I’m an Introvert, but After Taking Care of the School’s Most Beautiful Girl Who Lives in an Apartment When She Was Sick, She Became Attached to Me and Started Inviting Me Over to Her Place! - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

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“Fuaah… I couldn’t sleep at all, to the point it was surprising. Well, I kind of expected that.”

Morning came, and sunlight announcing the world’s awakening leaked in through the gap in the window. As the familiar alarm sound rang, Sorato sluggishly raised his body. After stopping the app on his smartphone, he stared at the light streaming in through the window and muttered to himself with an expression that said just as expected.

Yesterday, he had come home exhausted, taken care of what he needed to do, and gone straight to bed. But the events of that day—the words, the images—kept resurfacing in his mind over and over, preventing him from slipping into the world of sleep. Her smiling face was projected like a screen before his eyes. Even though he had gone to bed early, he hadn’t gotten anything resembling proper rest.

“This is why guys like me, introverted losers, are no good. This kind of thing makes me look like a creepy stalker…”

Thinking about it again, the idea that he couldn’t sleep just because he had been happy about getting a little closer to the most beautiful girl in the school, after going up to her house, made him feel disgusted with himself.

“This puts me on the same level as the guys who swarm around Natsuki-san… No, no, stop. There’s nothing good about dragging this out forever. I need to switch gears already.”

He shook his head, forcing his gaze back to reality. She was someone from a different world than his. She was someone he normally wouldn’t even have had any connection with. He decided to treat yesterday’s scene as nothing more than an illusion he had seen. Starting today, it was back to his usual everyday life. An ordinary, quiet life of an introverted guy.

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After fully getting out of bed, Sorato quickly changed into his school uniform. Rubbing his eyes that still wouldn’t open all the way, he moved forward relying on the blurry scenery before him. The heavy sluggishness unique to lack of sleep made him want to crawl back into bed and sink back into the world of dreams.

Leaving his room and turning right at the end of the hall that split left and right, he found a room where the light was already on. As he slowly opened the doorknob and let himself melt into the brightly lit room, he saw a girl around his age standing in the kitchen. She had her naturally brown hair tied high in a ponytail, wore light makeup subtle enough not to get caught by school teachers, and had her uniform skirt folded shorter.

“Uaaah… Mornin’.”

“Morning, Onii. What’s with that voice? You sound like a zombie that just got hit by sunlight.”

“My dear little sister, I might as well be a zombie right now.”

“Keep your weird delusions in your light novels, you gross otaku~”

“Who’re you calling a gross otaku, you brat?”

The brown-haired girl smiled faintly as she took a bottle of green tea from the refrigerator and gently set it beside him.

At first glance, she had sharp, slanted eyes that gave her a tough impression. She was Sorato’s younger sister by one year, Kanau Suzuya. Despite her gyaru-like appearance, she was deeply immersed in otaku culture and always reacted properly to her brother, Sorato’s, strange jokes. Basically, she was a so-called “gyaru who’s kind to otaku.”

Humming softly, she packed a lunch box into an insulated wire lunch bag in the kitchen.

“Onii, what’s in today’s bento?”

“Your favorites. Rolled omelet and sausages, plus some frozen stuff.”

What she packed was a homemade lunch prepared by Sorato. Their parents left for work early in the morning. So since the two of them were in middle school, their parents had started preparing lunches the day before. But once both of them became capable of handling housework to some extent, Sorato started making their lunches every day.

“Onii, where’s your bento?”

Normally, there should have been two lunch boxes sitting there, but today there was only one. Noticing the anomaly, Kanau immediately fired off a question. Sorato, who had somehow appeared with a toothbrush in his mouth, paused for a moment before answering.

“…I was tired yesterday, so I only made yours. I’ll just buy some bread.”

“What, don’t tell me—it’s a girl?”

Kanau narrowed her eyes and grinned. Her guess hit uncomfortably close to the truth, and internally Sorato was panicking so badly it felt like the toothbrush might stab the back of his throat. Still, hiding behind his long bangs, he calmly retorted.

“No way. Anyway, your school starts earlier than mine, so hurry up and get going.”

“Ah! You’re right! I was gonna go early with my friends today! I’m off!”

“See ya. You’re always so frantic in the morning.”

