Why Is the Prettiest Girl in School Trying to Talk to a Loner Like Me during Lunch Break? - Chapter 53 - Role

Chapter 53 – Role

The Next Morning

“Momoi-san! Good morning!”

“Morning~”

“Hey, did you see Kinutaku’s drama yesterday?”

Of course, because this girl likes handsome actors, I won’t be able to keep up with the conversation if I haven’t watched it.

“Yeah, I saw it~ He was sooo cool~”

“Right! Right, right? I kneeeew Momoi-san would definitely understand!”

What I need to be careful about here is saying ‘cool’ not ‘interesting,’ because this girl doesn’t want to talk about the drama—she wants to talk about the actors in it.

“Ehehe~ I’m the one who should thank you for telling me about such a drama~”

“Yeah! I’ll let you know if there’s another good drama. Momoi-san!”

“Yeah, please do~”

Break Time

“Momoi-san, hey, listen to this!”

“Eh, me? What~?”

“I was chosen as a regular for the baseball team’s practice match this Sunday!”

“Eh, what’s that! Amazing~!”

This boy probably has feelings for me. But this flow is bad…

“S-so… if you’d like—”

“Momoi-saaaan! Hey! Momoi-saaaan!”

This loud voice is Yamada? Good, a chance.

“Ah, it’s Yamada-kun! What?”

“—wait, huh! Yamada, you!”

“Hey, hey! We’re having a group date this Sunday, Momoi-san should come too!”

“Whoooa! Y-Yamadaaaaa! Why are you inviting Momoi-san to a group date! I asked Momoi-san first—”

“Ah, sorryyy! I have plans to hang out with my little sister this Sunday…”

“……”

“What~ Roger that, then it can’t be helped!”

“Yeah, sorry~ Oh right. So what were you saying earlier?”

“Ah, y-yeah… no, it’s fine. I’ll tell you another time…”

“Yeah, got it. Another time then~”

Well, I don’t know when that ‘another time’ will come…

I’m good at reading the atmosphere.

It’s been that way since long ago. I’ve been conscious of the relationships around me, playing the character of a ‘cheerful classmate’ to everyone, reading the atmosphere around me, and acting so as not to disturb it.

Taking appropriate distance so as not to crack the well-balanced relationships, being careful to prevent trouble in class. That’s my ‘role’ as a person.

There’s a girl similar to me in this class—the Class Rep—but unlike me, she’s trying to ‘control’ this class. The Class Rep’s actions could disturb the class harmony a bit, so I warned her slightly…)

“But now there’s someone I’m more concerned about than the Class Rep~”

Andou-kun… For some reason, he who was a ‘loner’ in class until now has suddenly become close with my ‘best friend’ Sakura recently… That itself doesn’t seem like a problem, but their positions are the issue.

One is a ‘loner’ outside the school caste.

The other is the school’s number one ‘beauty.’

There’s no way the school’s relationships wouldn’t be disturbed when two people from opposite ends of the school caste get close. How much trouble I had secretly controlling the rumors that started when those two became friendly, preventing them from causing an uproar…

“Well, that didn’t work out in the end~”

In the end, all that effort was ruined when some ‘idiot’ made a fuss, causing everything to spread rapidly and turn into one big ‘incident.’

“Calming down the rumors from that time was the most tiring~”

To prevent that commotion from spreading, I spread false rumors to gossip-loving friends, got influential boys and girls on my side…

“Why am I going through all this trouble to prevent rumors about those two from spreading anyway~”

Well, I know why. Because Sakura is my best friend.

All I can do is read the atmosphere, so I’ve been reading the atmosphere around me and acting to prevent harm from coming to Sakura as much as possible.

“Because I don’t know what’s good about him, but Sakura is definitely conscious of Andou-kun~”

That’s why I can’t carelessly interfere. I understand that the Class Rep is somehow pulling strings behind the scenes, but what I don’t understand most is…

“Andou-kun himself~”

No, really, what is he? Even I, who’s good at reading situations and people, have no idea what Andou-kun is thinking. He seems to like Sakura… but I can’t be certain… I can’t read his thoughts enough to wonder if he might be toying with Sakura.

“Because when I heard they went on a ‘date,’ he made a ‘friends declaration,’ but then when I thought they were just friends, the play script clearly shows he’s interested… I can only think he’s noticed Sakura’s feelings and is teasing her~”

I want Sakura to be happy too. So if they both like each other, I’ll support them… but still, I need to trust that Andou-kun is someone I can entrust Sakura to.

So, I decided to talk to him directly.

“Hey, Andou-kun! Let’s eat lunch together today… just the two of us?”

“…Huh? M-Momoi-san!?”

【Bonus SS】”Pile”

“Asakura-san…”

“What is it… Andou-kun?”

“How many light novels are you currently piling up unread…?”

“…Five.”

“Me too…”

“”I know, right!””

“Geez! Why are there too many light novels I have to buy being released this month!”

“Really! Why did I accumulate so many ‘piled light novels’ between the 20th and 25th! Even during the release peak between the 10th and 15th, I don’t pile up this much!”

“No, rather… I feel like I piled up because it took time to consume the light novels released between the 10th and 15th.”

“Come to think of it, I did finish reading the new CA Bunko release after the 20th… By the way, what light novels are you piling up, Asakura-san?”

“The light novels I’m piling up, in the order I plan to read them… First I’ll read ‘The Heroic Tales of the Failed Artist,’ then after that I plan to read ‘The Beautiful Boy Appraisal Group.'”

“Ah! I’m also piling those two. I’m doing the opposite—reading ‘The Beautiful Boy Appraisal Group’ first and ‘Failed Artist’ next.”

“So we were overlapping on our piled light novels.”

“Well, recently there’s been a rush of famous title releases, so overlapping is natural. Maybe… you also bought and piled up ‘that’ new volume that came out yesterday?”

“So… that means you did too, Andou-kun?”

“”One, two, three… ‘Welcome to the World of Grip Strength Supremacy!'””

“‘YouGrip’ is great, isn’t it! The anime was amazing too!”

“Yeah yeah, the story where the protagonist, an ‘ordinary’ high school student with grip strength of a thousand tons who won first place in the World Grip Strength Championship, gets hit by a moped in an accident and reincarnates into a world where grip strength is everything!”

“Right! During the summer survival camp when the protagonist declared to the heroine ‘This world is all about muscles. Protein doesn’t matter,’ I was so moved!”

“That was good! By the way, what else are you piling up?”

“The rest is a new work. I bought the new work by the author of ‘The Bland World Where the Concept of Sushi Toppings Doesn’t Exist.'”

“I knew it! Asakura-san, I bought that too. Maybe in this flow, all five of our piled books are exactly the same…”

“Eh, really…? Then shall we say the last one on ‘ready, set, go’?”

“Should we?”

“”…Ready, set, go!””

“‘Akiya-kun’s Income Theory'”

“‘Under One Umbrella with Saeki-han'”

“”…Eh?””

“A-Andou-kun. What’s that light novel about?”

“Ah, well… ‘Under One Umbrella with Saeki-han’ is about a protagonist who was planning to live alone from spring but due to circumstances receives a curse where he can’t separate from sharing an umbrella with the yokozuna Saeki-han, and it’s the story of breaking that curse. What about yours, Asakura-san?”

“W-well… ‘Akiya-kun’s Income Theory’ is about a protagonist who turns empty houses on his land into apartments and makes life wonderful with his unique apartment income theory, when a NEET freeloader heroine moves in.”

“Wow~ The light novel Asakura-san bought sounds interesting…”

“I’m also curious about the light novel Andou-kun bought…

Hey, how about we exchange them after we finish reading?”

“Sounds good! Then I’ll bring it when I finish reading what I’m piling up now.”

“Yes, I’ll do that too♪”

Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~♪

“Well, the teacher will be here soon. Andou-kun.”

“Right. Asakura-san.”

“……”

“……”

(Wait… somehow my pile of light novels increased!?) (Andou and Asakura)