Vol. 1 Chapter 1.2 – The Me Who Was Stolen Away, and That Guy Who Stole Her

I met Ena-chan in the autumn of my third year of middle school.

That said, I had known about her since shortly after entering the middle school division of this school. After all, Ena-chan was something of a celebrity among our year.

First, she was smart. Ena-chan was an honor student who belonged to the special advancement class, commonly known as the『Special Prep Class』which only the top forty students in our year could enter. Even in the rankings for regular exams, she was always within the top five of our year.

Next, she came from a good family. Apparently, she was born into an old family that had been running a trading business for generations in this port town where we lived. Though she was not exactly a『young lady of noble birth』like the ones you see in manga, she was what you would call『a young lady from a good family』.

And more than anything, she was beautiful. She had long, raven-black hair like the color of wet feathers, paired with skin as white as snow. Her pale violet eyes, peeking out from beneath her long eyelashes, suited her pure and composed atmosphere perfectly. She was a beautiful girl who was practically the textbook example of four-character idioms like『pure and lovely』and 『Yamato Nadeshiko』. Yamato Nadeshiko¹

Despite that, she never showed off her family background or her beauty in the slightest. Rather, she was the very picture of good conduct, the kind of person who spoke politely to everyone.

Naturally, there must have been countless boys in our year alone who wanted to get close to her.

‘Someone as shadowy and insignificant as me probably won’t even get a proper chance to talk to her before graduation.’

But contrary to that prediction of mine, the opportunity suddenly came.

It happened in November of my third year of middle school, during the cultural festival held every autumn at our school.

At the time, my class had decided to make a self-produced film of around fifteen minutes as our class project. Since I was the only member of the Film Research Club in the class, the script and all sorts of other things were practically forced onto me.

On top of that, the genre was a『youth romance』. To be blunt, it was a theme that could not have been more unrelated to me.

Even so, as gloomy and introverted as I was, I desperately studied youth romance films and struggled through writing the script.

As a result, our film recorded the highest attendance rate in our year, and even when compared to the entire middle school division, it ranked near the top.

That said, most of the reason it was well received was because the girl playing the heroine was a member of the cheerleading club who was popular with the boys. Even the post-screening surveys were full of comments like『the girl playing the heroine was cute』and honestly, I was fed up with it.

But then.

“Are you the one who wrote the script for this film?”

Among all that, there was one girl who went out of her way to come looking for me and said that.

That girl was Ena-chan.

When I asked her, Ena-chan told me that, like me, watching movies was her hobby, and that she often went to the cinema alone on her days off.

Maybe that was precisely why. Unlike the other viewers, Ena-chan paid attention to the structure of the story and the plot that I had worked so hard to come up with, and on top of that, she told me it was 『interesting』.

We had never had any point of contact before then, but since we were both movie lovers, we completely hit it off. The cultural festival became the trigger, and from then on, the two of us started talking often.

“Come to think of it, this Saturday is the release date for that new anime movie, isn’t it?”

“Ah, that one. It looks interesting, but that director’s works are kind of, how do I put it, full-on『right in the middle of youth!』and『bursting with emotional vibes!』right? The audience will probably be nothing but normie couples too, so for a gloomy loner to go watch it alone, the hurdle’s a bit high, you know. Hahaha…”

“Th-then, um… how about if it’s the two of us?”

“Huh?”

“J-just for your information, though. This Saturday, I, um, do not have any plans, you see…”

“…Uhh, then, well… do you want to go watch it together? On Saturday.”

“! Yes, I would love to!”

Eventually, by the time school suddenly entered winter break, we had become close enough to go out and watch movies together.

By this point, I think even we had probably realized it.

We were fellow movie lovers, companions who could talk to our hearts’ content about the works we liked.

But surely, that alone was no longer enough.

Even though we knew this relationship might break, we still wanted to take one more step forward.

It would not have been strange for either one of us to be the first to take that step.

And so, it did not take very long for the relationship between Ena-chan and me to change from『friends who got along well』into『lovers』.

Of course, at the time, I had no way of knowing that it would become a fleeting love that would come to an end after only a few short months.

※

Private Hominato Academy was a combined middle and high school, famous within the city as quite the college-prep school.

Apparently, its mottos were『a free school spirit』and 『cultivating talent that can spread its wings across the world』so many of its curricula and school events respected the students’ independence or had an international flavor to them.

