a strategy of gradually closing the distance with the person she liked and turning his feelings toward her. And I fell completely for that strategy and ended up falling in love with her. But I did not feel any discomfort about it. I liked Futaba enough that something like that did not matter at all.

“But in the end, that ended up making you suffer, Ichika-kun, and I feel sorry about that.”

“No, that was just me misunderstanding things and worrying on my own…”

At the time, I had interpreted Futaba’s feelings on my own and hesitated to confess. But when I thought back carefully, she had sent many signals saying, “I like you.” I reflected that I should have noticed them sooner.

Ahh, how could I be so dense?

I thought, feeling a bit of self-disgust.

“The reason you worry, Ichika-kun, is because you’re a kind person who can think about the other person’s circumstances. That’s exactly what I like about you♡”

Seeing me feeling down, Futaba smiled gently. Looking at her face made me feel a little lighter.

…Even though there had been some twists and turns, in the end our feelings reached each other and we were able to start dating like this. If we were happy now, that was enough. That was what I decided to believe.

…Incidentally, after that, our studying still did not progress very much.

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