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 16: Beautiful Girl Comes to the House

“Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What, Karina Nagase!?”

Anna, who had been munching on nori senbei at the entryway, dropped it with a clatter and let out a shout loud enough to echo through the neighborhood.

It was no wonder she was surprised, but it was a nuisance, so Amamiya hurriedly covered her mouth with his hand.

“Onii-chan, onii-chan, what!? Why is that Karina here at our house!?”

“Ah, well, there is a bit of a reason…”

“What reason!? This is totally not normal! And it is onii-chan!?”

Sister, what do you think onii-chan is.

–Well, he could not deny it.

“Sorry for my sister being so noisy. She has always lacked calmness…”

When he apologized to Karina, who waited at the entryway, she shook her head with an endearing smile.

“No, I often get the same reaction when I visit friends’ houses, so I am used to it.”

With that, Karina gave a thumbs up.

Seeing that, Anna’s face melted into a dreamy expression, but she somehow held herself together.

“H-Hello. Ah, I am Amamiya Anna. It is my dream to become a wonderful woman like you in the future…”

Amamiya nearly retorted that her tone sounded like a broken robot and that this was the first time he had heard her future dream.

“Nice to meet you. I am Nagase Karina, Takaaki’s most beloved partner. Nice to meet you, Anna-chan.”

Amamiya and Anna froze like they had been flash-frozen at Karina’s self-introduction, which she stated as if it were the most natural thing.

Most beloved, partner, most beloved, partner–it repeated in their minds.

“Does that mean… m-marriage!?”

“No, no! Absolutely not that meaning!”

Anna’s face flushed red as she seemed to have convinced herself of something, but Amamiya denied it immediately.

What a terrifyingly beautiful girl Karina was.

“Huh, is not that what it means?”

Karina’s follow-up attacks did not stop.

For her, it probably meant a game-like “partner” without romantic connotations, but it caused massive misunderstandings for Anna.

When he hurriedly explained “It is a game partner!”, she finally seemed to accept it.

He finally calmed his gullible sister and the misunderstanding-prone beautiful girl, and they entered the house.

Just the exchange at the entryway had drained half of Amamiya’s energy.

In the living room, he entertained Karina with guest snacks and juice on the sofa.

Anna fiddled with her hair from tension, and Amamiya meticulously checked for any trash on the floor.

“Karina is famous at my middle school too. After all, there are not many girls as beautiful as you. She might be known from elementary school to university…?”

“I see, so that is why Anna was so shaken…”

“If onii-chan were in the opposite position, you would react the same, right…”

“I would.”

While Karina munched on the snacks deliciously, the siblings whispered to each other.

It was good that only his sister was home.

If Mom were here, she would probably say something explosive like “Kyaa! Ta-chan brought his bride home!” while crying, Amamiya thought.

“Does this maybe have something to do with why you fought with Chika-neechan?”

“No, no! Chika and Karina have absolutely nothing to do with each other!”

“You two have been whispering just to each other… It makes me feel lonely. Let me join the conversation too~.”

Karina sat next to Amamiya like an abandoned puppy.

Amamiya startled as she suddenly closed the distance.

Anna on the opposite side reacted the same way.

“Ah, ah…”

“Hee hee, your ways of getting surprised are similar and cute, both of you.”

Amamiya’s heart was stolen by Karina’s angelic smile.

Anna’s too.

No, was there any person whose heart would not be stolen by this superhuman appearance and cute voice?

No, the main topic started from here.

From now on, he was supposed to do PVP special training for “Arcadia Fantasy” alone with Karina in his room.

A pubescent boy and girl alone in a room.

On top of that, the opponent was the silver-haired beautiful girl Karina, who was salty to those around her but opened her heart only to him.

For the introverted, communication-impaired Amamiya, it was a situation with hurdles way too high, but there was no choice in a do-or-die circumstance.

It was for joining the game research club; it could not be helped, he told himself.

He turned back to Karina with a flushed face and mustered his courage.

“L-Let us… go to my room.”

“Y-Yeah… right.”

Unusually, Karina’s face had turned red too.

Had his wording been bad and made her tense?

No, for her, that seemed unlikely, Amamiya thought.

Anna seemed to have misunderstood something, covering her mouth with her hand in embarrassment.

No, that was not it.

—–

In the darkened residential neighborhood, one girl was walking.

She was dressed neatly, a beauty by anyone’s standards–Tojo Chika.

She held her smartphone, her expression clouded.

She had sent an email to Amamiya, but there was no reply. Not even read.

Tojo felt anxious that he had not read it yet.

(That idiot… he has always been no good like that.)

While badmouthing Amamiya, she felt no emotion of looking down on him.

Rather, she even found such no-good parts of his endearing.

(If email does not work, I have no choice but to meet and talk directly. Takaaki…)

She wanted to apologize.

She wanted to eat dinner together with Amamiya and Anna at that house, as always.

(Since I left, Takaaki must be in trouble. His childhood friend who used to wake him every morning is gone… Anna might be sulking because she cannot learn cooking from me anymore. But she has always been attached to me, so if I apologize, she should forgive me. Yeah, it is fine. I will take it back…)

—Her endearing, irreplaceable place.