Chapter 2: Kenta-kun is inside a room (Part 6)

「…Conman.」

On our way up the stairs to Yamazaki-kun’s room on the second floor, Yua softly murmured.

「How totally unexpected. I didn’t say a single lie.」

「Exactly who is his friend?」

「Do we need a common understanding to consider ourselves his good friends?」

「You said it’s been bothering you for a long time?」

「It’s been bothering me for a long time since lunch yesterday. I really did want to come here a lot sooner.」

「You want to graduate together, and don’t care how many times you have to come here?」

「I probably wouldn’t get approval from Kura-sen unless I did that, after all.」

「Saku-kun, have you never been scolded by your mother and told to stop making far-fetched arguments?」

We continued along the corridor on the second floor, and stopped in front of a door at the end. Yua sent me another「Now what?」glance, but I unconcernedly knocked on the door.

*kon, kon kon*.

Slowly, three times. It’d be a bother to call out and not even get a response, so I had made sure to hear the characteristics of the usual knocking from his mother in advance.

*kon, kon kon*.

*kon, kon kon*.

Spacing them out, I continued to repeat the same pattern.

*kon, kon kon*.

「Oh shut up! I can hear you! What do you want?」

On the fourth run, I finally received a response.

「’Sup. I’m Class 2-5’s class rep Chitose-Saku, that’s the same class as you, Yamazaki-kun. Let’s get along. I’ve brought you some printouts as requested by our homeroom teacher Iwanami-sensei, but since I’ve come all the way, care for a chat?」

For starters, I tried addressing him in an easygoing way. There was a hint of confusion accompanying the「…Hah?」received in response.

「Chitose… Saku?」

He sounded like he still hadn’t understood the situation. A perfectly natural reaction, since we had never interacted with each other before.

「Hah? Why? You mean you’re that womanizing scumbag?」

Righto, time to kill this guy.

As I raised my foot in preparation to kick down the door, Yua clung to me.

「Easy there, easy there.」

She whispered that into my ear. Out of reverence for the unexpected springy lucky puni puni panic, I temporarily lowered my foot.

「Yamazaki-kun, pleased to meet you. I’m Uchida Yua from 2-5, the same class as you. Apologies for surprising you. I heard about you taking an extended break from school, so I was a little worried…」

「U, Uchida… you mean, the meat slave of Chitose’s cronies?」

Uchida-chan. Your saxophone is a tool to make a dignified and beautiful sound resonate in someone’s heart. It is not a blunt instrument for powerfully bludgeoning a reclusive hikikomori to death.

「Easy there, easy there, easy there.」

While whispering that into her ear, I held Yua back.

「There are some slight differences in opinion, but we’re probably the Chitose and Uchida you have in mind. Anyway, since we’re at your door, would you mind opening it? Don’t worry, we’re not going to force you to come to school or anything.」

「Haa? There’s no way I’m speaking to a bunch of riajuu like you. What’s your deal, seriously. Bringing along a girl to score brownie points? You trying to show off what a nice guy you are? After all, you probably only came because the homeroom teacher told you to, right?」

Unfortunately, he’s right through and through.

Still, this pleasantly predictable turn of events is lamentable. For me.

「Well, I’d be lying if I said the homeroom teacher had nothing to do with it, but it’s not just that. I genuinely wanted to talk to you, Yamazaki-kun. You know a lot about light novels and anime, right? I’ve recently developed an interest, see.」

「Ahh, so there’s one of those here. A smug guy who thinks they’re cool for being able to talk 2D stuff despite being a riajuu. At best, you’ve just seen a super popular anime movie, right? If you really have an interest, can you say you’ve read a single light novel among the ones I’m about to list?」

Yamazaki-kun rattled off a list of long, incantation-like titles. Things among the lines of「I, who am at the bottom of the caste…」or「To an otaku like me, a gyaru b*tch…」. To be honest, to say nothing of not knowing a single one, in the first place I couldn’t figure out at what point a title ended and the next one began.

I glanced in Yua’s direction, but she shook her head.

「…Sorry, no idea. From the perspective of you guys, I’m probably a bandwagoner. How about you, Uchida?」

「I’m sorry, Yamazaki-kun. I’m not that knowledgeable either, and haven’t read a single one of those, but if they’re really that interesting, perhaps you could lend me one of your recommendations?」

「Uh, that’s a little… I don’t think a riajuu girl would find them very interesting.」

Earlier he had been trash talking us out of the blue, but it seemed like he didn’t actually have any resistance against girls, or perhaps, cute girls. There’s also the possibility that his spirit was dampened by Yua’s demeanour being more courteous than expected.」

「I wonder? If it’s shounen manga, I usually read that kind of stuff. I really want to take a look at your bookshelf…」

「Uh, well, my room’s messy…」

「Then, why don’t we continue to talk at your door like this? If that way is easier for Yamazaki-kun, I wouldn’t mind at all, you know?」

「B-But, I don’t know what cheery characters talk about.」

It was good that things had settled down for the time being, but it seemed like at this rate we would be going around in circles.

「Unlike Chitose-kun and the others, I’m more of the plain, down-to-earth type. It’d be really good to have a variety of topics to talk about at times like this, but… I’m not that knowledgeable so I can’t really think of anything. I’m sorry, okay?」

「No, I’ve seen you before at school, and you really seemed like a riajuu.」

「Is that so? Maybe it’s because I was surrounded by flashy people? Is Yamazaki-kun the type of person who prefers to spend quality time on their own instead of doing things in a big group?」

「That… might be the case.」

「The fact that there’s something you can get so immersed in does make me jealous.」

I deliberated for a while, leaving the conversation to Yua, and when the time was right, I interrupted.

「Yamazaki-kun, it’s great that you and Yua seem to get along so well. Since that’s the case, should I let the two of you talk alone for a while? There’s no need to hold back. We spend a lot of time together on a regular basis, so at this point there’s nothing to talk about.」

「…Ha? What are you acting all high and mighty for? Are you saying “this is my girl but I’ll lend her to you for a while”? I don’t need your used meat slave.」

「Uh, my bad. I didn’t mean it that way, but… whatever, I give up.」

In truth, I had actually done my best to include a nuance that could be interpreted as such, and sure enough, he took the bait.

Like mother and like son, so simple.

Through their conversations, I felt like I could make out the roots of the twisted attitude, just a bit.

Next to me, Yua-chan’s face looked like she was about to turn me into saxophone rust out of revenge, so I decided it was the right time to leave things for the day.

「Got it, we’ll go back for now. We’ll come again next week.」

「Don’t come again, you damn womanizing scumbag.」

Alrighty, next time I’m bringing a metal bat ♪

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