I’m a Loner, Gloomy Guy Who Accidentally Witnessed the Moment the Top Girl in the Class Got Dumped. I Didn’t Know What to Say to Comfort Her, So I Just Gave Her a Cola and Somehow We Started Having Lunch Together~ - 45-46

Chapter 45: Choosing a Swimsuit

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After getting my revenge from back then, I played through a bunch of other games as well. Of course, together with Hina. And now, after leaving the game center, we were at the swimsuit section of the department store in front of the station. Apparently, Hina wanted to buy a new swimsuit, so we came to take a look.

That one’s pretty revealing.

It was my first time in the women’s section, and my eyes kept getting drawn to swimsuits with a lot of exposed skin. It wasn’t like I wanted to look, but this was something you could probably call a man’s instinct. Having been born a man, it couldn’t really be helped.

“This one might be cute!”

Hina raised her voice as she looked at a mannequin. The life-sized mannequin was wearing a white bikini with frills. And this bikini, too, had a fairly high level of exposure. If Hina, an unbelievably beautiful girl, wore this and went to the beach, there was no doubt all the guys’ gazes would be glued to her.

“What do you think, Masaki? Does it suit me?”

“……”

As for whether it suited her or not… Of course it did. Or rather, with Hina’s unfairly good base material, even the lamest swimsuit design would probably look cute on her. But that wasn’t the issue here. I silently looked at Hina’s upper body. My expression stiffened.

……Big. Too big.

Of course, what was big was the swimsuit. Compared to what, you ask? Her chest. Compared to Hina’s chest, this swimsuit was way too big. It didn’t fit at all, to the point it was almost depressing. It wasn’t that the swimsuit itself was especially large. It was probably about average.

Which meant that, well…

Compared to average, Hina’s chest was quite modest.

“Obviously I’m smaller than Amamiya-san and Karin!”

Hina crossed her arms, let out a “Hmph!”, and turned her face away. She must have read exactly what I was thinking from my expression.

“N-no one said that!”

I tried to brush it off as her jumping to conclusions, but Hina refused to listen. She kept her face turned away. I briefly considered saying something like “everyone’s different and that’s fine,” but figured it would only make her more annoyed, so I decided against it. She was sulking pretty badly.

If this had been me up until this morning, I probably would’ve thought nothing more than how annoying the situation was. But now, it was different. After what happened at the game center earlier, the distance between Hina and me—distance that had been so wide—had closed… Or so I thought.

I didn’t know how Hina felt about it, but at least I did. So even when she got grumpy like this, I found myself thinking, “That’s just like her,” and even feeling a little fond about it. Being with Hina didn’t feel awkward anymore. Feelings that hadn’t changed for years had shifted dramatically in just a few hours. It was such a big change that even I was a little surprised.

“Do you think… We could go back to how things were back then…?”

Before I realized it, those words slipped out of my mouth. I had unconsciously spoken what came to mind.

This is bad…!

That thought crossed my mind, but it was already too late. Hina turned her face back toward me and stared with wide, shocked eyes. At this point, there was no way to play it off.

“You mean… You want to go back to how we were, when we were close, Masaki?”

“……Yeah. I want to laugh with you again.”

It wasn’t like I cut off my relationship with Hina because I wanted to. If Hina didn’t actually hate me, then I wanted to go back to how things were. Playing together, laughing together… I wanted to live those fun days from back then one more time.

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Chapter 46: Hina’s Answer

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After spilling my true feelings without holding anything back, I looked over at Hina with a hesitant, almost fearful glance.

If Hina feels differently from me….

Thinking that way made me a little scared.

“Hina… What about you?”

“Of course… I feel the same! I want to make up with you too, Masaki!!”

But Hina agreed with me emphatically. Hearing those straightforward, powerful words made a wave of relief wash over me. The anxiety I had been feeling was blown away all at once.

“Actually, it’s even more than that for me!”

Taking a bold step forward, Hina pressed her open palm firmly against her own chest. But then…

“……”

Her words stopped there.

“…What’s wrong?”

“No, this part can wait for now.”

Hina said that with a somehow happy tone, a small smile forming at the corner of her lips.

“I’ll deal with all the other rivals first. And besides, things like this are better when you say them first, Masaki.”

“‘Deal with’ them…? What’s that supposed to mean? That sounds dangerous.”

The true meaning behind her unsettling remark was completely unclear, but even so, I was smiling. Because I had made up with Hina. A relationship I thought would never return had been restored like this. There was nothing that made me happier. I almost burst into tears from joy, but I desperately held it back. There was no way I could let her see me being uncool.

“Hey, Masaki. There’s somewhere I want to go next.”

“Wait. I’ll guess it. Let me be blunt… It’s that sweets shop nearby, right?”

I raised a finger sharply and answered with a smug expression.

“How about that?”

I asked, brimming with confidence.

Hina blinked her eyes in surprise.

“Correct. …But how did you know?”

“You love the cream puffs from that place. I figured once we came this far, there was no way you wouldn’t want to go there.”

“…You really remembered even after all this time.”

Hina spread her arms wide and suddenly hugged me from the front. She buried her face snugly against my chest.

“Hey, what are you doing!? Let go! Everyone’s staring at us!”

Doing something like this in a department store in broad daylight, it was only natural that we drew attention. Everyone looking our way had grins on their faces, and some even teased us with comments like, “Getting all lovey-dovey in the middle of the day, huh!” But Hina showed no sign of letting go.

If anything, she tightened the arms wrapped around my back even more. I was so embarrassed I didn’t know what to do. My face turned bright red.

“Please, just let go. This is seriously embarrassing!”

“Nope. This is your punishment for utterly shattering my pride in the racing game. Give up and accept your fate.”

Hina’s voice, coming from against my chest, sounded lively and genuinely happy. I never imagined she’d get revenge over a game like this. My childhood friend really was terrifying, after all.

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