The Handsome Boy I Saved from Getting Beaten on the Train… Turned Out to Be the “Prince” of an All-Girls School - V1 Chapter 14: A-As a Friend, Okay!?

Chapter 14: A-As a Friend, Okay!?

“Haaah… I’m exhausted.”

After what happened earlier—

Calming down the furious, fuming Rei,

Handing off a sobbing Sasaki-san to the other fan club girls,

And walking Rei all the way to the front gates of Eio Girls’ High…

It felt like I’d completed a Level 100 ultra-hard difficulty mission first thing in the morning.

Oh, and on the way there?

Rei still didn’t let go of my arm.

So yeah, I got to be the center of attention the entire walk from the station to the school gates.

Fun.

The stares were painful, man…

But finally, I made it back—

To the safe zone.

My classroom.

My home turf.

…Or so I thought.

Because the moment I stepped through the door, I realized I wouldn’t even get a moment’s peace.

“Good morning, Saito. Would you mind explaining what you were doing this morning?”

There she was—Rinna.

Sitting beside me, waiting like a coiled snake, radiating more pressure than usual.

“Uhh… I’m really sorry, Rinna.”

This time, it wasn’t Sasaki-san’s turn to apologize.

It was mine.

“And what exactly are you apologizing for? Canceling the ride at the last second? Turning off your phone afterward? Or simply… being born?”

“I-I’m sorry for all of it…”

This is bad.

Rinna’s anger level…

It’s at an all-time high.

And yeah, I get it.

I kind of blew off her kindness in a pretty careless way,

So her being mad is totally fair.

Still, just like Rei—

Rinna’s gorgeous, but when she’s mad? She’s downright terrifying.

Even the other classmates were frozen in place, holding their breath and watching like it was a live bomb about to go off.

“Oh really? So what exactly were you doing at Rei-kun’s house?”

“Rei wanted to try taking the train to school again today… So I just walked her there, that’s all…”

“If that’s the case, then why didn’t you just say so from the beginning?”

Well…

It’s hard to say “Because you said I shouldn’t get too close to Rei yesterday, and I knew you’d say no.”

I didn’t have the guts to push back if she did say no,

So yeah—

I handled it badly. That’s on me.

“And judging from how completely drained you look, I take it… You just now realized Rei-kun’s actually a girl?”

“Wait—you knew!?”

I hadn’t even told Rinna yet about the massive shock I got this morning,

Finding out that Rei was a girl…

“When we first met, that girl was obviously shooting hostile glares at me. It happens all the time, you know? I’m chatting casually with some guy, and the girl next to him is ready to kill me with her eyes.”

“If you noticed that much, you could’ve told me!”

“Well, I figured there might be complicated reasons for why she dressed like that. Didn’t want to pry.”

“Oh, so you were being considerate?”

“I just thought, with how ridiculously fragile that wimpy little prince is, I could crush her with pure logic and not even have to hit a nerve.”

“Have a heart, would you? You made her cry, you know. I had to do all the comforting afterward.”

If you’re gonna hit someone that hard, at least take responsibility for the cleanup too…

“Anyway, Saito—I have a little proposal.”

“W-What kind of proposal…?”

Rinna suddenly turned to me with a big, cheerful smile,

And I immediately got a very bad feeling in my gut.

“I’m coming over to your place today, so just be ready for that, okay?”

“Why!?”

She called it a proposal, but she was clearly treating it like a done deal!

“Come on. You don’t need some grand excuse to visit a friend’s house, do you?”

“Yeah, but… you’ve never come over before. You always say you’re too busy with lessons and clubs after school.”

“I’ll just ditch all of that today.”

“T-Then how about we hang out somewhere else? Like karaoke or something?”

Truth is, I’d actually invited Rinna to hang out after school a few times in the past,

But she’d always turned me down, saying she had lessons or practice.

So I figured we could settle on something simpler this time.

“Nope. If it’s not your house, then I’m absolutely not going.”

“Why are you being so stubborn!? I mean, you know I live alone, right? That’s… not exactly the best environment, educationally speaking!”

“But didn’t you hang out alone with Rei-kun at her place?”

“Ugh… W-Well, yeah, but I didn’t realize she was a girl back then!”

“I see… So Rei-kun is allowed, but I’m not. I didn’t realize Saito was the type of guy who clearly ranks his friends.”

