I Confessed My Sexual Preferences to My Online Game Best Friend, and the Person Who Showed Up at the Offline Meetup Was the Cute Girl from My Class - 19

Chapter 19: Nihihi☆ A Secret Between the Three of Us

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Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. Second-period break. I had my head down on my desk, holding onto what, in hindsight, was an absurdly naïve conviction: that yesterday’s secret meeting hadn’t been exposed.

Ichinose-san kept her promise. I told Shinonome-san I was “shopping with my little sister.” It was perfect. That fragile peace of mine shattered with an audible crack at the notification sound vibrating from my pocket. When I looked at the screen, a set of notifications nearly made my vision flicker.

【Notification: Saki Ichinose has invited you to a group】

【Notification: The group name has been changed to “Nihihi☆ A Secret Between the Three of Us”】

“…………!!?”

My heart nearly leapt out of my mouth. The invited members were me, Ichinose-san, and Rin Shinonome. And the group name deliberately included the ominous word “secret.” It practically screamed that Ichinose-san knew Shinonome-san and I were hiding something and was enjoying it as laughing material.

With trembling fingers, I immediately fired off a LINE message to Ichinose-san privately.

『Kazuma: Wait a second, Ichinose-san!! Why!? You promised yesterday you’d keep it a secret!!』

It was marked as read within seconds. Too fast.

『Saki: Oh, good morning, Kazucchi-kun! (๑>◡<๑)』

『Saki: Sorry! But you know, when I was on the phone with Rin-rin last night, I started thinking it felt lonely to lie to my best friend!』

『Saki: It’s way more fun for the three of us to get along than to sneak around with secrets! Nihihi!』

“…………That girl, I swear!!”

I gripped my phone and looked up at the ceiling. She had no ill intent. If anything, she was acting out of dazzlingly pure “for my best friend’s sake” good intentions. Without realizing that, to me, that kind of goodness could become a bomb more terrifying than any nuclear weapon.

Lying is wrong. That much is true.  Even now, guilt is constantly swirling in my chest. But sometimes you have to lie. 

Otherwise, Ichinose-san’s blouse buttons would go flying… When I opened the group chat screen, the despair had already begun.

【Saki: Rin-riiin! Kazucchi-kuuun! Good morning! (๑>◡<๑)】

【Saki: As thanks for yesterday’s consultation, let’s all hang out this Sunday! I’ll take care of scheduling everything!】

A few minutes later, while I kept my head down so I wouldn’t have to look around… A message arrived from Shinonome-san.

【Rin: Good morning. …… Saki, what is this?】

【Rin: It looks like Sato-kun is in here too… What’s going on?】

……

Even through the screen, I could feel it. That cold tone of Shinonome-san’s, like right before a predator devours its prey. She deliberately called me “Sato-kun,” but between the lines seeped an intense pressure that clearly said, “What were you doing yesterday?”

I cautiously glanced toward Shinonome-san’s seat in front of me. She was smiling as usual within her circle of friends, but beneath the desk her thumb was tapping at her phone with sparks practically flying. As for Ichinose-san, she was clinging to Rin’s arm, looking at her own phone and letting out a “nihihi” giggle. …She knew exactly what she was doing.

【Saki: Ehehe, I’ll explain the details on Sunday! Rin-rin, you’re free Sunday, right? (๑>◡<๑)】

【Rin: ……Yes, I’m free. …… Understood.】

Those two characters—“Understood.” (了解) It felt like each letter shaved several years off my social lifespan.

And then, after school. The moment homeroom ended, Kaito tried to come over to talk, but I brushed him off with a grade-school-level lie about having a stomachache and rushed home as if I was running away from something. By the time I arrived, there was already a private LINE message from Rin.

【Rin: 22:00. ……If you’re late, I’ll kill you.】

“…………Hhk.”

Killing intent turned into text. Normally, Haru would tease with things like “I’ll kick you out of the guild! lol” or “I’ll expose your cringey poems!” But this time, my survival instincts told me there wasn’t a single millimeter of joke in that “I’ll kill you.”

With shaking hands, I turned on my computer and put on my headset. The time was exactly 10:00 p.m. When I logged into the guild home of “Eternal Legend,” the muscular warrior avatar—Haru—was already standing there at rigid attention. Normally, yjr voice chat would be filled with her lively “Yo, Kazu! You’re late!” but tonight it was eerily silent.

The avatar on the screen stared at me as if seeing straight through my soul.

“…… Haru. …… Morning.”

My voice barely squeezed out. A few seconds later, a response finally came. Her voice came, without voice modulation. Her voice was clear and composed, yet now chillingly cold.

『Kazu. ……I saw something pretty interesting at school today.』

“…… You mean… the LINE group chat… right?”

『That’s right. ……The group Saki made. ……She said it was ‘as thanks for yesterday’s consultation.’ ……Hey, Kazu. Weren’t you out shopping with Futaba-chan yesterday?』

Rin’s voice trembled faintly. It wasn’t just anger at being lied to. It was confusion and something else at the thought that her “partner” and her “best friend” had started sharing something without her knowing.

…I can’t run from this anymore.

If I kept piling lies on top of lies, eventually it would collapse fatally. She was the best partner who had fought beside me for three years. I set down the controller and took a deep breath.

“……I’m sorry!! I’ll tell you everything! So please, put your weapon down!!”

I blurted out my desperate confession. It was at that moment, the supposedly peaceful afterschool day plunged into irreparable chaos.

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