I Got Dumped by My Childhood Friend Fiancée Who I Didn’t Even Like, I Thought I Could Finally Have a Peaceful School Life… But Then I Got Targeted by SS-Class Beautiful Young Ladies

Chapter 36: [After Getting NTR’d Comes the Paparazzi!?] Nothing Good Ever Happens When I Nervously Walk Into the Classroom

The day after I went out to the neighboring town with the heiresses.

It was a normal school day, and I was standing in front of the classroom like always. It was almost time for morning homeroom to start, so I really needed to go in, but taking that one step felt incredibly hard.

It wasn’t like I’d forgotten something or was about to make a once-in-a-lifetime confession. I just… needed a little courage to open the door.

The reason was simple. It came from what the girls had said to me on the way home yesterday.

“You finally look cool, so at least keep it like that for a week, okay? Just when you come to school is fine!” …that’s what they told me.

That “state” they were talking about probably meant I had to keep my current look for a whole week.

My bangs were styled up using wax and spray, exactly the way the hairstylist taught me yesterday. My whole head of hair was neatly arranged too.

Of course I wasn’t wearing my glasses, and I’d even fixed my shirt collar properly before putting it on.

Sure, the atmosphere was completely different from the old me in the classroom yesterday—but really, I’d just cleaned up my appearance a little more than usual. That was it… yet the thought of my classmates seeing me like this made me really uneasy.

“…Sigh.”

I let out a small sigh while staring at the familiar classroom door.

It’s not like I’m doing anything shady… if anything, paying attention to how you look is totally normal for high schoolers, right? I was the weird one for not caring about it until now, wasn’t I?

I kept spinning excuses in my head that no one else would ever hear.

But no matter how much I tried to defend myself, the uncomfortable feeling didn’t change.

“…Yeah. What am I even doing… whatever. Let’s just get into the classroom already…”

Feeling ridiculous at my own weird behavior, I made up my mind and slowly reached for the classroom door.

I put just a little strength into my hand, and it opened with a dull rattle.

The moment I took that first step on momentum—the air in the room froze completely.

Several seconds… dozens of seconds. It was definitely not a short silence.

All conversation inside stopped, and every classmate’s eyes snapped straight toward me.

“…………”

…What the hell is this.

The weird atmosphere I could feel prickling on my skin.

When you put it plainly, my appearance was just a little different from before. It definitely wasn’t something so huge that everyone would go quiet and stare at the same time.

And yet, these looks—like they were watching someone who just did something insane—and the way everything went dead silent.

Not every single student in the classroom was looking at me, but two gazes in particular stabbed especially hard.

Akari. And Ryuki. The so-called rebel couple from the branch families that had turned against the main Kirishima family.

Akari was staring at me with eyes that somehow looked uneasy. On the other hand, Ryuki wore the complete opposite—an openly grumpy expression, more like glaring than just looking.

…Sigh. What the heck is so upsetting to him.

The two of them looked like they wanted to say something, but I had no obligation or reason to deal with them here.

I brushed off all the countless stares aimed at me, fixed my expression like nothing had happened, and headed straight to my seat.

I set my bag on the desk, pulled out the chair, and quietly sat down.

—Alright.

Back to normal operations for now.

All I had to do was wait until everyone’s interest passed, and then school life would go back to—

“—H-hey. Kirishima.”

“Um… Kirishima.”

My fragile wish was crushed as voices called out from the side.

When I looked up, several guys and girls I barely ever talked to were surrounding my desk—

—No way. Is this… what people call… the classic high-school-debut bullying?!

I remembered seeing it on the internet once. When someone changes their look for a high school debut, if there are people nearby who knew them from middle school, they get teased with old photos and stuff.

In this case, the people around me were just normal high school acquaintances, but it was pretty much the same as knowing the old me. Well, almost everyone in this school fell into that category anyway.

Even though it was an order from the mega-wealthy heiresses, I’d actually been pretty pumped getting ready this morning. So if total strangers started teasing me about it… it might sting my pride just a tiny bit. Just a little.

While holding that worry in my chest, I tensed up a little and opened my mouth.

“…What?”

“Kirishima, you…”

“…Yeah.”

“Are you… actually close… with the heiresses from the four big conglomerates…?”

“…Yeah. ………Huh?”

What? It didn’t sound like teasing, but I could’ve sworn I just heard a word that should never come out of this guy’s mouth…?

—No no no no no!! That’s impossible!

Maybe I was so tired lately that I misheard something weird. Yeah, that had to be it.

I forced an awkward smile and asked back nervously.

“What… did you just say…?”

“So, um… among the conglomerate heiresses… you’re close with Tachibana, Shiramine, and Minase-senpai… right?”

“Ah—…………Yeah. Why would people from a completely different world even be connected to someone like me?”

I thought it was a pretty good comeback, if I do say so myself. Logically, there was no way a Kirishima dropout would be connected to the top-tier mega-wealthy heiresses at the peak of the school hierarchy. Especially not for these guys whose brains were locked by fixed ideas—they probably couldn’t even imagine it.

But that student immediately rummaged in his pocket, pulled out his phone, and showed me a photo.

“No, normally you’d think that, but… someone in class said they saw you four together. And when a photo like this gets posted in the class LINE group… you kinda have to believe it, right?”

There it was, without a doubt. The mega-wealthy heiresses chatting happily, and me—Kirishima Yoichi—smiling along with them, caught in the shot.