I Was a Loner Who Tried Finding an Otaku Friend on a Matching App and Ended Up Matching with the Number-One Beauty Who Won the University Miss Contest - Chapter 12-13

Chapter 12: I Want to Drink the Half-Finished Strawberry Milk from the Miss Contest Queen

I pulled Yui-san by the hand all the way to a quiet spot where no one was around, bought a carton of strawberry milk from the vending machine, handed it to her, and sat her down on the bench.

“Drink this while you listen to my little lecture for a minute, okay?”

“Ah, I actually prefer coffee milk.”

“Don’t complain in a situation like this!”

The moment I said I was going to lecture her, she hits me with this—does this person seriously look down on me just because I’m her junior?

I have to put my foot down here.

“You know perfectly well that when the Miss Contest queen starts talking to an ordinary guy in a place packed with people, it’s going to stir up a ton of gossip, right?”

“…slurp—”

“No, I told you to drink the strawberry milk, but I didn’t say you could answer me with just slurping!”

“Ugh… I get it, okay? But still—we finally became friends, and now I can’t even say hi to you? Doesn’t that feel kind of wrong? I’m not some celebrity, and I already turned down that offer from the talent agency too, you know?”

“Huh?”

So the rumor going around in class the other day about a talent agency offer—it was actually real?

“N-no, wait, that’s not the point right now. Forget celebrities or whatever. The simple fact is, if weird rumors start spreading, the one who’ll be bothered the most is you, Yui-san, right?”

“Is that… true?”

Yui-san tilted her head slightly even though it was about herself.

“Of course it is! You finally became super popular after winning the Miss Contest.”

“It’s not exactly ‘finally’—my seminar friends secretly took photos and entered me without asking. I wasn’t even that into it.”

“And yet yesterday you were proudly talking about how your looks got you first place in the Miss Contest!”

“Fufu… well, yeah.”

“I’m not complimenting you right now!”

Yui-san really is famous around campus, yet she has zero sense of danger—or something like that.

But the fact that she can be this laid-back and slippery is something only I know. To everyone else she seems to pass as a cool beauty.

“Look, I already know better than anyone that Yui-san is cuter and more beautiful than anybody else, so the lecture was just me asking you to please act with that in mind.”

“Eh…? W-wait, Akito-kun, you’re suddenly praising me again. No matter how much you compliment me, all you’re getting back is the empty strawberry milk carton.”

“Does this pattern seriously end with you forcing actual trash on me?!”

I ended up getting the empty strawberry milk carton shoved onto me by Yui-san.

“Well, jokes aside. Yeah, what happened earlier was my bad.”

“This person just brushed off my lecture with a joke while I was trying to be serious.”

“It’s fine! Getting lectured by your junior is super uncool for a senior, you know!”

“Then show it through your actions before you start complaining about it.”

Well, it seems like she genuinely doesn’t grasp how popular she actually is, so I guess it can’t be helped.

To the rest of us, it’s obvious that just Yui Amane talking to a guy is enough to start rumors.

“But I want to talk about light novels and stuff with you at school too, Akito-kun.”

“Well, I want to talk with you too, Yui-san.”

“Ehehe… so it’s mutual, right?”

Hm? Hmmmmmm??

Yui-san, does that mean…!?

“See? Your heart just skipped a beat, didn’t it?”

“N-no it didn’t! I knew you were just teasing me anyway! Too bad for you!”

“Your attempt to hide embarrassment is way too childish, Akito-kun.”

She’s been messing around too much since earlier, so I decided to get serious.

“Then how about we go somewhere after school since we can’t talk much here? Maybe a café again?”

“Ah—actually, I always have part-time work lined up right after classes.”

“Part-time? Where do you work?”

“It’s that old rental DVD shop tucked away at the edge of the shopping street right nearby.”

“Ohhh… ah! I just thought of something good!”

Yui-san clapped her hands together once and floated a mischievous, impish grin.

S-something… is giving me a really bad feeling about this.

—

Chapter 13: The Beauty Pageant Queen’s Sudden Idea and the Chaos at Work

Amane-san said, “I just thought of something good!” and then left me with a quick “See you later—” before hurrying off somewhere at a light jog.

Watching her back as she disappeared while giving off the strongest bad premonition imaginable, I stared down at the strawberry milk carton in my hand—the one she had just drunk from.

“…Sigh. That woman really is… free-spirited, or whatever you want to call it.”

She brushes off my lectures by mixing in jokes, suddenly says suggestive things, teases me…
Is this what they mean by the composure of someone older?

Or is she just looking down on me because I’m still only eighteen and younger than her?

“Either way, I should probably think a little more carefully about how I interact with her on campus.”

While tossing the strawberry milk carton into the hallway trash bin, I headed off to my next class.

☆☆

After all of today’s lectures finished, I came to the rental DVD store where I always work part-time and stepped into the break room.

The uniform for this job is just wearing an apron over your regular clothes, and the break room is nothing more than a place with key lockers to store personal belongings, so it isn’t separated by gender.
There aren’t that many part-timers anyway.

From evening onward it’s me and Tamura-senpai, but until then the shift is covered by freelancers.

In this run-down old shop where the paint is peeling off, no sparkling university student would want to work here unless they’re a real oddball.

Plus we handle adult videos, so everyone working here has to be eighteen or older.

Customers only come in any real numbers on days when new trading card packs are released.
In this modern era where subscriptions are normal, it wouldn’t be strange if the place went under at any moment.

“Sigh…”

Muttering a sigh, I tied on my apron.

The evening shift is basically carried by me and Tamura-senpai, and it was almost time for the shift change, so she should be arriving soon…

“Good work〜”

“Ah, Tamura-senpai. Good work.”

While I was getting ready, Tamura-senpai came in.

Today she was wearing a tracksuit top and bottom, looking unusually sporty.

That loli-sized body of hers didn’t really suit the outfit.

“You’re not wearing your usual frilly clothes today, huh.”

“I don’t always wear frilly stuff! I had dance practice today, and then I went for a run afterward, so this is what I’m wearing.”

“Huh… Voice actor hopefuls have to do dance too?”

“There are some dance lessons as part of classes, but serious dance training is something I do on my own. Same with running and other workouts.”

Tamura-senpai gave a wry smile as she said that and put her things away in her locker.

“These days voice actors are expected to do so many different things. It costs money too, so even if I work every day I’m still barely scraping by.”

“I see…”

Unlike me, who just drifts through university without any particular dreams, Tamura-senpai has a clear and admirable goal: “I’m going to become a voice actress.”

Seeing her work so hard for it really is impressive… seriously.

“Anyway! How’s the matching app going, Kayama-kun? Are you still using it properly?”

“I’m planning to delete it soon, actually.”

“Wha—why?!”

When she asks why, well… hmm.

Should I tell her what happened after that?

“Well… I already matched with someone, so…”

“Huh? Oh, you mean FRIEND mode, right? Did you make some otaku friends?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Wow! What kind of person? Was it a stereotypical otaku-looking guy with that kind of build?”

“…Um.”

Man, she’s really persistent.

And this is kind of hard to answer straight.

But lying about it feels wrong too… so I guess I’ll just be honest here.

After all, thanks to Tamura-senpai, I ended up becoming friends with Amane-san.

I should at least give her a proper report.

“I did make a light novel-loving friend, but… the gender is, uh, female.”

“…………”

The moment I said it, the apron strings Tamura-senpai had been tying slipped right out of her fingers and dangled loosely.

“Eh, wait! What is that?! That’s straight out of a rom-com!”

“Quiet down, Tamura-senpai. It’s not like that at all!”

“You really can’t be underestimated, huh. Who would’ve thought you’d hook a girl even in FRIEND mode.”

“That wording makes it sound bad… I wasn’t aiming for anything like that.”

If anything, she was the one who sent the OK with a comment first.

“So basically you’re quitting the app now that you’ve got a girlfriend?”

“She’s not my girlfriend… Well, she said she was quitting, so I’m quitting too.”

“That’s such a classic post-success matching app story! You’re definitely dating, aren’t you?!”

“We’re not.”

What is this comedy-sketch conversation?

“But anyway, I’m really glad you made a friend, Kayama-kun! As your senior, I did some good work, right?”

“W-Well… yeah, thank you.”

“You don’t have to be shy about it〜”

“I’m not being shy!”

I denied it with everything I had.

I’m not shy or anything; I’m just genuinely grateful to Tamura-senpai…

“It’s almost time for the shift to change. Oh! By the way, I ran into the manager in the hallway earlier and we talked.”

“Are we closing down?”

“No! Geez, don’t say scary things like that!”

Tamura-senpai scolded me in a completely normal way.

Hey, I was half-serious when I asked.

“So? What did you hear?”

“Apparently we got a message from a new part-time applicant! It’s the first one since you applied, Kayama-kun.”

Someone applying to work here… huh.

I’m pretty weird myself, but that’s next-level dedication.

Well, they’re probably an introverted type like me.

I didn’t pay much attention to the topic and just kept working normally as usual that day.