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~ - 5-6

Chapter 5: Going to a Family Restaurant with Amamiya-san

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“Amamiya-san. Don’t hold back, order whatever you like.”

After school. Amamiya-san and I sat facing each other at a table in a family restaurant. Because I felt a strong sense of guilt over what happened during lunch break, I invited Amamiya-san here to make it up to her. Of course, I was paying for everything.

“Are you sure that’s okay?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll take you up on that.”

Amamiya-san pressed the call button. A short while later, a server came over.

“Carbonara, mixed grill, eel rice bowl, shrimp gratin, seafood pizza, Caesar salad, cheese-in hamburger steak, chocolate parfait.”

While flipping through the menu in her hands, Amamiya-san rattled them off like she was chanting a spell. She ordered an absurd amount of food. And then…

“And we’ll take two of everything I just said.”

She went and doubled it.

She eats a ton!

I had told her not to hold back, but this was way beyond what I expected. By the way, all the unopened bread she hadn’t eaten at lunch had already been completely devoured on the way here. And yet she still ordered all this food. Her stomach existed on a different plane of reality.

But where does all that food even go?

Everything that should be there was definitely there, yet overall she was slim. Despite eating this much, she didn’t gain any weight at all.

Could this be one of humanity’s great mysteries…!? They say the human body still has many functions that modern science hasn’t been able to fully explain. This must be one of them!

As I stood there being oddly moved by witnessing something so precious, a voice came from across the table.

“So, Murase-kun, what are you getting?”

I panicked and ordered fried potatoes. Just one order, of course.

“I’m sorry about today. I ended up embarrassing you, Murase-kun.”

As soon as the server left with our order, Amamiya-san apologized. She looked uncomfortable and awkward.

“You know, I really like talking with you, Murase-kun. I looked forward to lunchtime every day. That’s why I got so sad, and even though everyone was there, I said something like that. …I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m the one who should apologize. It’s too late now, but I should’ve said something beforehand. …I was looking forward to talking with you too, Amamiya-san.”

“I see… Yeah. So it wasn’t just me.”

Amamiya-san let out a relieved breath. The cloudy expression she’d been wearing finally brightened, if only a little.

“I realized it today while eating alone. Lunch without talking to you, Amamiya-san, felt kind of dull and unsatisfying. I realized just how important the time I spend with you is to me.”

“—!”

Amamiya-san’s face suddenly turned bright red. Her eyes darted around, unable to focus.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing! More importantly…!”

Raising her voice, Amamiya-san pulled her smartphone out of her bag and slammed it down on the table with force. The rush of air from the impact actually hit me.

“Let’s exchange contact info. If we do that, something like today won’t happen again, right?”

“That’s true.”

Amamiya-san and I exchanged contact information. After that, we talked nonstop about anime, making up for all the time we couldn’t talk during lunch today. The sound of Amamiya-san’s voice as she talked with a beaming smile felt more lively than usual.

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Chapter 6: Words After Three Years

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After parting ways with Amamiya-san, I was walking along the road back home. Streetlights standing along the edge of the road dimly illuminated the darkening surroundings. We had gotten so caught up talking that it had become quite late.

…Ah.

My spine jerked slightly. I had caught sight of someone walking toward me. She was an unbelievably beautiful girl, one who put celebrities to shame. Even in the dim light, she radiated a dazzling presence, so striking that her beauty was unmistakable even from this distance. And… I knew her.

Hina Yuuki. She was my classmate, and also someone I had known since we were little. In other words, she was my childhood friend. Back in elementary school, we had been close. We walked to school together every morning, and we often played together after school. But shortly after we entered middle school, that relationship changed. The trigger was a single comment from a boy who stood at the center of our class, Asakura.

“Murase, you’re always hanging around Yuuki, aren’t you? Stop doing that.”

“…Huh? Why?”

I replied irritably to Asakura, who had spoken to me in a deserted place. I normally wouldn’t react like this, but this time was different. I had known Hina for a long time. To me, she was already like family. If Hina herself had told me that, it would have been fine. But I didn’t want some outsider sticking their nose into it.

