Why Is the Prettiest Girl in School Trying to Talk to a Loner Like Me during Lunch Break? - Chapter 39 - Reward

Chapter 39: Reward

“Asakura-san, how wonderful. You got 100 points from Andou-kun.”

“Yes, I’m so happy!”

(Good. Now Asakura-san is smiling again—)

“Because I get to receive Andou-kun’s ‘reward’ that I thought I’d missed out on!”

“Ah…”

(Oh craaaap! That’s right! I have to give Asakura-san a reward since she got 100 points! I completely forgot! Wait, if I hadn’t done anything, there wouldn’t need to be a reward, so what the hell am I doing! Damn it… I should’ve just—

‘Ah~ so close. Oh well, I’ll give you 1 point to make it 99.’

—said something like that!)

“A-Andou-kun… you just said ‘ah,’ don’t tell me…”

“Huh? There’s no… reward from Andou-kun?” dejected

(Th-this is bad! Class Rep noticed my panic and figured out there’s no reward! And Asakura-san is that disappointed just because there’s no reward from someone like me!?)

“No no no! I-it’s true I don’t have Asakura-san’s reward right now, but I’ll prepare it immediately!”

“Andou-kun, what do you mean? If you don’t have one, I think it’s better to say so upfront.”

“I’m desperately thinking right now, so Class Rep, please be quiet!”

“Andou-kun, I wasn’t really expecting a reward that much, so it’s fine if there isn’t one.”

“A-Asakura-san…”

(Asakura-san! What a kind person!)

(That’s a lie! I actually REALLY want Andou-kun’s reward! B-but… those words Andou-kun gave me earlier already felt like a reward to me~ Well, I guess I can forgive him this time!)

(But no, I can’t! I promised to give Asakura-san a reward if she got 100 points. And since I’m the one who certified her 100 points, I want to give her a reward that will make her happy!

But what kind of reward would make Asakura-san happy… Think! For example, rewards I’d be happy to receive from Asakura-san would be—

• A kiss on the cheek!
• Reading light novels we’d both enjoy together
• The reward is… me ♪

What am I, an idiot!? There’s no way Asakura-san would be happy with those! There’s no way the school’s number one beauty would be happy with a ‘kiss on the cheek’ or ‘reading light novels together’ or ‘I myself am the present!’ from a loner like me!

Damn it, at this rate—)

“Asakura-san, I’m sorry! I couldn’t prepare any reward that would make you happy!”

(Last resort: prostration!)

“Wait! A-Andou-kun! You don’t need to suddenly prostrate yourself. I’m really fine without a reward. After all, this test that Andou-kun graded as 100 points is the best ‘reward’ for me.”

“Asakura-san…”

(What a kind person… My graded test has no real value, yet she calls it a ‘reward’—)

“Well, knowing Andou-kun, I figured as much… Fufu, Andou-kun! So as your kind Class Representative, I’ll grant you a good suggestion!”

“A good suggestion…?”

“Right. The reason Andou-kun couldn’t prepare a reward is because you didn’t know what would make Asakura-san happy, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then have Asakura-san herself choose the reward Andou-kun will give her!”

“…Oh.”

“Eh, Class Rep?”

“Think about it, Andou-kun. In the first place, thinking that a loner like you could choose a present that would make Asakura-san happy is the mistake.”

“…That’s true.”

“Ehhhhh! Andou-kun!?”

(Don’t agree with her, Andou-kun! I’d be happy with any reward you choose!)

“So, since tomorrow is a day off from school, you two should go into town together, look around while walking with Asakura-san, find something she’d like, and give that as a present.”

“Ohhh! That’s brilliant, Class Rep! Let’s do that! Is that okay with you, Asakura-san?”

“Eh! Ah, yeah.”

“Then, Andou-kun, I think meeting at the station would be good.”

“Okay, what time?”

“Obviously before noon, at 12!”

“I don’t know what’s obvious about that, but got it!”

“Um…”

(Andou-kun, isn’t that… normally called a ‘date’? Hau!? Which means… tomorrow I’m going on a date with Andou-kuuuuun!!!)

[Bonus Story] “Andou-kun’s Day”

Cock-a-doodle-doo! ← Bird sounds

Morning

7:00 AM – Wake up

“Onii-chan! It’s morning already! You’ll be late for school!”

