The Reason Why The Cool Beauty Who Repeatedly Ignores Messages Replies Only To Me. ~The Lonely Beauty Wants To Know The Lonely Me〜 - Chapter 3
Episode 3: First Conversation & Collaborative Work
“Are you not going to apologize for ignoring my lime message?”
Saeki demanded an apology from me with a cold, emotionless tone.
“Well… you ignore others’ messages too.”
“We’re talking about ‘between you and me’ now. Others are irrelevant… don’t change the subject.”
“That’s m-my bad…”
Why am I apologizing?
Saeki does this all the time, she’s the real habitual offender here.
“Hey, Saeki is talking to someone.”
“Who’s that guy next to her?”
Because Saeki and I were talking, other students in the hallway were looking at us curiously.
This is bad…
If it gets out that Saeki and I were talking in the hallway, it might cause trouble with those guys targeting Saeki.
Sweat started to trickle down my face.
“Are you okay? I’m not mad at you anymore.”
“That’s not it. Anyway, I wasn’t planning to apologize—”
Just as I was about to say that someone approached us from next door.
When I turned to see who it was—
“Apology? In that case, why don’t you do it right now, Kotoku Okami?”
Approaching us from the staff room was Masami Tanabe, the head of our year and our Modern Japanese teacher.
She’s the type of female teacher you’d find in any high school, always lecturing students somewhere, with a quick temper.
“And not just Kotoku, but you too, Yukine Saeki.”
Huh, Saeki too?
Does that mean she was called out by Tanabe for the same reason I was?
“You both couldn’t even submit your notes despite me telling you guys that I’ll collect them after class… you two are rebellious (grumble, grumble).”
I don’t remember much of her lecture after that.
Every word Tanabe said sounded like “grumble, grumble” in my head.
But seeing Saeki getting lectured was strangely refreshing.
Saeki looked bored, with sleepy eyes that exuded a charm beyond a high schooler.
Being this close, I can see that Saeki is on a different level from the other girls.
I felt a sort of familiarity with Saeki since she always seemed alone in class, but… she’s different from me after all.
She’s on a different stage from someone like me, who nobody pays attention to and is always alone.
Alright, I’ll stop getting involved with her carelessly.
If strange rumors were spread among the students like earlier, it’d be a big mess.
“Grumble, grumble.”
But still… today’s lecture is long.
Isn’t she getting too angry just because I haven’t written in the notebook?”
As I was zoning out during the lecture, Tanabe suddenly went back to the staff room, then returned to the hallway and handed me a large plastic bag and gloves.
A plastic bag…? What’s this for?
“Normally, I’d have you write a 10,000-character reflection, but I’ll let it slide today. Instead, you’ll do cleanup. You two have until 6 PM, the end of club activities.”
Until 6 PM… that’s still two hours.
Wouldn’t it be better to write the reflection? Wait…
This cleanup… could it be?
I glanced at Saeki, who was already wearing the gloves.
Are we… doing this together?
“Now both of you, get going.”
Just when I didn’t want any more involvement, the cleanup with Saeki began.
✳︎✳︎
As the track team ran past us, Saeki and I started the cleanup.
The road in front of the school was littered with untended weeds and scattered garbage, something I had noticed before but never thought I’d be picking up.
“……”
Saeki silently collected the littered bottles and other trash along the roadside into the plastic bag.
She wasn’t rebellious or anything, just serious.
But still, she didn’t submit her notes just like me. Was there a reason for that?
“Saeki, why didn’t you submit your notes for Modern Japanese?”
“……”
I thought my question was ignored, but suddenly, Saeki spoke up.
“……I wasn’t interested.”
Her voice sounded more audible than it had in the hallway.
“Interested?”
“If I’m going to read a story, I want it to be something I’m interested in. I don’t like being told what to read by someone else.”
Just a selfish reason, huh?
“Did you rebel against Tanabe for that?”
“…Was that bad?”
“It’s bad, isn’t it? It’s not my place to say.”
Even though she’s cool, I thought Saeki was a bit smarter… seems like I was wrong.
Well, if you think about it normally, since she’s a habitual ‘read and ignore’ offender, it wouldn’t be strange if she had a few quirks, right?”
“Okami-kun is…”
Saeki paused, looking at me as if she was peering into something.
“Why did you suddenly lime me?”
That’s right, she’s going to ask me about the lime thing…
“Tam… no, Michifuji urged me to lime you. So I had no choice.”
“No choice, and yet such a meddlesome lime… you’re quite the odd one.”
Coming from you… how many times is this?
But well, if someone you’ve never talked to sends such a meddlesome message, it’s normal to get annoyed. I might block them right away.
“That was annoying, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, of course.”
Saeki said decisively and resumed moving her hands.
“If you thought it was annoying, you could have just ignored it like you usually do with unread messages.”
“……”
“Why did you even respond?”
“……”
Saeki glared at me but remained silent, showing no intention of speaking.
Though her expression remained unchanged, her unwillingness to answer was palpable.
“Alright, let me change the question. Why do you ignore unread messages? If it’s an annoying lime, you can ignore it, but if it’s a message that requires a response, why not reply?”
“……Because I’m not interested.”
Another “not interested” again, huh?
Is this person basically ignoring anything that doesn’t interest them, whether it’s books or interpersonal interactions?
“I don’t want to waste time on things I’m not interested in. Not the annoying messages from guys in class, nor the friendly messages from girls…”
“So, does that mean you were interested in my message?”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“I’m not getting ahead of anything!”
“Is that so? But I could see a hint of ‘maybe she’s interested’ written all over your face.”
“I definitely wasn’t thinking that.”
Saeki said, “Who knows?” and moved a little away from me.
I still couldn’t understand what she was thinking.
Normally so quiet, she had been unusually talkative for the past few minutes. And there was a hint of emotion in her voice.
“At that time, you just seemed strange to me. You’re usually a lone wolf… but suddenly, you were meddling with me—”
The distance between us increased, and her words became a bit harder to hear, but I think that’s what Saeki said.
“Usually”… does that mean Saeki knows about me?
I thought she didn’t care about me at all…
Without a word, Saeki took the plastic bag and distanced herself from me even more.
Just when I thought she had become talkative, she reverted to being quiet.
Well, this will probably be the last time I talk to Saeki, and I doubt I’ll receive any more limes from her in the future.
Without any further conversation, the two-hour cleanup ended, and I went straight home.
✳︎✳︎
As soon as I got home, I washed away the sweat in the shower, and after getting out of the bath, I picked up my phone, which had been charging in my room.
While I was in the bath, I received two limes: one from Tamari and the other from—.
“Huh… Saeki?”
Ignoring Tamari’s lime for now, I opened Saeki’s lime first.
And there it was.
“Saeki: Good work.”
I thought I wouldn’t receive any more limes from Saeki, but she just casually sent one…