21) Chapter 5. Oh, Come On. (1)

Yeah, yeah, that can happen. Sure.

If you’re chatting about otaku stuff with the first friend you made at school and then some girl who looks like a delinquent with a tightly altered uniform suddenly talks to you, you might freak out a little.

But I still feel wronged.

I’ve lived in this world for quite a while now, but I don’t feel like my personality has changed all that much.

I’ve learned a lot of things since coming here, but that doesn’t mean my tastes suddenly shifted.

Since Soi is always stuck to me, it’s hard to openly show those tastes, but these days I sometimes play mobile games when she’s not looking.

Honestly, my appearance doesn’t look all that gentle, and I do dress like this, but at my core, I’m not much different from back then.

Unfortunately.

…My hope that I’d grow into a stunningly beautiful high school girl and naturally become a super popular social butterfly was, unsurprisingly, not something that would come true without effort.

“You want to be friends with them?”

“Huh?”

Soi must have been watching me earlier when I tried talking to them, because she suddenly asked.

“Uh…”

I paused to think.

Do I want to be friends?

If I had to answer yes or no, then… maybe yes.

The reason I’m unsure is because even though I approached them out of desperation, I’m not sure if I genuinely wanted to become close friends with those particular girls.

I do want friends I can relax around and say dumb things to. But if you ask whether it has to be them, well…

Honestly, I just picked the kids who looked the least intimidating.

…Is that too mean?

“Want me to help?”

“No. Ah.”

I reflexively rejected her offer before I even realized it, then shut my mouth.

Blink, blink.

Soi blinked at me.

“Oh, you don’t want me to?”

“N-no, it’s not that…”

I tried to explain myself, but after cutting her off so sharply, it would be strange if it didn’t look like I disliked the idea.

But what else could I do?

If Soi stepped in, things would definitely get worse.

I only realized this in university, but “looking like a delinquent” and “actually being a delinquent” are different things. Even kids who dyed their hair, wore their uniforms in a flashy way, and hung out in groups were often just nice kids once you talked to them.

But back in middle and high school, my impression of kids who altered their uniforms and hung out together wasn’t great. Even if some of them didn’t bully me, the ones who did liked dressing like that.

And adults always called kids who dressed that way “troublemakers.” For kids who generally listened to adults, that meant they were hard to approach.

I already scared those girls earlier by talking to them first. If the “leader” of the scary-looking group—Soi—talked to them next?

If it were middle-school me, I’d think I’d done something terribly wrong.

“Hmmm.”

Soi narrowed her eyes. The expression she made whenever she thought I was hiding something.

“I-it’s really fine. Okay?”

At my desperate tone, Soi let out a small sigh.

“Alright, alright. If you say so, I guess I can’t help it.”

Only then did I feel relieved.

  • *

Once something starts bothering you, it’s hard to stop thinking about it.

Especially with Soi’s personality. Ever since she was little, once she fixated on something, she wouldn’t stop until she understood it.

Though things were a little different when it came to Rua.

Soi loved Rua. She was her precious little sister. As an older sister, she wanted to do everything she could for her.

But Rua didn’t express her thoughts easily.

She didn’t open up about what was on her mind, and when she had worries, she just suffered alone.

Soi was curious about those thoughts.

But even though Rua usually listened to everything Soi said, Soi felt that if she pushed too hard into that territory, Rua wouldn’t like it.

She loved her too much to risk pushing her away. She didn’t want Rua to distance herself over a few careless words.

“…Hmm.”

Still…

It bothered her.

Ever since entering middle school, especially at school, Rua never spoke to Soi first.

Soi even wondered if Rua had started disliking her. Thinking back, she often dragged Rua around, suggesting things and doing them before Rua even agreed.

Rua always accepted everything Soi did so naturally.

Maybe Soi had taken that for granted.

She worried more and more, tried harder to get closer to Rua, tried to help her make friends—and the more she tried, the quieter Rua became.

And then there were the kids Rua had spoken to first.

Chae-yi’s method was impossible to imitate now. Rua and their parents would worry. So what about those girls? Maybe they knew why Rua approached them.

Lunch break.

“Ah, wait. I forgot something.”

On the way to Chae-yi’s classroom with Rua, Soi suddenly said that.

Just in case, she had actually left her phone in the classroom.

Her friends had already gone ahead to the cafeteria, and the ones who hadn’t were nearby.

“I’ll grab my phone. Go ahead and wait for me!”

“I’ll save your seat!”

One friend waved.

Rua looked a little worried, then nodded firmly.

Chae-yi’s classroom wasn’t far anyway.

Soi hurried back to her classroom.

And—

“Knew it.”

The two girls Rua had spoken to that morning were still there.

Soi generally kept track of her classmates’ habits.

Not for any special reason—she had always been friendly with everyone since elementary school.

She had talked to everyone at least once at the start of the semester, so she roughly knew how they behaved.

Those two always waited until the classroom emptied before heading to lunch.

She didn’t approach them immediately. Rua had asked her not to. She would wait for the right moment.

She slowed her steps, and only then did the pair start moving.

Once they left the classroom, Soi grabbed her phone and followed them.

  • *

“Hey.”

In the empty hallway during lunch, Soi quickly approached them.

“Can we talk for a moment?”

“…Huh?”

The two froze.

Why did they look so terrified?

Soi tilted her head, but there wasn’t much time.

Everyone was waiting.

“It won’t take long. Let’s talk over there.”

The way they shrank in real time was almost fascinating. It looked like they lost three centimeters of height instantly.

It reminded her a little of Rua. Maybe that’s why Rua had sympathized with them?

Since they were heading outside anyway, Soi led them behind the building.

“P-please don’t hit us.”

“We’ll give you money…”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Soi recoiled at their words.

“Why would I hit you? Why would I take your money? We’re not even on bad terms. And I have plenty of money.”

“You… won’t hit us?”

“You won’t take our money?”

“Who told you I would?”

They looked at each other, then shook their heads. So they were just scared on their own.

“And why are you speaking formally? We’re classmates.”

“Ah, um.”

“Uh…”

“….”

They were even worse than Rua.

Well, Rua had spent 365 days a year sharing a room with Soi.

She had built up some resistance. Not that Soi realized that.

“Anyway, I just wanted to ask something.”

“Ask something?”

“Yeah. Rua talked to you this morning, right? I wanted to know what you talked about.”

“Uh…”

“N-not much, really…”

They had been scared at first, but Soi didn’t actually look that fierce.

She was pretty, and once she spoke, her voice was gentle and friendly.

“So had you talked before that? What did you talk about then?”

“Uh, um… I think she asked about the manga we were reading…”

Normally, remembering a small moment from the start of the semester would be hard.

But having the class’s popular girl talk to them wasn’t a small moment for them.

Back then, they felt like she had a similar vibe. But once they saw her uniform style, they assumed she wasn’t “one of them” and kept their distance.

“Manga?”

At that word, something clicked in Soi’s mind.

Right. Rua liked manga. On her days off, she would lie around reading manga on her phone. Not constantly, but whenever Soi peeked over her shoulder asking what she was reading, Rua would quickly close the screen or switch apps.

Soi wasn’t clueless. If the content was embarrassing, it made sense she’d hide it.

“Aha, manga! I see!”

Soi’s face lit up.

Why hadn’t she thought of that?

She knew Rua giggled to herself while gaming in bed, and she knew she read manga.

She had kept her distance, thinking Rua would run away if she meddled too much.

But that had been the right approach all along.

“Hey, could you tell me the title of that manga? And do you play any mobile games? If you do, could you tell me which ones?”

The two girls looked at each other again.

What is happening?

No idea.

But this feels like the opening of a light novel.

If they had talked more, it probably would’ve gone like this.

After all, in those stories, there’s always at least one gyaru who likes manga or anime.

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Pub: 14 Mar 2026 23:49 UTC

Edit: 15 Mar 2026 01:33 UTC

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