Even Today, the Genius High School Programmer Cashes In on Day Trades, Completely Flustered by Beautiful Girls' Growing Affection. - Chapter 2: Boy Helps Girl.

Boy Helps Girl.

I drew in a deep, steady breath.

The opening move was everything.

“Yooo!”

I raised one hand high and called out in my loudest, most deliberately cheerful voice—like the cheerful uncle from my extended family who occasionally drops by to visit.

The guy comes all the way from Nagano Prefecture, yet he always brings chinsuko as a souvenir.

Not that it matters right now.

The trio of guys froze, completely thrown off.

Even the beautiful girl looked stunned, blinking in wide-eyed bewilderment.

Distance: roughly thirteen meters.

I closed the gap without hesitation.

The key was to catch them completely off guard.

“Who the hell are you?”

Blondie finally found his voice.

I didn’t slow down.

Distance: eight meters.

“Hey, you guys know something?”

Distance: five meters.

“There’s a police box just thirty meters that way.”

All three of them flinched visibly at the word “police box.”

Distance: three meters.

“S-so what about it?”

Two-Block’s tone was already cracking with nerves.

Distance: one meter.

“Yeah, exactly.”

Distance: thirty centimeters.

“We’re running!”

I closed the final gap to zero, seized the frightened girl’s hand in a firm grip, and bolted.

“Eh? Eh?!”

I shouted over my shoulder at the bewildered beauty as we ran.

“Twenty seconds—give it everything you’ve got!”

I kept yanking her forward without mercy.

Judging from her toned legs and overall build, she could handle a twenty-second full sprint.

The low-heeled sandals shouldn’t be an issue either.

As someone whose arms had never been good for fighting, I’d already ruled out any brawling option from the start.

“Eh?!” “W-wait—?!” “Hold on—?!”

She kept blurting half-formed protests, but I dragged her along at full speed regardless.

Exactly twenty seconds later, the entrance to the police box came into view—door wide open, just as I’d hoped.

We burst inside.

“Excuse me! This girl was being harassed by some weird guys—can you help her?”

I blurted it all in one breath.

By some miracle, a young officer was sitting alone at the desk.

He jumped up with a startled “What?!” and rushed outside—just in time to collide with the three pursuers who came skidding around the corner.

“Whoa—” “Uwah—” “Crap—”

The moment the officer barked “You three!”, they executed a perfect about-face and sprinted away in the opposite direction like their lives depended on it.

The girl and I watched the entire scene unfold from inside the police box.

Crisis averted, at least for now.

“You okay?”

I finally turned to look at her properly.

Up close… she was even more impossibly cute.

Probably from the run—her cheeks were lightly flushed pink against skin so fair it seemed almost luminous.

Her large, moist eyes were fixed downward, staring at something.

I followed her gaze.

My left hand was still wrapped tightly around her right one.

“Whoa—sorry!”

I yelped and immediately let go.

She’d been in a daze, but the sudden release snapped her back to reality.

With a small start, she cradled the freed hand in her other palm and slowly drew both against her chest.

“I’m so sorry! Grabbing your hand out of nowhere like that—it must’ve been gross! Seriously, my bad!”

I apologized with everything I had.

She kept her hands pressed to her chest, head slightly bowed, and gave a small, trembling shake of her head.

Her silky black hair swayed gently with the motion.

Her cheeks still looked faintly red—probably because I’d creeped her out that badly.

“You came here alone today?”

She gave a small, firm nod.

“I see. But after something like this… you should probably head straight home and come back another day. Those guys might still be hanging around. I’ll ask the officer to escort you to the station, okay?”

I quickly explained the situation to the young policeman and asked him to see her safely to the station.

With a casual “Take care, yeah,” I raised my hand in farewell and stepped out of the police box.

“Wait—!”

I heard her voice behind me, but I figured it was better to leave the rest to the officer.

I walked away without looking back.

So I never caught the soft murmur that followed.

“He’s… so cool…”