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

Chapter 59 – Ability

“Yamada, take the King’s attack! Absolute-style Power Force!”

“Guaaaaaah!”

“Alright, I win. So Yamada, you’re buying juice.”

“Uwaaaaa! I lost again! Why the hell can’t I beat Andou!?”

(Yamada’s weak, but he gets so competitive and keeps challenging me. It’s a pain…)

“Hey… Andou, what’re you and Yamada doing?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s you, Yoshida. We’re playing shogi, as you can see.”

“That wasn’t the tension of people playing shogi just now… Huh, a shogi smartphone app. But I didn’t know you could play shogi, Andou.”

“Well, I’ve played various board games you can play alone since I was young.”

“Can you even play shogi… by yourself?”

(Because I didn’t have friends! Don’t make me say it, it’s embarrassing… seriously.)

“So, Yamada lost?”

“Yeah, he looked weak so I gave him a four-piece handicap, but…”

“He got checkmated by just the king… That’s amazing.”

“What the hell! I have both rook and bishop, so why did Andou win!? That’s impossible!”

“”Yeah, that’s impossible.””

(For Yamada to lose in that situation…) (Andou and Yoshida)

“Alright then Andou, how about a game with me? Yamada, lend me that phone.”

“Eh! Yoshida, you can play shogi?”

(…Even though he’s bald?)

“Hey… Andou, your face is saying ‘He can play shogi even though he’s bald?'”

“No, I mean… Yoshida, weren’t you in the baseball club?”

“Waaay! Andou, Yoshida may be bald but believe it or not, he’s the baseball club captain! So even though he’s bald, he’s surprisingly smart! Waaay!”

“Sawatari! You always say one word too many!”

“Yoshida! Yoshida! Yoshida! If you can play shogi better than Andou, then play with me! I feel like I could beat Yoshida! After all, he’s bald!”

“Yamada! You just hand over the phone and shut up!”

(I see, Yoshida always had this bald image because he hangs out with Yamada and Sawatari, but he’s surprisingly smart. Well, as captain he probably has to think about game tactics and such…)

“Alright, shall we play? Even game is fine, right?”

“OK, that’s how it should be!”

(It’s after school and we’re supposed to have play practice, but honestly the girls went to take measurements for Asakura-san’s costume and the guys have nothing to do, so we’re just bored. If it doesn’t drag on, one game should be just the right way to kill time…)

20 minutes later

“Grrr… Hey, Andou. You’re… a ranging rook player?”

“No, I don’t particularly stick to ranging rook or static rook, but since Yoshida seems to have played shogi before, I just thought ranging rook would be harder to deal with.”

“…You’re surprisingly nasty, aren’t you?”

“I special summon a silver from my captured pieces! And, check!” Pachi

“Wait! You’re going for checkmate here!? Uh, I’m not mated… right?” Pachi

“Furthermore, I special summon a knight from my Extra Deck (captured pieces)!” Pachi

“Ugh! Royal fork!? Even if I escape with the king, my rook gets taken… No, if I don’t take and just go same silver— Damn, I resign…”

“Thank you for the game.”

All the boys: ‘WOOOOOOOOOOOO!’

“Andou wins!”

“Amazing! It was completely one-sided!”

“But for a second there, it looked like a different game instead of shogi!”

(Whoa… somehow all the boys around us are focused on this… Everyone should be practicing for the play.)

Garagara~

“The costume measurements are done— What? What’s all this commotion…”

“Phew, finally finished… Haah, it hasn’t changed much.”

“Come on, Sakura worries too much— Having them big isn’t really that great, you know?”

“Hmph… Someone like Momo who has them can’t understand the feelings of those who don’t.”

“Welcome back, Asakura-san.”

“Ah, Andou-kun! Yeah, sorry about that. The measurements took longer than expected… Everyone waited quite a while, right?”

“It’s fine. We were killing time with shogi.”

“Eh, Andou-kun can play shogi!?”

(Being able to play shogi, Andou-kun is so cool!)

“Ho… Andou-kun. Playing shogi instead of practicing even though you’re the lead? What a nice position you have.”