“You really don’t get it, do you?”

Asakura shrugged and let out an exasperated sigh.

“When someone from the bottom of the caste like you hangs around her, it drags down Yuuki’s reputation just by association. …Don’t make me spell it out. Anyone normal would understand that much.”

Hina had top-tier looks, and she excelled in both academics and sports. On top of that, she was cheerful and sociable, putting her at the very top of the class—no, the entire school’s social hierarchy. Meanwhile, I was at the very bottom of that hierarchy. Because of my withdrawn personality, my social anxiety kicked in, and I had no friends besides Hina.

It wasn’t like I was being bullied, but it was true that the other students looked at me coldly. If someone like me stayed close to her, strange rumors would start about Hina and cause her trouble. That was probably what Asakura wanted to say. I couldn’t say anything back.

More than that, I found myself agreeing. I had never even thought about it before. Being together had felt so natural that I assumed it was normal for us to be together. But that was just my selfish interpretation. The people around us didn’t see it that way. Maybe not even Hina herself…

Because of what Asakura said, I realized that for the first time.

“Yuuki said it herself the other day. She doesn’t want anything to do with a bottom-feeder like you anymore.”

I see… So that’s how Hina felt.

She hated me. When had she started thinking that way, I wondered.

I’m sorry I didn’t notice. I’m sorry for being such a dense childhood friend.

“…Got it.”

I answered in a small voice. Tears threatened to spill out, but I clenched my fists tightly and desperately held them back. From the next day on, I started keeping my distance from Hina. I stopped walking to school with her, and I made sure not to talk to her at all. Not long after that, I heard that Asakura had confessed to Hina. The result was a complete failure. Apparently, he was rejected outright less than a second after confessing.

Maybe Asakura had always found me, constantly being by Hina’s side, to be an obstacle. And so, to eliminate me, he told me that “Hina said she didn’t want anything to do with me.”

I had thought of that possibility, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe it. In the end, it was nothing more than wishful thinking. There was no proof. So even after the incident with Asakura, the distance between Hina and me never closed again. It stayed that way. And it was still the same now, even after we had become high school students.

Two months had passed since enrollment, and not only had we never spoken once, we hadn’t even made eye contact. Surely, until graduation—no, even after that—my relationship with Hina would never change.

The distance between Hina and me was closing. She was wearing casual clothes instead of her school uniform. Was she heading to a convenience store or something? The question crossed my mind, but I didn’t voice it. Because right now, we were unrelated strangers. We weren’t close childhood friends anymore, so I couldn’t casually talk to her.

I avoided looking at Hina and tried to walk past her. But she did the opposite. For some reason, she stopped right in front of me. That left me with no choice but to stop as well.

“You’re home pretty late. Were you with Amamiya-san, by any chance?”

It had been about three years since she last spoke to me. Despite being completely shaken by the unexpected situation, I somehow managed to nod.

“Hm.”

After hearing just that, Hina narrowed her yellow eyes and started walking again. Her orange twin side-up hair, tied on both sides, swayed sharply. While I was still frozen in shock, she muttered as she passed by me.

“I don’t think that girl suits you, Masaki.”

Saying only that, Hina walked past me.

“…That means we don’t match, right?”

I didn’t need her to spell that out for me. Amamiya-san was sitting at the top of the social hierarchy. There was no way someone like me would match someone like her. Hina had probably heard about what happened during lunch break. And so she must have come just to complain—like, “Don’t get full of yourself, you trashy gloomy guy.”

“So those were the words you waited three years to say?”

I was reminded all over again of just how much she hated me. All I could do was give a bitter smile.

“Besides, it’s not like Amamiya-san and I are in that kind of relationship anyway.”

But then, what kind of relationship was it? We ate lunch together every day, so I didn’t think we were unrelated strangers anymore. There was no doubt that our relationship had changed from before. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a name for what it was.

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