← The Studious Boy and the Secret Account Girl
Volume 2
Chapter 18: The Secret Relationship - Part 3
Chapter 18: The Secret Relationship – Part 3
Several days had passed since Matsurika directly administered a face-showing erotic image to him.
The school life remained, as ever, peaceful, and there was no particular surface-level change to be seen.
—We’re getting along more ordinarily than I’d have thought.
Just as he’d begun to feel relief at those unchanged days—it happened.
It was on his way back from using the restroom after lunch.
On his way back to the classroom with Shiro, who’d tagged along saying ‘me too, me too.’
From the opposite side of the hallway, a familiar figure approached.
Glossy, long, straight black hair reaching her waist.
White legs stretching from a short skirt just shy of breaking the dress code (or rather, probably over it).
A bold chest pushing up the school’s prescribed summer uniform from within.
Glittering jet-black pupils, large, with a cool glance.
Her clear, straight nose, her somewhat small mouth, even the shape of her ears—all perfect.
A small head, set at just the right proportions relative to her body: a living specimen of the ‘the very picture of a beautiful girl.’
It was the school idol ‘Tachibana Matsurika.’ Though anyone else might go unrecognizable, mistaking her was impossible.
Up until just recently, Tsutomu and Matsurika had never actively interacted.
Even now he lent her his notebook, but on Matsurika’s side (the matter of her charismatic standing, and so on), they avoided being seen.
So, he’d tried to pass by with the same feigned ignorance as always, but——
“Ah, Kariya-kun, good work~.”
“Mmm.”
Matsurika had spoken to him first. Completely beyond expectation.
Startled, he couldn’t manage a quick-witted reply.
It wasn’t only Tsutomu who’d been surprised.
Not just Shiro, walking beside him, but the students there all wore uniformly surprised expressions, exchanging glances.
“Matsurika, when’d you get chummy with Gariben?”
The one who’d uttered Tsutomu’s nickname, which could carry a disparaging tone, was one of the students around Matsurika.
‘Who was that, I wonder,’ he thought, dubious. A face not in his memory, but surely a classmate. Beyond that, he couldn’t say.
Tsutomu was, fundamentally, poor at remembering faces and names. Even worse at matching them.
“‘When did’… we’re in the same class, so isn’t it only natural?”
Seeing Matsurika’s face as she answered, as though not particularly conscious of it, Tsutomu was left speechless.
—Ah, she’s angry.
Since he’d started lending her his notebook and exchanging SNS IDs.
Having grown closer to Matsurika than ever before, Tsutomu didn’t miss the faint displeasure that surfaced on her face.
…Or rather, the fact that no one around her—who should be close to her daily—had noticed was, to him, the strangest thing of all.
“Now, now, now, it’s fine, isn’t it.”
It was Shiro who interjected as an ominous air began to drift.
This man did good work in such situations. He’d seen it many times before.
“Amakusa-kun… well, maybe that’s right, so?”
Shiro’s tone was as light as ever, and everyone ‘well, fine’ and let it slide.
On Matsurika’s face, an indescribable emotion had surfaced, but Tsutomu pretended not to notice.
…He felt prickling gazes on his skin. The pressure from Matsurika’s jet-black eyes was strong.
“…Ha. Well, whatever. Later, then.”
“A-ah.”
Shiro, who’d been watching the receding backs, said a word.
“Matsurika-san was absolutely furious, you know.”
That’s a dangerous one.
He muttered in a hoarse voice.
Tsutomu was in total agreement.
★
‘What, what, what, honestly!’
Beyond the smartphone, Matsurika was in a rage.
Not only for lending the notebook, but to proceed seamlessly, they’d exchanged contact info.
Contrary to Tsutomu’s worry that he’d be glued to his phone around the clock, Matsurika had kept considerable restraint.
Until yesterday.
Today, a message arrived, as though timed to when Tsutomu got home and finished tidying up, and it had been like this ever since.
‘Is it something worth being so angry about?’
When Tsutomu replied, Matsurika’s fast-flowing messages stopped.
Then a vibration. A call. The other party was—Matsurika. She seemed to want to talk directly.
It was by no means something he could refuse. Resigning himself, he tapped the display.
‘Kariya-kun!’
“…A bit loud.”
‘Ah! Um… sorry for calling so late.’
“Past the point of no return, and I don’t mind anyway.”
‘But, aren’t you studying, Kariya-kun?’
He thought that, too, was past the point of no return, but he had the common sense not to say it aloud.
Tsutomu’s crisis-avoidance skills weren’t that low.
“I’ve already finished today’s portion.”
