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 24: The Bundle of One Million Yen

Kurihara Teppei received a one-week suspension for his violent behavior.

On the other hand, since the punishment from the Japan High School Baseball Federation had not yet been decided, no one knew what would happen to Kurihara and the other club members’ club activities going forward.

Contact was also made with Amamiya Takaaki’s parents, who were overseas on a business trip, but because it was a busy period, they could not return to the country, and the exchange ended with just phone calls.

The change was that he became the focus of attention in the class.

Not in a good way or a bad way, but people felt sympathy for him, yet they started keeping more distance than before, and Amamiya inevitably became lonelier.

(Hasn’t it really changed that much from before…?)

He did not have a lot of close friends he talked to that much, so rather, he could spend the day easily as usual.

Kumagai was grimacing over watermelon juice instead of orange, and Karina still talked to him during class as always.

But she seemed to have grown a bit too, because she started speaking with her voice volume lowered.

Thanks to that, the number of warnings from the teacher halved.

It was not good at all.

Surprisingly, Amamiya was able to lead a fulfilling high school life, and on the way home, he ended up going to eat with the seniors from the game research club. Or rather, at Karina’s suggestion, they decided to do a “club joining celebration” combined with a “Takaaki-kun survival celebration.”

The other day, when Amamiya woke up in the nurse’s office after losing consciousness in the fight with Kurihara, a blushing Karina invited him.

“I… like… l-like, sukiyaki…! That’s what I was thinking…!”

“O… oh?”

He had gotten excited for a moment thinking she was about to confess, but then it led unexpectedly to eating sukiyaki.

When he told the seniors about it, Amane-senpai said, “We haven’t done a club joining celebration yet, so we’ll join in treating you,” and it turned into a celebratory mood.

The restaurant was a shabu-shabu all-you-can-eat place based on sukiyaki hot pot.

You ordered meat via a tablet device, and there was a buffet line for rice and salads.

At 4 p.m. on a weekday, the place was empty, with plenty of seats available, so they were shown to a table near the drink bar, where Amamiya and Kenmochi sat on one side, Karina and Amane on the opposite side, separated by gender, and they ordered the same course.

“Oh, then let’s go for the most expensive one, beef tongue. Hot pot sukiyaki.”

“Wait, Amane-senpai!? That’s way too expensive!”

Amamiya hurriedly tried to stop Amane, who decided the course on her own without asking the others’ opinions, but the order had already gone through.

“The beef tongue course costs nearly 4,000 yen, you know? And we even added the drink bar…!”

Amamiya snatched the tablet from Amane’s hand and turned pale as his face drained of color while checking the order history.

It was an amount he did not know if he could pay because he had not checked his money.

Amane raised her hand in exasperation at the pitiful sight of Amamiya pulling out his wallet in a panic.

“Seriously, what are you getting so worked up about? I’m trying to treat you here, and it makes me sad.”

“Huh…?”

“Amamiya, this is your and Karina’s club joining celebration. Don’t worry about the money. This time, we’re covering it.”

“Wh-what!?”

Amamiya and Karina’s voices harmonized in surprise.

It was the first they had heard of it.

“No, but still, that’s too much!”

“Yeah! If it were a cheap place, sure, but getting treated to something this expensive feels awkward…”

“Haha, no need to worry about that. We’ve got plenty of money to spare.”

Kenmochi said it in a gentle tone, watching the two fresh-faced juniors with an affectionate smile.

That was right; these two were pro gamers.

Moreover, they were two who were active on the world stage.

Amamiya remembered how Amane had bragged endlessly before about how they had won multiple tournaments and had sponsor contracts.

“We’re in your debt.”

Once again, Amamiya and Karina’s voices harmonized.

There was no reason to hold back anymore.

“The tongue is so delicious! Hey, Takaaki-kun, beef tongue is yummy! It’s even better with lemon!”

Karina, who ate more heartily than he imagined, had an atmosphere like a foreigner visiting Japan for the first time.

Her face looked so happy while eating; he wanted to feed her more.

“Oh, Karina-chan, you’re one of those big eater girls? Eat too much and you’ll turn into a cow~?”

“You’re on your 20th plate with that. You’ll turn into a pig.”

“Oh, you wanna go? Come on. Kenmochi, you wanna go? Hey.”

Kenmochi calmly retorted to Amane, who was teasing Karina.

It was a mystery where all that meat went in her small body.

