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 - 6

Chapter 6: Just the Two of Us at the Family Restaurant in the Next Town

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Tuesday, 10 p.m.

It was login time with Shinonome-san (Haru) who had just returned home after finishing club activities. The voice coming through the headset was no longer the tightly wound tone she used during the day as the “sun of the school,” but something more relaxed. Her voice was unguarded, the kind of voice she showed only to her best friend.

『…Ahh. I can finally sit down. …Hey, Kazu, you alive?』

“…Yeah. Welcome back, Haru. Good work at practice. Kaito looked like he was about to die when he passed in front of my house.”

『Ahaha, Kaito-kun got mixed in with the boys’ training menu and made to run today. …But you know, more than that, what really drained my mental stamina was Saki. Even while we were changing in the clubroom, she kept staring hard at my phone and going, “Hey Rin-rin, that dragon sticker… Doesn’t it match Kazuma-kun’s after all?” the whole time…』

Shinonome-san’s deep sigh came through the mic, sounding right next to my ear. It seemed the encirclement of Ichinose-san, who possessed an “innocently sharp intuition,” was tightening far more than we had expected.

“…That’s what I told you. Ichinose-san’s intuition is basically at the precognition level.”

『…Hey, Kazu』

Suddenly, Shinonome-san’s tone changed. It became slightly serious, yet carried that sense of scheming. This was the sign of Haru’s unique “mischievous switch” flipping on.

『…Tomorrow. After school, hang out with me for a bit』

“…Tomorrow? It’s Wednesday. Don’t you have club activities?”

『It’s just a meeting tomorrow, so we’ll finish earlier than usual. You know the family restaurant by the station in the next town? There aren’t many students from our school there…』

“…Wait. Why would you and I go to a family restaurant alone…?”

『A strategy meeting for the game Eternal Legend! The big update is this weekend! We need to properly plan our strategy, right? LINE has its limits… And besides…』

Shinonome-san trailed off. After a brief silence, she added in her natural voice, sounding just a little shy:

『…I’m at my limit just getting by on eye contact at school. …I want to talk to you directly, Kazu. Not over voice chat, and without a voice changer. I want to use my own voice with you』

“…………!!”

My heart made the loudest sound it had all day. There was no way I could refuse that. At school, we were “Shinonome-san” and “Sato-kun.” We kept a distance that felt as though we weren’t even allowed to look at each other. Somewhere along the way, both she and I had begun to feel that hunger for each other as “partners.”

“…Alright. I’ll tell Kaito I’m stopping by the used bookstore near the station or something.”

『Nihihi. As expected of my partner! Deal struck. …Then tomorrow, 5 p.m. at the family restaurant in the next town. Grab us a box seat in the back, okay?』

And then, the next day after school. Making sure no one saw me, I hurried out through the school gates and took the train one stop to the neighboring town. Walking there alone felt like I was doing something wrong and yet, at the same time, like I had become a special kind of accomplice. The thrill was strange and exhilarating.

I finally arrived at the designated family restaurant. At that early evening hour, the customers were mostly housewives and office workers. I didn’t see any students wearing our school uniform. I sat in the box seat farthest in the back, hidden from view, and took a sip of melon soda from the drink bar.

A few minutes later… The automatic doors slid open, and a girl stepped inside. Wearing the school-issued cardigan, her long black hair flowing smoothly as she walked. That girl was very beautiful. Of course, that girl was none other than Rin Shinonome. She scanned the restaurant once, spotted me, and then smiled brightly, like a flower blooming.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Kazu!”

She sat down across from me without hesitation and set her bag down. It was the smile she wore as the “school idol” at school. But the way she said my name… That was completely my best friend Haru.

“…You really came.”

“Of course I did. I was so excited I was spaced out the entire meeting. …Hey, what’s with that face? Are you nervous?”

Shinonome-san leaned across the table and peered into my face. She probably thought Haru was talking to Kazu, but when she said things like that with Shinonome-san’s appearance, it wasn’t great for my heart. Besides, she was close. This was a physical distance that would have been impossible in our classroom at school. The sound of ice melting in my drink echoed strangely loud.

“How could I not be nervous? …You’re still in your uniform. What if someone sees us?”

“That’s why we came to the next town, right? And besides… look.”

Shinonome-san placed her phone on the table. There it was, the dragon sticker.

“I was staring at this during the meeting, chanting in my head the whole time, ‘One more hour and I can see Kazu, I can see Kazu…’ Saki even told me, ‘Rin-rin, you’re kind of scary.’”

“…Ichinose-san has definitely noticed you acting suspicious, I’m telling you.”

“It’s fine. I don’t care about that right now. …Hey, Kazu. About the buff timing yesterday. I still think I—”

From there, it turned into a torrent of game talk. Enemy placements in the new area, managing skill cooldowns, the stats of the equipment we wanted to target next. For three years, we had built up these passionate, ridiculous, incredibly fun conversations through a screen. But now, her voice wasn’t coming through a headset. It was coming from the lips of the girl sitting right in front of me.

Shinonome-san spoke animatedly, gesturing as she passionately laid out her points. Whenever I countered with, “No, I’ll take aggro there,” she would snort and laugh, “Ehh, I’m not sure I trust you with that, Kazu!” No one else knew that smile. Not her basketball club teammate Kaito, nor her best friend Ichinose-san. No one else could see this face of Rin Shinonome as “Haru.”

“…Hey, Haru.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“You… You’re way cuter like this than you are as ‘Shinonome-san’ at school.”

It was the honest truth that slipped out. Shinonome-san blinked in surprise, her eyes widening. Then her cheeks gradually turned bright red, and she stared down at the glass of her parfait.

“……………Idiot. …Don’t say things like that out of nowhere.”

“…Sorry. …But it’s true.”

“……I know. …I’ve known for three years that you like this face of mine the most, Kazu.”

She lifted her face. She was still flushed, but looking straight into my eyes.

“So, you know… I don’t show this to anyone else. …This is a ‘front-row seat’ reserved just for Kazu.”

Outside, night had quietly begun to fall. Amid the noisy bustle of the family restaurant, only our box seat felt like a special space, cut off from the rest of the world. Kaito and the others were probably still practicing hard at school. The secret between her and me melted into the after-school town air, growing more vivid and carving itself deeper.

“…Alright, let’s continue planning for the raid boss. Listen carefully, partner.”

“Yeah. …Ehehe. Leave it to me, Kazu!”

The overly sweet and thrilling after-school time shared between two people who held too many secrets had only just begun.

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