← The Studious Boy and the Secret Account Girl
Volume 1
Chapter 11: I Don't Know the Right Answer – Part 2
Chapter 11: I Don’t Know the Right Answer – Part 2
“Hey, Kariya-kun. ‘Kariya Tsutomu’-kun.”
After class ended, Tsutomu hurriedly left the classroom, indifferent to his classmates throwing themselves into club activities.
He changed into his shoes at the entrance and was about to exit the school gate when a voice called out to him from behind.
If his name hadn’t been called, he wouldn’t have realized it was directed at him.
Startled by the familiar-sounding voice, he turned around — and there, as expected, stood the person he’d guessed.
As expected as it was, she was someone he had no relation to ordinarily. He braced himself for an instant before he could even answer.
“Tachibana? Did something happen?”
Glossy, long straight black hair.
White legs stretching from a short skirt.
A voluminous chest pushing up from inside the uniform.
Cool, clear eyes glittering with big black pupils.
The school idol stacked with charm points, ‘Tachibana Matsurika,’ turned a smile toward him.
That smile was very charming… but at the same time the irresistible pull was overwhelming. His neck tingled.
“Hmm, there’s something I wanted to ask.”
Got a minute?
Matsurika asked in a light tone.
Tsutomu shook his head.
“Sorry, I have a part-time job.”
“Going straight there? Or going home first?”
“…I’ll head home first.”
“Then let’s walk that far together. How about it?”
Matsurika, who’d frowned at his negative reply, brightened her expression again and stepped forward.
As the distance closed, the school idol, shorter than Tsutomu, raised her gaze slightly upward.
It must have been coincidence, but it ended up being a genuinely cunning angle.
“I don’t have much time.”
“Eh? Do you, by any chance, live close to the school?”
“Yeah.”
“Could it be you live alone?”
“I do, as you’ve noticed.“pmm
“Huh… That’s somehow surprising. Kariya-kun’s not at all what I imagined.”
Not what I imagined. He felt he’d been told the same thing before.
It was true that he found dealing with people a hassle, but just what image did people have of him?
The urge to press her for an answer and the urge to just let it slide clashed, and the latter won.
Casting a glance around him, he saw—as expected—that they were being looked at.
It wasn’t because of Tsutomu, either. The cause was Matsurika.
Even setting aside her beauty-contest title, this beautiful girl always drew people’s eyes.
If the two of them stood side by side on the way home like this, the discomfort would be no small thing… but brushing Matsurika off here would, in turn, make enemies of the whole school.
—How unfair…
The moment she’d called out to him where people could see, his escape route had already been closed off.
By the time he noticed, it was already too late.
One sigh. He steeled himself.
“Fine, let’s walk home together.”
“Well, my house is the opposite direction, though.”
I commute by train.
Matsurika added with a shrug.
★
“So, what did you want to ask?”
The two walked side by side, chatting about trivial things for a while.
Once they were a good distance from the school, Tsutomu brought it up.
If they didn’t get started soon, he’d reach home.
—There’s something I want to ask, more like.
“Today, Kariya-kun, you were looking at me the whole time, weren’t you.”
“Cough.”
He choked.
“Wh-what, what… all of a sudden.”
“You were so steadfast against the teachers yesterday, but getting flustered over something like this — cute.”
“C-cute?! No, not that. Anyway, why did you bring that up?”
He’d never been called ‘cute’ in his entire life.
The adjective spilling from Matsurika’s lips surprised him, but right now wasn’t the time.
“How did I notice. That’s because… I was looking at you too.”
“…And why’s that?”
—Eyes meeting and understanding each other… as if that would ever happen.
When he realized she was deliberately using romantic-sounding words, he cooled down at once.
“Ah, you went cold again.”
“That’s enough of that.”
“Okay, okay. I told you yesterday, didn’t I? That I’d ‘return the favor.’ I was waiting for a chance.”
Well, even without that, I’d have noticed.
Holding back her black hair swaying in the wind, Matsurika added that.
She was good not only at drawing attention, but also at being watched.
She said she could intuitively sense the gazes directed at her.
“What’s that special power of yours?”
“It’s not like that at all. It’s just habit. Um… it was lunch break. You were with Amakusa-kun, looking at me and talking about something.”
—That time, huh.
He remembered the moment he’d made eye contact with Matsurika.
“You’re close with Amakusa-kun. What were you talking about?”
“Amakusa’s the type to get along with anybody.”