It was seven in the morning. Kanau, who always had to leave about ten minutes earlier than Sorato, seemed to finally check the time after being told, instantly forgetting her probing. Carefully packing her bento into her bag, she rushed out of the house with loud footsteps.

“Well then, guess I’ll head out too.”

After finishing brushing his teeth, Sorato took a bite of plain bread he found next to the oven, grabbed his bag, and prepared to leave, following after Kanau. He checked all the locks in the house, then stepped out the front door and locked it behind him. Nothing special. Just the usual morning routine.

“I’m heading out.”

As he closed the front door, for some reason, he softened the sound more than usual. It seemed he needed a little more time before he could fully return to his normal everyday life.

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Ding-dong-dang-dong.

School. After the morning homeroom ended, students poured into the short break before first period. The once-quiet hallway gradually filled with students and teachers passing through, and the classrooms were soon brimming with the sounds of classmates interacting. Some prepared for class, some stared at their smartphones, and some pretended to sleep to avoid dealing with anyone.

As the break began, Sorato melted over his desk like slime, overcome by sleepiness. Kohaku and Tenma—his usual companions—gathered beside him. Though it looked like they were having their usual idle chatter, something felt slightly different today. Amid the laughter and the bustle of people going about their mornings, there was one thing still missing.

“Ah… Has God still not returned her to us… Aahh…”

“…What’s wrong with Kohaku?”

“I think it’s because Natsuki-san isn’t here again today, so he’s praying to God.”

“Yeah… She’s not here today either. I’m not as bad as Kohaku, but it is a little worrying.”

Kaon Natsuki hadn’t come to school again today. Her seat remained empty, and Kohaku stared vacantly at it with dull, lifeless eyes, as if wishing for something. Casting a sidelong glance at the muttering Kohaku, Sorato—his head growing heavier with drowsiness—considered a certain possibility, and once again felt his heart pricked with pain, like being stabbed with a needle.

If she didn’t come after everything that happened yesterday… Did I push her too hard? What if she collapsed again—

Fragments of yesterday’s memories, which he thought he had sealed away deep down, suddenly spilled out. Her smile, her words—maybe she had been forcing herself. Maybe he thought he was being considerate, when in fact, she had been the one worrying about him.

The more he thought about it, the more unpleasant thoughts flooded his mind. Then Tenma, who had been beside the silent Sorato, spoke as if he had just remembered something.

“By the way, how was that Ichiban Kuji yesterday? Did you get what you wanted?”

“…Not at all. I didn’t just fail to win. I couldn’t even find the one I was looking for. After running all over the place, too…”

“That Vtuber you like, right? Well, you don’t exercise much anyway. It’s good for you to move around a bit.”

The topic poked directly into what Sorato had been thinking about, but he carefully adjusted his tone so as not to reveal his agitation. After all, yesterday after school, he had merely “gone out to look for his favorite Vtuber lottery, Ichiban Kuji.” Even though he was close with these two guys, the fact that he had visited the famous Kaon Natsuki was something he couldn’t talk about yet. 

“Huh. So it was a wasted trip in the end. …Wait, huh? Kaede?”

For a moment, Tenma’s voice seemed to drop in pitch. Sorato lifted his gaze from the desk he had been staring at, and there she was—an all-too-familiar girl in a skirt, confidently stepping through a group of boys and stopping in front of them. She was the very person who had caused Sorato and Natsuki to meet yesterday and she was also Natsuki’s closest friend.

Ignoring Tenma’s call, she looked straight at Sorato and quietly muttered.

“Suzuya-kun, can I talk to you for a bit?”

A cold, unpleasant sensation ran down his spine. She was probably going to ask him about what happened yesterday. Of course he had never once done anything inappropriate yesterday. He had nothing to hide. And yet, her sharp, unreadable gaze made him flinch. Even with Tenma backing him up, the pressure she radiated was overwhelming.

Did Natsuki-san tell her everything that happened at her place yesterday?

Reaching that conclusion, Sorato felt as though mud had been splashed onto the spotless confidence he’d had just moments ago. Too many things came to mind. He had picked her up rather forcefully to bring her inside, and had even ended up using the kitchen. If even one of those actions had made her uncomfortable, he had no chance of escaping this.

Natsuki-san’s smile quietly crossed his mind.

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