"You can't kiss me can you?" When I accepted my childhood friends challenge, she unexpectedly softened and is acting like a love-struck girl [Dropped]

Late at night…

Inside a tunnel-shaped playground at a certain park…

There, a young man and woman were leaning against each other.

Whether to ward off the cold or perhaps seek each others’ warmth…

The girl was snugly pressed up against the boy.

The boy didn’t resist this, quietly accepting her advances.

“Hey… Ibuki-kun.”

“What’s up this time?”

When the boy inquired, the girl gazed at his face with a flushed expression.

And then said…

“…Can I kiss you?”

☆☆☆☆☆☆

One day, in the break room of a prep school…

“Sigh…”

A golden-haired, blue-eyed beauty let out a deep sigh.

She slumped onto the table, wearing an expression devoid of motivation.

“What’s wrong with this?”

Pointing at the disheartened Airi, the brown-haired boy, Souta Kuzuhara, asked…

Addressing their mutual friend, Kazami Ibuki.

“It seems she did poorly on the nationwide mock exams.”

“I see, no wonder…”

Kuzuhara nodded in understanding.

However, there was another reason for Airi’s sour mood.

‘Guess it’s that time of the month.’

Early in the morning, Ibuki had been informed by Airi in advance.

Combined with low blood pressure, she seemed really unwell.

“Was it that bad?”

Asking so, a brown-haired girl named Haruna Hazuki turned to Ibuki and Airi.

Not knowing the specifics of Airi’s scores and percentiles, Ibuki shrugged slightly.

“Well… It’s like they dropped a bit, you know? I thought nobody did well.”

“No, it seems like I was the only one who didn’t do well.”

Airi said with a downcast voice.

“But there were so many tricky questions. And considering we were caught off guard with them, it’s not like I should be too upset.”

“Even if it’s coming from someone who got a perfect score…”

Airi responded with a displeased, slightly defiant expression.

Anticipating that trying to console her might provoke more anger, Ibuki chose to remain silent.

“Still, Airi-san’s grades aren’t really that bad, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

At Haruna’s words, Airi’s mood brightened just a bit.

Airi’s grades weren’t exceptionally poor.

In fact, they were on the better side.

“But, you know, my top choice is marked as an E right now. I was hoping for at least a D, but unfortunately…”

Sighing, Airi continued.

“Well, well, an E ranking is considered good, you know?”

“Actually, if you get a D ranking at this point, it’s a sign you can raise your chances to get into your preferred school.”

Both Haruna and Kuzuhara attempted to comfort Airi.

…Or rather, it’s likely that their own rankings are also E.

From their tone, it sounds like they purposely set their first choice to be an E.

“That’s true, but… I know someone who has an A ranking as their first choice.”

“…At this time of year?”

“He should just aim higher. What a coward.”

“According to him, he can’t raise his preferred choice any further, you know?”

Saying so, Airi’s gaze turned towards Ibuki.

Both Haruna and Kuzuhara looked at Ibuki as well, wearing expressions that said, “Ah, I see…”

Ibuki, feeling a bit left out, scratched his cheek.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

And then, after the prep school ended.

“Whoa… it’s raining.”

Airi looked up at the sky and mumbled. Then she glanced at Ibuki as if signaling him to do something.

Ibuki, understanding the meaning behind her gaze, opened the foldable umbrella he had brought along with him for both of them.

“You could have checked the weather forecast, you know. What were you doing? Hurry up and get under.”

“Thanks…”

Airi hurriedly stepped under Ibuki’s umbrella and thanked him.

In the rain, the two of them shared the umbrella on their way home.

“Ibuki-kun, do you… show your parents your test results?”

“If they ask, I’d show them. I don’t hide it, I guess. But I don’t go out of my way to brag about it.”

Responding to Airi’s question, Ibuki said so.

At least for Ibuki, his grades weren’t something he found embarrassing.

Of course, he didn’t actively show them off, nor did he deliberately boast about it.

“Hmm…”

“… And what about you, Airi?”

“Well, I don’t really hide them either.”

Saying that, Airi shrugged her shoulders.

It’s not like Airi had embarrassing grades either.

It’s just that she hadn’t reached her desired goal yet.

And while they were discussing these things…

“Well then, see you tomorrow.”

Before they knew it, they had arrived in front of Airi’s house.

Ibuki nodded in response to Airi’s wave as she stood in front of her own house.

“See you tomorrow then.”

Airi entered the house after opening the door, and Ibuki saw her off.

Then Ibuki walked a little and entered his own house which was right next to Airi’s.

Just when he was about to enter his own house…

‘…Speaking of which, what was Airi’s first choice for college?’

He thought of asking about it the next time they would meet each other.

“…I’m back.”

“Welcome home, Ibuki.”

Upon Ibuki’s return home, his mother was waiting there.

Almost involuntarily, Ibuki gave a wry smile.

His mother used to be strict, but now she leaned more towards being lenient. She wouldn’t usually wait for him to return – there were often times when he would delay his return due to detours.

So, why was she waiting this time?

“The national mock exam was today, right?”

“…Yeaah, here is the result sheet.”

Ibuki said this and handed the paper with his mock exam results to his mother.

While his mother earnestly went through the results, Ibuki washed his hands at the sink.

When he returned to the living room, his mother had already made a copy of the paper.

“It’s gone up by one and a half points compared to before.”

“Is that so?”

Ibuki tilted his head as he received the original paper from his mother.

He didn’t remember the results from several months ago, especially the fine details like individual score differences.

If it had gone up by five or more points, he would probably notice, but anything less than that, he wouldn’t be able to discern the change from before.

“Yes. Your math score has improved. Did you work hard?”

“There were a lot of tough questions, so maybe my scores in other subjects dropped.”

He was only able to solve problems that others couldn’t. He didn’t feel like he put any special effort into math, nor did he consider himself particularly good at it.

Ibuki recognized that exams can be unpredictable, with some fluctuations in scores. And even if he had slipped a bit, he thought it wouldn’t be a big problem.

Ibuki had that level of confidence in himself.

“Is that so? But…”

“Mom… Can we talk about this after dinner?”

The time was already past eight and he was really tired.

Considering he had only eaten a light snack before his prep class earlier, he was quite hungry.

“I suppose so… By the way, what do you think we’re having for dinner today?”

“Fried chicken?”

“Correct!”

His mother said with delight as he guessed the answer to her question correctly.

☆☆☆☆☆☆

…After a while, Ibuki was having dinner in his room.

“Ibuki!”