Chapter 14

“Hmm…”  

That night, Satoru groaned as he stared at his phone screen.  

Lately, he had been flustered daily because of Reika, but at the same time, he had been casually keeping up conversations with Ruri as well.  

That said, their exchanges mostly consisted of Ruri bringing up topics one after another, and Satoru replying with vague, noncommittal responses.  

Over the past few days, he had sent plenty of replies like, “Yeah, I guess so,” or just simple reaction stickers.  

His responses were clearly intended to cut the conversation short, and he wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about continuing.  

But since Seiya was somehow involved in all of this, and Satoru still didn’t know what Ruri’s true intentions were in approaching him, he couldn’t just ignore her entirely.  

If he kept replying to Seiya but ignored Ruri, things would get messy when she inevitably found out.  

So, as he had planned from the start, his approach was: Respond just enough, but keep distance.  

“I’ve heard stories about popular girls getting approached by guys who finally work up the courage, only to get responses like, ‘Yeah’ or ‘I guess so,’ and then those guys complain about it… But maybe those girls are just doing what they have to.”  

Back when he had first heard about such things, he had thought, Can’t they be a little nicer about it?  

But now, he was starting to understand that it wasn’t always that simple.  

To avoid making waves, he had to remain still and wait for the other party to stop moving on their own.  

He never expected to relate to something like this in such a way.  

— By the way, everyone’s talking about how Hatsune-san has a boyfriend now.  

Of course, even though she was in a different class, Ruri had heard about the commotion earlier today.  

— Yeah, that happened during lunch. It was pretty chaotic.  

He replied as neutrally as possible, but then…  

— I heard from him… You liked Hatsune-san, didn’t you, Takashima-kun?  

“…Seiya, you idiot… So he went and blurted it out during club time or something.”  

It was obvious that “him” referred to Seiya. He must have told Ruri something like, “Satoru had a thing for Hatsune, and he’s way more shocked than he expected.”  

And just like that, Satoru was faced with yet another annoying choice.  

“Do I go along with it and admit I liked her, or do I deny it completely…?”  

Since Seiya had jumped to conclusions on his own, Satoru could still shut it down if he wanted to.  

But either way, it would inevitably reveal something about his feelings toward Reika.

Ruri was someone with significant influence within their grade. If she decided to bring this up as a topic of discussion, there was a high chance that it would spread quickly among their peers.

“If I tell Reika about this, she’s definitely going to say, ‘Just admit you like me.'”

Given that Reika was eager to make their relationship public, she wouldn’t care whether people knew the details. She would undoubtedly insist on making sure that everyone was at least aware of the fact that her beloved boyfriend had feelings for her.

Ultimately, it was up to Satoru to decide how to respond. However, he couldn’t help but imagine exactly what Reika would say.

— Sorry, should I not have asked…?

“Ah, crap.”

Lost in thought, Satoru had left the chat open for too long. A few minutes had passed since the message was marked as read.

Since he was the type to reply immediately after reading a message, this delay must have seemed unusual to Ruri.

“Wait, if I deny it now, won’t that just make it seem even more suspicious?”

The unnecessary pause made it almost inevitable that she would assume he was shaken by the topic.

Even if he gave some excuse and denied it now, he doubted it would sound convincing.

“…So in the end, just thinking about Reika is leading me straight to what she wants, huh?”

Not that he had any intention of shaping the situation for Reika’s benefit.

Still, he had to admit—after all the ways she had indulged him recently, both physically and emotionally—he had been swept along by the flow of events.

“Well, it’s not like she actually knows exactly what I’m doing right now…”

He could feel himself overthinking again. But leaving the message on read any longer would only make things worse.

If he tried to fade out of the conversation now, tomorrow’s interaction with Seiya was bound to be a pain.

“…Guess I’ve got no choice.”

With a resigned sigh, Satoru steeled himself and started typing.

— Yeah. I did like her.

He felt a strange discomfort when using past tense, especially since she is his girlfriend.

He was probably the only person experiencing something this bizarre.

— I see. So, are you feeling a bit down?

— Not really. I kind of figured she had someone, so it didn’t hit me that hard.

The hickey he had put on Reika.

This sudden exchange with Ruri.

And now, with this response, the way people at school viewed his relationship with Reika was bound to shift again.

At the very least, things were only getting more complicated.

And for Reika, it was undoubtedly a step closer to her ideal outcome.