Living Normally In An Abnormal World - Chapter 26: Social Media and Phone Calls

Chapter 26: Social Media and Phone Calls

“Yuuto-kun, you’re not on Twitter, are you?”

“Huh?”

It was an ordinary after-school conversation with Rina, but her sudden question made me respond with a questioning tone as well.

But Twitter, huh?

“No, I’m not. I only installed the app because Yuuna told me to.”

“So, you have an account. Let’s follow each other then?”

“But I don’t tweet.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Just follow me.”

I decided to go ahead and follow her back.

Rina took a look at my profile and exclaimed, “Eh?!?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Why do you only have seven followers?”

“Because I don’t follow anyone.”

Other than Yuuna and Mana, the rest were official game accounts.

“Yuuto-kun, you don’t have to be a loner online, you know?”

“That’s rude of you.”

I lightly chop her head.

“Ouch! Yuuto-kun~”

She puffed out her cheeks, clearly pretending to be angry. Maybe I did it a little too hard.

But she’s so cute.

“I’ll tell your fan club about your account and get you more followers!!”

“Don’t!”

“But I think it’s already spreading.”

“Why?”

Rina pointed behind me with her finger.

…

I turned around, half-expecting something.

And there stood Yanagida-san, giving me a thumbs-up with a big smile on her face.

Looking at her expression, there was no doubt that she was saying, “Thanks for the material.” Although she had told me that I was the material myself, she must have wanted some sort of trouble or drama to occur.

I’d rather not have to deal with that kind of stuff. Like love triangles or stalkers. And God forbid there’s a yandere out there, I’d want to be saved before any photos are taken.

“I don’t really tweet much, just about my dinner or something.”

“I bet you’ll tweet a lot, though.”

“Should I tweet something weird?”

“Like, Yanagida-san is my official stalker or something?”

“What’s an official stalker?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yeah.”

“By the way, Yuuto-kun, you don’t look at the fan club website, do you?”

“Well, I keep meaning to, but then I forget. To be honest, I don’t really care if it decreases or increases. But the other day was pretty bad, or maybe I deserved it.”

“Oh, Mana-san’s colleagues found out, right? Everyone was pretty shocked, huh?”

“Were they?”

“You were in a hurry that day, weren’t you? When the teacher said you were taking a sick day, it was kind of shocking, but also very ‘you’.”

“Lies… are hard to say.”

When the teacher asked me with concern, “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”, I couldn’t bring myself to say, “Yes, I am.” Instead, I blurted out, “It’s a sick day!”

After that, the teacher said, “I understand,” with a strange look of happiness.

“Maybe I should stop trying to be so serious.”

“Don’t do that. You’ll just end up hating yourself later.”

… I had no response to that.

​

A week later,

Following: 7       Followers: 276,042

… Wow.

Umm… suddenly having a lot of followers is kind of… wow.

As soon as I tweeted, I got a ton of likes and direct messages.

[Yuuto-kun, you finally tweeted!]

[Yuuto-kun’s first tweet!!!]

[Woah, you have too many likes www Are you a celebrity or something?!]

[This is an inevitable outcome (follower increase)]

[Nothing but grass will grow from this]

[Nii-cha, what are we having for dinner?]

etc…

…

[Gyozas! Come home early so we can make them together~ ♪]

Alright, time to start prepping.

Gacha!

“Nii-cha!! You haven’t made the gyozas yet, have you?!”

“I’m prepping right now!”

She’s back too early.

​

-The next day at school-

“It’s your fault I have so many followers now.”

I was complaining to Rina a little. Well, since she started it, I figured it was fine to complain a bit.

“Fufu, now you won’t be lonely anymore, right?”

“Having too many people notice me is also a problem, you know?”

“Kinoshita-kun, will you follow me too?”

“Yuuto-sama, please follow me as well.”

Asuka and Maria came up to us with the Twitter app open.

“I haven’t really been into Twitter and stuff.”

“Maria-chan, you didn’t have it?”

“I installed it yesterday so I wouldn’t be left behind! Yuuto-sama, Rina-chan, and Asuka-chan all had it!”

Maria puffed out her chest a little.

So cute.

“So, Maria, how many followers do you have?”

“Umm… three!”

“Stay strong, Maria.”

“That’s the last thing you should be saying, Kinoshita-kun.”

Stop it, Asuka. That hurts my heart.

With all that, Kinoshita Yuuto’s following count reached 9.

“Almost double digits.”

“That’s great.”

“Well, I don’t plan on following many people…”

I glanced away for a moment and noticed Yanagida-san pointing at herself with her index finger.

“Uhm can I know… Yanagida-san’s account?”

“Huh? Yeah, I do. Here, I’ll show you!”

And with that, my following count reached double digits.

​

Around 10 p.m. that night, my phone notified me of a call.

Who could it be at this hour? I looked at my phone. It was Yoru. What’s up with her?

I quickly picked up the call.

“What’s wrong, Yoru? It’s pretty late.”

“I had a scary dream while sleeping. So, I wanted to hear Yuuto-sama’s voice.”

“I see.”

“Sorry for the late-night call. Am I bothering you?”

“No, it’s fine. I told you to call whenever you wanted to.”

“Thank you. Yuuto-sama is so kind.”

“Do you want to talk on the phone until you fall asleep?”

“Really?!”

“Of course. I have the day off tomorrow. Go ahead and talk about whatever you want.”

“Umm, umm, the other day at practice______”

​

I never expected the conversation to last until morning.

“Uboa…”

“What’s wrong, Yuu-kun?”

“I was granting a girl’s small wish.”

“Oh, I see. You have dark circles under your eyes.”

“I’m going to sleep.”

“Don’t live an unhealthy lifestyle, okay?”

“I know. By the way, Mana.”

“What?”

“Women of any age love to talk, huh?”

“Of course. And even more so when the listener is you, Yuu-kun.”

… I guess I should work on becoming a better listener.