Striving to Become the Ideal Man in a World of Reversed Chastity

The day after I had stayed up late gaming with Shironeko-san…

It was now lunchtime after class. Since I had a soccer club meeting during the break today, I came to the clubroom early to eat lunch alone. But just as I was in the middle of my meal, my junior, Hikasa, showed up. So now, the two of us were eating together.

“Yaaawn…”

“Huh? You look sleepy.”

“Ah, s-sorry, senpai.”

As I quietly ate the bento I made for myself, Hikasa—who was munching on a sweet bun next to me—suddenly let out a big yawn. It caught my attention, so I asked about it. Hikasa looked a little embarrassed to be caught yawning and gave me a sheepish smile.

“It’s rare to see you looking this tired. Did you stay up late last night?”

“Ah, y-yeah… I kind of found this really interesting video and, well… haha.”

“Oh? I see.”

Hikasa chuckled awkwardly. She never struck me as the type to stay up late, so seeing her yawn like that was a bit surprising. For the record, I was also up late last night playing games with Shironeko-san, so I was running on little sleep too. But since I dozed off during class, I wasn’t feeling sleepy at all right now.

“By the way, what kind of video was it? If it’s something funny, I’d love to check it out too.”

“Huh?! Ah, um… well… I kind of forgot the name, so I’ll tell you next time when I remember!”

“Huh? Oh… alright then.”

When I asked, Hikasa suddenly got flustered and tried to dodge the question. It was pretty suspicious, but she didn’t seem to be up to anything bad, so I decided not to press further. Still…

(Now that I think about it, I don’t really know much about Hikasa’s hobbies, do I?)

Even though we’d gotten pretty close as senior and junior, I’d never really asked about the things she liked. I tended to talk a lot about my own hobbies, but Hikasa wasn’t the type to bring up hers on her own.

(I should try to get to know her better. From now on, I’ll make an effort to ask her about the things she enjoys!)

With that in mind, I decided that I’d be more proactive in getting to know Hikasa better.

“Phew… that was a good meal.”

As I finished my lunch, I quickly packed up my bento box and tucked it away in my bag. That was when I casually started checking my stomach.

“Hmm…”

I poked my stomach a couple of times while letting out a thoughtful hum. Since I was in the soccer club, I always ate a big lunch to keep my energy up.

Not that I was gaining weight or anything… but if I wanted to maintain what Kashima once described as my “insanely attractive body”, maybe I should start thinking about my diet a bit more.

(…Nah, there’s no way I could eat less.)

I mean, I was still growing, and even when there was no practice, I got hungry pretty fast. Cutting back on food wasn’t an option. If anything, increasing my exercise was the better solution. In that case…

“S-Senpai, is something wrong?”

“Hm? Oh, nah, I was just thinking… maybe I should start going to the gym.”

“Oh, a gym? That sounds great! B-But what brought this on all of a sudden? You’re already in really good shape, senpai.”

“Haha, thanks. But lately, I’ve been eating a lot, and I’m kinda worried I’ll start gaining weight. You know, since we’re in high school and all, we’re at that stage where we just keep growing.”

“Ah, yeah, that’s true. And with the weather getting nicer, it’s easy to overeat…”

“Exactly. So I figured I’d start hitting the gym as a precaution before things get out of hand. Oh, and…”

“Hm? And…?”

“Well, you know… gotta keep my body in shape so I won’t be embarrassed if someone ever sees me naked, right? Haha.”

“Oh, that makes—wait, what?! N-naked?! W-What do you mean by that…?”

“Huh? I mean exactly what I said. Haha.”

“Huh?!”

Hikasa’s face instantly turned bright red, and she looked completely shocked.