[Sad News] Living Together with the Unattainable Beauty—Her Overwhelming Affection Is Way Too Calculated - 12-13

Chapter 12: Friend’s Nice Assist!

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So frustrating…! So frustrating…!

Laying on the bed, I clutched my phone and groaned.

The other day, I had executed “a little sexy, calculatedly cute ♡ fluffy pajama operation” and that operation had succeeded in making Gen-chan flush crimson and get all flustered. Just remembering his way-too-obvious reaction still made the corners of my mouth loosen.

But that was all. He still saw me as nothing more than a “kind, slightly meddlesome housemate.”

My blatant feelings had all been filtered by his ironclad self-denial into “just your imagination” or “a coincidence” or things like that. Seriously, his defense was annoyingly impervious.

I couldn’t let things stay like this. In the limited time we had as housemates, everything might end without anything happening. I absolutely hated that idea. Carrying that anxious feeling, I opened my messaging app and sent a help message to one person.

The recipient was my best friend from the same high school and class, Ami Aizawa. Ami and I had been close since middle school. She was the only reliable person who knew about this long, clumsy crush of mine.

Like me she worked as a reader model, but she was the exact opposite type—straightforward, big-sisterly, and experienced in romance. Her advice was always sharp and on point. That was why I had only told Ami about living with Gen-chan.

『Ami, listen to me—! I might be doomed—! (cry)』

I sent the message with a crying-face sticker. Not even a minute had passed when it was read and a reply came. Quick work. As expected.

『What’s up, Kanoko. More Miyazuka-kun stuff? It’s rare for you to be this weak, huh.』

I summarized the recent events with Gen-chan. That we’d watched anime together and the mood had gotten a little nice. That I’d bought cute new pajamas and tried to show off my chest a little. But he still hadn’t noticed my feelings at all…

A few minutes later, Ami’s reply was blunt and merciless.

『…Kanoko, your approach is way too subtle!』

Her words stabbed straight into my chest.

『Win his stomach, sync hobbies, dress cute… You’ve already done all the things you should’ve long ago. If he still doesn’t notice, then he’s an ultra-dense kind of guy, right? Like a living national treasure level of dense.』

『Ugh… Yeah, maybe…』

She’d hit the mark so perfectly I couldn’t even argue.

『Then you’ve got to be more obvious! Not with words or gestures—don’t do any of that half-hearted stuff—go physically, like, cut-and-dry!』

Physically? What did she mean by that? I tilted my head at the phone screen, and Ami sent a rapid-fire follow-up stream of messages.

『In other words, close the distance right on!』

『When you sit next to him, get really close!』

『When you’re teaching him something, put your hands on him like you’re hugging from behind!』

『Increase body contact under the guise of “accidents”—as much as you possibly can! Be clingy, clingy, clingy!』

『Guys are such simple creatures—make them nervous and you’ve got them! Paralyze their reason!』

I see… Physical closeness, huh.

Maybe I had been holding back all this time. I didn’t want him to hate me. I didn’t want him to be turned off. I didn’t want him to think I was creepy. Those cowardly feelings had probably applied the brakes without me even noticing.

『But if I get all touchy all of a sudden, won’t he think it’s weird?』

『Then let him think it’s weird!』

Ami’s reply was forceful.

『You’ve got to make him go, “Huh? Wait, did Fujigaya-san maybe…She likes me?” That kind of misunderstanding has to happen—otherwise nothing starts! Especially with that ultra-dense guy!』

Ami’s words always blew away the doubts clouding my heart. She was right. Enough with beating around the bush. Be bolder. Be clearer. I just had to throw my “like” at him directly.

『Ami, thank you! I feel so much better! You really opened my eyes!』

『You’re welcome. Well, good luck!』

Ami sent a sticker—an absurd one of a muscular rabbit giving a thumbs-up.

『If that still doesn’t work, then go for the final option: get naked in front of him and attack? (lol)』

That last joke was still too extreme for me. But it was one of the options, I supposed. Ami’s vigorous cheer had ignited a new fighting spirit in me.

Watch closely, Gen-chan. My next move is going to forcibly invade that ironclad personal space of yours.

