After I Confessed to My Childhood Friend and Got Rejected, I Threw a Game Offline Meetup to Cheer Myself Up, Only to Find Out My Long-Time Gaming Buddy Was Actually the Quiet, Silver-Haired Swedish Beauty Who's the Cutest Girl in School - Chapter 10: Childhood Friend vs Heroine

Chapter 10: Childhood Friend vs Heroine

“Tojo-san, what kind of relationship do you have with Takaaki-kun? If you do not explain properly, I will not hand Takaaki-kun over to you.”

“…!”

Tojo furrowed her brows as if she had bitten into a bitter bug and turned her face away, crossing her arms to hide her agitation.

“Chika and this guy are c-childhood friends…”

“Oh… So it was you, Tojo-san.”

Karina’s eyes turned cold and sharp toward Tojo, who answered with obvious displeasure.

Amamiya (Rain) had consulted Karina (Dragon Head) in the game about being rejected by his childhood friend.

That was why Tojo’s impression for Karina was the absolute worst.

“See, you get it now, right? Hurry up and send Takaaki over to this side.”

“No way.”

Karina stuck out her tongue in a mocking way.

Tojo stood there dumbfounded for a moment at that childish taunt.

But the next instant, her stunned expression shifted into a terrifying glare.

Amamiya, caught between the two of them, had a bad feeling and tried to apologize on Karina’s behalf―――

“Tojo-san hates Takaaki-kun because he is gloomy and creepy, right?”

“! Where did you…”

“I do not think so. Look, he has a cute face. Not creepy at all.”

Karina said that as she gently brushed up Amamiya’s bangs.

Amamiya, who received the first “cute” evaluation of his life, felt his heart skip a beat toward Karina, who smiled at him.

No, more than that, the closeness felt off.

“I-I can say that much too…!”

Tojo hurriedly tried to say something, but she faltered, perhaps unwilling to admit it.

“No, forget that, Takaaki! What is this about!?”

Amamiya’s shoulders twitched at Tojo’s shout, which she threw as if to cover up.

She had yelled at him often since middle school, but he still could not get used to it.

“Why does an outsider like Karina-san know about the confession!? You did not tell anyone else, did you!?”

“N-No, Chika. This is a bit of a miracle situation… I think you probably will not believe me even if I explain.”

“Of course not! There is no way I could believe it! What!? Are you trying to harass me just because I rejected you!? You are really a hopeless piece of trash!”

She seemed to be misunderstanding something, but overwhelmed by Tojo’s intensity, Amamiya lost the chance to explain.

Once she got like this, she would not stop.

He just had to take her one-sided rant.

“I do not know how you got close to Karina-san, but you will get dumped eventually anyway! No matter how hard you try! You will not change! You have no choice but to live and die alone in your dark world! So…!”

The lecture she gave at the time of the confession still made sense.

But this time, Tojo was different.

It was just spite.

Amamiya had no room to grasp what drove her this far.

“Fine. If Tojo-san hates him, do whatever you want. It has nothing to do with me. Because I like Takaaki-kun even if he is like that.”

(L-L-L-L-Like―――!?)

Amamiya and Tojo reacted with shock at the same time to Karina’s statement.

How many people in this world could voice their feelings so straightforwardly?

A worldwide philosophy spread through Amamiya’s mind.

―――Somehow, it felt like he could see the universe.

“L-L-L-L”

Tojo had the same reaction.

For some reason, tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

Taking advantage of the opening, Karina pulled Amamiya’s hand.

And she fled the scene at full speed.

“W-Wait! The talk is not over yet!?”

Tojo’s yell and the sound of pursuing footsteps came from behind.

Amamiya feared she would catch up right away, but right after turning the corner, he was pulled into an empty classroom.

Karina covered Amamiya’s mouth and made a “be quiet” gesture.

The girly good scent unique to girls and the closeness of her face nearly made him faint, but once Tojo’s footsteps faded into the distance, she released her hand.

“She was super scary~ I had not talked to her much, but I did not know she got that terrifying when angry. You managed being childhood friends with her all this time, Takaaki-kun; that is impressive~”

“…”

“Hm? What is wrong?”

“No… Earlier… That…”

Amamiya’s face turned bright red, and he tried to connect his words while embarrassed.

“Like…”

For the first time, he heard a statement from a girl that could be taken as affection, so he ended up asking.

Karina was a natural. She might have said “like” purely as a friend, not romantically.

(This is bad! Asking to confirm means I am aware of it; it is like saying it myself! Idiot! You idiot!)

Amamiya regretted asking.

He wanted to crawl into a hole if there was one.

But Karina did not laugh.

Instead, she tilted her head with a puzzled expression at her own statement.

“…Hmm, who knows.”

She placed her hand on her chin and thought, trying to arrive at an answer.

Amamiya waited with his heart pounding for what reply would come, and then Karina seemed to get an idea and grinned mischievously.

“It is a secret!”

Karina poked the frozen Amamiya’s nose and clasped her hands behind her back.

She skipped happily toward the classroom door.

Even Karina, who was thoroughly straightforward, could not answer the true meaning of that “like.”

To have such a sweet experience from the morning; life really held anything.

Her “like” might bother him forever from now on.

But he decided to wait patiently, figuring she would tell him someday.

(Chika…)

Why had she stopped him?

He could not even imagine what she wanted to talk about alone.

If she would keep denying him from here on, he had to get serious more than ever.

“You will not change!”

(I will become a man she can never look down on again…)

He would become so cool that he made Tojo Chika eat her words, surrounded by lots of friends, living a fulfilling high school life.

And if possible, he wanted to get a girlfriend too.

Karina watched Amamiya, who resolved himself that way, with her hand on her chest.