So You’re Telling Me I’m in My Popular Phase!?

Chapter 3: An Unexpected Collision!?

I left the house and started walking to school, but… everyone around me is a “normie.”

Guys laughing and chatting together is whatever. Girls holding hands is something you see sometimes too… Wait, guys holding hands is weird though…

But—! Okay, right there! A guy and a girl happily talking… Hah, right there! Their hands! A guy and a girl holding hands?! Impure! That’s impure heterosexual interaction!

“…I’m not jealous or anything.”

Because going to school holding hands in the morning just makes them a stupid couple who wants attention…

Sigh… so empty.

I surrendered myself to the void, walking to school all alone and lonely.

“Ah! It’s Ryu-kun, morneeng~! Dooooon!”

“Oh, Izumi? Morning—guuh!”

The moment I heard that familiar voice and tried to turn around, a tremendous impact assaulted my entire body, and I fell onto my back. It was an impact strong enough to make me think I’d been in a collision with a car.

I couldn’t open my eyes due to the sudden pain, but I had a rough grasp of the situation. After all, I take this hit every day.

“Hey dammit Izumi, I tell you every day—don’t jump on me out of nowhere!”

I yelled at the girl sitting on top of me, Morikawa Izumi, who goes to the same high school.

We have this rotten bond going back to kindergarten, and this tackle has been happening since elementary school.

If I’m lost in thought like today, I forget to dodge. But even if I try to dodge, she feints and gets me anyway. Such a troublesome childhood friend.

“I told yoooou, don’t call me Izumi, call me ‘Izumin’!”

“I’ve been calling you Izumi forever, there’s no way I can suddenly call you Izumin! Besides, we’re high schoolers, I refuse!”

“Whyyyyy~”

“I just told you the reason. Anyway, just… whatever. Hurry up and get off!”

Why is she sitting on me for so long? People around us are looking at us weird. No, not just looking…

“People are giving us weird looks so get off already!”

“Ehhh? But Ryu-kun, isn’t it your dream to collide with a girl on the way to school?”

She stared at me in puzzlement while I was angry, but what is going on with that warped manga-brain of yours? Same with wanting to be called Izumin.

Also, don’t decide people’s dreams on your own. No, sure, there was a time I dreamed of it too… No wait, actually, I was getting tackled even before I had that dream…

“For the record, that trope is about a transfer student who’s about to be late colliding with someone at a street corner, and then finding out in the morning that the transfer student is coming… Ugh, explaining this is a pain…”

Maybe she didn’t understand the meaning of my explanation, because Izumi still had a puzzled look on her face.

“Anyway, it won’t work with you, so don’t do this anymore. Got it?”

Then, Izumi’s eyes sparkled happily. Ah—this is that. I have a bad feeling about this.

“Is that so? Got it! Then what do you want me to do next time? Anything is fine! Ah, but I’m not stopping this, okay?”

You didn’t understand anything at all. Also, stop it. You have no intention of stopping, huh?

…I wonder if “anything” really means anything.

“…You don’t have to do anything.”

I’m ashamed of myself for having a slight delusion just now. If I’m gonna fantasize, I should do it about someone better. Aah, I want to kill the part of me that got a little excited over Izumi!

“A-anyway, let’s hurry to school.”

I peeled Izumi—who was still sitting on top of me—off and hurriedly headed for school.

Good grief, today is another disaster.

“Okay. Then I’m gonna go, so wait a sec, okay?”

Izumi, who stood up with me, said that and started running in the opposite direction of the school.

“Hey, Izumi, where are you going?”

“Eh? I should run from that corner yelling ‘I’m late’, right?”

“We’re done with that joke!”

I grabbed Izumi just as she tried to run off, and this time we headed to school for real.

Come to think of it, I heard some guys in class calling her cute, but is that true? …Well, whatever.

I thought about that while glancing sideways at Izumi, whose arm I was dragging, looking happy for some reason.

We arrived at school and headed to the classroom, but unfortunately, Izumi is in the same class, so our classroom is the same too. I can’t just say bye-bye once we reach the school.

I dragged my aching body to the classroom and checked the time on the clock—it was already five minutes before class started.

“Cutting it pretty close.”

I muttered quietly to myself.

“That’s because Ryu-kun was playing around since morning.”

Izumi, next to me, said with an expression like she was mocking me.

“It’s your fault!”

I’ve done nothing but yell since morning.

I took my seat and put my preparations for first period on the desk right as the chime rang.