I’m a morning person. So I always wake up early, shower quickly, and eat breakfast quickly as my daily routine. So having my little sister wake me up… d-doesn’t happen very often…

“Mmm… good night…”

“Hey, don’t go back to sleep!”

Not often at all…

7:15 AM – Shower ~ Breakfast

“Geez, Onii-chan! You always wake up too late! I’m going to school first. Oh! Your breakfast is on the table~”

“Yeah yeah, see you~”

“Okay! I’m going, Onii-chan ♪”

“Phew… Now, I have 5 minutes to eat. Itadakimasu.”

My family prefers rice. After my shower, the table has rice, miso soup, and yesterday’s leftover side dishes that my sister prepared.

7:45 AM – Going to school

“…I’m leaving.”

Since both my parents work, nobody’s home after my sister leaves in the morning.

School starts at 8:00, but I leave early. Not ‘early’ as in arriving at school early, but rather—

“7:45… Yeah, at this pace the bell will ring right as I reach my seat.”

That’s right, I simply walk fast to school. I always enter the classroom right as the homeroom bell rings, so I can laze around at home until the very last minute! Thanks to this, I’ve never been late despite arriving right at homeroom time.

7:59:55 – Arriving at my classroom seat

“Good morning, Andou-kun.”

“Morning, Asakura-san.”

Ding dong ding dong ♪

The bell rings right as I sit down. Perfect timing as always!

However, for some reason my supposedly unused chair feels oddly warm…

This must be—Asakura-san’s fault.

What I mean is, someone must have used my chair to talk to Asakura-san during the morning before I arrived… Yeah yeah, Asakura-san is the ‘school’s number one beauty,’ so many people, both guys and girls, want to talk to her. That’s why a loner’s seat like mine often gets taken by those normies targeting Asakura-san.

“Asakura-san, where’s the teacher?”

“Still not here today either.”

“As expected…”

By the way, in our class only, the homeroom teacher doesn’t show up even when it’s time. They usually arrive about 5 minutes after the bell rings. However, since Class Rep keeps watch over attendance, you’ll be marked late if you don’t arrive by 8:00.

“The person who’s late to class the most is probably the teacher…”

“Haha… that’s true.”

So lately, I’ve been spending the time until the teacher arrives quietly talking about light novels with Asakura-san next to me.

8:30 AM – First Period: Sleep

“So… this English sentence is—”

“…”

“zzZZ~” sleeping soundly

English class is honestly incomprehensible, so it’s precious sleep time. Asakura-san is diligently taking notes beside me, but I wonder what there is to write about in such a boring class?

I don’t understand, so I burn her beautiful profile into my memory and embark on a peaceful slumber.

12:30 PM – Lunch time

Ding dong ding dong ♪

“Th-that’s all for today…”

“—!” stands up quickly

“! Ah—…”

“…” walking away ♪

When noon comes, the classroom normies become active, so I evacuate to the convenience store outside school immediately. But sometimes on rainy days or when going outside is a pain, I buy something at the school store and read light novels in the library. Well, in those cases Class Rep is usually in the library and we end up trading barbs.

2:30 PM – Sixth period

“Alright, this formula here… Making up test questions is too much hassle, so I’m just gonna put this on the test exactly as is. Any idiots who can’t score better write it down.”

“…”

“Our math teacher is way too lazy…” scribble scribble

I basically sleep through most classes, but I at least stay awake for math. It’s not that I particularly like math, it’s simply the only class I can keep up with.

But since I can understand most of it by half-listening to the teacher, I use the extra time to solve ahead in the textbook.

4:30 PM – Going home

“Haah… school’s over for today too.”

Once home, all that’s left is reading light novels. Dinner duty rotates, so sometimes I prepare it, but today is my sister’s turn so I’m seriously just going to read light novels besides eating.

Huh? A student’s duty…? What’s that, a new Narou title? An OP protagonist story?

12:30 AM – Bedtime

“Yaaawn… sleepy… time for bed. Oh right… this light novel was interesting, I should recommend it to Asakura-san tomorrow…” zzZZ~

And so, my day passes peacefully once again.