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 - 54

Chapter 54: The Last Lie

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“…………”

It was cramped. I thought about it again. It really was cramped. Inside the dim private room, the weight of Rin Shinonome’s head resting against my right shoulder was so tangible.

“Just one minute.” That was what she had said, and she kept her eyes closed, repeating steady, rhythmic breaths. I could feel a faint warmth in the slender fingers clutching my shirt.

…… …… …… This is bad. If this keeps up, my heart is going to physically break.

The silence circulated like poison. To cut through this sweet stillness, I had no choice but to rely on “that thing” which had kept us connected for three years.

“…… Haru. … It’s about time the break’s over, right? …… Wanna play ‘Eternal Legend’?”

When I made the suggestion in a hoarse voice, Rin slowly lifted her head and looked at me with slightly teary eyes.

“…… Nihihi. … Yeah. … At this rate, Kazu looks like he’s about to boil over and explode, you know?”

“… Shut up. …Come on, log in. … We still haven’t cleared that limited-time pair dungeon they’re running.”

Without either of us saying so, we sat side by side, gripping our mouse and placing our hands on the keyboards. Two monitors lined up on the narrow desk. Normally, we were connected through the electronic sea from our own rooms kilometers apart. But now, every time I moved my mouse, my elbow brushed against Rin’s upper arm. Each time she tapped the keyboard, the graceful motion of her fingers danced at the edge of my vision.

“ …… Let’s go, partner. … Wanna show them what we’re made of?”

Shinonome-san’s voice returned to Haru’s usual tone. The moment we entered the game world, our awareness accelerated all at once. On the screen, I was a heavily armored knight, and she was a grand archmage. Together, we stepped deep into an ancient castle roaring with thunder.

“Kazu, watch the trap on the left! I’ll freeze it! Push in while it’s stopped!”

“Got it! There it is!!”

We didn’t need voice chat. Raising our voices just enough not to be drowned out by the sound from the speakers, we exchanged words. No. Before the “soul synchronization rate” we had built over three years, even words were nothing more than a confirmation step.

The timing when I raised my shield. The interval at which she charged her highest-damage spell. The presence of her that I had once perceived only through sound over a headset…

Now it flowed into me through all five senses. As the slightly roughened sound of her breathing as she concentrated beside me. As the shimmer in her serious eyes, reflecting the light from the screen. And as the faint vibration of our touching shoulders each time she struck a key.

Ah… …… This is the best. …… Just as I thought, playing games with her is the most fun thing to do in the world.

The moment my knight perfectly parried the enemy’s attack and created an opening, Haru unleashed a massive lightning strike that turned the screen pure white. The final boss collapsed with a dying scream.

“—CLEAR!!”

The words leapt across the center of the screen. We had conquered the highest-difficulty pair dungeon on our very first try—side by side, in real time.

“Yesssss!!”

“We did it!!”

At the peak of our excitement, we looked at each other at the same time and…

Smack!!

Naturally, our palms met. A high-five. But in the momentum of it, our fingers ended up intertwining within each other’s hands.

“…… Ah.”

“…………”

We came back to our senses. Our fingers still laced together. Carried by the afterglow of the high-five, our faces had drawn so close that we could feel each other’s breath.

The bluish-white light of the monitor illuminated Rin’s face in a dreamlike glow. Her slightly parted lips. Her long, beautiful eyelashes. And in her eyes was not the angelic smile she showed at school, nor the competitive gleam of a partner… But the hot, earnest color of “love,” as she looked at me as nothing more than a girl.

“…… Kazu.”

She called my name in a trembling voice. Her grip tightened around our interlaced fingers.

“…… What is it, Haru?”

“…… More than over the voice chat… I really do like your real voice better… the voice you have right now…”

“———!!”

……

…… This is bad.

Ichinose-san was there, Kaito was there, our families were there, school was there…. And yet, it felt as though everything in that outside world had vanished from this two-tatami room. With her free hand, she slowly reached out and gripped the front of my shirt tightly.

“…… Hey, Kazu. … It’s still raining… … It hasn’t stopped, huh?”

“……  Yeah. …… The rain hasn’t stopped.”

“…… …… Then… … Just a little longer… Is it okay if I widen the boundaries of being ‘best friends’?”

She gently rested her forehead against my chest. From the sleeve of the jacket I had lent her, her pale fingers peeked out.

“…… How was I today?”

“…… You were amazing. … Honestly, I couldn’t stop staring at you.”

“…… Nihihi. … Liar. …… Getting all excited like that. A little while ago, you had that ‘I don’t want to stand out’ look on your face.”

“…… That might be true on the outside, but here it’s just the two of us. And with you beside me… …… Stuff like that… …… They just don’t matter anymore.”

When I answered bluntly, Shinonome-san caught her breath—“………………”—and pressed her face even more firmly against my chest.

“…… Kazu, you idiot. …… I just received the best buff of the day… right now.”

Her body heat melted through my shirt, straight into my heart.

Three years ago. Our story had begun with nothing but our voices. And now, in this closed room wrapped in the sound of rain and the glow of monitors… It had decisively changed shape, from mere partners to something irreplaceable… Something that belonged only to us.

“… Haru. … Your hair… It’s dry now. Did the rain stop too?”

“… Yeah. … But… I’m not letting go. … Today is my ‘selfish’ day after all.”

“When did we decide that?”

“Kazu, you meanie… idiot.”

She gently wrapped her arms around my waist.

“Because we’re best friends.” “Because we’re partners.”

Those excuses… We had both left them somewhere behind. Outside, the rain kept striking the asphalt without end. But inside this cramped private room alone… It was the sweetest place in the world, the quietest place in the world. Our own “secret sanctuary.”

Ah, man… …… This… …… When school starts Monday… …… What kind of face am I supposed to make, seriously…

As I savored that happiness-so-intense-it-felt-like-despair in my heart, I simply continued to hold tight the small, warm weight of my partner within my arms. The June rain washed away the clumsy boundary between the two of us, and quietly yet eloquently, announced the beginning of a new season.

“………… Hey, Kazu. …… I love you. …… As a partner. …… Okay?”

“…… Yeah. …… Me too. …… As your best friend.”

The final lie, exchanged in trembling voices. And yet, the overlapping beats of our hearts…  More honestly than any words… Kept carving out the future in the same rhythm.

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