[Sad News] Living Together with the Unattainable Beauty—Her Overwhelming Affection Is Way Too Calculated - 5-6

Chapter 5: The Trial Called Going to School

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

A few days into the heart-attack-inducing cohabitation with Fujigaya-san, the loathsome but unavoidable trial called the high school entrance ceremony arrived — and with it, the hellish first day of school.

Of course I had prepared a countermeasure. I called it the “Introvert Stealth Going to School Operation.” To avoid running into her, I planned to wake at dawn and leave the house thirty minutes earlier than usual, skipping a proper breakfast. With that staggered-timing attack I should have been able to avoid any encounter with her.

“All right, mission start.”

Holding my breath so I wouldn’t make a sound, I quietly took hold of the front door. I turned the knob with the tension of a spy-movie protagonist. But the plan was shattered to pieces the instant I opened the door.

“Oh, Miyazuka-kun, good morning. Shall we go together?”

Why? Why is Fujigaya-san here?

Standing ready at the apartment entrance in a brand-new uniform and a perfect smile was Kanoko Fujigaya, clutching her school bag like she’d been waiting at ready. It was as if she’d predicted every move I was about to make.

“W-why…” 

I stammered.

“Eh? Well, it’s our first day at school, right? Miyazuka-kun is directionally challenged, so I thought you might get lost. It’d be bad if you get lost.”

She explained her reasoning. 

That help was unnecessary! I could use Google Maps, the convenient magic of this modern era! But whatever private protest I had was drowned out by her utterly unclouded, pure smile.

Refuse? Absolutely impossible. That option didn’t exist in my dictionary. I, the poster child of introverted Japanese, couldn’t possibly turn down an invitation from the school’s top, crown-jewel beauty. So my public execution began, solemn and spectacular.

The fifteen-minute walk to school felt like an eternal road of hell. The fresh wonder I’d felt when I walked the route during orientation was gone. Every passerby’s gaze stabbed painfully at us.

“Hey, that beautiful girl, what’s her deal with that suspicious guy next to her?”

“Is it some punishment game?”

“They’re such an unbalanced pair it’s actually funny to look at them.”

I even heard cruel phantom remarks like that. I kept my eyes glued to the asphalt and mentally counted the pebbles at my feet. I remembered counting only up to thirty-five.

Passing through the school gate, the attention on us accelerated even more. Students who’d been in the same middle school pointed at us like they’d seen something impossible and whispered to each other. 

Please stop! My life bar is already at zero!

“Ah, crap.”

And at the class assignment board, I was spotted by the people I least wanted to see.

“H-hey, Gen-chan…”

“N-no way… This can’t be real… Can it…?”

It was Kimura and Satou, the few otaku friends I’d made in middle school. They alternated looking between me and Fujigaya-san, who was smiling cheerfully. 

“How nice. We’re in the same class.”

She said and their faces went pale as if they’d seen a literal ghost.

“Th-that’s not it! It’s, umm, unfortunately I… We just happened to meet on the way!”

My pathetic excuse came out in a cracked, unconvincing voice. Their suspicious stares hurt. They hurt so much, almost physically so.

The situation only got worse once we entered the classroom. The fact that I’d come to school with Kanoko Fujigaya spread at light speed across the class. Before I’d even finished introducing myself, during the first break Kimura and Satou had me pinned and dragged me into a toilet stall.

“Gen-chan, what’s the deal?! Spill everything!” 

Kimura demanded. He was acting like a cop in an interrogation drama.

“Isn’t she—Fujigaya-san? The legendary ‘Ice Queen’! I heard a bunch of handsome guys confessed to her only to get crushed in return in seconds back in middle school!” 

Satou added, looking excited. Sweating cold, I tried desperately to explain.

“I told you, it’s a coincidence! It really was just a coincidence that our homes are in the same direction!”

If anyone found out we were living together, tomorrow every boy at school would beat me up and dump me into Tokyo Bay. I had to avoid that scenario at all costs.

Meanwhile, the root of all this evil (an unfair label, but still) — Fujigaya-san — didn’t care in the least about the tense atmosphere. She laughed brightly at the center of the girls, glamorous and radiant. From time to time she waved cheerfully toward the toilet where I’d been dragged to.

Please stop! That innocent goodwill is grinding my life bar away mercilessly!

