Even Today, the Genius High School Programmer Cashes In on Day Trades, Completely Flustered by Beautiful Girls' Growing Affection. - Chapter 27: “I… I want you to call me by my name too…”

“I… I want you to call me by my name too…”

The next morning, I stepped off the train and started walking toward school, my mind drifting.

I was absentmindedly replaying yesterday’s sharp drop in the New York market.

How would my program react when the Tokyo market opened today?

Would it wait for a gap-down recovery and then initiate a short position?

Or would it jump in on the buy side once the initial selling wave exhausted itself?

Of course, once trading began, the one making those decisions wouldn’t be me—it would be the algorithm…

Lost in those thoughts, a familiar voice cut through.

“Kousuke, morning〜!”

It was Hina.

And walking right beside her was Sakuraba.

Come to think of it, yesterday on the way home she’d told me,

“Keep what happened today a secret from Yukina, okay?”

Makes sense. If I didn’t, Sakuraba would probably start overthinking things.

“Morning, Hina. You’re with Sakuraba today?”

“Yeah〜. I caught an earlier train than usual, and we just happened to meet at the station〜!”

“I see.”

For some reason, Sakuraba had frozen in place while standing.

“Sakuraba, what’s wrong?”

“Why are both of you calling each other by first names?”

“Huh?”

I glanced at Hina. She was grinning wickedly.

This girl was clearly enjoying herself.

“Ehh〜 well, like, we’re already friends now, right? So I figured first-name basis was fine〜,” Hina said in her usual carefree, teasing tone.

“That’s not fair!”

Sakuraba suddenly shouted.

The students around us turned to look for a split second.

“It’s not fair! Not fair at all! Why only Hina? Is it because she has bigger breasts? Ooyama-kun, are you really a boobs alien after all?!”

“C-calm down, Sakuraba.”

She’d glitched again.

I barely managed to swallow the retort—“You’ve got plenty yourself, you know”—right before it slipped out.

“I want it too! I want… I want you to call me by my name too…”

Her voice steadily shrank.

All of a sudden she looked down and began fidgeting, fingers twisting together.

What is this? Adorable.

Hina shot me a meaningful look and jerked her chin toward Sakuraba.

The universal signal: Say it already.

“Ah… right. Then, Sakuraba, is it okay if I call you by your first name too? Yu… Yukina?”

In that instant, Sakuraba’s face turned the color of a freshly boiled kettle.

I could almost see steam hissing out from her ears.

“Y-yeah… Good morning, K-Kousuke…-kun?”

“Guh—!”

Danger.

The upward glance from the Snow Princess combined with her shy first-name attack dealt catastrophic damage.

My HP bar evaporated in a single hit. The destructive power was unreal.

Then, without warning, Hina stomped down hard on my foot.

“Ow ow ow! What the hell?!”

“Hmph! It’s completely different from when you said mine! And that pisses me off even more!”

Full serious mode now, Hina huffed angrily, her twin-tails bouncing as she marched straight ahead.

Seriously, what is her deal…?

“We should get going too. Yu… Yukina?”

For a brief moment Yukina looked startled, almost shrinking back—

—but then her face bloomed into the brightest, most radiant smile imaginable.

“Yeah! Let’s go, Kousuke-kun!”

Her voice rang out cheerfully.

That smile was pure magic, the kind that made the air around us sparkle and shimmer.