“N-No, that’s not what I meant—”

She knows exactly where to poke to make it hurt.

Seriously, Rinna’s personality is evil sometimes.

“Of course… I’m just the girl who gets bossed around and provides a ride when it’s convenient. Someone like me claiming to be Saito-sama’s friend? What a joke…”

“Aaagh, fine! I get it, okay!?”

Yeah…

Once you start showing weakness in front of Rinna,

The battle’s already over before it begins.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“Ooh~ So this is Saito’s room, huh?”

—After school.

Worn down by Rinna’s relentless jabs,

I ended up getting dragged into her family car without a chance to say no,

And taken straight to my place.

Lately, she’d been giving me rides to and from school,

But we’d only ever interacted at the front door.

“It’s nothing special. Nothing exciting here.”

“Yeah, it’s simpler than I expected. So—where do you keep your porn mags? Oh wait, are you the type who organizes everything digitally on your PC?”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to let you in.”

Seriously—

Don’t just start peeking under the bed like it’s nothing.

“At a glance it’s tidy, but the cleaning’s pretty half-baked. You’ll catch something in here. Cough cough.“

“Okay, calm down. You’re like some evil mother-in-law running her finger across the shelf just to point out the dust.”

Come on, this is normal for a guy living alone.

It’s not like it’s a garbage dump you can’t even walk through.

Give me some credit.

Actually—if you’re gonna complain about the dust, maybe just go home?

“Alright then. Looks like this place is worth cleaning up.”

“Wait—cleaning? Hold on, that box you brought… is that all cleaning supplies!?”

So that’s what she was carrying earlier when she got out of the car.

She’d picked up a big cardboard box from the driver before heading up.

“I’ll have you know, I once worked as a maid in another household as part of my etiquette training. So leave the cleaning to me.”

Saying that, Rinna took off her uniform jacket and rolled up the sleeves of her blouse.

With a bit too much enthusiasm, she began laying out all the cleaning tools she’d brought.

“You don’t have to do all that, really—”

“Just let me do it. I actually like cleaning, you know? But at home, the servants always beat me to it, so I’ve been low-key frustrated about it.”

“Okay, don’t say things like let me do it and frustrated when you’re in a guy’s room!”

She’s way too careless sometimes.

—Wait, wait!

“H-Hey! Rinna! Your skirt! Your skirt!!”

Rinna had immediately dropped to the floor to start scrubbing the wood panels,

And since she was still in her school uniform… well, yeah—

The view was not safe.

“Stop yelling! You’re going to disturb the neighbors.”

“Then at least wear these!”

I threw her a pair of track pants while deliberately looking anywhere but at her.

“Thanks! Ooh, wearing a guy’s pants like this… kinda feels like one of those ‘boyfriend shirt’ situations.”

“Less talking, more cleaning!”

“Yeah yeah. Oh, by the way, what’d you think of my underwear? I was wearing those bold purple ones—you know, the kind designed to barely cover the important parts.”

“Like hell you were!!”

“They were the pure white kind, right?”

…Crap.

She totally set me up.

“Ugh… That was dirty, Rinna.”

“Guess I’ll save the flashy underwear for next time. I didn’t have time to prep today.”

“Seriously, how are you such an ojou-sama and still throw out raw, uncensored stuff like that…? Wait—don’t tell me flashing your skirt earlier was on purpose?”

“Yup. And now that I think about it, I’m super embarrassed…”

“You were really willing to go that far just to mess with me!?”

Rinna’s face was red all the way to her ears.

So she was pushing herself after all…

“I mean… I heard that sometimes, if you want a guy friend to see you as a girl, You have to, like, make him notice. You know?”

“What kinda logic is that?”

Still fidgeting, Rinna quickly pulled on the track pants as she spoke.

“Saito, you’re my first ever guy friend. So I want to treasure this bond. That’s why… There’s no way I’m letting some last-minute, crybaby prince take you away.”

“Eh…”

“A-As a friend! As a friend, okay!?”

“O-Okay…”

Hit by the rare intensity in Rinna’s serious gaze,

I couldn’t help but nod without thinking.

“Alrighty then! Let’s clean this place up! Haven’t done this in a while—it’s kinda fun!”

With that, she went back to scrubbing the floor with full focus,

So I couldn’t see what kind of expression she was making anymore.

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