The Story Of How I, A Gloomy Guy, Ended Up Surrounded By the Top-Tier Beautiful Girls In Class After A Seat Change - Chapter 193-194

Chapter 193: Super Naughty Takeout

In the first-year classroom, I met up with Nozomi Himesaki and we left the high school together.

Maybe because I was with Nozomi Himesaki, the stares from people around us stung as we moved, but I was already used to it from my experiences with the three beautiful girls, so it didn’t bother me too much.

The real concern was something else…

“Hey, Nozomi Himesaki. You said we’d hang out together, but what exactly are we doing?”

“Huh? Oh, right.”

“Right? Look, I’m just a regular introvert, and I don’t know anything about what extroverts do for fun.”

“Is that something you say proudly?”

In reality, even though I was close with the three beautiful girls, I didn’t actually do the kinds of things extroverts did.

Airi Miyama always wanted to play childish games, Yuria Ichinose was an otaku, and Kuroki Rui was always busy.

So honestly, I wasn’t very confident about keeping up with what Nozomi Himesaki wanted to do.

(Nozomi Himesaki is a returnee from abroad, so she probably did flashy things over there. What if she’s super outgoing and wants to go to a disco or a club…?)

“But… if we go to a place like that, there’s a chance I could get taken home by some super sexy older women, right?”

“Sigh… you’re thinking something stupid again, aren’t you? Your muttering is leaking out, Ryota-senpai.”

“Alright! Let’s go to a disco, Nozomi Himesaki!”

“A d-disco!? No way!”

“What? I thought I’d get taken home.”

“Taken home? You mean takeout?”

“No, it’s different… Hmm, maybe like a super naughty takeout, in overseas terms?”

“That makes even less sense.”

Dirty jokes didn’t get through, huh… English is tough.

“Anyway, back to the point. Where do you want to go, Nozomi Himesaki?”

“Uh, well… this is embarrassing, but I invited you, Ryota-senpai, without really having a place in mind.”

Nozomi Himesaki said this with a shy smile, looking a bit embarrassed.

I had assumed she had a specific place in mind and was planning to drag me around like a dog on a walk, but apparently not.

Well, she came to Japan from abroad for high school, so she probably didn’t know much about this area. It made sense.

“If you don’t have anywhere specific in mind, how about we check out the shopping mall at the station? They’ve got an arcade, Animate, and all sorts of stuff.”

“Arcade? Animate?”

“Oh, you don’t know those? Well, those are just examples. There are also cosmetic shops that cute girls like you usually go to, and gacha shops too. I think you’d have fun.”

“I see… I usually come from my grandparents’ house, which is in the opposite direction from the station, so this might be my first time.”

“Really?”

The shopping mall at the station was so packed with high school students from around here in the evenings that it was basically a hangout spot for them.

“Don’t you ever come here with friends? I mean, your class has a lot of gals, right?”

“…”

“Nozomi Himesaki?”

When I asked, Nozomi Himesaki closed her mouth and looked guilty.

“Well… you might have been misunderstanding this whole time, Ryota-senpai.”

“Misunderstanding?”

“I… actually, I don’t have any friends yet.”

“Huh…”

It was surprising… but somehow, it made sense at that moment.

—

Chapter 194: Nozomi Himesaki’s True Feelings, The Meaning of Friends

The fact that Nozomi Himesaki had no friends.

I had vaguely sensed it from her behavior and the way she left the classroom alone.

“So, you’ve had no friends since starting school?”

“Y-Yes… it’s embarrassing.”

Nozomi Himesaki said this with a bitter expression.

I figured as much.

It was odd that she had time to bother with an introvert like me, and despite Kanade Tanaka’s info suggesting she was outgoing, the real Nozomi Himesaki was just cute with no “substance.”

She threatened me using Kuroki Rui but showed no real attachment to her, and despite saying she’d make me her dog, her commands were oddly pure.

For a beautiful girl supposedly on par with the intensely driven Kuroki Rui, Nozomi Himesaki lacked the strong sense of purpose Rui had and felt vague.

“When I first started school, people saw me as unique because I’m a returnee. Not only my classmates but even kids from other classes came to see me or talk to me.”

“Whoa, how famous are you?”

Even Kuroki Rui didn’t get that kind of attention… well, it’s something that’d never happen to a normal student.

“But that was temporary. People stopped talking to me over time, and I started feeling distant from everyone.”

“Distant? Were they avoiding you?”

“It’s… like an emotional distance.”

Nozomi Himesaki stopped in front of a vending machine by the roadside, inserted a 1000-yen bill, and bought two green teas.