‘Really? You’re not holding back for my sake?’
He was left speechless.
He wasn’t lying.
He’d already finished up to where he’d planned.
Usually, from here he’d simply enter prep mode.
—‘Just for today,’ or whatever… wouldn’t be good, I suppose.
If he made excuses and slacked, it’d become a habit.
He knew without being told… but he couldn’t very well abandon a riled-up Matsurika.
Weighing priorities, he decided his studying for today ended here.
“Rest easy. I can make time to talk with Tachibana.”
‘Eh.’
“Mmm?”
At the continuation of his casual words, a silence followed.
He couldn’t see what kind of face Matsurika was making beyond the phone.
Tsutomu himself didn’t know what face he was making either.
As he tilted his head, ‘Have I said something weird?’, a calm, gentle voice struck his ears.
‘…Thank you. Then, keep me company a little.’
“Yeah.”
What awaited the Tsutomu who lightly nodded was a torrent of Matsurika-talk.
.
.
.
’For the most part, Kariya-kun always says ‘doesn’t even matter’ or whatever, but that’s not good, you know.’
“…Yeah.”
However pleasant Matsurika’s voice was to the ears, there was a limit.
Glancing at the clock, it was already been nearly an hour, nonstop.
Most of the topics were about the near-miss at lunch today.
When he’d brushed off being called ‘Gariben’ to his face with ‘I don’t mind, it’s nothing’, Matsurika had suddenly snapped.
—Just listening to her talk is this tiring…
Washed away by the flood of her beautiful voice, his thinking ability had declined.
Having put on airs about listening, he couldn’t very well be the one to hang up.
’Don’t ‘yeah’!’
“No, I really don’t care.”
‘There you go again!’
“…”
Even as he hurriedly covered his mouth, the words that had slipped out couldn’t be taken back.
‘Hey… Kariya-kun, do you, like, dislike yourself?’
Matsurika’s high-spirited voice suddenly dropped in tone.
Without any connection, the topic abruptly shifted.
In conversations with her, this was a fairly common occurrence.
“Mmm? What’s this, all of a sudden.”
‘What should I say… you really don’t seem to be lying when you say you don’t care what others think, but isn’t that really because you’re not interested in yourself, not in others?’
The reason he didn’t care how others saw him was that he regarded himself as not worth minding.
Because he had no attachment to himself, he was unfazed no matter what others said. Wasn’t the causation inverted?
What Matsurika hesitantly said dealt Tsutomu a sharp blow from beyond his awareness.
—Myself…
‘…Kariya-kun?’
“A-ah, no, sorry. I’d never thought about it.”
‘Hah!?’
“Myself… have I ever thought about myself, that’s it.”
He pinned the smartphone between shoulder and ear and crossed his arms.
He wasn’t lying to Matsurika.
Until now, Tsutomu had never evaluated himself on some standard of ‘like’ or ‘dislike.’
Because it was meaningless. No—because he’d thought it meaningless.
Liking it or disliking it, Tsutomu couldn’t stop being ‘Kariya Tsutomu.’
—Is that wrong, then.
‘N-never thought about it… that’s no good! You’ve got to love yourself with all you’ve got, and treasure yourself with all you’ve got.’
“Is that how it is?”
‘That’s how it is!’
Declared outright.
Her strong words carried an unconquerable persuasiveness.
“Do you like yourself, Tachibana?”
‘Of course. I’m super confident in myself. If I weren’t, I’d be too embarrassed to show selfies.’
“Is that how it is?”
‘That’s how it is!’
He could almost picture her puffing out her chest and leaning back.
A wry laugh escaped him.
‘Hey, what’s so funny?’
“Sorry. I was just impressed by you, Tachibana.”
‘Doesn’t sound like a compliment to me.’
“It is. Yeah, maybe I’ll give it some thought too.”
‘Some… well, fine. Kariya-kun, take better care of yourself. Got it!’
“Yeah.”
The irritation Tsutomu had sensed in the edges of Matsurika’s words had, before he knew it, vanished.
The two kept talking. He no longer cast his gaze at the clock.
The content was—nothing in particular. How the daily classes were, what favorite foods there were.
Each and every trivial exchange seeped warmly into Tsutomu’s heart.
★
There’d been carelessness.
Familiarity is a frightening thing—he’d been made to know that, painfully, over the sixteen-odd years of life so far.
Even so, while connected to Matsurika through his notebook and smartphone, he’d left an opening, it seemed.
“Hey, are Matsurika and Gariben going out?”
In the classroom, during the lunch break, such a voice rang out.