Even Today, the Genius High School Programmer Cashes In on Day Trades, Completely Flustered by Beautiful Girls' Growing Affection. - Chapter 1: Boy Meets Girl.

Boy Meets Girl.

“…So hot…”

The final day of summer break in my second year of high school.

I, Ooyama Kousuke, was walking alone across asphalt that radiated heat like a griddle.

Thirty minutes by train from home.

My destination: the biggest bookstore in the city’s liveliest shopping district.

Today marked my first real outing in a while.

For a change of pace, I’d swept my bangs neatly upward and set them with wax.

At school I usually let my hair fall forward, half-covering my eyes—the classic “gloomy otaku” look.

Honestly, I couldn’t care less what anyone else thought of it.

In the first three days of summer vacation I’d already finished every school assignment.

After that I spent a little time studying, then devoted the vast majority of my hours to sitting in front of my computer.

Aside from one rotten old acquaintance, I had no friends and certainly no girlfriend.

So I’d thrown myself headlong into work that served both as hobby and profit.

Now then… what books should I hunt down today?

I strolled along the main street in front of the station, letting my mind wander over possibilities.

After a while, a voice reached me—soft yet unmistakably high-pitched.

“Please let go of me!”

I turned toward the sound.

Just off the main avenue, down a narrow side alley.

One girl + three guys = four people total.

And they definitely did not look like a cheerful, friendly group.

Still… picking up girls in a place like this in broad daylight? I let out a quiet sigh of disbelief.

The three guys first:

Long bleached-blond hair, brown two-block cut, pink-streaked highlights.

High-school age at best, maybe university freshmen?

Everything about their outfits screamed “sleazy playboy.”

“C’mon, don’t be like that—let’s grab something to eat. My treat.”

“Or how ’bout karaoke? Wanna hit karaoke right now?”

The blond slid an arm around the girl’s shoulder while Pink Streak egged him on with a jeer.

The moment I caught sight of her expression, my gaze was stolen.

Semilong black hair that fell in gentle waves.

Skin so fair it seemed almost translucent.

Large, perfectly double-lidded eyes the color of burnt sienna.

A straight, elegant nose and a sharply defined mouth.

A slender waist wrapped in a sleeveless light-blue dress.

Legs shapely and free of any unnecessary softness…

In short, she was—modesty aside—an unbelievably cute girl of a level I had genuinely never encountered in real life.

If someone told me she’d just teleported here from center stage of a top idol group, I’d have believed it without question.

And right now that stunningly beautiful girl had her brows drawn tight, clearly in genuine distress.

Looking closer, I could see her legs trembling ever so slightly at the knees.

I walked past the mouth of the alley without stopping.

“…Now then. What to do…”

Inside my head I rapidly sorted conditions and options.

Current location.

Her outfit.

The tension in her stance.

Low-heeled light-blue sandals.

My own physical stamina…

Total deliberation time: roughly three seconds.

From every angle, a solution presented itself.

And one with a fairly high probability of success, at that.

If no viable answer had appeared, I would have simply kept walking.

But one did.

“…Geez. Can’t be helped, huh…”

Letting out the deepest sigh of the day, I pivoted on my heel and headed straight back into the alley.

Rounding the corner, I faced them head-on.