“And… here, wipe your mouth properly. It’s dirty with juice and rice grains.”

“Both hands are full. Wipe it for me.”

Amane was in a two-sword style state, holding one pair of chopsticks for raw meat and another for eating.

“Seriously…”

Kenmochi let out a sigh but wiped Amane’s mouth with the wet towel.

Even though they were the same age, the height difference made them look more like parent and child than lovers.

“Nice…”

Karina muttered softly, looking at their unreserved closeness with an envious gaze.

For some reason, she glanced sideways at Amamiya too.

“Takaaki-kun… is there anything dirty around my mouth…?”

Karina made a bold move that was easy to read.

Amane, sitting next to her, seemed to catch on and grinned, surprisingly calling in the air and watching over them.

Kenmochi tried to hand Amamiya a new wet towel too, but

“Nah, no. As always, it’s clean, right?”

With that, Amamiya drank his oolong tea.

What an insensitive guy, the two seniors thought in disappointment.

However, Karina, receiving his words, instead showed an extremely happy expression on her face.

“Cl-clean… y-you thought of me… that way…”

That was it, Amane and Kenmochi realized in understanding.

Meanwhile, Amamiya had gone silent and hung his head.

He dripped a massive amount of sweat from his forehead as if his stomach hurt, muttering something in a small voice.

“What am I saying… telling a girl she’s pretty… that’s the creepiest thing ever (Note: in a small voice)”

That was it, Amane and Kenmochi realized in understanding.

Unlike the two seniors with their close distance, Amamiya and Karina were manufacturing something sacred with this distance.

What an innocent scene, Amane thought as she chugged her ginger ale.

“Man, Amami-kyun had a rough time, huh. You got beat up all battered by the baseball club guys, right? It’s even a topic among the third-years.”

One hour later.

Amane, who was finally full and now devouring desserts, brought up the violence incident from the other day.

“It wasn’t that bad. Just minor injuries.”

“But there was blood.”

Karina’s face took on a sullen expression.

Whenever this topic came up, for some reason, she got more annoyed than the victim Amamiya did.

“Ah, well… just a little scrape? (I can’t say it was from a pimple popping)”

“For a baseball club guy to cause a violence incident, he’s an idiot. It affects the whole club’s joint responsibility, so if they’re banned from inter-school matches at this time, they’re done with Koshien, right?”

“Our high school is a regular at the main tournament. A kid who causes a violence incident like that won’t be able to live a normal high school life from now on.”

Kenmochi spoke in a rare stern tone.

He was quietly indignant about how club members who had nothing to do with it and had worked hard so far would be unable to participate in tournaments because of one irresponsible person.

“He used violence against innocent Takaaki-kun, so it’s the natural result. Karma. Suspension is too lenient…”

Karina had switched to her rare salt-mode response.

Kenmochi and Amane, seeing her cold, ruthless gaze for the first time, recoiled at how chilling it was.

“Scary, Karina-chan☆”

“Ah, sorry. When it comes to Takaaki-kun, I lose myself… no! Isn’t it natural to get mad when your partner gets hurt!? Right, Rain-san!”

“Why call me by a game name out of nowhere!?”

“You’re too flustered, lol.”

Amane was grinning and chuckling in amusement.

The time was 7:30 p.m.

Even though summer was approaching, it was still dark at this hour.

Not wanting to leave a girl alone, the considerate seniors escorted Amamiya and Karina to near the station and then disbanded.

“Ah, I’m so full.”

“Me too… I felt bad not paying a yen after eating that much, but someday I’ll make a big enough splash to treat the seniors to yakiniku in return.”

“Hehe, maybe I will too.”

The station bustled with salarymen heading home and beautiful men and women with high facial attractiveness levels probably off to night jobs, coming and going.

It was a fairly large station, so it was noisy.

“Karina, you take the train home, right?”

“Yeah, too bad we have to split here. Ah… I wanted to talk more with Takaaki-kun.”

Karina drooped her shoulders in disappointment.

Amamiya felt the same; if he could, he wanted to stay with her forever.

“Well then, see you, partner.”

“…Yeah, see you.”

When Karina said that with a smile, Amamiya replied, a bit surprised.

And so the two parted, and Amamiya started on his way home.

As he rubbed his stuffed belly and thought about stopping by the convenience store to buy some tea,

“You there, wait.”

He turned around at the call from behind.