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 42

Chapter 42: [Relationship Officially Recognized] Now That They Don’t Have to Hide It, the Mega-Wealthy Heiresses Are Going Way Too Wild

The moment she said that, Azusa immediately adjusted how she was sitting.

At first she’d only been perched lightly on the edge of my knees, but now her butt was pressed right up against my waist—

“—Eh.”

I could feel the soft but pleasant weight on my thighs.

For a split second, all my attention got completely sucked into the way Azusa’s body sank to match the shape of my legs.

But the thinking part of my brain finally caught up a moment later and rang a loud alarm bell that this situation was absolutely bad.

“W-wait, Azusa!? What are you doing!?”

After a few seconds of delay, a scream-like voice finally burst out of me.

—Hold on, hold on, hold on. What is this? How did we even get here?

The soft weight on my legs, the faint body heat overlapping through our clothes, and the sweet scent that gently brushed my nose. Those three things were the only parts I could still process.

Because of them, the thinking power that had finally arrived refused to do any actual work.

But Azusa had no idea what was going on in my head.

She twisted around until she was looking at my chest, gave a mischievous little smirk, and said,

“What am I doing…? I just told you, didn’t I? That’s why there are things we can do now.”
“That doesn’t explain anything!?”

I shot back on reflex.

The fact that my connection to the mega-wealthy heiresses was now public and the current situation had zero connection no matter how you looked at it.

But my perfectly reasonable objection meant nothing here. Azusa opened her mouth with an expression that basically said “What are you even talking about?” and continued.

“It does explain it. See, until now… we could only talk inside the clubroom, right?”

“Yeah, because that was the condition for joining.”

“But now everyone knows we’re close, right? So… from now on we can talk openly even in front of other people!”

“Yeah, so I’m asking what that has to do with the way you’re sitting right now.”

“It does.”

“No it doesn’t…”

—Nope… our values are just fundamentally too different…

While I was clutching my head at the massive gap in thinking between me and Azusa, she giggled, shook her shoulders, and deliberately leaned her back against me, putting more weight on.

“Whoa!?”

“What?”

“What… nothing!! Too close! Everything’s too close!!”

“Fufu, Yoichi, you’re so easy to read.”

“Of course I’m easy to read! When you do stuff like this!!”

This was no joke. The unclear weight—one or two soft masses—on my lap was pushing my rationality right to the limit. My mind wasn’t strong enough to stay calm if she kept teasing me any more.

I reached out toward Azusa’s shoulder, trying to get her off me somehow.

Right as I was about to grab her slender body, a freezing cold voice suddenly pierced my ears—

“—Hey. What are you doing?”

With those words, the air in the clubroom dropped in temperature instantly.

When I looked toward the coldest spot, there was Rei, staring straight at us.

She was… smiling, I think. But there wasn’t a single drop of warmth in that smile.

I felt the strangeness, but I didn’t try to figure out why. I opened my mouth hesitantly.

“Ah, um… what are we doing…? I was actually just about to ask the same thing…”
“…Hmm?”

Rei gave Azusa a long, hard look with narrowed eyes, then dropped her gaze to my lap.

And then—she suddenly smiled. Really, out of nowhere, with zero lead-up. Just that was enough for my instincts to sense danger.

“Azucchi?”

“What~?”

“Can you get off right now?”

“Ehh~? Why?”

“Ahaha! Asking ‘why’… isn’t that kinda weird?”

While she said that, Rei took one step closer, then another.

—Scary scary scary!! Wait, we’re still inside the clubroom, right?

For some reason the whole room felt tense, like a big predator was slowly closing in. No… seriously, why?

And in the middle of that, Charlotte suddenly stood up from her chair too, puffed out her cheeks with a super serious face, and stared straight at me.

“…That’s not fair.”

“…Huh?”

“I want to sit on those wonderful quadriceps too!!”

“This side is so confusing it’s actually scary!!”

The moment I shouted that, Charlotte went “Hah!” like she’d snapped back to herself and covered her mouth.

“S-sorry…! I accidentally got specific with the muscle name…///”

Her cheeks turned pink and she apologized looking a little embarrassed.

I had no idea what part of that was supposed to be embarrassing, but I sighed and answered.

“No, it’s not about how specific you were…”

“B-but! From the muscle statistics on Yoichi’s upper body, his legs seem extremely stable…”

“Stop doing the analysis!?”

It was hopeless. I already knew this, but everyone in this space except me was weird.

—…Wait, maybe I’m the one who’s gone weird?

