CH 10

The gal took me to the next town over.

How did I get there?

By train, of course.

After a 30-minute train ride from Mizuhara, where we had just been, we arrived in the neighboring town of Nagahama. The area around the train station is much more prosperous than the countryside we had just been in.

“So, Fujibayashi. What are you doing here?”

“I told you to call me Sana, didn’t I?”

“No, I’m going to call you by your last name. I don’t think we’ve reached that level of intimacy yet.”

“Hee~ does that mean we’re going to get to that point now?”

“…………”

Fujibayashi stares at me with a smirk, as if teasing me.

Relax. Don’t be carried away by her pace.

She – Fujibayashi Sana – is probably a demon who enjoys teasing an innocent boy like me.

Even on the train, she was teasing me from start to finish. She often made fun of me in some way or another, and once again I was reminded that I am not very good at the sunny character known as “gyaru”

Calling her by her last name was like a small resistance.

“Turn around.”

“Ah, you’re embarrassed? You’re so cute.”

“You probably say that to everybody.”

“Eh~ I’m not though~”

“So, back to the point. What are we doing here, anyway?”

“Cause there’s nothing to do there, right? So I thought I’d come over here to kill some time. I’ve got a man to help me, so I can do some shopping!”

How can you say that after forcing me to come here just in time and everything?

Ah, no, wait? Could this be what you call a date?”

Alone with a girl, skipping school to go shopping.

It would have been nice if it was with a beautiful, clean-cut girl, but I guess this erases one sad fact that I’ve never been on a date either, right?

Maybe I should brag to Sosuke next time? Ah, he’s probably going to shed tears of blood, so don’t do it.

“You think it’s a date, don’t you?”

“N-No, I don’t!

“Hee~, well, okay. Let’s go!”

“?!”

Fujibayashi wondered what I was thinking and took my arm and pulled me into a hug.

Ugh, I felt that feeling on my arm ………….

So, while fighting my inner troubles, Fujibayashi took me around to various stores.

“Well, here you go.””

Fujibayashi went to several stores, each time using her shiny golden card to buy a large quantity of clothes.

I watched the scene and wondered if it was safe to spend so much money.

I was so envious of her spending, because I am a poor person.

“Here, take this.”

“I’ve got my hands full.”

“You still can like this—“

“Guh!?”

“—–You can hold it like this. Weak men don’t get the girls you know!”

And the newly purchased clothes come to me. Of course, this is not a purchase of clothes, just luggage.

Damn ……, you’re using me like a good thing.

Fujibayashi hooks the loop of the bag around my arms, piles up the luggage in both hands, and moves on lightly.

I wanted to refuse to carry the baggage, but I was quickly talked into it.

Gals are a tough bunch. I knew we were not a good match.

“Let’s go into that café then.”

Fujibayashi finally gave me the signal to take a break.

The waiter was a bit surprised to see me with a lot of baggage, but I was guided to an empty seat and ordered a cup of coffee.

By the way, Fujibayashi ordered a sweet one, which I don’t know what it is.

“So, Arase, what year are you?”

Fujibayashi asked me again after the drinks for both of us had been brought to the table.

Fujibayashi was so charming as she sucked up the contents of the plastic container with a straw.

“It’s a little late for that.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t see your face very often, and I think first year? I’m not impressed that you skipped class so soon after entering school~”

“And who let him go out with you?…….I’m a second year”

“No way, are we in the same year? You’re getting more and more invisible~”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

I can’t help but react to the implied words.

Some adults might be happy to be seen as young, but for us high school students, it must be more pleasing to be seen as adults.

It’s kind of annoying to be looked at as if you’ve just finished junior high school.

“Eh? Because you were reacting very primitively the whole time, so I thought you were younger.”

“……”

Bastard

“But if we’re in the same year, I’m sure you’ve seen my face before, and since you were talking to me, I assumed you were a new student from another town who didn’t know me.”

Fujibayashi again speaks with a sense of implication.

Certainly, no one likes to talk to such a flamboyant gal. Except for the pickup artist.

“Well, I just transferred to a new school last week”

“Ah, so it’s like that! that means Arase is the new student I’ve heard so much about!”

What kind of rumor? I had a bad feeling about this, remembering the exchange with Asagiri on the first day.

“It’s not like I have anything against you. It’s just that it’s such a shitty town, you know? If a new student were to come here, it would immediately become the subject of rumors.”

“I see. That makes sense.”

“Yes. But I understand too. If a student from the same school knew about me, he or she would never talk to me.”

Words I heard earlier. Fujibayashi’s face looked a little sad when she said that.

“Well, I wouldn’t talk to you either”

“……What does that mean?”

Fujibayashi’s brow furrowed a little.

“Cause you’re scary, you know. For someone like me who lives in the shadows, gals are my natural enemy. I faint just by getting tangled up with them.”

“…… Ahaha What’s that~? It’s true that you were very timid at first.”

“Leave it alone. I simply don’t like them. Loud and noisy.”

“Do you usually say that in front of someone? What is it about gal that you don’t like?”

“I just told you. They’re loud and obnoxious.”

“Muu.”

“You don’t listen to me.”

“Ugh.”

“And you’re selfish.”

“Ugh.”

Fujibayashi frowned at my words. I am sure she knows what I am talking about.

I’ve been beaten up so many times.

I can’t stand to see this frustrated look on her face!

“Hmph, even though you’re a virgin.”

“That’s a forbidden card, isn’t it?”

In an instant, the situation was turned upside down.

“Fufu, but if you call on me again, I’ll let you graduate?”

I knew instantly that I was being teased, and I immediately retorted.

“Ahaha, I know, I know. Let’s get out of here and go take a picture to commemorate this moment!”

“H-hey!”

After that, after taking After that, we took a purikura and split up.

I was extremely tired after the day.

The same goes for carrying luggage, but it was a high hurdle for me to stay for a long time in a space where it was difficult for a man to enter

“Well, thanks for today.”

“Your luggage?”

“I’ll take a taxi. I’ll be fine.”

Fujibayashi started to call for a cab.

This person must be rich. I don’t understand why she eats at a convenience store in the morning.

After finishing the call, Fujibayashi took a breath and looked at me.

“I was surprised when some weirdo picked me up, but it wasn’t a bad time, surprisingly.”

“Hey, hey.”

“I’ll play with you again when I feel like it.”

“Hey hey”

“Muu, I feel like I’m getting cold feet after just one day.”

“I’m tired…….”

“Well, I guess that’s what happens when you’re that excited.”

“Whose fault is it? Whose fault?”

“Even though you were so happy~”

At the end of the day, all we did was take purikura pictures, and that was the most tiring part of the day.

It was such a small space…….

“Ah, you remembering that? Pervert~!”

“Then, I’m going home.”

“See you later~”

I said goodbye to Fujibayashi just as the cab she had called came in.

Fujibayashi quickly got into the cab and waved goodbye, sticking out her tongue and winking at me.

“It had been a seriously intense day.”

And then, tired as I was, I went home and Ayako san rubbed me the wrong way for the unreasonable reason that I was late getting home.

◆

I, Fujibayashi Sana, was in the cab looking back on my day.

I thought that today would be another boring day as usual, but it didn’t turn out that way.

—Will you play with me?

It was a terrible pick-up, even now that I remember it.

I was surprised that anyone would pick up a girl like that nowadays.

And it’s not that he didn’t have a good face, but he didn’t look like the type of guy who would pick me up.

But for some reason, the guy who picked me up seemed to be paying attention to where I was going, not me.

That’s when I realized what was going on. Apparently, this guy wanted to show me that there were students from East High School coming from the front.

And so, I took up the invitation of a pick-up artist, Arase, and ended up spending the day playing with him.

I have never been with anyone, but I am rumored to be playing around a lot because of my flamboyant appearance.

Like I’m rumored to be the girlfriend of a famous yankee.

They say that I have a rich father who pays me off.

Everyone at school is gossiping about me.

I didn’t deny the rumors because I thought they were half true and would die down soon, but the rumors spread quickly.

So now, no one comes near me anymore.

That’s why Arase’s reaction was a little refreshing.

Arase doesn’t know me as I am in the world.

It was so amusing to see him react so naively when I made fun of him.

“Pukuku, now that I think about it, it still makes me laugh.”

In the cab on the way home, I laugh alone with a large amount of luggage on either side of me.

When I teased him a little, his face immediately turned bright red.

Seeing such an initial reaction made me think it was fun for the first time in a long time.

At first, I was just trying to see if the purpose was that kind of thing, but Arase’s reaction made me get carried away.

The truth is, I didn’t want him to think of me that way.

When I arrived home, I stepped into a room in an empty luxury apartment.

“I’m home.”

I felt lonelier than usual when I heard that greeting, which was never going to come back.

“I wondered if I would see him again when I went to school.”

Exhausted, I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes.