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 12: Strategy Meeting

Chapter 12: Strategy Meeting

Amamiya ended up eating dinner at the Kumagai house due to the flow of events.

The menu was a plate piled high with more than 500 grams of fried chicken. While Kumagai’s younger siblings scrambled to grab it first come first served, Amamiya could not eat much, but—

(Mom’s is tastier!?)

He felt sorry toward his mother, but he was moved by how incredibly delicious the Kumagai family’s fried chicken was.

After washing the dishes together with the children and playing one more time, the guidance from Kumagai finally began in the living room.

On his head sat the second son Arata, on his right shoulder the third son Ryuji, on his left shoulder the fourth son Keigo, and on his lap the eldest daughter Yui sat primly.

He was incredibly well-liked.

Without paying any attention to Amamiya who had been completely occupied by such younger siblings, Kumagai cut straight to the main topic.

“To put it bluntly, Amamiya, you lack confidence in yourself. That is why you hold your head in front of the mirror and become self-deprecating. People with that kind of negative thinking tend to fail even when they try to improve themselves.”

Amamiya’s negativity had started from middle school.

While those around him changed rapidly one after another, he alone was left behind, and even when he tried to start something new, he hesitated and could not touch it.

That vicious cycle continued until high school, and the “introvert” Amamiya Takaaki was formed.

“So, what should I do…”

“Make a smile.”

“A smile…?”

Kumagai pulled up his cheeks with both hands and showed a full-faced smile.

“No matter how ugly someone is, if they smile like this, they look a bit better, right? In the initial stage where you cannot hold confidence, you do not need to force yourself to become positive. While you gradually realize changes in your body shape or appearance over time, you cultivate your mental side little by little. In the meantime, you fake it with a smile.”

Neither appearance nor inner self changes that easily.

But the persuasiveness of Kumagai, a born positive guy, was amazing.

“Amamiya, try smiling once.”

“Ha ha…”

“Creepy.”

The zero-hesitation honest opinion stabbed deeply into Amamiya’s fragile mentality.

He knew it would come, but the damage was huge.

“You can tell you do not smile on a daily basis. Well, it is fine anyway.”

Kumagai said while raking his hair.

“Got it? Smiling has the effect of relaxing the brain and stabilizing the autonomic nervous system. In other words, it is tricking the brain that lacks confidence.”

Amamiya tilted his head wondering if such a thing was possible, but he remembered an article he had seen on the net.

“Emotion camouflage,” it might not be entirely a lie.

“Do it twice a day. When you leave the house and when you get home. Since it is not exercise, it should be easy to continue, right?”

“Yeah, indeed. I will try it when I get home today…”

Amamiya took out a memo pad from his bag and jotted down Kumagai’s words.

With a smartphone, who knows what might happen, and this way it is easier to keep.

“And also, the way you talk.”

“Th-The way I t-talk…?”

Amamiya’s number one weak point by far, “conversation.”

“Frankly speaking, Amamiya, your voice is small. Even when you talk normally, you stutter all over and it is hard to understand what you are saying. People’s first impressions are decided not only by appearance but also by the way they talk.”

“Th-That is true, but that also needs to be fixed mentally…”

“Well, yeah. But communication skills can be managed more than you imagine. For example, think of it as an interview. You experienced it during high school entrance exams, right? That heavy atmosphere. It is the same as that. No matter how nervous you are, you answer by conveying the contents you thought of in your head without letting your voice shake, right?”

“I see…”

“In other words, emotions have nothing to do with it. Everyone gets nervous with someone they meet for the first time. Even I do. But if you talk with full ‘I am nervous’ vibes, it would be out in an interview, right?”

“W-Well…”

“What did you do at that time?”

Amamiya recalled the high school entrance exam interview.

Thanks to resigning himself that getting nervous was natural, he had a good memory of being able to speak clearly enough to convey to the interviewers.

“If I accepted it as something that makes you nervous, I could talk normally.”

“Good, then next time you talk to someone, try putting it into practice. No matter how much I advise you, this part depends on you.”

“O-Okay…!”

The way of talking can only be fixed by the person themselves.

That is a part even Kumagai could not do anything about.

“Also, practice vocalizing ‘good morning,’ ‘hello,’ ‘good evening,’ ‘thank you’ at home to the extent that it does not bother the neighbors. That way, your volume will naturally improve.”

“Um, specifically, how long does it take to improve?”

“Hmm, I am not an expert, so I can only speak from experience, but quickest is half a year, longest is a few years?”

“That is long…”

Amamiya raised the corners of his mouth in a wry smile.

“Of course it is. People do not change that easily. That is why noticing daily changes is the most important thing. Noticing builds confidence, and that becomes the driving force for motivation.”

Kumagai drained the tea from the low dining table and stood up.

And then, he declared in the most cheerful voice in this place.

“It is decided, Amamiya Takaaki. I will raise you to the same level of extrovert as me!”

His eyes burned hot like a gamer who had set a new goal.

While Arata pulled his hair from above his head, Amamiya’s mouth hung open in astonishment.

“B-But, Kumagai, you are busy with club activities and family, right? Taking time specifically for someone like me… mgh!?”

“Low self-esteem statements are no good.”

Pinched on the cheek by Kumagai, Amamiya stopped his words.

It was because he had accidentally let slip a negative statement that he had been told “do not say.”

“When I saw you being made fun of by Takasaki the other day, honestly, it gave me the creeps. Why do you just run away after getting done in like that?”

“Th-That is… if I provoked her, I might end up in an even worse situation…”

“No matter how tense the atmosphere is, there is a way to turn it into a laugh. That is what I would do. Well, for the current you, that level is too high. You can acquire it from now on.”

He could tell from looking into his eyes that Kumagai was serious.

He was not just a blond playboy. He was a hard worker who tackled everything with seriousness.

That was why he could reign at the top of the school caste.

(He is serious about raising me to the same level…)

Amamiya could not brush off such feelings from Kumagai.

“Got it, I will ask you. Kumagai.”

“Yeah, I might look like this, but I am the Spartan type, so get fired up.”

“Yeah!”

“””Ooooooh!!!”””

While his younger brothers joined in and got excited, only Yui on his lap stared up at Amamiya’s face silently.

She was the quietest one in this group, and he could not tell what she was thinking.

“Then, I will send the first step by email later, so lend me your phone.”

Amamiya ended up exchanging contact information with an extrovert in a natural flow.

With Karina and now Kumagai, it was an address book that the previous him could not have imagined.

Somehow becoming the playmate for the younger siblings along the way, he ended up going home late at night——

The next day.

Receiving the instruction from Kumagai “Greet girls other than Karina and Tojo,” he tried greeting a girl who caught his eye right after entering the classroom.

“G-Good m-morning.”

It turned into a greeting that both he and others would acknowledge as creepy.

The girl who turned around looked suspicious, and her eyes met Amamiya’s. “Huh?”

Amamiya shuddered.

It was because he had greeted on momentum without checking the other person properly.

“What, it is the creepy otaku. Got something for me?”

(M-Minefield!!!!!!!!!!)

The person he had greeted was Takasaki Rinka, feared as the “queen of the classroom.”