“Ah… W-welcome back, Class Rep—” ← Monotone

“Don’t ‘Welcome back’ me! Hey, Andou-kun! Is the play practice going to be alright? Have you memorized your lines?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine.”

(After all, I wrote the script so memorizing lines is easy, and as for acting… well, with this setup, I can understand Romeo’s feelings perfectly even without acting.)

“Oh really, if you say so much, shall we see? Can you do the lines from page twelve of the script?”

“Eh, right here and now?”

“If there’s no problem, you can do it, right?”

(Hmm, since I was goofing off, I can’t really refuse… No choice.)

“Ahh— cough… ‘Ah, Juliet… Why must you be Juliet?

If you weren’t Juliet, but just an ordinary, unremarkable girl, I would confess the feelings in this heart to you right now. But as long as you are Juliet, I cannot do that.

Because if I were to confess these feelings, you would lose so many things! I… I don’t feel I could give you anything greater than what you’d lose…

Therefore, I shall take these feelings with me to the grave.

Ah, Juliet…'”

“……”

Everyone in class: ‘……’

Silence

(H-huh…? Did I bomb?)

(Grrr… If he’d been even a little bad I was going to tear him apart, but what is this! It’s too perfect!)

(Andou-kun! So cool!)

Everyone in class: ‘(Damn, his acting is crazy good…)’

“H-hmph! Well, that’s a passing grade, I suppose?”

(Phew… Looks like I passed somehow.)

“I’m glad to meet Class Rep’s expectations.”

“While we’re at it, why don’t you practice too, Asakura-san? You’ve memorized your lines, right, Asakura-san?”

“Of course! I’ve perfectly memorized every single line!”

“Then please do the lines from page five, Asakura-san.”

“Got it! Cough… ‘AH, ROMEO, O, ROMEO… WHY ARE, YOU? ROMEO…?'”

Everyone: ‘—!?!?!? !!!!’

Silence…

(Fufufu! Everyone’s speechless at my acting… That means it’s perfect!)

Everyone in class: ‘(Eh… No way? That Asakura-san!?)’

(A-Asakura-san… d-don’t tell me—)

(Oh man… Asakura-san is a perfect terrible actress…)

【Bonus SS】”Strong Wind”

“Good morning, Andou-kun.”

“Good morning, Asakura-san.”

“Phew— The wind was really strong today, wasn’t it? I thought I’d get blown away by the strong wind on the way to school.”

“Haha, surely it wasn’t that bad.”

“No no, when you came, Andou-kun, the wind might not have been that strong, but until just now it was really incredible.”

“Well, it makes sense for the wind to be strong since apparently some front is doing something or other after yesterday’s typhoon passed.”

“Some front… doing something or other?”

“Sorry, I don’t really know much about weather. That was actually exactly what the morning weather forecaster said…”

“No, the bigger problem would be a TV weather forecaster saying ‘doing something or other’… What kind of weather forecaster is that?”

“Um, it was Yoshi—”

“That’s fine! I get it already… So no more than that, okay?”

“O-okay, got it. Well then, changing the subject…”

“Yes, what is it?”

“When there’s strong wind… don’t you unconsciously smile?”

“……” Silence

(H-huh? Did I bomb…?)

“……I know what you mean!”

“Right!? I’m so glad you understand, Asakura-san…”

“I really wonder why that is? The strong wind is honestly cold and hard to walk in and really annoying, but when you’re in strong wind your heart gets somehow excited.”

“Exactly! Like, if no one’s around, you want to spread your arms and receive the wind with your whole body… that kind of feeling?”

“That’s it! Like… you want to stick out one hand and act like an OP protagonist in a web novel world casually deflecting wind magic attacks!”

“Uh, that’s… not really…”

“……” Silence

(H-huh? Did I just bomb…?)

Suka~n… ← Sound of wind

—
Translation Notes:
– Four-piece handicap (四枚落ち): Advanced player removes rook, bishop, and both lances
– Royal fork (王手飛車取り): Shogi move threatening both king and rook
– Andou uses Yu-Gi-Oh terminology while playing shogi for comedic effect