The Story Of How I, A Gloomy Guy, Ended Up Surrounded By the Top-Tier Beautiful Girls In Class After A Seat Change

Chapter 157: The Past, Yuria, and an Unexpected Truth?

Yuria took out a comic book from the bookshelf. It was the first volume of Lucky & H.

“Lucky & H…”

Come to think of it, Yuria reacted strongly when she saw the same book in my room before. Was this the work that got her into otaku culture?

“This is my treasure. Like I said before, I got it from a boy I played with at the park once when I was in elementary school. I read it and fell in love with the gyaru character in the story. That’s what sparked my obsession with both gyaru and otaku culture.”

Yuria spoke nostalgically, looking at the book with gentle eyes.

So Lucky & H is Yuria’s starting point, huh?

The title really says it all. It’s a school rom-com serialized in a shonen magazine, full of lucky pervy situations. Knowing Yuria’s love for nyu-kyun moments, I could kind of see how this style might resonate with her.

I opened the comic book Yuria handed me. It was a first edition, so the cover and pages were slightly faded from sun exposure.

“Huh? Hey, Yuria, there’s a card from a sentai show stuck in the middle of this book.”

“Oh, that? I think the boy who gave me this comic must’ve left it inside. I’ve just kept it as is since I never saw him again.”

A wafer card slipped into a comic…

I remember doing that too, sliding spare cards I didn’t need into books to keep them from warping due to humidity.

And this card… it’s a pink sentai hero.

(Come to think of it, I was obsessed with those sentai wafer cards back in elementary school…)

Fuzzy memories from my childhood started to resurface.

I remember… back then, I also really liked the pink sentai hero.

While my classmates admired the red hero with pure admiration, I, a precocious brat even in elementary school, always had my eyes on the pink hero.

The pink hero from the sentai show airing at the time later became a gravure idol with a dangerously alluring body. For a cheeky kid like me, she completely captivated my heart—and, well, other parts too.

During that time, I became a wafer kid, buying sentai-themed wafer packs like a maniac. I would spend my entire allowance at the one local supermarket that stocked them.

When the series featuring my favorite pink hero ended, the wafer packs started disappearing from the shelves. I was disappointed.

It wasn’t like now, where online shopping was a given, and asking my parents to buy a whole box for me wasn’t an option. I was desperate.

Determined to gather as many as I could before they disappeared entirely, I biked all over Natsuhama City to visit every supermarket, convenience store, and candy shop within range, collecting cards and stickers of the pink hero.

Yes, even as an elementary schooler, I was already engaging in what’s now called “oshi activities.”

“What’s wrong, Ryota?”

“Oh, uh… nothing. It’s just kind of nostalgic. I used to buy these wafers too and stash the cards in my comics. Kids don’t like filing them properly, right?”

“Hmm… I see.”

“Wait, Yuria?”

Yuria suddenly looked serene, then firmly grabbed my shoulders and stared me straight in the eyes.

“Ryota, listen carefully.”

“Uh, o-okay.”

“Could it be… you’re the boy who gave me this comic?”

The one who handed Lucky & H to Yuria… was me!?

—

Chapter 158: The Past With Yuria – A Naughty Premonition

Was the boy who gave Yuria the “Lucky & H” manga… me?

In other words, does that mean I was the one who turned Yuria into an otaku?

But could something like that even be possible?

Yuria said she met that boy for the first time and only played with him once.

If it happened while I was wandering around candy shops as a kid, and I randomly stopped by a park, played with Yuria, and then gave her this manga I happened to have with me, it all checks out.

If Yuria’s guess is correct, this would be one of those “fateful reunions” you see in romance manga… but I have no memory of it whatsoever.

Not only do I not remember it, but if it wasn’t me, then the whole story falls apart.

“Hey, Ryota, is it true? Do you really not remember anything?”

“W-Well, even if you ask me all of a sudden…”

Honestly, I barely even remember what happened with Rui back in elementary school, let alone anything else from that time.

It’s amazing that both Yuria and Rui can remember something that happened in just one day so vividly.

Come to think of it, Airi’s wafer incident was the same way. Did they feel such a strong sense of fate in those moments?

“Ugh… Why don’t you remember? Seriously!”

“Sorry, Yuria. But back then, I was just a kid obsessed with the big-breasted lady next door and weirdly influenced by the pervy pink character in superhero shows. I wasn’t interested in girls my age at all…”

“What!? Ugh, come on! I even brought you to my house and showed you the manga! Try harder to remember!”

Yuria grabbed my head with both hands and started shaking it violently, like some old guy from the Showa era trying to fix a broken appliance.

“Seriously, today’s whole point was to make you remember that!”

“Wait, wasn’t the main event supposed to be the maid costume!?”

“Oh, that’s—”

“Yuria’s thick-thighed maid cosplay! Unlimited photo ops, right?!”

“Your enthusiasm is insane… I get it, okay? I’ll wear it properly.”

Yuria furrowed her brows in disappointment and gave me that same disgusted look she always reserves for creepy otakus.

“Geez… You really want to see me in cosplay that badly? Ryota, you’re way too into me.”

“Well, yeah. I mean, Yuria’s thighs—”

Ding-dong!

At that moment, the doorbell rang.