Although She's a Beautiful Student Council President Who Maintains Her Coolness Towards Everyone, She Wants to Act Spoiled and Lovesick Around Him, Who is Misunderstood by Everyone as a Delinquent - Chapter 21: Progress....

“I knew this was going to happen. ……”

The next morning, as he headed to school, he was met with piercing stares from other students in the same uniform. The looks ranged from jealousy to hatred, and everything in between.

Riku knew the cause of this. The shared umbrella that he and Shizuku had yesterday. He was not stupid enough not to notice this. And it was a very common thought to try to escape from this gaze,…..

“Jiii”

He made a glaring eye contact with the one who was looking at him.

“Hi……!”

“…… Ah!?”

“Shit!?

At that moment, those with negative feelings toward Riku reacted in a wide variety of ways and fled toward the school.

(…… Rumors of being a delinquent come in handy at times like this, don’t they?)

If there had been no rumors, this coping mechanism would not have been created, and he would have been chased by meaningful stares all the time. Such a situation would have been completely overwhelming.

Riku reached his classroom, patting his chest in relief, and opened the door as usual – He was met with a bunch of stares from his classmates who had already arrived at school.

“What is it”

[Shh…]

The three words uttered by Riku were more powerful than a glare. The words caused the gazes to become sparse.

“It’s a disaster, Riku.”

“Indeed.”

When he arrived at his seat, he was greeted by a sympathetic voice from next to him. It was Kenta, his only friend.

“By the way, Riku, may I say something?

“No.”

Kenta’s face darkened as he gave a wry smile, the kind he makes when he’s about to bring up trouble…

“You… I’m so jealous! What’s going on with you and Shizuku-senpai sharing an umbrella?!”

“……Haaa”

“And why did Shizuku-senpai go along with your invitation?! There were 31 guys who asked Shizuku-senpai to share an umbrella with them, you know!?”

“How do you know that exact number ……?”

No need to be surprised at the sheer number of boys who have asked Shizuku out. This is the daily … life of the most popular person in the school. It’s something he was already familiar with.

“It’s surprising that you invited Shizuku-senpai to share an umbrella… What kind of change of heart did you have?”

“It just happened to turn out that way.”

“Well, congratulations, Riku. Shizuku-senpai has feelings for you.”

“Really? I told you before, but I think she just wanted to talk with me because we have known each other since elementary school ..”

“At the point where she didn’t refuse the offer to share an umbrella, it means there was some interest. Besides, if she only wanted to talk, she could have done so inside the school, there was no reason to cancel the pick-up car, right?”

Kenta was not wrong. If she just wanted to talk to Riku, she could do so inside the school. There was no need to use an umbrella.

A shared umbrella means that two people are under one umbrella – as a result, they have to be close together to avoid getting wet from the rain. That’s something that’s well understood, and it’s unlikely that Shizuku would accept an invitation to share an umbrella from someone she doesn’t have feelings for. Shizuku has been refusing the confessions because she has someone she likes.

That is something everyone knows, and because there are real circumstances, it’s understood that one should not act recklessly.

If that’s the case, the conclusion naturally follows.

ーーIt means that Shizuku wanted to share an umbrella with Riku.

“Um, well… about those feelings, there’s something I want to talk to you about first…”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you look at me like that.”

“Well,…….”

“Of course you can talk to me, I won’t tell anyone”

“Thank you.”

Kenta read the change in Riku’s facial expression and dropped his mocking attitude and becomes serious. He has a lot of information about the school and shares it with his friends. However, he has never leaked anything about their personal concerns or problems.

The proof of this was the change in attitude and the trust that everyone now has in him.  Riku talked to Kenta about what had happened in the shared umbrella and what he had been told at that time.

Finally, he concluded, with ‘What do you think of it?”……

“Hey, hey… where did you learn such a high-level technique of pretending to have a problem and then making a joke? If it was anyone else but me, you would have been punched without a doubt.”

“I didn’t mean to do that…”

“Well… getting back to the main point, it’s because Shizuku-senpai likes Riku, right? I don’t see what’s there to be unsure about,”

Booking her reservation, suggesting to embrace her, and even the indirect kiss at the end were all initiated by Shizuku. She even said, “I’ll be the first to take your lips and your heart” at the end of their encounter.

If you think about it normally, it’s obvious that what Shizuku is conveying is that she “likes” or rather “loves” him. But it was Riku who failed to recognize this feeling.

“…But it’s Kujo-senpai we’re talking about, you know? I can’t understand why she would have feelings for me. We only started talking recently since we entered high school.”

“You’ve known her since elementary school, right? Then maybe something happened around that time?”

“I-It’s not like there was nothing, but…”

It’s only one thing that comes to mind. The time when he helped Shizuku who was being bullied. … However, it’s impossible to judge Shizuku’s feelings based on just that.

“It ultimately depends on what you decide to do, right? … Surely you won’t reject her, right?”

“……”

“What’s with that silence? Are you perhaps going to refuse!”

“I mean, even if Kujo-senpai likes me, the gap between us is too big… we wouldn’t be a good match, right?”

“Is that so? I think you’re a good match. … I think you are underestimating yourself too much. Maybe you’re affected by the rumors about being a delinquent, though.”

“!?”

Kenta’s argument did not have the intention of encouraging Riku. He simply conveyed his true feelings. On the other hand, the phrase “you underestimate yourself too much” was also said by Shizuku. It was natural for Riku to feel unsettled.

“To reject someone just because you think you’re not on the same level is disrespectful to the other person. Instead, you should work on improving yourself to reach their level. From what I heard, the reason for rejecting seems to be that you think you’re not on the same level as Shizuku-senpai, right?”

“….”

“Well, why don’t you try getting involved with Shizuku-senpai? And then realize your own feelings, you dense delinquent,”

“What is that…”

Riku felt a sense of relief after talking to Kenta about this, even though his feelings were still unsettled. He was glad to have a friend like Kenta who could joke around but also help him come to a conclusion.

“All I can say is to make a decision that you won’t regret. Shizuku-senpai is a daughter of a conglomerate . There might be arranged marriage talks or something similar going on, and if you miss your chance, you’ll end up with nothing.”

“An arranged marriage …… huh?”

Upon hearing those words, an indescribable sense of unease enveloped Riku. He had not yet realized that this unease stemmed from the fear of possibly losing Shizuku to someone else.

******

“It’s surprising ……. I can’t believe that the president of the student council is targeting the worst delinquent in the school. Why didn’t she go for a better guy? Don’t you think so? Miku-chin.”

“No, I think she’s aiming for the best match… I feel that way because we’ve never look at that delinquent properly before.”

At that time, one of the girls talking in the hallway smiled nimbly and pointed her index finger upward.

“What do you mean by that!? The guy she’s after is a delinquent, a delinquent!”

“Um, this is a story I heard from my younger sister…”

“When you say ‘Miku-chan’s sister’, do you mean Mimi-chan?”

“Yeah. So my sister told me about it. She said, ‘Riku-senpai helped me!’ with such a happy expression… She’s a girl who was very wary of boys, though.”

It was still in the future that this conversation would eventually drive Shizuku into a corner……