“Is that so? I felt like he was ‘keeping his distance,’ though.”
—Perceptive.
He silently agreed with Matsurika’s impression.
Shiro’s attitude of laughing ‘just looking is enough’ was best described by her words as ‘keeping his distance.’
“Did something happen with him?”
“Who knows? Forget about Amakusa-kun. You’re drifting from the point.”
“Bringing the subject up yourself, and then that.”
“Yeah. Amakusa-kun has nothing to do with this now.”
She said it plainly.
If Matsurika declared someone ‘has nothing to do with this,’ most boys’ hearts would break clean in two.
Whether she was aware of it or not… if she was aware, what a little demon she was.
“…It was that your relationships don’t last long, that kind of talk.”
“Me? Ah, the soccer club one?”
“Basketball club, I believe.”
“Neither lasted long, huh. You two boys were talking about that.”
“We were talking about that.”
“Why?”
“…That’s hardly worth bothering about.”
He had no intention of explaining in detail.
He’d even kept it from Shiro, but if you traced it back, everything had begun from the suspicion that the school idol ‘Tachibana Matsurika’ and the charismatic secret-account girl ‘RIKA’ were the same person.
“Maybe not.”
“And that means?”
“If Kariya-kun is interested in me, how about a date to make up for yesterday? What do you think?”
“Calling a date a token of thanks — you’re way too confident in yourself.”
He pressed his hand to his forehead and let out the heat that had pooled in his chest.
Matsurika’s way of thinking was also hard to grasp.
“That did sound condescending. Would Kariya-kun prefer a naughtier thanks, maybe?”
“How does it come to that.”
“Your eyes. You’ve been staring too much.”
He was surprised to hear the phrase ‘naughty thanks’ come out of Matsurika’s mouth.
And he was surprised once more that his gaze had been so obvious.
Chest, legs, nape, lips… there were too many attractive parts, and his eyes kept being drawn to them.
He couldn’t defy his instincts.
“If that’s the sort of thanks on offer, I’d certainly be happier with it.”
“Oh, you admit it plainly.”
“You’re the one who brought it up first.”
Somehow, Tsutomu had thought that sexual topics with girls were not a good idea.
But if Matsurika herself was the one to raise the subject…
“Tachibana, do you… hmm, do you have any interest in such things?”
“What, do you want to know about my experiences so far?”
I could tell you, but it won’t come free.
Matsurika pulled up the corner of her lips in a smirk.
If he asked her to speak of sexual experiences, then the ‘thanks’ would end there.
Her glinting black eyes spoke volumes.
—Asked if I want to know, it’s a yes; but asked if I absolutely must know, then…
The erotic history of the school idol ‘Tachibana Matsurika.’ He was curious.
Curious, yes… but not so much that he’d absolutely need to know.
If she’d tell him one thing, there happened to be a topic of just the right fit.
By the way, he hadn’t been thinking of receiving a sexual sort of thanks.
Whatever it was, he could only imagine it would lead to some awful turn of events down the line.
“Do you use Twitter, by any chance?”
“Eh? Yeah, I do. Here, this is my account.”
The smartphone she held out showed Matsurika’s account.
Followers in the triple digits. That would put her in a rather high bracket for a personal account… wouldn’t it?
For the record, Tsutomu’s followers were zero.
“You have a lot of followers. What do you usually tweet about?”
“Hmm, all sorts. I post selfies sometimes, too.”
“Oh, selfies.”
Selfies by a high school girl weren’t unusual.
But at this moment, Tsutomu responded keenly to that ordinary word.
“Interested? Want to follow each other?”
“No, that’s fine.”
The instant he declined, Matsurika showed an indignant look.
He felt bad, but he had no interest in following each other.
When the other party was someone he knew, somehow he felt like he was being watched.
“You’ll ask about Twitter but won’t follow each other? What’s that about?”
“What’s about what… It’s the thanks, isn’t it?”
“That’s true, but it doesn’t satisfy me. You wanted to know whether I use Twitter? That’s not part of the thanks. The selfies…”
Matsurika sulked, then abruptly opened her eyes wide.
The two stopped their feet. A moment of stillness. A heavy silence.
Twitter. Selfies. Her pink-glinted lips murmured those same words over and over.
Then she stared fixedly at Tsutomu’s face with sparkling eyes, and——
“Kariya-kun, could it be you…”
“…That phrasing of yours, it’s just as I thought.”
The words didn’t continue.
After a hesitation, Matsurika nodded with a solemn expression.