I Was Reincarnated as the Villain in an NTR Eroge, but Since I Don’t Actually Want to Be a Villain, I’m Just Going to Live Normally - 7

Chapter 7: Kakeru Told Me To Be Careful, But… (Moeka’s POV)

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It was lunchtime. After I had Kuze-kun help me carry my notebook.

“See you later.”

“Yeah, see you!”

Saying that, I parted ways with Kuze-kun and started to head back to my seat. But then…

“H-hey! Moeka!”

“Hmm? Ah, Kakeru~ Good work!”

This time, it was my childhood friend, Kakeru, who called out to me. So, as usual, I responded to him with a cheerful greeting.

Ah, that’s right! Since I have the chance, maybe I should ask Kakeru about Summer Kimi too!

Earlier, Kuze-kun had told me, “Summer Kimi was interesting,” and it made me really happy. After all, Summer Kimi was a novel I loved, and of course it felt great when someone said my favorite work was interesting. When I first read Summer Kimi, I had found it so captivating that I had lent my copy of the paperback to Kakeru a little while ago, saying, “This is my recommendation, so you should definitely read it!” So, I thought maybe Kakeru had already read Summer Kimi, and I decided to bring up the topic with him.

“Oh, right. Speaking of which, Kakeru, remember that novel I lent you a while ago as a recommendation—Summer Kimi? Have you finished reading it—”

“N-no, wait! That’s not the point right now! W-what the hell are you doing!?”

“Huh? W-what do you mean ‘not the point’? What are you talking about?”

“You know what I mean! Coming into the classroom together with that insanely bad delinquent… What the hell are you doing!? Have you been with him this whole time!?”

“Huh?”

The moment I tried to start talking about Summer Kimi, Kakeru said that with a sharp tone. The “delinquent” he was referring to was probably Kuze-kun. It seemed Kakeru was shocked that I had been carrying notebooks with Kuze-kun, and he looked like he wanted to hear about it.

“Oh, that’s what you mean. Well, I went to the staff room earlier, right? Then the teacher asked me to run an errand and carry some notebooks. While I was carrying them, Kuze-kun called out to me, and he helped me carry the notebooks. Wow, Kuze-kun really helped me out a lot.”

So, I carefully explained to Kakeru that Kuze-kun had helped me. But after hearing that, Kakeru reacted…

“H-haa? Moeka, what are you doing? You can’t just go near that insane delinquent when he talks to you! You could have carried the notebooks by yourself! So why are you asking Kuze for help!?”

“Huh? N-no, I didn’t ask for his help. Kuze-kun offered on his own, so I just accepted his help with carrying the notebooks.”

“W-wait, that makes no sense! Everyone in the class knows that guy’s dangerous! And Moeka, you’ve always been scared of him! So how could you even think of relying on his ‘kindness’!?”

“Well, um… Sure, I was scared because of the rumors everyone was talking about, just like the others…”

Kakeru spoke with an angry expression. Indeed, I had always thought Kuze-kun was scary. Most of the students in the class probably either feared him or disliked him. So, like everyone else in the class, I had been afraid of Kuze-kun. But today, after talking to him properly for the first time, I didn’t feel any of the scary impressions I had heard about from rumors. I thought that maybe Kuze-kun wasn’t actually that scary, so I decided to tell Kakeru about it.

“But when I actually talked to him today, he didn’t feel scary at all. Actually, he was pretty easy to talk to…”

“W-what the hell are you saying! Don’t be fooled just because you talked to him a little! You’ve heard tons of bad rumors about him! That he beats up underclassmen, drinks and smokes a lot, goes out partying at night, has been caught by the police multiple times… Haven’t you heard all of that!?”

“Y-yeah… I’ve heard all the scary rumors about Kuze-kun… But when I actually talked to him, he didn’t feel like that at all…”

“‘But’ my ass!! He’s an irredeemable delinquent! You can’t just trust him that easily—”

 Ding dong!

“Oh, the afternoon class is about to start… A-anyway, what I wanted to say is, Moeka, don’t trust people so easily! If you do, you’ll get tricked by bad people in the future! So from now on, be careful! Got it?”

“Y-yeah… Got it…”

The chime signaling the end of lunch rang. That meant Kakeru’s lecture was cut short, but even until the very end, he scolded me while giving that warning. I had no grounds to deny it, so all I could do was nod. After all, I had heard all the rumors Kakeru mentioned… That Kuze-kun extorted underclassmen, drank and smoked, stayed out all night and got picked up by the police… I had heard all those scary rumors too.

Of course, they were just rumors. Whether they were true or not, I wouldn’t know unless I asked him. Still, since Kuze-kun had barely come to school before, the rumors about him going out at night seemed plausible…

Sure, the bad rumors might be true… But…

I understood that Kuze-kun might really be a delinquent, but after talking to him for the first time today, he didn’t seem like a bad delinquent at all. Of course, he looked intimidating, but in reality, he was far kinder and easier to talk to than the rumors suggested. Besides, he had been very kind, helping me with my notebooks, and our conversation about books was really fun.

So, while I intend not to forget the bad rumors I had heard about Kuze-kun in class… I also wanted to make sure I never forget what happened to me today. And if my intuition today was right… And Kuze-kun wasn’t scary at all, but rather, he was a kind and normal boy…

If that’s true… Then even though Kakeru said what he did… If that’s the case, I want to keep talking to Kuze-kun. And I hope… I can keep talking with him about books again in the future…

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