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 - 7-8

Chapter 7: Standing Side by Side on an Embankment Lit by Moonlight

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By the time we left the family restaurant, the sky had been completely dyed a deep indigo. On the way back to the station, without either of us saying anything, we turned our steps toward the riverbank embankment, taking a slight detour.

“…Oh. Hey, Kazu. Mind if we stop by that convenience store over there?”

Shinonome-san stopped under a streetlight and pointed at a convenience store a little farther ahead.

“I don’t mind. …Did you not get enough parfait?”

“That’s not it. …Ice cream. I just feel like eating something a little cold.”

The way she laughed with a quiet nihihi was unmistakably the face of my usual partner. We stopped by the convenience store and bought two random popsicles. Shinonome-san chose a soda flavor and I went with vanilla. Feeling the chill through the plastic bag, we climbed the slope of the embankment where the sound of the river murmured nearby, and sat down on the grass in the shadows, just beyond the reach of the streetlight.

“…Cold…”

“Hehe~ I know, right? Eating ice cream while the night breeze is already starting to feel like winter… It somehow feels luxurious, doesn’t it?”

Shinonome-san skillfully tore open the wrapper and took a bite of the blue ice cream. I did the same beside her. The sweet scent and coldness slowly cooled my head, which had been overheated from our intense game talk at the family restaurant. For a while, only the sound of the river and the small crunch of biting into ice echoed around us. It was a scene that would never, ever happen at school.

Rin Shinonome, the queen of the school, sitting side by side with a plain, unremarkable guy from the go-home club, eating popsicles on a riverbank at night. If Kaito saw this, he wouldn’t just be shocked into bed. He might actually start reincarnating into another world.

“…Hey, Kazu.”

Holding her ice cream, Shinonome-san looked up at the night sky. In the cloudless sky floated a white, shining moon.

“…What?”

“…This really is fun. You know, being able to meet like this and talk face to face.”

Her voice was so soft it seemed to melt into the night breeze.

“…Yeah. …I guess it is.”

“You know… when you first invited me to an offline meetup, I was so surprised I honestly thought my heart was going to stop. …I was like, ‘What do I do?! He’ll totally find out who I really am!’”

Shinonome-san laughed a little self-mockingly and gave her ice cream a quick lick.

“I was scared. …Scared that if you found out I’d been deceiving you the whole time by pretending to be a guy with a voice changer, you’d look down on me, or get angry. …I kept thinking that the moment you realized I was actually Rin Shinonome, our relationship as ‘partners’ would just end.”

“…You were thinking about stuff like that?”

“Of course I was. …But you know, I’m really glad I worked up the courage and went. …I’m really, really glad.”

Shinonome-san rested the hand holding her ice cream on her knee and turned toward me. Her eyes, illuminated by the moonlight, looked faintly wet, and my heart started pounding loudly again.

“…Thank you for finding me. …Thank you so much for not abandoning ‘Haru.’ …I’m the happiest I’ve ever been right now. …More than when I’m ‘Shinonome-san’ at school… Right now, being ‘Haru’ next to you, Kazu…”

Her words were raw, unfiltered truth. She had cast aside the mask of a perfect beauty and was showing her heart as just a girl to me alone, her one and only partner. I clenched the wooden stick of my ice cream.

…Yeah. I feel the same way.

At first, when I found out Haru’s true identity was Rin Shinonome, I was in despair. I remembered all my disgusting, cringe-worthy chat logs from the past and wanted to die. But.. Seeing her like this, laughing beside me, worrying, laying bare her own weaknesses… All that embarrassment just stopped mattering.

“…Don’t thank me. It’s gross.”

“Ahaha! That’s awful. This is where you’re supposed to say something cool like ‘Me too,’ you know?”

“…Me too, idiot.”

When I added that in a small voice, Shinonome-san stared blankly for a moment then broke into a smile that bloomed like a flower.

“…Yeah. …Nihihi, you pass!”

Looking satisfied, she popped the rest of her ice cream into her mouth and gazed up at the sky. Her profile was so beautiful that I couldn’t look away for a while.

…I really don’t want to lose this relationship.

As I looked up at the moon floating in the night sky, I quietly made that vow in my heart. Someday, this secret might be exposed. We might get caught by Ichinose-san’s sharp intuition, or Kaito might start suspecting something. But even if the whole world turned against us, I would protect this “partner” no matter what.

For all those awful black-history messages I’d sent… For her, who laughed and accepted them anyway… And for this special smile she showed only to me…

“…Hey, Kazu. If one of our popsicle sticks is a winner, maybe I’ll make you come with me to another place.”

“…Don’t get greedy. Come on, let me see.”

We shined our phone lights on the sticks. Unfortunately, neither of us had won.

“Aww, that’s too bad! …But, well, I guess it’s fine. Let’s say the winning stick is saved for our next offline meetup.”

Shinonome-san stood up and brushed the sand off her skirt with a couple of pats.

“…We’re doing this again? An offline meetup?”

“Of course we are. …I mean, we’re best friends, right? …Right, partner Kazu?”

She held out her hand. After hesitating for a moment, I lightly slapped it, and we exchanged a high-five.