Since it was that kind of high-minded school, many of the students, boys and girls alike, were high-level people. Maybe their good upbringing showed even in their appearances, because the ratio of handsome guys and beautiful girls was high.

However, naturally, there were exceptions among them. In the shadow of those sparkling boys and girls enjoying their glittering school lives, there were also people living out a monochrome youth.

For example, yes, the boy currently in the corner of this Year One, Class Four classroom, making zombie-like groans while wearing eyes like a dead fish. Someone like him would be a good example.

…Well, I’m talking about myself, though.

“Oh my. How should I put it? My condolences, I guess.”

My classmate Higuchi, sitting in the seat in front of me, put his hands together toward me as I lay face-down on my desk.

That was his first response after hearing that Ena-chan had dumped me.

“But from what I saw, you two didn’t look especially hostile or anything. Why did she dump you? Could it be… you forced her into doing something naughty and she ended up hating you?”

“W-what the hell!?”

Without thinking, I stood up with a ridiculously startled voice. The gazes of my classmates, who had been chatting in the classroom, all gathered on me at once.

“Ah, ahaha… sorry…”

While lowering my head with a strained, friendly smile, I lowered my voice and snapped back at Higuchi.

“As if I’d ever do something like that!”

In fact, it was the opposite. In the four months since we started dating after winter break in our third year of middle school, my relationship with Ena-chan had been extremely pure.

Of course, I was also a teenage high school boy and it was not like I had no interest in that kind of thing.

But, above all else, the other person was a young lady from an old family, you know? If a commoner brat like me carelessly laid a hand on her, who knew what kind of punishment would be waiting for me? Despite how popular Ena-chan was with the boys, she had never had any romantic rumors before and I was sure that had to be the reason.

Even without that, she was a pure and honor-student type of girl. I thought she would dislike being touched all clingily like that when we had only just started dating, so I had barely even held her hand.

I had tried my best not to do anything she might dislike.

“Then why did she dump you?”

“That’s… I don’t want to say.”

That she had cheated on me without me knowing and that the person she cheated with was a girl… there was no way I could say something that pathetic.

Well, I mean, I’ve heard that romance between people of the same sex isn’t rare these days and if the other person was that handsome beauty Mizushima, then all the more so. But even taking that into account, as a guy, it was utterly pathetic.

Ahh, seriously. I was such an idiot for getting all excited just because I had gotten my first girlfriend.

“I’m sure I’ll just go on like this, never get a girlfriend again, and die all alone and lonely…”

“Ehh, you think so? Souta, deep down, you’ve always been kind and a good guy, so I think there are actually quite a few girls who’d fall for you. Aren’t you being a little too self-deprecating? Look, even during the field trip we went on in fourth grade…”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks for the compliments. Sheesh, popular guys sure are good at flattery.”

I had known Higuchi since elementary school but ever since long ago, he had always been the one popular with girls. You know, the so-called cute-type handsome guy? He was especially popular with older girls. How enviable, really.

Brushing off Higuchi’s attempt at comforting me, I got up from my seat and left the classroom to use the bathroom.

The nearest bathroom was probably crowded at this hour, so I headed to a less crowded one a little farther away. Homeroom was about to start soon too, so I had to hurry up and get it over with.

“Haaah…If things were going to turn out like this, I would’ve been better off staying single from the very beginning…”

While spilling out that complaint, I washed my hands and stepped out of the bathroom.

“Ah, there you are.”

“…Huh?”

At the person who had been waiting outside, I instinctively widened my eyes.

“Morning, ex-boyfriend-kun. No, it was Sakuhara Souta-kun, right?”

“Y-you’re…!?”

The one standing in my way was none other than the very person who had stolen my girlfriend away just yesterday.

The charismatic high school girl, handsome beauty, Mizushima Shizuno.

“Got a second? There’s something I want to talk to you about….Just the two of us.”

※

“Sorry for calling you out here so suddenly.”

As soon as Mizushima brought me to a deserted stair landing, she said that.

“…What do you want, showing up out of nowhere like this?”

Standing before her, who was, so to speak, my romantic rival, my tone naturally turned blunt.

I mean, what kind of nerve did this girl have, stealing someone else’s girlfriend and then casually showing herself in front of the ex-boyfriend the very next day?

“It’s about Ena-chan. I thought there might be two misunderstandings, maybe.”

At Mizushima’s answer, my eyebrow twitched.

“Misunderstandings?”

“Yeah. You might think I forcibly stole Ena-chan away from you, but first of all, that’s a misunderstanding.”

Mizushima leaned against the wall of the landing and folded her arms.

Her outfit itself was just the normal girls’ uniform, a blouse and skirt, but as expected of an active model.

Even a casual gesture like that looked annoyingly natural and cool on her.

…Wait, why am I praising her!? Popular model or not, she’s my romantic rival!

“W-what exactly is a misunderstanding?”

“Hmm, I feel a little bad telling you this, but… it seems Ena-chan’s feelings had already been drifting away from you to begin with.”

“Huh?”

“She said,『I thought we got along well, so I tried dating him, but in reality, it wasn’t really like that』. So she dumped you and Ena-chan came to me herself.”

“Wha…!? N-no way, that’s a lie. I don’t believe it.”

I mean, we had been getting along just fine together until just the day before yesterday, hadn’t we?

After school, we stopped by places together almost every day, and of course, on days off, we even went on dates together. We had never had so much as a single argument.

Ena-chan’s feelings had been drifting away? She had never shown even the slightest sign of that…

“Well, I’m only telling you what I heard from her, so whether you believe it or not is up to you.”

Even as I desperately denied it, Mizushima continued speaking as calmly as ever.

“It’s true that after ending up in the same Special Prep Class, I started chatting with her about all kinds of things and we became close enough that she would consult me about various things. But if she so easily switched from you, who she’d been dating for four months, to me, who she’d only known for one month… then doesn’t that mean that’s just how it was after all?”

Our school was a combined middle and high school. The students in the middle school division advanced into the high school division through an escalator-style system.

In addition to that, every year, there were those 『external advancement students』who took the entrance exam from other middle schools and entered our high school division. Mizushima was one of them.

So just as Mizushima said, she and Ena-chan should have only met one month ago.

And yet, the fact that she abandoned me and chose her meant…

“N-no way… Ena-chan…”

No, wait. If I thought about it carefully, wasn’t the fact that she had dated a gloomy otaku like me for four whole months already something like a miracle in itself?

I had thought we were getting along well, but maybe, somewhere I did not know about, I had actually disappointed Ena-chan.

For these past four months, maybe I was the only one who thought it was『fun』and that『we got along』.

Just as Mizushima said, maybe Ena-chan had already grown cold toward me long ago…

“Man, when you make such a sad face, the guilt really is insane.”

“S-shut up! You’re the last person I want to hear that from! Actually, did you call me out here just to say something like that? Stealing her from me and then kicking the corpse afterward? What a nice hobby you’ve got. Bring it on!”

Rubbing hard at the corners of my eyes, which had gotten a little teary, I glared sharply at Mizushima.

It felt like the match had already been decided long ago, but unless I at least talked back this much, I would not feel satisfied.

“Haha. Is that a line from some movie?”

But Mizushima did not show the slightest sign of taking offense at my sour grapes. Instead, for some reason, she broke into a broad grin and came striding toward me.

“Now, now, calm down. I said there were two misunderstandings, didn’t I?”

“Huh?”

With a fufufu, wearing an ominous smile, Mizushima brought her face closer and closer to mine. Maybe she was wearing perfume, because a sweet fragrance like osmanthus drifted from her body.

Shaken by that beautiful face suddenly closing in at point-blank range, I instinctively backed away.

“W-wait, you, what are you trying to do!?”

At last, I was driven all the way back against the wall, and I had no more room to retreat.

Mizushima planted her hands on the wall on both sides of me. In other words, in a pose like she was doing a wall slam with both hands, she stood directly in front of me, blocking my way.

For a first-year high school girl, Mizushima was quite tall. Since she was almost the same height as me, she had to be at least over one hundred seventy centimeters tall. Facing her like this, she was pretty intimidating.

“You might have thought that my target was Ena-chan, but that’s a misunderstanding.”

“W-what are you talking about…?”

“The one I really want is you, Souta.”

When I suddenly realized it, Mizushima’s cheeks were faintly flushed red, and she was staring at me with an expression that looked somehow entranced.

It was different from her usual cool, boyish look… how should I put it? Maybe it was the face of a female leopard that had cornered its prey. I had never seen that Mizushima Shizuno make a face like this before.

