I Want a Girlfriend who Won’t Betray Me - Chapter 21

There are People who Just Can’t Give Up

The last day of school. The classroom has been noisy since the morning. As I sit at my desk, Kanbayashi comes up to me.

“Shinonome, I want to make a group chat for the pool day, so can you give me your contact info?”

“Sure.”

Bringing a smartphone to school is allowed as long as we don’t use it during class. I quickly take my phone out of my pocket and exchange contact information with Kanbayashi.

“Alright, I’ll contact you with the details.”

“Got it.”

As soon as Kanbayashi leaves,

“Hey, Shinonome-kun, want to exchange contact info with me too?”

“Eh? Why, Sudo-san? Is there a reason for that?”

“Yes, there is! Like, if I ever need to contact you for something.”

“I don’t think that will ever happen, though.”

“It totally will! Come on, let’s exchange contact info.”

Sudo-san takes her smartphone out of her bag and hold it in front of me.

Suddenly, our homeroom teacher, Kotobuki-sensei, walks in.

“Shinonome-kun, let’s do it later, okay?”

Yeah, not happening.

“Everyone, we’ll be holding the closing ceremony in the gym. Please head out into the hallway.”

We all go to the gym, listen to the principal’s speech, then the student guidance teacher gives us reminders and rules for summer vacation. After that, we return to our classroom.

As soon as I sit down, Sudo-san comes up to me.

“Shinonome-kun, let’s exchange our contact info.”

“Hmm, but there’s no reason to contact each other during summer break. Besides, there are school days when we’ll see each other in school anyway.”

“Something might come up! Please, come on, I’m begging you!”

She clasps her hands together above her head, pleading. What am I supposed to do?

“I’m not doing it. There’s no reason to.”

“But we’re classmates! Isn’t that reason enough?”

As we keep going back and forth, Kotobuki-sensei walks in. Thank goodness. She hands out a printout with summer vacation guidelines and our report cards. After that, we are dismissed.

I stand up, grab my bag, and is about to step into the hallway when Sudo-san stops me again.

“Shinonome-kun, please!”

I finally give in.

“Fine. But don’t give it to anyone else, okay?”

“Of course!”

“Hey, Kyoko, that’s not fair! Shinonome-kun, give me your contact info too!”

Hayase-san says so.

“Me too!’

And of course, Kato-san joins in as well.

“You know what, Sudo-san? Never mind. Forget it. See you on the next school day.”

As I’m about to quickly to step out into the hallway, I accidentally bump into Wakana.

“Ouch!”

Oh no, I have run straight into Wakana. I was too distracted by Sudo-san and the other to watch where I was going. Her knee is bleeding.

“Wakana, let’s go to the infirmary. Can you walk?”

“Yeah, but it hurts a little.”

I want to lend her my shoulder, but our height difference makes it awkward. I glance around and see the class rep.

“Shinonome-kun, I’ll take her to the infirmary.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

I really need to be more careful. I called her by her first name again. But given the situation, I guess it can’t be helped.

As we leave for the infirmary, I can hear the whispers behind me.

“Hey, did you see that?”

“Yeah, she really went all out.”

“Going that far, seriously…”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“In the end, I still didn’t get his contact info. Hah.”

I take Wakana to the infirmary with the class rep.

“Looks like you just scraped it a little. I’ll disinfect it and cover it with a gauze pad to stop the bleeding.”

“Thank you.”

“Shinonome-kun, Kisaragi-san, I’ll head back to the classroom now.”

“Sorry for the trouble.”

When the nurse applies the disinfectant, Wakana winces in pain slightly. After that, she places a medicated sheet over the wound and secure it with gauze.

“Alright, all done. You’re can go now.”

““Thank you very much.””

As the two of us leave the infirmary together, Wakana calls out to me.

“Kazuki.”

“I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s fine. Hey, please.”

I figure I don’t have much of a choice this time.

“Alright. Where do you want to talk?”

“My room.”

“But you still need to eat lunch, right? We can go to a family restaurant instead.”

“I’ll just buy something from the convenience store.”

“…I see.”

Wakana and I get off at the station near her house, stop by a convenience store to grab lunch, and then head to her place. We lay out the food on the dining table.

“I really want to cook for you, but now is not the time. So, this will have to do.”

“Let’s eat.”

“Yeah.”

We both eat in silence.

After cleaning up,

“Let’s go to my room.”

“Alright.”

It has been a while since I last entered Wakana’s room. Since last September, to be exact. As we sit together on the edge of her bed, an awkward silence fills the room.

“……”

“……”

“Kisaragi-san if you’re not going to talk, I’ll just leave.”

“No, wait a minute.”

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Wakana’s POV

What am I even thinking right now?

“Kazuki…”

“……”

“You know, when you transferred here last year, I truly believe that God exists. The moment I saw you, you are the only one in my heart. As for Goto…to be honest, I thought that I would break up with him before you found out about our relationship. But as you know, things didn’t turn out that way. I won’t make excuses for what happened. It’s all my own selfish decision. I broke up with Goto immediately after that. There’s nothing between us anymore. Kazuki, it seems that you have completely driven me out of your heart, but for me, you are still the only one in my heart, and that will never change. Please. Even if it’s as friends, just talk to me again. I’m begging you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kazuki’s POV

Wakana gets off the bed, sits on her knees on the floor, and bows deeply.

It’s true, I no longer have any feelings for Wakana. She’s just another girl in my class, someone completely unrelated to me.

Even if we become friends now, I have no intention of reconnecting with her. What should I do? Wakana keeps bowing her head without saying anything.

“Kisaragi-san, please lift your head. Doing this won’t change anything.”

“Kazuki, I’ll fix everything that’s wrong with me. I’ll do anything. You can do whatever you want to me. So please, at least let me talk to you.”

“We’re talking right now.”

“That’s not what I mean. I want to talk to you normally.”

“You say you want to be friends and have conversations again, but we don’t have any connection anymore. And I have no intention of creating one. So there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Kazuki, please. I’ll find a way to reconnect with you. Even if it takes time, I’ll find it. That’s why, please give me a chance to talk to you again. That’s all I ask.”

This is troublesome. How does she plan to create a connection between us if I’m not interested? But I guess there’s no real reason to stubbornly refuse either.

“Alright. If we find some kind of common interests, I’ll talk to you. But no pointless conversations.”

“Okay, I understand.”

I leave Wakana’s house a little while later after that. It doesn’t feel quite right, but there’s no helping it. It certainly isn’t the kind of conversation to have at a family restaurant.

Starting tomorrow, it’s summer break. I should probably finish my homework first.