The Day After I Told My Shut-In Genius Childhood Friend, Who’s Highly Dependent on Me, “I Got Confessed To,” She Showed Me a Hypnosis App - Chapter 37

◆ “Kirisaka Shino”

Around the start of lunch break.

I was sitting in the student council room and looked at my phone when a message came in.

I couldn’t help but smile.

“I thought it was about time.”

A girl from the fan club told me the news.

It seems Nanaka-chan’s friend warned Mio-san about her behavior.

I can easily imagine the scene.

Mio-san must have been shocked.

“As expected… not everyone accepts Mio-san.”

In the class where Honami-kun is, groups are starting to form.

It has turned into a quiet conflict between Nanaka-chan and Mio-san.

They are not openly forming groups, but the people around them are taking sides on their own.

The question is simple, “Who should be by Mizumura Honami’s side?”

(Nanaka-chan is clearly ahead.)

I don’t even need to ask. The situation is easy to guess.

Mio-san is certainly very beautiful.

She looks like a princess or a fairy. She’s cute and lovely.

But maybe because of that, she still doesn’t fully understand how the human world works.

“It’s fine to like someone, but she has to watch how others see her.”

Nanaka-chan is especially charming.

And not just her looks, her personality too.

Her smile is open and honest.

She knows how to keep the right distance with people, enough that she can even speak freely with me.

She’s good with others.

Nanaka-chan seems to look down on herself, but that’s not true.

When a pure and straightforward girl falls in love, they naturally want to support her.

She’s different from me.

And different from Mio-san.

“Let Nanaka-chan play the role of the good girl.”

Just then, the person I had been waiting for arrived.

“—Excuse me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry for calling you so suddenly, Honami-kun.”

Honami-kun shook his head with a gentle smile.

“No, it’s fine. Is there still some work left?”

“No. I just wanted to talk for a bit.”

I wanted to speak with him somewhere no one could hear, especially where Mio-san wasn’t around, before he met Nanaka-chan.

“Talk?”

“Yeah. You’re meeting Nanaka-chan today, right?”

Honami-kun’s eyes widened, then he nodded.

“…That’s right. She said you two got closer. Did she talk to you about something?”

“Something like that.”

How I got the information doesn’t matter.

What matters is what comes next.

“Honami-kun. Are you planning to refuse her?”

“Eh.”

I stared at him in shock with his mouth hanging open.

He froze in place.

His face clearly said I had guessed right.

“…W-why. Did it show on my face?”

No. This was only a guess.

From the way I’ve watched Honami-kun, I can tell he treats Mio-san differently from everyone else.

Because Mio-san stopped going to school before, he may still feel worried about her.

With Mio-san always at the center of his thoughts, it’s hard to believe Honami-kun would accept a confession.

…Inside his mind, the shadow of his childhood friend is always there.

But that isn’t good for me.

So, just a little. I’ll plant a bad thought.

“It didn’t show on your face. I just imagined it.”

Nanaka-chan can play the role of the good girl.

If there are whispers of an angel and a devil, then I’m better suited to be the devil.

That’s why I say this because I truly care about him.

With those feelings in my heart, I spoke.

“Honami-kun… don’t you think it’s time you let yourself be a little freer?”

◇

“…Be freer?”

In the student council room, where senpai had called me, she said something like that.

Be freer.

What did she mean by that?

She looked sorry.

“I’m sorry. I was a little curious, so I talked to your friends from middle school.”

“Middle school…”

“They said that when Mio-san was around, you stayed by her side at school all the time.”

My memories came back.

Back when Mio still went to school.

She was bad at talking to people and wouldn’t speak to anyone but me.

Just like she said, I stayed by her side, thinking it couldn’t be helped.

“…Yes. That might be true.”

“I think that itself is a good thing. You worry about your childhood friend. That’s normal.”

But then she added.

“—But don’t you think there’s room to wonder if it was really good?”

I needed a moment for her words to sink in.

“…Huh?”

“This is only a guess. Maybe she could have managed to try on her own. But if someone is always there to help, she doesn’t need to use that strength. And over time… that strength can fade away.”

My head felt a little unsteady.

…I understood what she was trying to say.

I’ve always worried about Mio.

I worry so much that I feel I must stay by her side.

On my own, without being asked.

But was that wrong?

When I’m beside her, I solve the problems for her.

The step Mio should have taken herself might already have been taken by me.

Because of me, I may have stopped her from becoming independent.

I couldn’t deny it.

“You don’t have to take it so seriously.”

She stepped closer.

Her slender hand rested against my chest.

A sweet scent drifted toward me, as if drawing me in.

“You can start even now. Mio-san has returned after skipping school. So Honami-kun, you should start supporting her independence, little by little.”

“Even now…”

“Yeah. Just because you’re childhood friends doesn’t mean you have to always be by her side. So, you should cheer her on as she stands on her own, even slowly.”

For her future, too.

Her voice was full of worry.

Every time I heard it, my heart felt pulled the other way.

“Do your best after school.”