Actually, did she just call me by my first name without honorifics?

“H-hey, Mizushima?”

As I stood there confused by her completely changed atmosphere, Mizushima blurted out something even more outrageous.

“Hey, Souta. Go out with me.”

※

“…What the hell is that girl after?”

Lunch break came after I finished the morning classes with my mind still in a tangled mess.

As I walked down the hallway leading to the school store, I looked back on what had happened that morning.

“Go out with me.”

After that shocking line came flying out of Mizushima’s mouth…

The chime signaling the start of morning homeroom rang at just the right time, and in the end, we broke things off there.

As she left, she said something like,『We’ll continue this talk later』but… honestly, I had no idea what she was thinking.

Her real target wasn’t Ena-chan, but me?

After stealing Ena-chan away from me, now she was telling me to『go out with her』?

“No good, my head’s getting all mixed up… Ah.”

Still furrowing my brow, I arrived at the school store and spotted a familiar girl among the line of students waiting their turn.

“Ena-chan…”

In the direction I was looking, Ena-chan was standing in line and chatting with two girls who seemed to be her friends.

She smiled with a hand over her mouth, made a troubled face at one of her friends’ jokes, and somehow looked like she was having fun.

Ahh, Ena-chan really is cute after all.

Hey, can you believe it? Until just the day before yesterday, that girl was my girlfriend.

“…Ah.”

As I ended up staring at her, my eyes suddenly met Ena-chan’s.

For an instant, her eyes widened as if in surprise, but even so, she immediately looked away from me.

Apparently, she would not even meet my eyes anymore.

“Haa… Girls are scary…”

Feeling like I might start crying a little, I trudged over and lined up in a different line from the one Ena-chan and the others were in.

Sad as it was, no matter how depressed he might feel, a growing high school boy’s stomach still gets hungry regardless.

“Okay, next person!”

Eventually, my turn came, and the lady at the school store urged me to order.

“Um, one special croquette bread and one chocolate cornet, please.”

“Ahh, sorry! Both of those just sold out!”

“Eh, ah, I… see.”

“We still have some koppepan left, though!Do you want it?”

[Koppepan (コッペパン) is a classic, oblong-shaped Japanese bread similar to a hot dog bun, but typically lighter, softer, and more fluffy]

The lady seemed like she wanted to quickly finish my order and move on to the next person.

Swept along by her hurried words, I reflexively answered,『Ah, then, koppepan, please』.

“Of all days, they had to be sold out today…What an unlucky day.”

It was a day that kept wearing down my mental strength. Holding the koppepan I did not even want to eat, I left the school store.

Then, as I wandered around the school building, trying to find somewhere quiet to get through lunch break…

“Ei.”

“Adweh!”

Something suddenly hit my back and I turned around on reflex.

Th-this familiar husky voice was…

“Yo, Souta. Been a little while.”

Sure enough, when I turned around, Mizushima was there.

In her hand was a small plastic bag. Apparently, that was what she had just thrown into my back.

“…What? Do you still need something from me?”

“Of course I do. I thought we could continue our talk from earlier.”

Saying that, Mizushima lifted up the plastic bag in her hand.

Inside were bread and boxed drinks that she had apparently bought from the school store.

“Want to eat lunch together?”

“Huh? Why would I eat with someone like you?”

“Ehh, come on, why not? It’s super rare, you know? Me inviting someone to lunch myself.”

True, this was an invitation from the Mizushima Shizuno-sama, the popular model and charismatic high school girl.

If it were an ordinary boy, no, even a girl, they would probably happily follow her. Rather, most people would surely be the ones begging,『Please let me join you』.

However, right now, this woman was nothing more than the sworn enemy who had stolen my girlfriend.

Having a nice friendly lunchtime together? No thank you.

“No. Actually, what about Ena-chan…Satomori-san? Wouldn’t you rather spend time with your『lover』than with me?”

At my words, spat out like that, Mizushima gave a bitter smile.

“Now, now, don’t say that. Let’s eat lunch together. Come on, Souta?”

“Shut up. You’ve been acting way too familiar, calling me Souta, Souta since earlier. I told you, no.”

“Even if you say that, look, I already bought your share of special croquette bread and chocolate cornet too. These are your favorites, right, Souta?”

“Mm…”

Mizushima showed me the contents of the plastic bag. Inside, there really was enough bread for two people.

“…Why do you know my favorites?”

“I heard it from Ena-chan before.”

Ena-chan had told Mizushima something like that?

Had she been complaining about how childish my tastes in food were, or something…?

“So, okay? Let’s have lunch together. Besides, one koppepan like that won’t fill you up either, right, Souta?”

As Mizushima said that, she pushed the special croquette bread toward the tip of my nose, and despite myself, my stomach growled, gugyururu.

Damn it, at least at a time like this, read the room and stay quiet, my appetite!

“Fufufu. Even if your mouth says no, your body is honest, isn’t it, Souta?”

“Don’t say it in such a weird way!”

I roughly took the croquette bread being pushed at me.

“…Once I’ve eaten, I’m leaving right away.”

“Then it’s decided. Yay.”

When I reluctantly agreed to share a table with her, Mizushima gave a small fist pump, looking genuinely happy from the bottom of her heart.

Then she spun around and prompted me with,『Okay, let’s go』.

When I had no choice but to follow after her, we eventually arrived at the rooftop of the main school building.

“Mmm, the breeze feels nice.”

The spacious rooftop, surrounded around the outer edges by a tall fence, even had a small garden and benches.

The weather was nice too, and on top of that, it seemed that no one else was there right now except us. It certainly was the perfect place to spend a leisurely lunchtime.

Well, I had no intention of staying long, though.

“So, what’s this continuation of our talk?”

Since I wanted to get this over with and leave, I cut straight to the point.

『So impatient』Mizushima said with a shrug, then slowly brushed up her hair as it fluttered in the gentle breeze.

She herself did not seem aware of it but now the whole scene looked even more like the cover of a fashion magazine. Seriously, this girl’s looks alone really were ridiculously good.

“Let me hear your answer.”

“『Answer』…? You mean about that thing this morning?”

“Yeah. That.”

“How stupid. Who would take a lie like that seriously?”

When I snorted and laughed it off, Mizushima tilted her head with a blank look.

“A lie?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

It was something I had vaguely sensed already.

That she was actually after me, not Ena-chan, or that she wanted to go out with me.

All of that had to be lies meant to tease me and have fun at my expense.

I could not think of any other reason why a high-level girl like Mizushima would approach an unimpressive background character like me.

“The fact that you stole my girlfriend… I’ll let that go for now. No, actually, I won’t, but still. If Ena-chan really got sick of me, then I’m sure that was because I wasn’t good enough. It just means I…wasn’t a man worthy of standing beside Ena-chan.”

From Ena-chan’s attitude earlier, I had fully understood that there was already no place for me in her heart.

Whoever Ena-chan chose to date, it would be completely out of line for her ex-boyfriend, me, to butt in now and complain about it.

“So I’m not planning to tell you『give Ena-chan back』anymore. In exchange, you leave me alone too. Bullying a loser like me isn’t that much fun, right?”

After saying my piece, I bit into the special croquette bread Mizushima had given me, half out of desperation.

The sourness of the sauce soaked into the bread somehow felt stronger than usual.

“…Pfft.”

Mizushima had been listening to me with a blank look, but before long, she put a hand over her mouth and started giggling.

“Hey, what’s so funny?”

Was she still trying to make a fool of me even at this point?

I was starting to get genuinely irritated, but the words that came out of Mizushima’s mouth were unexpected.

“Sorry, sorry. I just thought you were misunderstanding things in a really weird direction.”

“Misunderstanding?”

This time, it was my turn to stare blankly.

Mizushima relaxed her brows, which had been slanted in a troubled shape, and opened her mouth.

“I have absolutely no intention of bullying you, Souta.”

“Huh? Then what exactly did you mean by telling me to ‘go out with you’…?”

“Obviously, it’s because I like you, Souta.”

Mizushima said it with a face like it was the most natural thing in the world.

A confession of love, delivered so casually. For a moment, I could not understand what I had just been told, and I froze like a statue with the half-eaten croquette bread in one hand.

“Huh? Hellooo, are you okay?”

Right in front of my eyes and nose, Mizushima’s delicate palm waved up and down.

Snapping back to my senses, I took two, then three steps backward.

“Y-you, just now, what did you…?”

“Hm? Like I said, I like you, Souta. Oh, and of course, I mean as someone of the opposite sex.”