I gripped my phone tightly and wore a defiant smile as I laid on the bed.

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Chapter 13: Personal Space Invasion Alert

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Something was off about Fujigaya-san. No—if I thought back, from the perspective of an introvert like me, she had always been a flawless superhuman far removed from ordinary people. There had never been anything “off” about her. But these past few days, her behavior was clearly abnormal.

Specifically—and to put it bluntly—her physical distance was abnormally close. She had always been bad for my heart, but lately I couldn’t help suspecting she was deliberately aiming straight for it.

Woo, woo, woo.

Inside my head, a deafening alarm blared around the clock.

【Alert: Your personal space is being invaded! Repeat: Your personal space is currently being invaded!】

For example, one evening after dinner. I was reading a light novel on the living room sofa, as usual, when she came out of the bath and sat down next to me in those infamous bunny-ear, no-bra pajamas. Up to that point, it was still “business as usual.” Not that I had gotten used to it in the slightest. The real problem lay in how she sat.

Before, she had always kept her distance—sitting neatly at the opposite end of the two-person sofa, leaving space between us. But now, she would naturally plop down right next to me, at that exquisite, deadly distance where our shoulders might or might not brush.

“Hiii—!”

I couldn’t help letting out a small squeak, like a squashed frog. I pressed my back desperately against the sofa’s armrest. And yet, she would scoot closer still, little by little. On her side, there was enough space that another person could have sat comfortably, but she ignored it.

Whether she didn’t notice my painfully obvious panic, or simply pretended not to, she casually asked.

“What should we have for dinner tomorrow? Do you have any requests?”

Too close. Way too close. The sweet rose scent drifting from her soft hair directly paralyzed my brain. I couldn’t absorb a single word of my light novel. The Japanese characters on the page looked no different from ancient runes.

My eyes kept being drawn to her body. From the side, it looked like I might catch a glimpse of her nipple through the gap in those bunny-ear, no-bra pajamas. But not quite—just the faintest edge of an areola peeking through, and that was pure agony. I forced my gaze back to the “ancient runes,” only to repeat the cycle again and again.

Is this… Some kind of silent warning? Like, “Your occupied space is too big, introvert. Scoot over.”

But no—the sofa was more than wide enough. Even with two people, there was still room to spare. Then what was this incomprehensible close-quarters assault?

Her invasion of my personal space didn’t stop there. When I went to the kitchen to grab barley tea from the fridge, she suddenly appeared behind me, assassin-like, saying.

“Ah, I want some too.” 

She stood right at my back. If I had turned around, our faces would have collided at zero distance. Her soft, ample breasts brushed faintly against my back. I froze, holding my breath, and had no choice but to crab-walk sideways to escape the danger zone. My back slid against her breasts, but that was not intentional. I didn’t do it on purpose.

Please don’t kill me.

“Here, g-go ahead…”

“Mm♡… Thanks.”

She smiled sweetly, as if completely unaware of how abnormal her behavior was.

And the final straw was last night. When I reached for the TV remote lying on the low table, her hand went for it at the same time. Naturally, her slender, pale fingers rested gently atop my rough ones.

“Ah.”

“Ah.”

Soft. Warm. The feel of a girl’s hand. My heart gave a thunderous thump, louder than I had ever heard before. My heart stopped. My blood boiled. My thoughts completely flatlined. This was the infamous “accidental hand contact event” straight out of a light novel!

“S-sorry!”

She pulled her hand back with a brushing touch, almost like a caress. And if I wasn’t mistaken, she even stuck her tongue out slightly and smirked.

Her big eyes sparkled, as if she was enjoying herself…? No. Impossible. I was overthinking it. Just being paranoid.

It must be the apartment’s layout. The sofa was too narrow, the flow of movement too cramped. That had to be it. There was no way she actually had feelings for me. Such a convenient, light-novel-like development could never happen in the real world.

I clung desperately to rational explanations, trying to convince myself. But with every day, the physical distance between us shrank further, and my heart continued to sound its alarm.

This was dangerous. At this rate, my pitiful shred of self-control wouldn’t last. I had to take measures before my reason completely collapsed. Whether she knew of my frantic desperation or not, her invasion showed no signs of stopping today, either.

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