“Here, Ryota-senpai.”

She offered me one of the teas she bought.

“Oh, thanks.”

I took it and tried to open the cap… but Nozomi Himesaki stared at me intently.

“What’s up?”

“How did you feel when I gave you this tea?”

“Like, you’re thoughtful.”

“I see… but others don’t feel that way.”

“Huh? Don’t? Wait—”

Nozomi Himesaki snatched the tea from my hand and chugged it down.

“Hey! My tea!”

“Phew… If it was someone else, they’d give this tea back to me!”

“What…?”

With an expression full of frustration, Nozomi Himesaki finished the tea she took and looked at me.

“I said I have no friends, but early on, I got to join a group of cheerful girls in my class. But… they didn’t accept the things I did out of kindness.”

Nozomi Himesaki said this, continuing with sadder eyes than usual.

“When I offered to save seats for class changes, they said they couldn’t let me do that. When I tried giving chopsticks to a girl who forgot hers, she took them from someone else, saying she couldn’t accept mine. They always treated me like I was above them, acting like I was too special. It hurts! I’m just a regular student like everyone else!”

Nozomi Himesaki bared her emotions more than ever, letting it all out.

Seeing her like that, I felt a mix of sympathy for her and for her classmates.

Sure, with a beautiful girl like Nozomi Himesaki, who’s not just gorgeous but also a returnee, it’s hard to see her as an equal.

So I couldn’t entirely blame her classmates.

But Kuroki Rui, in a similar position, didn’t face this because she had Yuria Ichinose and Airi Miyama, who treated her normally.

Did having such friends make that much of a difference in her struggles?

I realized popular people had their own hardships.

“So, you left the group because you hated that?”

“It’s not that I left… they gradually distanced themselves from me. We didn’t click, and the emotional distance was way bigger than the physical one. So before I knew it, I was alone.”

“I see… I think I get what you mean by emotional distance now.”

I hadn’t thought deeply about it before, but Kuroki Rui’s care for Yuria Ichinose and Airi Miyama wasn’t just because they were friends. They were precious because they treated her as an equal.

And… since I got almost daily selfies from Kuroki Rui, was I one of those people too?

“I heard you had connections with lots of girls, starting with Kuroki Rui-senpai. So I thought you might treat me normally, Ryota-senpai.”

“Huh? So threatening me with Kuroki Rui was all to get close to me?”

“Yes… that’s right.”

“You talk about wanting equal relationships but tell me to be your dog? That’s messed up.”

“That’s because! I heard rumors that Kuroki Rui-senpai tamed you like a dog. I thought that was the only way to get close to you!”

“No way that’s true!!”

This girl got way too caught up in rumors.

“But… when I was abroad, people talked to me first, so I made friends easily. I don’t know how to start conversations myself. I worried that suddenly talking to you would seem weird, so this was my only option.”

Nozomi Himesaki seemed less about emotional distance and more just plain awkward.

As an introvert otaku, I’m the type who waits for a beautiful girl to talk to me like in a classic rom-com, so she didn’t need to overcomplicate things.

Though, with few friends myself, I couldn’t say much… but that’s exactly why I had something to say.

“Sigh… Listen, Nozomi Himesaki. After hearing all this, how about we drop the dog-and-owner thing?”

“…!”

“This kind of thing won’t get you the relationship you want… and, well, I’m not satisfied as the dog either.”

Knowing more about Nozomi Himesaki made me think we should end this dynamic.

And now, we could start properly—

“N-No way! It turned out like this, didn’t it? I’m gross, right? I messed with you, Ryota-senpai, and tried to force my ideal friend image on you… I’m sorry! I won’t do this again, and I’ll stay away from you from now on.”

“No, that’s not it.”

I cut off Nozomi Himesaki’s pessimistic words and looked straight into her eyes.

“Let’s be friends from now on, okay? Nozomi Himesaki.”

“F-Friends?”

“Yeah, from now on, we’re not dog and owner but friends. You don’t have to force commands anymore.”

“Is that okay? I did awful things to you, Ryota-senpai, and you’d still be friends?”

“Calling that awful is weird in the first place. Since we’re friends now, I’ll teach you what true super naughty means.”

“Y-Yes… I still don’t get what super naughty is, but from now on, as friends, please take care of me, Ryota-senpai!”

A smile returned to Nozomi Himesaki’s face.

“Alright, enough heavy talk. Let’s go have fun at the station.”

“Wait! What do you mean heavy talk?”

“It was heavy, wasn’t it? Come on, let’s go.”