That thought flashed through my mind for a second.

But I shook my head like I was shaking off the idea and flat-out denied the possibility. No way. No matter how I thought about it, no way.

I was busy pointing out Charlotte’s dangerous comment when Rei, who didn’t seem to care about our exchange at all, kept steadily closing the distance.

“Azucchi, hurry.”

“Why are you rushing me?”

“‘Cause… Yoichi’s lap looks nice…”

Rei muttered that in a slightly pouty voice.

I answered without missing a beat.

“I really don’t understand what’s so interesting about my lap…”

Of course my weak complaint didn’t reach her ears.

Rei was already right in front of me and Azusa.

—What do I do… if this keeps going, things are gonna get completely out of hand…

By the time I noticed, this abnormal chaotic space was already fully formed.

While I was desperately trying to think of a way out, something suddenly popped into my head like a last lifeboat—the thing inside my bag.

Even a piece of paper might save me in this situation.

“—Okay, stop!!”

I half-shouted it and quickly shoved my free hand into my bag.

The momentum actually made all three of them freeze for a second.

“…What?”

“What’s up?”

“Got some clever idea?”

The heiresses looked at me with slightly different tones.

While taking all their stares at once, I pulled out the bundle of papers I was looking for.

“Rei. I made the thing you asked for before.”
“…Huh?”

Rei took the sheet I held out and blinked at it in confusion.

Written on it were the titles of anime I recommended and short descriptions—I’d made it because Rei had once said she wanted to know more about the things I liked.

“Eh… wow.”

The moment she saw the paper, the earlier dangerous atmosphere vanished like it had never existed.

Rei’s face, which had been shadowed, instantly lit up.

“You really… made it for me?”

“Well… you did ask, so…”

“!! I’m so happy! I’m gonna look right now!”

—Yes! She took the bait.

Her pretty good reaction made me do a little victory pose in my heart.

With this, the whole lap topic should be dropped for now—

“Wait a sec.”

Azusa immediately leaned forward.

She pointed at the single sheet Rei was holding and asked,

“What’s that…?”

“It’s Yoichi’s recommended anime list~ He made it when I said I wanted to know more about his hobbies~♪”

“Huh…? What’s that, I’m super curious now.”

“M-me too!”

Even Charlotte jumped in, unusually eager.

“Documents about Yoichi’s hobbies… as fellow club members, we have to look through them at least once!”
“…Documents, huh.”

Well, she wasn’t exactly wrong, but the wording was oddly stiff.

The two of them peered at the paper in Rei’s hands and focused their eyes on the list all at once.

Then, a few seconds later.

Their faces slowly turned back toward me.

““Yoichi.””

Azusa and Charlotte called my name together in perfect sync.

At this point I could already guess what was coming next.

“Where’s ours?”
“We want one too.”
“…………Huh?”

I already knew they’d say it, but I still answered in a deliberately dumb voice. Then I opened my mouth.

“No, I only made that because Rei said she wanted to know…”

“That means they’re interesting, right?”

“Yeah yeah! I’m genuinely curious!”

The two of them pressed in hard, so I leaned back a little without thinking.

“Wait, you’re coming on too strong… you’re that curious…?”

“Of course!”

“Obviously!!”

They answered in beautiful unison.

“H-hmm…?”

Watching them, an unconscious “not bad” sound slipped out of my mouth.

Of course it was still a hassle. Of course. But… people’s hearts are really strange things. It was a hassle, but I didn’t hate it.

The situation where the mega-wealthy heiresses were willingly showing interest in anime felt a little surprising and a little funny.

Plus, having more otaku friends didn’t sound like a bad thing at all.

“…Alright then.”

I let out a small resigned sigh and searched my bag again.

I pulled out two blank sheets of paper and one ballpoint pen.

“I’ll make them now. A list of recommended anime that should match your personalities.”

“For real!? You sure!?”

“Yay~!! I’m so happy!!”

Just handing over a single piece of paper made Azusa and Charlotte bounce around thanking me.

It was a bit exaggerated for something this small… but I didn’t feel bad about it.

In the end, today’s Polishing Research Society activity finished with me just giving the three heiresses the recommended anime lists I made.

It made me wonder what happened to the main goal of polishing, but I guess this kind of atmosphere is also part of the Polishing Research Society.

At least while I was in this room, I could forget about all the noise and exhaustion from the whole day.

Well… to be accurate, that exhaustion and noise were probably just replaced by a different kind of exhaustion and noise, so I didn’t have time to remember the first ones.