At the first seat shuffle, I landed in the window seat at the very back — the so-called “protagonist seat,” prime real estate for an introvert. 

Finally, a little peace…

I thought to myself. My relief was short-lived. God had abandoned me. Fujigaya-san’s seat was diagonally in front of mine.

Every time her glossy black hair entered my field of view during class, every time a breeze carried her sweet shampoo scent, my heart made dreadful noises like a broken engine. Was I expected to endure this trial every day? School had transformed from a sanctuary into the most dangerous battlefield.

My high school life, mere hours after it began, was already on the brink of game over.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

Chapter 6: Gen-chan Observation Diary

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

Observing Genji Miyazuka-kun at school—my beloved Gen-chan. That had become my new daily routine since high school began, a secret pleasure I could never tell anyone about.

To put it bluntly, it reassured me, or maybe I should say it gave me peace of mind—he truly spoke with girls shockingly little. Even when a classmate handed him a handout or asked him something, his gaze always stayed fixed at a steady forty-five degrees toward the floor. 

His replies consisted only of the bare minimum—“Ah, um, yes,” “S-sorry”—and the conversation forcefully ended in under three seconds. That sight, so fragile and trembling like a little bird in a storm, stirred up my protective instincts to no end.

But when he spoke with Kimura-kun and Satou-kun, his otaku friends, he became a completely different person. In his sanctuary at the very back by the window, his eyes sparkled like a child’s as he spoke passionately, with animated gestures, about the anime he had watched last night or the new game he had just bought.

His expression looked so genuinely joyful and alive that just watching him made me feel happy too.

I wish… He would smile like that in front of me too.

At lunch break, even as I opened my bento surrounded by the girls I had become friends with, my eyes never left him, who was staying in the corner of the classroom. He seemed to be engaged in a heated debate with Kimura-kun and the others about the latest volume of some light novel.

“No way, that heroine’s actions are a total death flag!”

“You don’t get it, Kimura. That’s exactly the kind of event that pushes the protagonist into awakening!”

Gen-chan, his profile serious as he spoke with passion—I found myself spellbound by that side of him he never usually showed.

Someday… I want to eat lunch together with him.

Just as I was thinking that, my eyes suddenly met his. He literally jolted—his shoulders jumping in shock—then instantly turned his head away at high speed. Getting so obviously avoided stung a little. But more than that, his overly transparent reaction was just too cute and endearing, and I couldn’t help the smile tugging at my lips.

But it couldn’t stay like this. Not only at home—I had to close the distance with him at school too. Since our living together was an absolute secret, our relationship at school was even more important. I had to make everyone around us recognize: “Fujigaya-san and Miyazuka-kun are actually pretty close, huh.”

After school. Homeroom ended, and students began getting ready to head home as they pleased. I gathered my resolve and walked over to where he was shoving his textbooks into his bag.

“Miyazuka-kun, wait. Let’s go home together?”

At my sudden words, he looked at me with a ridiculously dumbfounded face, like a pigeon hit with a bean gun. While he was frozen, I smoothly slipped in beside him. Now he couldn’t escape. I started walking without giving him a chance to object, and he hurried after me like a flustered little bird.

“Hey, Miyazuka-kun… You like Magical Girl Magical☆Ruby, right?”

That was the anime he had been glued to on his computer screen last night, earbuds in. Of course, I hadn’t respected any so-called “Rules of Living Together.” I had cracked his door open and watched him the whole time, then later binge-watched all the episodes myself on a streaming site.

At my words, his eyes went wide in shock.

“Wh-why… H-how do y-you… Know about that, Fujigaya-san…?”

“Hehe, I’ve been watching it too. Ruby-chan’s so cute, right? Especially last week’s transformation scene, the animation was incredible!”

When I said that, a little excited, he hesitantly replied.

“Th-that scene was divine… Especially, um, the way they used the light effects in the background…”

And little by little, he began to talk with me.

Yes! Just as planned! He was talking about anime with me! For me, this moment was as monumental as the Apollo program’s success in landing humans on the moon.

Walking at his side, I blared a triumphant fanfare in my heart. In the glow of the setting sun, his profile looked just a little softer than usual.

Bit by bit, step by step, I would break down the thick wall around his heart. The road might still be long, but I firmly believed that today’s first step would lead us to a happy goal in the future.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー