The Story of Making a Popular Girl Dependent on Me - Chapter 11

It was Monday. I arrived at school later than usual. As I was changing my shoes at the entrance, I suddenly heard a voice from behind.

“Hey, Rokka. It’s rare to see you here of all places.”

“Good morning, Riho. It might be the first time we’ve met here. Shall we go to the classroom together?”

“Sure, just wait a bit.”

Riho said that and took her shoes out of her locker to change. Once Riho finished changing and came closer, we walked side by side towards the classroom.

“By the way, what happened with Setsune after that on Sunday?”

“Not much really. Setsune didn’t contact me afterwards either.”

“I wonder if something happened to Setsune.”

“Who knows? As long as she’s at home, I think she’s fine with her parents around.”

While chatting like that, we somehow found ourselves in front of the classroom before we knew it.

Then, I had a good idea, so I decided to put it into action right away. But before that, I apologized to Riho in advance since it might inconvenience her.

“Riho.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll apologize in advance. If something happens, I’ll definitely help, okay?”

“Huh? What are you talking about…”

Before Riho finished speaking, I took Riho’s left hand with my right hand and intertwined our fingers.

Sensing something, Rio didn’t move at all as I pulled her hand, opened the classroom door, and went inside.

Then, Setsune noticed that I had arrived and ran over with a smile.

Setsune, who had unexpectedly interrupted her conversation with her friends and approached us, suddenly stopped moving and looked at us.

Specifically, our hands clasped together.

At first, Setsune smiled brightly like a flower in bloom, but her smile gradually turned into a darker expression, and now she was giving us a chilling gaze.

To pretend as if she had seen something she shouldn’t have, I quickly let go of Riho’s hand and spoke to Setsune.

“Oh, Setsune, good morning. I’m glad you came over. I didn’t hear from you yesterday, is everything okay?”

“…Yeah, everything was fine. I was feeling really good until just now… until just now.”

Setsune repeated the part about “just now” twice, continuing with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“It’s rare to see Rokka and Katsushika-san coming to school together. What’s going on?”

“We happened to meet at the entrance earlier, so we came together.”

“I see. Happened to meet, huh? I see.”

“Oh, the teacher will be here soon, so let’s go to our seats?”

I said that and parted ways with Setsune, heading to my seat.

At that moment, Setsune’s jealous gaze was directed at me, but I pretended not to notice.

When I sat down, Riho immediately turned towards me and whispered angrily.

“You. You’ve already gotten me involved in something ridiculous. Look! Setsune’s staring at me like she wants to kill me!”

“I did apologize in advance, didn’t I? And I promised to help, so you can relax about that.”

“I can’t relax at all. Seriously, I’m being dragged into this, and there’s no benefit for me. I’m just going to end up being disliked by Setsune.”

“As for that, I’ll explain everything to Setsune after the plan is all done, so it’ll be okay. And about the benefits, how about this: I’ll treat you to sweets since I’ll owe you. How does that sound?”

“That’s not enough. The return doesn’t match at all.”

“Then three times. I’ll treat you to all-you-can-eat sweets three times. Eat as much as you want. So please, just cooperate a bit more.”

“…Make it five times, then. And you have to take my little sister along too.”

“Got it, five times. But I’m not exactly rich, so don’t expect it too frequently from me.”

“I wouldn’t go that far either.”

“Great. Well then, let’s continue to work together in the future.”

With Riho officially on board with my plan, I decided to review the plan with her included.

***

The rest of the classes proceeded smoothly, and during break time, while revising our plans for the future, I occasionally checked on Setsune’s condition.

Setsune was chatting with her friends as usual, but occasionally she glanced at Riho and me. If nothing happened, she quickly looked away.

When I talked with Riho, her expression became slightly more serious, and she looked at Riho with eyes tinged with jealousy.

(Hmm… I’m happy that she’s jealous, but something feels off. I want her jealous gaze to be directed at me. I don’t like the idea of her gaze not being focused on me. Is there any way I can make that happen?)

If I told her directly, she would probably look at me, but doing so would mean I was intentionally making her jealous.

While pondering how to get Setsune’s jealous gaze on me, I casually glanced at Setsune.

At that moment, Setsune’s friend embraced her from behind. Seeing that sight made me feel a bit uneasy, but Setsune is popular and has many friends, so such displays of affection are common. Besides, if I were to get jealous every time, my mental state would already be a wreck.

As I watched Setsune and her friends, thinking about how to get Setsune’s jealous gaze on me, I realized something.

(Actually, friends holding hands is a normal thing, right? After all, Setsune is being embraced from behind by a friend.

Setsune has never seen me do such things with friends, so she’s jealous now. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be fine to directly tell her to look at me instead of the other person?)

Realizing this, I felt like there wouldn’t be a problem in directly conveying this to her, so I decided to tell her on the way home today.

First, I need to make plans to go home together after school, so I opened the messaging app on my phone and sent a message to Setsune.

“Shall we go home together today?”

Soon after, I received an affirmative reply from Setsune, so I started preparing for the next class while thinking about what to do after school.

***

Classes for the day ended, and as I was getting ready to leave, Setsune came over to me with her bag.

“Rokka, are you ready?”

“I’m just finishing up. …Alright, I’m done. Shall we go?”

“Yeah.”

Setsune said that and came closer to the point where our shoulders were almost touching, behaving in a way that seemed to show off to Riho. She glanced briefly at Riho, but Riho seemed indifferent and was preparing to leave.

Feeling like Riho had shown composure in response, Setsune walked beside me with a slightly sour expression and we left the classroom.

For a while after leaving school, Setsune was still a little sulky about what had happened earlier. So, I subtly took her hand while pretending not to know anything and asked her the reason.

“Setsune, you’ve been a bit down since earlier. Is something wrong?”

“…Rokka, you were holding hands with Katsushika-san when you came this morning, right?”

“Yeah, I was. But, we’re friends, so sometimes that happens, right? Setsune does it too with her friends occasionally, right? She was hugged from behind today too.”

“Yeah, but…”

“…Hmm? Could it be that Setsune, you’re jealous of Riho?”

“…”

“That’s it, huh. Setsune, you’re jealous. That’s why you were looking at Riho like that.”

Finally ready to convey the main point I wanted to today, I continued.

“Setsune, if you’re jealous, how about from now on, instead of looking at the other person, you look at me?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. I’m happy that Setsune is jealous, but I don’t like it when those eyes are focused on someone else.”

“…Alright. I’ll do that from now on.”

“Thanks.”

With this, from now on, whenever Setsune gets jealous, the only one in her line of sight will be me.

Generally speaking about jealousy. Initially, being the target of jealousy may feel pleasant, but if it happens repeatedly, it can feel burdensome and heavy.

Moreover, people often unknowingly try to hide their feelings of jealousy. Is it because they don’t want to be disliked by others, or perhaps because they dislike that part of themselves?

However, I feel happy to be the target of jealousy. The fact that someone is jealous of me means that they love me, and I love the special feeling of having that person expose their ugly emotions only to me.

Therefore, it’s natural for me to want to monopolize that jealous gaze, to have it focused solely on me.

Once again, I’m delighted to have made Setsune’s special feelings mine, and as I think about making Setsune jealous again, we headed straight home without taking any detours.