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 7: Even During Class, Without a Care

Chapter 7: Even During Class, Without a Care

Few classmates knew Amamiya Takaaki in detail.

During breaks, he often slumped over his desk and slept, so hardly anyone remembered his face properly.

Like a faceless mob character in a dating sim, unrelated to the protagonist or heroines.

That had been Amamiya’s position.

“Hey, Takaaki-kun. They released new info on the official site earlier, but have you seen it yet?”

“N-Not yet…”

“It’s amazing; this time it’s packed with new info, so check it out soon! I absolutely won’t spoil anything, but here’s a hint. That character is apparently coming back…”

“Oh, I see.”

Such an insignificant existence as Amamiya had, before anyone knew it, become friends with Nagase Karina, who everyone admired.

The sight of Karina talking animatedly and enjoyably was something even her friends had rarely seen, and they looked stunned, mouths agape.

“Um, Karina-san. Just so you know, we are in the middle of class right now…”

Since morning, Karina had been like this nonstop.

Regardless of whether class was in session, she kept talking to him from behind.

Luckily, they were in the very back row, so the teacher had not noticed.

But the classmates sitting nearby had heard everything clearly.

Because of that, rumors had already spread throughout the entire school.

That the beautiful Karina, who seemed totally unconnected to games, was talking about games with the gloomy Amamiya.

“Are you worried my grades will drop? Look, I’m taking notes properly, so no problem!”

Karina effortlessly handled the advanced technique of taking notes while chatting about unrelated things; she really was on another level.

She was not just cute; she was smart too.

Her grades put her in the top 10 of the year, and her strong subjects were English and math.

“So, about that elf village that’s coming soon; to catch up to the top rankers, I need to craft new equipment. Takaaki-kun, are you free tonight?”

Even after being warned, Karina continued with game topics as if nothing had happened; she was the epitome of going at her own pace.

Amamiya found himself superimposing the image of Dragon Head onto her.

Dragon Head was always an hardworking challenger who hated losing. But the occasional glimpses of her own-pace nature were striking.

“Rain-san, I wanna become a higher job for swordsman, so help me out!”

The avatar had been an old man, but they definitely matched.

As he thought that and turned around, his eyes fell on Karina’s face, propped on her hand.

She was ridiculously cute, so why had she chosen such a burly character creation? It was a mystery.

(Well, it’s her choice, so it would be wrong for me to say anything…)

As he pondered that, the teacher approached silently and lightly tapped his head with the textbook.

“We are in class, Amamiya-kun. Concentrate.”

“…Hehe.”

For some reason, it was Amamiya, who had been seriously listening to the lesson, who got scolded instead of Karina.

Finding the scene funny, Karina clutched her stomach and slumped over her desk.

A small laugh came from behind, and Amamiya continued the lesson with a puzzled expression on his face.

(This is not entirely my fault, right…)

The fourth period ended, and lunchtime arrived.

Amid students heading to the cafeteria or eating bentos in the classroom, Amamiya decided to take his bento to his “usual spot.”

Yes, the back of the stairs.

At this time, there was little foot traffic, making it the only place where he could eat lunch in peace.

“Ah, Takaaki-kun! Where are you going!”

The moment he tried to leave, his arm was grabbed.

Looking down, it was Karina’s slender, pale hand.

Since he had not expected such direct contact, Amamiya’s face gradually turned red, heat rising in his cheeks.

“I want to continue our talk from earlier, so how about eating lunch together?”

Once again, a problem arose.

He had received a lunch invitation from that Nagase Karina.

The classmates who overheard raised voices of shock all at once.

Karina looked around the classroom in confusion but quickly lost interest and pulled on Amamiya’s arm.

Amamiya was forcibly sat back down in his seat and stared in bewilderment, unable to process the situation, but as Karina pushed her desk right up against his, he finally realized the gravity of it all.

“Uh, um… you mean eat lunch with me?”

“Yeah, exactly that. Is there something wrong with it?”

Karina asked with a puzzled look on her face.

She really seemed unaware of why everyone was making a fuss.

“B-But we’ve never eaten lunch together before, right? So, is someone like me really okay…?”

It was true that in the game, they had a miraculous friendship, but in reality, the two had zero involvement.

Suddenly saying “Let’s eat lunch together” felt totally out of place, or so Amamiya thought.

Above all, there was his pure doubt about whether she was really fine with being around a bottom-feeder like him.

“For me, it’s fine because it’s you, Takaaki-kun. After all, you are my partner and my friend. Compared to the time we’ve spent in the game, sure, in reality we might as well be strangers. But I think treating each other like strangers just because of that is not right for me.”

Karina was the type who did not bend her opinions and said what she thought straightforwardly.

In a bad way, she was selfish, but in a good way, she was a straightforward girl who valued her own worldview.

“Was Takaaki-kun… against it?”

Because his association with Dragon Head had been so long, Amamiya had no choice but to give in.

He had to give in and go along with lunch.

“No, I would be delighted to join you…!”

“Pfft, it’s like subordinate and boss. You really are funny, my ‘partner.'”

As she looked up at him with those eyes, Amamiya suddenly felt his heart skip a beat.

This was probably unconscious on her part too.

(She is such a sly person…)

Eating lunch alone with the object of everyone’s admiration.

Amamiya had always thought such a situation would be forever out of his reach.

His usual daily life was gradually being colored by the extraordinary.

By an extraordinary that felt like a bittersweet dating sim―――

“Hey, Karina. Didn’t you have a promise to eat with us? Why are you eating with this random gloomy weirdo?”

“Yeah, yeah, aren’t you getting full of yourself hogging Karina-chan? Wait, is that guy forcing you or something?”

A group at the top of the school caste system ranted on about things true and false in loud voices that echoed down the hallway.

They deliberately raised their voices as they approached the seats, unhappy with the situation of the super popular Karina eating lunch with Amamiya, the absolute bottom of the hierarchy.

Takasaki Rinka.

She was the absolute queen of this classroom, a nasty girl who saw Karina only as a status symbol.

Karina gazed at Takasaki with her usual dry expression.