It Turns Out the Beautiful Girl Who Was Supposed to Be Aiming for My Handsome Best Friend Was Actually after Me - Chapter 1

It was April, when cherry blossoms were dancing in the air.

When I think about that time, I remember my sweet and painful memories from my second year of middle school.

“…Um… can you give me your contact information?”

“…Huh? Mine!? Does that mean… You like me…? I like you too!!”

“No… I’m sorry. Not you, Satou-kun. I like Rindou-kun… You two seem close, so I just wanted some advice…”

Just remembering it makes me want to scratch my whole body from embarrassment and disappear.

It was that bad.

Haa… it was really the worst.

Looking back, I used to misunderstand things like that all the time.

I have a best friend who is unbelievably handsome.

He looks great, he’s smart, he’s kind, he’s good at sports… etc, there’s nothing he’s bad at, and he has no flaws.

As his close friend, I’m average at best and sometimes even below average. Ever since we were kids, girls would come up to me because they were really interested in him. Not knowing that, I would confess to them and get rejected. Other times, the moment my best friend started dating someone, the girls who used to talk to me suddenly stopped contacting me.

That kind of thing happened a lot.

In other words, I was often used as a stepping stone to get closer to him.

After going through so many painful misunderstandings in my youth, by the time my best friend and I entered the same high school, my personality had become pretty twisted.

To put it simply, I started believing that every girl who came near me was actually after my best friend.

And in about twenty past cases, that was honestly always true. So it’s only natural that I would think the next one would be the same.

What was that called again?

Something like the Copernicus principle?

Well, anyway. Even though youth and romance felt close, I believed they were actually far away. It’s something I could never truly reach.

This is a story from the spring of my second year in high school.

◇

“Fwaa…”

I yawned as I walked through the school gate.

Today, my best friend, Rindou Yuuto, had early morning practice for his club, so I came to school alone.

Like always, I opened my shoe locker. That’s when a girl called out to me.

“U-um… Satou-kun. Good morning.”

It was Sendou Ayaka, the girl known as the most beautiful in not just our class, but the whole school.

As usual, she was really cute.

And she had a great figure too.

For some reason, lately she has been greeting me more often.

But even now, I could already guess where this was going.

“Good morning, Sendou-san.”

“Y-yeah… t-that’s right, today’s horoscope said Aquarius is number one! You’re an Aquarius, right, Satou-kun!?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. You remember well. You’re a Cancer, right?”

“Y-Yeah! Whoa! You even remembered my sign!”

“My memory’s pretty decent.”

“A-Anyway! Um… do you have some time… after school today?”

“Hm? Yeah, I’m free.”

“T-then! Can you come to the classroom around 4:30!?”

“Yes.”

Yes, yes. The usual pattern.

Actually, it was so typical it almost felt silly…

I mean, if it’s just about contact info, we could just exchange it here.

If this were the old me, I would’ve misunderstood everything and gotten my hopes up.

But after all my past experiences, I wasn’t that naive anymore.

I knew that girly expression on her face wasn’t meant for me.

Still, I heard that Yuuto had been interested in Sendou-san, too. As his best friend, maybe I should help him out.

The day passed without anything special happening.

But all day long, Sendou-san kept sneaking glances at me.

Don’t worry. I have a good memory.

I wouldn’t forget our promise.

After killing some time in the library, I headed to the classroom once everyone had left. Sendou-san was already there.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Did I keep you waiting?”

“N-No! I’m fine… really fine.”

Her face was bright red as she stood there.

Whoa. This really feels like youth. Must be nice.

But I already knew why.

She took a small deep breath and then said.

“…Um… that… could we please… Um… could we please start as friends?” 

She fidgeted as she spoke.

“Ah~… let’s skip the awkward stuff, and I’ll just ask straight out… You like him, right?”

I said.

Of course, the person she liked wasn’t me.

It was my best friend. That was understood without saying.

“Eh? Y-Yeah… I do… like.”

“Yes, yes. I got it.”

“Does that mean… you’re okay with it?”

“Yeah. This kind of thing happens a lot.”

“It happens… a lot? I see…”

She looked a little uneasy.

After that, we exchanged contact information.

“Well then, that’s that.”

“Eh? We’re not going home together…?”

“Hm? Ah, then let’s go.”

“Y-yeah.”

Well, we just became friends. Walking home together is normal, I guess.

So we went home side by side.

To be honest, I don’t really remember what we talked about on the way.

I think I spent most of the time telling her how Yuuto is a really good guy.

Yeah, I probably talked a lot about him.

At the fork in the road where we go different ways, we said goodbye.

And that was the end of the day.

The first strange feeling came that night.

After getting out of the bath, I checked LINE on my phone.

There was a message from Sendou-san.

“Are you free this Saturday?”

Wow. She must really like Yuuto. That’s what I thought.

Then I noticed that her status message on LINE had been changed to today’s date.

…Why today?

Thinking about that, I slowly fell asleep.