← The Studious Boy and the Secret Account Girl

Volume 1

Chapter 12: I Don't Know the Right Answer – Part 3

Chapter 12: I Don’t Know the Right Answer – Part 3

Tsutomu and Matsurika — the two on their way home — stopped in their tracks and faced each other.

The beauty acknowledged by everyone opened her mouth, her over-refined face tensing.

“How did you know?”

“The mole. The one behind your knee.”

“Eh?”

“Hm?”

Asked about the reason he’d come to think Matsurika and ‘RIKA’ were the same person, he answered honestly.

This was the response — it was. The frown on Matsurika’s expression was utterly beyond his comprehension.

“Ugh… Kariya-kun, you were looking at a place like that?”

“You’re the one who showed me, aren’t you?”

“No, that is… I post photos to be shown, but observing my legs from behind, Kariya-kun, you’re lewd.”

“…”

He’d thought it was a bit much himself, so all he could do was fall silent.

Matsurika, who’d been gazing intently at the now-silent Tsutomu, shrugged her shoulders and sighed.

“How unexpected, that there’s a follower of ‘RIKA (me)’ this close by.”

And of all people, an earnest-looking Kariya-kun.

Matsurika averted her gaze and muttered with a hint of self-mockery.

The distance between Tsutomu and Matsurika, both stopped in their tracks, was close.

Thanks to being away from school, there was little foot traffic.

Speaking in hushed tones, they had no cause to worry about being overheard.

“You’re remarkably quick to admit it.”

“…Well, call it the thanks. So then, what does Kariya-kun want to do?”

A hint of provocation mixed into Matsurika’s voice.

“Report me to the teachers… no, I guess not. Then maybe, ‘if you don’t want me to spill the beans, do as I say’?”?

“The image you have of me is way too nasty, no?”

Given the exchange with the teachers in the staff room yesterday, it should be easy to imagine that Tsutomu wasn’t the type to rat people out.

Even so… forcing someone to obey over a held secret was a pure villain move.

“I’m not going to snitch to the teachers, and I won’t threaten you, either.”

“Then what will you do?”

Asked, he faltered.

That, too, was one of the things that had been tormenting his mind since last night.

Suppose he’d confirmed that ‘Tachibana Matsurika’ and ‘RIKA’ were the same person — then what?

That said, since asking a girl ‘do you have a secret account?’ was far too difficult, he’d hardly had the leisure to think that far ahead.

“Do… what…”

He crossed his arms and rested his chin on his hand.

“I know. For starters… thank you.”

He bowed his head at a forty-five-degree angle.

“…Hah?”

The sound that slipped from Matsurika’s lips was unlike anything he’d heard before.

A completely raw voice, with no constructed facade.

Astonishment, anger, bewilderment… an assortment of emotions were condensed into that single syllable.

“What is that? ‘Thank you,’ what does that mean?”

“Asked what it means… ‘RIKA’-san has been a big help to me all this time.”

It was only natural to be grateful.

When Tsutomu continued, Matsurika turned a dubious gaze on him.

“I don’t recall doing you any favors.”

“Even if that’s the case on your end, it’s the case on mine.”

“…You looked at my posted images, and, um, used them for various things?”

“Watch your words.”

He hadn’t been told definitively, but Matsurika’s meaning was obvious.

And since she wasn’t wrong, Tsutomu’s cheeks gained heat on their own.

Thanks to that, his criticism carried no force whatever.

“I see… Kariya-kun, so you’re a closet lecher——”

Silently, Matsurika wrapped her arms around her own body.

She opened the distance between them by a mere half-step.

“I’m not hiding it, particularly.”

“Then, you wouldn’t tell anyone about me?”

“I won’t.”

“Not even Amakusa-kun?”

Tsutomu nodded without a word.

He had no intention of hiding his own predilections.

Nor of exposing someone else’s.

He wouldn’t err in drawing that boundary line.

“…Well, I can only trust you on that. Still, your first words being ‘thank you’… that’s hilarious.”

“I just voiced my honest feelings.”

“Since you don’t sound like you’re lying, it’s even funnier.”

Matsurika laughed, genuinely delighted.

She didn’t raise her voice, of course.

“Normally, there’s a lot more you’d say, isn’t there?”

“…Like a request?”

“Not that. Come on, like ‘why do you post such erotic photos?’ or ‘stop doing something so stupid,’ that kind of thing.”

“Stop!?”

Tsutomu’s voice cracked.

The single phrase ‘quitting the secret account’ spoken by ‘RIKA’ herself shook him more than he could have imagined.

“Whoa. What a genuine reaction. That’s a little creepy.”

“No, wait. This is important to me.”

“Kariya-kun… you don’t want me to stop doing that, do you?”

“More like, I wonder why you’d think I’d want you to stop.”

“You talk too fast. Don’t worry, I’m not going to quit.”

“I see… that’s a relief.”

Tsutomu let out a relieved sigh, and Matsurika shot him a dumbfounded look.

“Relieving yourself there, no matter how you look at it, is not normal.”

“…What’s normal? I want to see more of ‘RIKA’-san’s photos.”

A refresher for the heart, or maybe a stabilizer.

For Tsutomu, who tended to be run ragged by his daily life, her posts had become something he couldn’t do without.

An almost drug-like relationship. The degree of dependence was frightening.

He could also understand what Matsurika meant.

If his stepsister were spraying erotic photos on a secret account, he’d probably tell her to stop.

The reason Tsutomu had looked forward to ’RIKA’s posts was that he’d recognized her as someone far away — someone with no relation to him.

He’d been wrong.

She was a fairly close person.

Not entirely unrelated.

So if asked what ‘Tachibana Matsurika’ was, at this stage she was just one of his classmates.

For Tsutomu, who had barely any human relations to begin with, that was no different from a total stranger.

Which was why… he could voice such a shameless remark, such a raw desire.

“Hmm. You look forward to me that much, huh.”

I see, I see.

Matsurika narrowed her eyes and smiled.

An expression he’d never seen before.

Seductive, wanton, brimming with delight on one hand, while holding an unrestrainable bewilderment on the other.

That face was very alluring, and at the same time, it panged Tsutomu’s conscience considerably.

—Was it really okay to say that?

After he’d voiced it, a voice came from the back of his mind: ‘Isn’t this terribly irresponsible?’

The reason Matsurika didn’t post such photos on her real account was surely because she herself harbored guilt about them.

He had no intention of taking internet information at face value, but it was also possible that Matsurika was being pushed around by loneliness or a need for approval, simply without Tsutomu noticing.

As someone who, coincidentally, studied alongside her in the same classroom, perhaps he should have chosen different words. That doubt began to rear its head.

“Kariya-kun, you don’t say irresponsible things, do you.”

He was surprised by the words that came from Matsurika’s lips.

He’d thought that saying nothing at all was the irresponsibility.

But… the girl walking right beside him apparently considered butting in to be the irresponsible choice.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

—If you say it can’t be helped, I suppose it can’t.

It had only been a little over a month since he’d become Matsurika’s classmate.

What did the girl called the school idol, showered with praise, think about as she passed her days?

Did she have worries? Was she carrying some problem? Tsutomu knew nothing of it. He’d never tried to know.

“Yeah, I’m relieved.”

The girl beside him was satisfied on her own.

“Relieved about what?”

“That no one told me to give up the secret account.”

And you don’t go poking into unnecessary things, either.

Coming from her with a smile, he couldn’t well argue now.

Trapped in an awkward silence, he set his stopped feet in motion.

Making an excuse to himself that he’d remembered he was on his way home, and had a part-time job ahead.

“Now that things have settled down, I’ll ask again… what would you like for the thanks?”

After they’d walked a bit, Matsurika asked.

Tsutomu silently shook his head.

Matsurika furrowed her fine brows.

It wasn’t anything deep. Time had run out.

“No, I mean… we’re at my place. That’s where this conversation ends.”

They’d reached his apartment building.

Matsurika smiled, ‘Oh, you live in a nice place, don’t you.’

He couldn’t begin to fathom the meaning of the expression on her beautiful face.

“So, the thanks is on hold? Well, I suppose it’s fine. Though I might dislike people who can’t make up their minds quickly.”

Bye-bye, see you tomorrow.

Watching Matsurika’s back as she waved her hand lightly and receded, Tsutomu took a very, very deep breath.

It shouldn’t have been a long conversation, but the fatigue was no small thing. He was made aware of a lingering knot deep in his chest.

At the same time, he felt a small disgust toward himself for rejoicing that ’RIKA’s existence hadn’t vanished.

“See you tomorrow… again.”

The last words Matsurika had left behind echoed in Tsutomu’s ears for a long while.