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 - 51

Chapter 51: A Secret Just Between the Two of Us

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The June classroom. The sunlight streaming in through the windows had already taken on the colors of summer, and the lunchtime chatter felt just a little more buoyant than usual.As I chatted with my friends at my desk like always, I kept one corner of my vision fixed on “a certain spot.”

Hmm… yeah. Just as I thought, it’s suspicious.

There were two targets. The first was my best friend and the academy’s idol, Rin-rin. The second was the only boy Rin-rin ever showed her “true self” to (?), Kazucchi-kun.

Rin-rin was laughing, surrounded by girls, and Kazucchi-kun was joking around with Kaito-kun. At first glance, they looked like nothing more than classmates with no particular connection.

…But you can’t fool Producer Saki’s eyes, you know?

For a while now, Rin-rin had been sneaking glances at Kazucchi-kun about once every minute. And Kazucchi-kun, well… Every time Rin-rin laughed, his shoulders twitched slightly. He was totally conscious of her. How should I put it… the atmosphere had grown so sweet that the convenient word “best friends” just couldn’t explain it anymore.

Rin-rin used to be so stubborn about “pretending to be strangers.” …Lately, though, she’s been the one putting out a “Look at me, look at me!” aura toward Kazucchi-kun, hasn’t she?

Watching the two of them being all awkward and restless was incredibly fun, but as her best friend, it was only human nature to want to give her just a little push forward. I grinned mischievously and started walking toward my target (Kazucchi-kun).

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“—So, about the weapon upgrades in the next update…”

“…Yeah. We don’t have enough materials.”

“What are we gonna do…”

Even while talking with Kaito about our mobile social game, a few percent of my attention was always directed toward the seat in front of me.

Last night’s voice chat. Rin (Haru), her face burning red, squeezing out the words: “I want to go shopping together, just the two of us.” Ever since then, my heart had been stuck in a state of constant “abnormal combustion.” Every time I saw her at school, that voice replayed beside my ear, and maintaining a poker face had taken everything I had.

“Nihehe! Kazucchi-kun, ’ke-tsu!”

“Whoa!? …I-Ichinose-san. …Don’t just sneak up on me like that. And what do you mean by ‘ke-tsu’?”

“Ehehe~”

Ichinose-san had crept up behind me, placed her hands on my chair, and leaned in to peek at my face. Beside me, Kaito started shouting, “Ah, Saki! You’re even more angelic than usual today!” but she brushed him off lightly and stared straight at me.

“Hey, hey, Kazucchi-kun. …Have you gone anywhere alone with Rin-rin lately?”

“―!?”

My heart nearly jumped out of my throat.

…

…Calm down. This was the moment to show my perfect coordination with Haru.

“…No. …I’ve never gone anywhere with just the two of us. Not even once.”

I answered as bluntly as possible.

…I wasn’t lying. The first offline meetup with Shinonome-san, then hanging out as a group of three, then the home visit with family present, and the guild offline meetup. If you didn’t count that first meetup with Haru, then there had always been someone else around during every moment we spent together. We had literally never gone on a “just the two of us” date.

Yeah, that first one definitely wasn’t a date. It was just my first offline meetup with a guy friend from an online game. And besides….

The promise for this coming Saturday was something in the future. In the present timeline, I wasn’t lying by even a millimeter.

“…Really? Saki’s intuition says you’ve already had a few secret meetings.”

“…It’s your imagination. There’s no way a guy like me could pull something like that.”

“Hmmm. …Well, whatever! You don’t look like you’re lying!”

Ichinose-san withdrew easily and left with, “Kaito, show me today’s men’s basketball practice menu!”

“…Phew.”

I leaned back deeply into my chair and wiped the cold sweat from my brow. That was close. Ichinose-san’s intuition sometimes leapt past logic and managed to grab hold of the truth somehow.

I glanced forward. Shinonome-san seemed to have been paying attention to my exchange with Ichinose-san. Her back looked slightly stiff. When our eyes met, she flashed a brief “nihehe”—that familiar partner expression—before immediately returning to her composed face and resuming her conversation with the girls around her.

…Right after that, my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was from LINE, a messaging app we had promised not to use during class or at school except in emergencies.

『Rin: You held up well just now. You pass, Kazu.』

Carefully, under the desk, I opened my phone.

『Kazuma: You could hear that?』

『Rin: No, I just figured that’s probably what you were talking about~』

『Kazuma: I thought my heart was gonna stop. …Don’t let anything slip.』

『Rin: I won’t. …But hey, Kazu.』

The typing icon blinked for a while. When the next message arrived, I swallowed hard.

『Rin: The thing on Saturday is absolutely a secret from Saki. …It’s just between the two of us. It’s our ‘secret,’ okay?』

“…………!!”

…

…This was bad. That tiny question mark at the end of her sentence… The possessiveness she had packed into it, along with just a little bit of expectation… The destructive power of her emphasizing “just the two of us” made my reason crumble with an audible crash.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her from behind. Shinonome-san was holding her phone against her chest, her earlobes faintly tinted red. At school, she was the popular Shinonome-san, and I was just Sato-kun. But the “promise” exchanged only within these digital waveforms weighed heavier and burned hotter than any real-world words, binding me in place.

A secret just between the two of us…

The moment I repeated those words in my mind, I nearly died from sheer bliss.

This coming Saturday… Whether it rained or spears fell from the sky…. I resolved that I would protect this time alone with my “partner,” even if it cost me my life.

The countdown to something “more than best friends” between her and me had already begun accelerating at a speed no one could stop.

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