So You’re Telling Me I’m in My Popular Phase!? - Chapter 30 & 31 & 32 & 33

Chapter 30: An Unexpected Day Two!?

I woke up at 7 AM.

I studied to make up for not being able to study yesterday.

After studying for about an hour, I decided I’d wake everyone up.

Studying really gets harder once you enter high school—preparing in advance since middle school was the right call.

I kept studying English, and before I knew it, an hour had passed.

“Alright, time to wake them.”

First, I decided to wake up Tomoya, who was sleeping comfortably right there.

“Tomoya, wake up.”

“Hehehyuu…”

“What?! What kind of weird sleep-talking is that?”

It took me ten whole minutes to wake him up. Now I understand how hard it must have been for Aki to wake me up.

“Morning, Ryu.”

“Morning. Let’s head downstairs quickly—we have to wake up Izumi and the others too.”

“Okaaay.”

Tomoya answered with a light yawn.

Then, the two of us headed to the living room.

“Wake u—!”

I shouted the moment I opened the living room door, but—

“Oh, good morning.”

“Mornin’~”

Izumi and Machida-san were already up.

“Ah, you were awake.”

“Everyone’s an early riser, huh.”

Hate to break it to you while you’re impressed, Tomoya, but I usually sleep until Aki wakes me up.

“Well, I intended to wake you, but you were already up.”

I feel slightly frustrated.

“Yeah, I wanted to make breakfast, so I woke up early for the first time in a while.”

She came over wearing an apron, her footsteps making patapata sounds.

Come to think of it, this apron is the one we went to buy the other day.

“Hm? What about the apron?”

I ended up staring at it too much.

“No, this apron…”

It’s a painful memory for Izumi, so I didn’t really want to mention it.

“That’s right—it’s the apron we went to buy together! Come to think of it, the clothes I wore yesterday were the same, but did you notice?”

Izumi said it happily. Good—looks like she’s not dwelling on it too heavily.

Yesterday’s clothes, huh. Ah, true.

“You’re right, I remember now.”

“Notice it right away next time.”

Izumi pretended to sulk a little, but laughed immediately.

“Sorry, sorry.”

Having friends over from the morning is surprisingly fun.

“Please do not flirt in front of your friends first thing in the morning.”

Machida-san got grumpy.

“We’re not.”

“Eh? We are though?”

What is Izumi saying?!

“Enough. I will continue studying.”

“Then I’ll go back to cooking.”

The two of them returned to where they were.

“What do we do, Ryu?”

Tomoya asked.

“Watch TV or something?”

As I headed toward the sofa—

“Machida-san, that problem there is wrong.”

When Machida-san’s notebook caught my eye, I saw that there was a mistake.

“Eh? Where?”

“This problem here. First, you have to—”

“I see. It’s humiliating to be taught by Ichikami-kun, but it is easy to understand, which is good.”

“Thanks.”

“Please teach me others too.”

“Sure.”

“I’m alone in the end…”

Tomoya started watching TV while sulking.

Sorry, Tomoya.

“Breakfast is ready.”

Izumi brought breakfast.

“Oh, this is amazing.”

It’s a standard breakfast, but there’s a variety of things considering nutrition too.

““““Itadakimasu.””””

It was delicious this time too.

It’s nice to have noisy times like this with friends once in a while.

Chapter 31: An Unexpected Porn Mag Hunt!?

“Is there anything planned for today?”

I asked Machida-san because yesterday’s sleepover was decided on a whim, so there’s no plan—I need to know what we should do.

“Let’s see… for now, let’s just do whatever we like until lunch.”

Whatever we like, huh… I’ll just study.

“Hey, Ryu-kun.”

Izumi called out to me.

“What’s up?”

“Can I do some ironing?”

Ironing, huh. Mom’s been too lazy to do it, so there should be a ton piled up.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll bring it.”

“Yay! Thanks, Ryu-kun.”

How can she be happy doing chores? That’d be hell for me.

“Ryu, bring a fun game while you’re at it.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

I grabbed Tomoya’s game and the ironing set.

“Here, Izumi. Sorry for making you do this.”

“Nah, I’m just having fun doing it.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah!”

I handed Izumi the ironing set and turned to Tomoya.

“Here’s the game, Tomoya. Cartridges are right here.”

“Thanks.”

I decided to study, so I went to grab my study materials.

I came back down with my dictionary and textbooks.

When I entered the living room, Izumi was ironing and Tomoya was gaming, but…

“Where’s Machida-san?”

Machida-san had disappeared.

“Toyomi-chan? She left a bit after you went upstairs.”

Going by what Izumi said, she’s probably in the bathroom, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

I went back to my room.

When I got there, I prayed Machida-san wouldn’t be inside and opened the door.

“Ah, I’ve been caught.”

“……”

Yep, Machida-san was there.

“How did you know I was here?”

“Why are you even here?!”

I know why. I know the reason—she said it before. But who’d think she’d actually do it?

“Of course, to learn more about Ichikami-kun’s hobbies.”

