The Reason Why The Cool Beauty Who Repeatedly Ignores Messages Replies Only To Me. ~The Lonely Beauty Wants To Know The Lonely Me〜 - Chapter 42

Episode 42: To the Campsite!

Beautiful girls gathered at the blazing hot rotary in midsummer.

Yukine Saeki, wearing sunglasses, a white off-shoulder top, and a black tight skirt; Mishiro, who surprisingly donned a cute coffee-colored A-line dress today.

And Machibari, as usual with a ponytail, wore a thin white shirt with a bustier on top and denim pants below, giving an unexpectedly sophisticated impression in her casual clothes.

The girls, dressed in holiday style, each brought a large suitcase, as if they were about to go on a trip somewhere.

…No, what am I saying like I’m some outsider?

No matter how you look at it, this is—.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Kotoku-kun! Everyone!”

Tamari, dressed like a classic heroine from a long time ago, came in front of me and added unnecessary information, “I bought a new dress for today♡.”

Dressed like a classic heroine from the past, Tamari added unnecessary information when she came up to me: “I bought a new dress just for today ♡.”

“Tamari, explain this situation first.”

“Why are you so angry, Kotoku-kun? Even though inside you’re like, ‘Woohoo, a beautiful girl harem trippp!'”

“No, I’m not! I was told it was just going to be you and me camping.”

“Oh, Okami-kun. Are you saying you’d have no complaints if it were just you and Michifuji-san? What are you planning to do, just the two of you?”

Saeki took off her sunglasses and hooked them onto her off-shoulder top, then pressed her index finger against my nose.

“N-No, that’s not what I meant! What I’m saying is—”

“Kotoku, your whining is gross. Save it for later.”

“Mishiro… at least you should be on my side.”

“Why would you say Mishiro should be on your side? Is it because you talk on the phone every night? Or have you and Mishiro gotten closer than I realized? Mishiro did ask me for new clothes, saying ‘I’m going on a trip with Kotoku tomorrow,’ which I found odd. Did you make a move on my sister?”

“Sister… I told you I’d kill you if you said that to Kotoku before we left.”

“Mishiro, you’re also leaking all my secrets to him, so you can’t complain.”

The Saeki sisters glared at each other as usual.

After witnessing Saeki’s rapid-fire talking and the Saeki sisters’ sibling quarrel, I turned to Tamari and asked her to explain the situation once more.

“Well. I never intended to go camping alone with Kotoku-kun from the start.”

“Huh?”

“Because even if I went camping alone with you, knowing how boring you’d be, you’d just read books or play games at the campsite, right?”

“That’s… well.”

Tamari wasn’t wrong. As she said, I had a few paperback books and a portable game console stashed in my backpack.

Considering that Tamari knows me well, it’s only natural she’d invite other friends, knowing I wouldn’t enthusiastically participate in barbecues or beach activities.

“What is it, Kotoku-kun? Are you disappointed it’s not just the two of us?”

As Tamari teased me, the Saeki sisters’ gazes focused on me. Why do they look like they want to kill me…?

While we were talking, the bus we were to take arrived at the rotary.

“Okay, everyone, let’s go! To the seaside campsite!”

Following the overly excited Tamari, the rest of us, not as enthusiastic, boarded the bus.

✳︎✳︎

Since it was a bus departing from the station, there were no other passengers yet. We took the five-seater at the very back, with me, Machibari, Tamari, Saeki, and Mishiro from left to right.

Seeing the Saeki sisters sit on the right corner first, I deliberately chose the left corner… for obvious reasons.

“Okami, it must be tough for you.”

Machibari, sitting next to me, sympathized. She had been listening wide-eyed to the nonsensical conversations of the sisters and the crazy loli.

“Honestly, I’m relieved you’re here, Machibari.”

“Eh? Why?”

“Because, out of everyone here, the only sensible ones are me and Machihari, right? Those three are pretty troublesome in various ways.”

“I’m glad you think that, but… Okami, you’re not exactly sensible either.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re always so twisted in your thinking.”

“Come on… please don’t lump me in with them.”

“Ahaha.”

As we were talking, I felt cold stares from the other side. Was it Mishiro or Saeki, or both…?

“Saeki-san’s sister is cute, isn’t she?”

“Only on the outside, inside, she’s troublesome.”

When I muttered this quietly, I suddenly got a lime message on my phone.

“Mishiro: Shut up. Kotoku, you’re just a perverted, filthy scumbag pretending to be a decent person. I’ll ●●●●● you.”

Her typical Mishiro-style lime message made me mentally insert asterisks. Teenage girls shouldn’t be saying stuff like that…

“Kotoku-kun, you’ve got a lot of beautiful girls around you like Saeki-chan, Machibari-chan, Sister-chan, and me. ”

Tamari, sitting two seats away, looked at me and said.

I could understand the other three, but Tamari’s just a loli.

As I thought that, another lime message came in… from Saeki, of course.

The final boss had finally sent a message.

I thought it would be a troublesome lime, but as expected, it turned out to be a troublesome lime…

“Saeki: Why do I feel like you’ve been avoiding me lately?”

After seeing that lime message, I glanced at Saeki. She was looking out the window.

I wanted to say I wasn’t avoiding her… but I couldn’t make excuses because I was avoiding her right now. Since the home party, the only lime exchange we’d had was her simple question, “Do we have any summer homework?”

“…Geez.”

Reluctantly, I sent a lime message back, “If lime is fine, let’s talk even while we’re on the bus.”

As soon as Saeki saw that, she looked at me and mouthed, “Tsundere.”

I sighed and sent back a lime message, I’m not.”

After that, we had a private conversation over lime that no one else could hear.

We talked about what we did, what books we read… Maybe chatting over lime was more comfortable than talking in person.

Talking with Saeki after a long time was a little, just a little bit… enjoyable.

[Afterword]

So tsundere.

The Overlap WEB Novel Grand Prize Silver Award-winning work, “Apparently, the Current JKl Idol is Interested in Me, a Boring Guy.” is being released on May 25th!!!

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The illustrations are done by the popular illustrator Minori Chigusa!

This is Hoshino Hoshino’s debut work, so please support it!