No, no, no, this was weird. It was definitely weird.

Mizushima, the school’s number one handsome beauty, a popular model and charismatic high school girl, who could surely pick anyone she wanted, whether guy or girl.

Out of all people, she liked someone like me, who was practically no different from a background character?

Impossible. It was just as shocking as when Ena-chan confessed to me. No, maybe even more shocking than that.

“…Are you still trying to mess with me?”

Those were still the only possibilities I could think of.

But Mizushima met the suspicious gaze I directed at her head-on with an extremely serious expression.

“No. That’s not it.”

“Th-then… you’re serious?”

“I’m serious. I have been from the start.”

Honestly, if you asked whether I could believe her one hundred percent, the answer would be no.

She always kept up that aloof attitude, and I had absolutely no idea how much of what she said and did was a lie and how much was serious.

That said, if you asked whether I could declare that Mizushima was lying, the answer to that was also no. That was how serious her current attitude looked.

“Okay? So, go out with me.”

She liked me. That was why she wanted to go out with me.

If that was the case, then the logic made sense.

“Ena-chan was the one who approached you herself, and then after only four months, she switched over to someone else, right?”

Certainly, even if it had been because I was pathetic…

“But I’m different. I really like you, Souta. No matter what happens, I won’t ever betray you.”

If I only looked at the facts, maybe it was true that Ena-chan had betrayed me.

“So, okay? Choose me. Not some loose woman like her.”

At Mizushima’s tempting words, which even gave off a somewhat bewitching feeling…

“…No. Normally speaking, that’s impossible, though.”

Even so, I firmly shook my head.

“…Eh? Why?”

At my answer, Mizushima blinked in genuine confusion from the bottom of her heart.

Her face said that she had never even imagined she would be rejected. Was this girl serious?

“Listen… Let’s say I give you a hundred steps, no, a thousand steps. No, let’s say I concede as much as I possibly can, and you really are confessing because you truly like me. Even then, did you really think I’d say,『Okay, let’s go out』?”

“Eh, yeah.”

An instant answer? Why are you so confident of victory?

“I mean, Souta, you’re single right now, aren’t you?”

“That’s not the problem…Wait, the reason I became single is partly your fault, isn’t it!?”

While muttering something idiotic with an utterly serious face, Mizushima tightly folded her arms in front of her chest.

Her ample twin peaks, clearly visible even through her blouse, were pushed up with a gui, so even while retorting, I found myself troubled over where to look. Was this girl really a first-year high school student… No, that was not the point.

“You already have Ena-chan as your lover, don’t you? On top of that, going out with me too would be completely cheating.”

While averting my eyes from Mizushima’s chest, I sharply thrust that perfectly sound argument at her.

Even so, Mizushima’s expression remained completely unconcerned.

“Isn’t it fine? Ena-chan is my girl lover and Souta is my boy lover. See, they’re properly separated, so there’s no problem. Actually, my real favorite is Souta in the first place.”

“No, that logic is weird.”

This girl…even though she was smart, could she possibly be an idiot?

No, maybe to a super outgoing person like Mizushima, having multiple lovers was completely normal? If so, then for a gloomy person like me, this was a story from a completely different world.

“Haa… Hey, Mizushima-san. Try thinking about it from my position a little.”

It was true that Mizushima was beautiful, popular and someone everyone admired.

Whether she was saying it from the heart was extremely doubtful but honestly, if I said I was not happy at all to be told『I like you』by a girl like her, that would be a lie.

However, even so, the fact that she was my sworn enemy did not change.

No matter how popular she was or how good-looking she was, the idea of a mouse seeing a cat as a romantic interest was absurd.

“To put it simply, first of all, it would be cheating and on top of that, I don’t like you that way. So I’m not going out with you. That’s all. Got it?”

When I said that firmly, Mizushima, who had been keeping a cool expression until then, frowned in dissatisfaction for the first time. Contrary to her usual mature self, she puffed out her cheeks sulkily like a child.

“What’s with those rebellious eyes?”

“Souta, you’re so stingy. Come on, going out with me isn’t that big of a deal.”

“Stingy is fine by me. Is the conversation over? Then I’m heading back soon.”

Saying that, I started walking toward the rooftop door.

“Then let’s have a match.”

“Huh? A match?”

Now she had started saying something incomprehensible again.