“You’re just hunting for porn!”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Don’t just admit it!”

This seriously isn’t funny—please stop.

Plus, I just grabbed one dictionary, so my guard’s down.

Not that I have any.

“From what I can see, there are only study books, so you should be fine.”

Good—looks like she hasn’t found anything.

“Still, you have a lot of dictionaries.”

Machida-san reached for the dictionaries—

“Jokifefii!”

I don’t even know what I was trying to say, but I managed to stop her hand.

“What’s wrong, Ichikami-kun?”

“N-nothing. Just don’t touch my stuff.”

“Why not?”

“Uh—these books are my collection!”

By “books,” I mean study books, okay?

“I-I understand.”

We went back to the living room.

That was way too close.

Chapter 32: An Unexpected Game Start!?

“Lunch is ready~.”

After studying for a few hours, Izumi called out to us.

It smells amazing.

“Oh, udon?”

“Yup!”

It looks like a really delicious udon. Wait?

“Did we have udon?”

There shouldn’t be any udon in the house right now.

“I was super bored after ironing, so I tried making it by hand.”

By hand? No way…

“Handmade!?”

“Yeah.”

She looked at me like, Obviously, right?

“That’s amazing.”

“Wow, as expected of Izumi-chan.”

“Ehehe.”

She looks happy getting praised by Machida-san and Tomoya too.

“Well then, let’s eat right away.”

“““Yeah!”””

We sat around the table and put our hands together.

““““Itadakimasu.””””

I immediately slurped the udon.

“So good!”

Unlike frozen udon, it’s chewy and incredibly tasty.

The thickness of the noodles is perfect too, and they’ve soaked up the broth really well—it’s delicious. Amazing…

“How is it?”

Izumi was checking everyone’s expressions.

“Delicious. I didn’t know you were this good at cooking.”

Honestly, I underestimated Izumi.

“It is very delicious.”

“Wow, this is tasty.”

The other two are really satisfied too.

“I’m glad~.”

Izumi looks happy too.

We continued eating just like that.

※

“That was good.”

It was a very satisfying lunch.

“It was a wonderful taste.”

“It was delicious.”

“Ehehe, thank you.”

I’m glad everyone enjoyed it.

“What shall we do next?”

“Let’s see… let’s all play together!”

Play?!

“But we don’t have anything to play with.”

“That won’t be a problem.”

Saying that, she pulled something out.

“What’s that?”

“Wow, that’s big.”

“Huge!”

She pulled out something ridiculously massive.

Where did you even bring that from?!

“This is my recommended game, ‘3D Resident Evil’!”

Resident Evil?

That’s a zombie game, right?

“Machida-san, weren’t you bad with horror?”

You were scared out of your mind during yesterday’s movie.

“I am bad with it, but I like it.”

I think you should stop, though.

“Let’s play right away!”

““Ohhh!””

“O-ohhh.”

I started first.

I put on the goggles and was handed something like a gun.

“Start!”

Then, tons of zombies came out on the goggle screen.

It’s pretty realistic.

“Whoa!”

I tried pretty hard, but got killed quickly.

“I’ll go next!”

Izumi was up next.

“Alright, here we go!”

“I’m hoome—”

Huh?

Chapter 33: An Unexpected Aki Homecoming!?

“Wow, amazing.”

Izumi and the others are having fun, but I have nothing but a bad feeling.

“How is it?”

“It’s amazing~.”

“I want to play too, hurry.”

The footsteps are getting closer!

“Wait a sec.”

“Next is over there—!”

“I’m ho—me.”

She entered right where Izumi was aiming the gun.

“What are you doing?”

It’s oveeeeer!

“Who might you be?”

Machida-san paused the game and asked.

Too late to pause it now.

“Umm…”

“It’s Ryu-kun’s little sister, Aki-chan.”

“So this is Ichikami-kun’s sister…”

“Wow, she’s cute!”

Hey, you guys—

Ah! Aki is coming over here with a scary face!

Ah! But this Aki is cute too.

“Come here for a second, Onii-chan.”

I got dragged out into the hallway by my arm.

“For now, you guys clean that up.”

I told Izumi and the others to put the game away and was taken out to the hallway.

※

“What is the meaning of that?”

She’s shorter than me, but has this much intensity—cute.

“A sleepover.”

“They stayed over!”

“Yeah.”

“Why would you do that on your own!”

“Ask Machida-san and our parents.”

Because I refused at first, you know.

“Where are Mom and Dad?”

“Traveling.”

“Again!”

“Yeah.”

Our conversations sure are short on word count.

“So, why did this happen?”

“Ask Machida-san.”

“Who’s Machida-san?”

“The person next to Izumi.”

“Ah.”

“Well, I’ll introduce them along with the explanation now.”

“Got it…”

We went back to the living room.

※

“Everyone, sit around the table for a sec.”

Everyone took their seats at the table.

“Alright, starting the explanation and friend introductions now.”

“““Clap clap clap.””””