“…Yeah. …Next time, I’ll totally wreck you, Haru.”

“Go ahead and try! I’ll beat you down and read your dark history out loud again!”

Laughing together, we left the moonlit embankment behind. Tomorrow, we’d go back to being “Shinonome-san” and “Sato-kun.” But in our hearts remained a warmth far sweeter than convenience store ice cream that would never fade.

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Chapter 8: A Sign Only I Can See

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Wednesday morning. The moment I walked into the classroom, my eyes unconsciously searched for a certain spot. The seat by the window. Bathed in the morning sun, laughing cheerfully with her friends, there sat a beautiful girl.

Rin Shinonome. Last night, she had eaten convenience store ice cream with me on the embankment and smiled with eyes on the verge of tears as she said, “I’m glad I found the courage.” She was my partner.

…But right now, she was the perfect “Shinonome-san” in anyone’s eyes.

Her silky black hair, the crisp way she wore her uniform… it still didn’t quite feel real that she was the same person as Haru, who had excitedly called me “Pebble-kun!” while sitting next to me yesterday.

“Yo, Kazuma. You’re even more out of it than usual today. Did your used bookstore tour yesterday turn up something that good?”

Kaito Kadokura, in the seat next to mine, grinned as he slapped my shoulder.

“…Yeah. …Something like that.”

“Heh. …Hey, look. Is it just me, or does Shinonome-sama look even more ‘radiant’ than usual today? Like she’s glowing from the inside or something… She’s like, overflowing with some kind of happy aura…”

Kaito’s powers of observation, when it came to Shinonome-san, were abnormally sharp. It was true. Shinonome-san’s expression did seem softer than usual today.

“Rin-rin, something good happened today, didn’t it? Saki knows, you know!”

Next to her, Ichinose Saki-san crowded in, sniffing playfully like a dog. Ichinose-san was another beauty who reigned alongside Shinonome-san as one of the school’s top two. I knew that her innocent eyes occasionally flashed with sharp insight.

“Geez, Saki, you’re overthinking it. It’s nothing.”

“Ehh, no way! After the meeting yesterday you rushed home so fast, and now you’re smiling like this since this morning… Something definitely happened!”

Shinonome-san smiled as if troubled and for just a moment, truly just a moment, she glanced toward me in the back of the classroom.

…

Our eyes met. At an angle Ichinose-san couldn’t see, Shinonome-san subtly made a small thumbs-up sign with her left hand. I didn’t know what her intention was, but it was a signal only I could see.

—!?

My heart thudded violently. I hurriedly looked away and pulled a textbook out of my bag. My heartbeat was so loud I was afraid Kaito might hear it.

“…? Kazuma, your ears are red. Are you coming down with something?”

“…Shut up. My blood pressure’s low in the morning.”

Making up a random excuse, I checked my phone. We had promised not to message during class, but before homeroom started was a safe time for us.

【Rin: Morning, Kazu. I think yesterday’s parfait might’ve been a bit heavy on my stomach (lol)】

【Rin: But the ice cream was perfect. …I feel like I can do my best today too. Okay, partner?!】

Under my desk, I stared at the screen, desperately holding back the smile tugging at my cheeks. A message from Rin Shinonome, the “angel of the school.” The superiority of having that all to myself, and the fear that someday it might be exposed.. Those two emotions mixed together, filling my brain with something like a narcotic pleasure. Suddenly, I felt a gaze and looked up.

…It was Ichinose-san. Still clinging to Shinonome-san’s arm, she was staring at me so intently it felt like she might bore a hole through me.

“…Hey, Rin-rin.”

“…What is it, Saki?”

“Does Kazucchi-kun seem like the type to grin at his phone that much?”

“…………!!”

I shoved my phone into my pocket at the speed of sound, desperately pretending I hadn’t heard anything. Ichinose-san’s ability to unknowingly hit the core of things was terrifying.

“Huh…? S-Sato-kun? It’s probably just your imagination. …Look, Saki, the warning bell’s about to ring. We need to get back to our seats.”

Shinonome-san urged Ichinose-san along, her voice tinged with just a hint of panic.

“Hmm…” 

Still unconvinced, Ichinose-san shot me one last sharp look before returning to her seat.

…That was way too close. And Shinonome-san was to blame too, for sending me eye contact and secret signs like that. The bell signaling the start of class rang, and our homeroom teacher entered. Facing forward, I watched Shinonome-san’s back as she straightened her posture toward the podium.

Was that dragon sticker still stuck to the back of her phone? I couldn’t confirm it, but the warmth I’d felt from her on the embankment last night still seemed to linger at my fingertips. After school, she would head to club activities again, practicing basketball with Kaito. I would go home alone and wait for her return in front of my computer.

In the “front” world called school, we would never intersect. But the lingering taste of yesterday’s ice cream and the two messages saved on my phone proved our “backstage” connection more strongly than anything else.

…I can’t let this relationship break.

I repeated in my heart the vow I had made under the moon last night. I could sense the storm of Ichinose-san’s overly sharp intuition approaching. Even so, I had already decided that I would protect this “secret front-row seat,” no matter what happened.

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