When I reluctantly turned back around, Mizushima had a mischievous smile on her face.

“One month.”

Mizushima held up her slender index finger, delicate like a whitefish.

“Go out with me as a『trial』for just one month. Then, one month later, I’ll confess to you again. If you can reject my confession then, just like you did today, you win. When that time comes, I’ll give up gracefully. I promise I won’t keep coming after you.”

Mizushima paused there for a moment, then came striding right up in front of me.

The index finger she had been pointing straight up toward the sky was now pressed lightly against the area of my heart over my uniform. It felt like she was pointing the muzzle of a gun at me.

“But if you accept my confession, then I win. Souta will have to quietly become my lover. In other words, this is a match to see whether I can capture Souta’s heart in one month.”

“No, no, what the hell is that? Why do I have to go along with something so troublesome?”

To begin with, even if I did go out with her for that so-called『trial』month, there was no way I would accept her confession because of it.

Because I did not like her. The outcome was obvious from the start.

There was no real benefit for me either, so doing it would just be a waste of time.

“Well? Want to try having a match?”

“I refuse. There’s no merit for me in this match.”

“Then I’ll add a reward. If you win, I’ll listen to one thing you say, no matter what it is.”

Mizushima suddenly brought her lips close to my ear and said that in a whisper.

Her husky voice coming from point-blank range, and the osmanthus fragrance drifting from her silky hair.

With both my ear and nose suddenly stimulated at the same time, I let out a weird『heuon!?』that even made me want to laugh at myself.

“Y-you! I told you, stop suddenly getting so close!”

“Sorry, sorry. So, what do you think? The right to order me to do anything. I think that’s a pretty good merit.”

“Anything, you say…”

“Mm, anything. Naughty things are fine too, you know? If it’s you, Souta, I don’t mind whatever you do to me.”

Mizushima looked up at me with extremely provocative eyes, then stepped even half a step closer.

“A-as if I’d ever give you an order like that!”

I hurriedly averted my eyes from the deep valley that had become visible through the gap in her blouse, then immediately put some distance between myself and Mizushima.

“Ahaha, you’re turning red. You’re so cute, Souta.”

“Shut up! Anyway, I don’t have anything I want to order you to do, and I have no obligation to accept a match like that!”

This time, determined to leave for good, I angrily squared my shoulders and placed my hand on the rooftop door.

I was about to push it open and enter the school building.

“Hmmm… So you’re not confident?”

“…What’d you say?”

At Mizushima’s provocative words, my feet stopped dead before I could help it, and I turned around.

“You’re making all kinds of excuses, like『it’s troublesome』and『there’s no merit』but deep down, aren’t you just worried that I might capture your heart in only one month?”

“Huh? As if…”

“Come to think of it, Ena-chan said something like that too.『I hated how spineless Souta-kun was』. Ahaha, yeah, this really might be one seriously spineless chicken.”

Ka-ching.

I heard the sound of some switch flipping inside me.

Hey, hey, hey. This charismatic high school girl-sama sure was saying whatever she wanted.

I had gone past being angry, and somehow, it was starting to make me laugh instead.

“Ha, haha, hahahaha…After being told that much, there’s no way I can just stay quiet.”

Sure, having my girlfriend stolen was one thing, but running away shamefully from a fight that had been picked with me too? That would be way too pathetic.

If I backed down here, then I really would fall into becoming an actual chicken.

It might be as tiny as a sparrow’s tear, but even a gloomy guy like me had something called pride!

“Fine. I’ll take you up on that cheap provocation of yours.”

At my answer, Mizushima’s lips curled up into a grin.

“That’s what I wanted to hear.”

“Hmph. You can only keep smiling with that cool, composed face of yours for now. Even if you spent a whole year, there’s no way I’d ever accept your confession. I don’t know what you’re plotting, but for this next month, go ahead and waste as much effort as you want!”

“Hmm. That line has『future loser』written all over it.”

“Lo-loser…!? S-shut the hell up!”

Damn it, she really was annoying in every possible way.

As I grimaced after having the wind taken out of my sails, Mizushima smiled at me in amusement.

“Well then, from now on, I’ll be looking forward to being your『lover』Souta.”

And so, the one-month『match』between Mizushima and me began.

However, at the time, I had not even imagined it yet.

That this『match』of ours would end up reaching a conclusion like that.