Whenever you trigger one flag, another one always seems to break

The next morning, I was unexpectedly the central topic of

conversation.

"Tomozaki, are you serious?"

"I am."

That's right. I decided to tell everyone else what I'd told

Mimimi about trying to be a pro gamer. Since I'd made up

my mind, I didn't have any regrets about my choice, and

there was no reason to feel embarrassed about it.

"Shit, how am I supposed to beat you if you've got the best

win rate in Japan?" Nakamura whined.

"It's your own fault for trying."

"What was that?"

"Gulp…!"

I'd gotten to the point where I could talk back to

Nakamura when he complained, which I think you could call

a sign that I was closing the gap in our ability levels.

"I always knew you weren't an ordinary kid, Fumiya.

Pretty good judge of character, eh?"

Mizusawa was using my announcement to boost his own

reputation, but I'll forgive him. This was Mizusawa, after all.

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"Show me your ways, too, Farm Boy!"

"I will, but you should know it takes a fair amount of

thinking."

"Awesome! Then I'm sure I'll be great at it!"

"Ha-ha-ha. Okay, glad to hear that."

We were all wound up. Being the best in Japan is fairly

impressive, but gaming is still gaming; the excitement in the

group didn't really spread outside it. Honestly, I was grateful

for that, but I did want to tell them all how incredible

Atafami was.

I wondered if having other people find out about this

would negatively impact my chances in the game of life. I

glanced questioningly at Hinami, but since she wasn't about

to murder me with her glare, I figured I was probably in the

clear.

"…Huh?"

When I looked away from Hinami, I noticed Kikuchi-san

glancing at me. That reminded me that I'd meant to send her

a LINE message about it when I got home last night, but in

the end, I decided not to.

Now it seemed better to wait till break or after school

instead of telling her right now. I wanted to be able to really

talk about it with her, just the two of us.

* * *

During break after first period, I walked over to her.

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"Kikuchi-san," I said. Her shoulder twitched in surprise.

"Oh…Tomozaki-kun."

She looked down awkwardly. I guess she wasn't over what

happened the previous day.

"I was wondering…," I said, trying to draw her out. "Do

you want to walk to the station together after school?"

She met my gaze. But her expression was somehow

dejected.

"Um…"

"What?"

She gave me an appraising look. "…Your plans."

I was surprised by what she said next.

"You decided on your plans for the future?"

"Huh? Oh, uh-huh. I did."

"I see…"

It was sort of a strange way to respond to my question,

but it's true that everyone was making a big fuss over it

before homeroom. Since I hadn't told her yet, surprise was

an understandable reaction. The reason I had invited her to

walk to the station was so I could tell her about it, but given

how loudly everyone was talking, she must have overheard.

"Um, I wanted to talk to you more about it later…but I

think I want to be a pro gamer."

"Yes…"

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Her expression was still gloomy, and I felt like she wasn't

fully there. But she wasn't acting truly strange, so it was hard

to ask her what was wrong.

"Um…why?" she began hesitantly. "Why did you decide

that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Uh, um…"

That was a big question, and it would take a long time to

answer, which was why I wanted to walk to the station

together.

"Some things that happened at the meetup, and talking

with Mimimi, and other stuff. Of course, I want to tell you

about all that."

"The meetup…and Nanami-san," she echoed, then smiled

sadly.

"That's why I wanted to—"

She interrupted me, which she hardly ever did. "I'm

sorry."

"Um…" I didn't expect that answer, either.

"Today…I think I want to walk to the station by myself."

I had no idea what to say.

We didn't walk home together every day. But this was the

first time she turned down my invitation because she wanted

to be by herself, not because she had other plans.

"Oh…okay."

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"…Yeah."

There was another awkward pause.

"…Okay. Then we'll go home separately today." I

swallowed the sadness that was welling up in my chest.

But it was me, not her, who wanted to walk to the station

together. Even if we were dating, I needed to respect her

wishes.

"Yeah…," she said, looking down.

I didn't know what else to say, so I just stood there,

staring at her.

She held her breath for a second, then nervously met my

eyes. "Um…if we go home separately, who will you—?"

Just then, the bell rang, drowning out her soft voice and

cutting off our conversation.

She'd started to say something, and the classroom was

growing steadily quieter. If it was important, she could have

repeated it, but she didn't pick up the broken thread of

words.

We silently returned to our seats, and class began.

The image of Kikuchi-san biting her lip anxiously was

burned into my mind's eye.

* * *

At lunch, something else unexpected happened.

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"…Huh?"

It happened when I was eating lunch with the group that

was going to Spo-Cha.

A LINE message from Kikuchi-san arrived.

[I'm sorry. I do want to walk to the station together

today.]

I sat there, silently staring at my phone, surrounded by

the joking and talking of the rest of the group.

What the heck was going on?

In the morning, she had turned down my invitation, and

now it was lunch. What emotional change had taken place in

the space of a few hours? I had no idea.

And there was another problem, too.

"Let's figure everything out after school!" Takei was

wrapping up the conversation.

That's right. We'd decided to all meet up in class after

school let out. And since Kikuchi-san had already turned

down my invitation, I'd said I would be there, too.

But Kikuchi-san was clearly acting strange. Leaving things

as they were would be a bad idea.

I went along with the conversation as I typed my answer

to her.

I was certain the most important thing in a situation like

this was to tell her everything up front.

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[I'm supposed to get together with everyone after school

in our classroom to talk about this weekend. Would you be

willing to wait until we finished? I want to walk to the

station with you, too!]

I sent the message, then switched off my screen.

I'd never had a girlfriend before, so this was all new to me.

But I felt sure that if I was honest and open, we would be

able to understand each other.

* * *

The school day ended.

The Spo-Cha meeting (aka random chat with the normies)

ended up lasting over an hour, and Kikuchi-san waited for

me in the library until it ended.

Chatting for so long with a group that included slightly

less familiar members like Tachibana and Kashiwazaki-san

took a lot out of me, and by the time I headed for the library,

I was fairly drained. On top of that, I'd been worrying about

things with Kikuchi-san all day.

When I walked into the library, I saw the familiar sight of

Kikuchi-san sitting there with a book. When she saw me, she

smiled and closed it. It was like I was seeing her for the first

time in ages. A relief.

"Hello."

"Hi. Thanks for waiting. I'm beat."

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"You are?"

I nodded and sat down next to her, setting my bag on the

table. "Can I rest for a second?"

"Tee-hee. Of course. It's been a long day."

"…Yeah."

Time was flowing slowly now.

"Let me know when you've rested enough."

"Okay. Mind if I run to the restroom?"

"Go right ahead."

I walked over to the bathroom next to the library. I

couldn't tell her that I'd actually had to go for half an hour,

but I got swallowed up in the normie wave and couldn't

make an escape.

I finished my business and stood in front of the mirror,

washing my hands, staring at my reflection, and psyching

myself up.

I was glad we'd decided to meet in the library. I felt like

just being there melted away some of the awkwardness from

earlier.

I was sure I'd be able to talk to her about everything—

With that thought on my mind, I walked back to the

library, and that's when it happened.

I opened the door and looked inside.

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I saw Kikuchi-san. She had my phone in her hand.

"…!"

When she noticed my presence, she looked over at me

with an expression that could be interpreted as panic,

despair, or sorrow.

"…Kikuchi-san?"

She set my phone on the table, picked up her bag, and

started running.

"Hey, wait!" I called.

But she just kept running out of the library. Should I

chase after her? What in the world was happening? I tried to

organize my chaotic thoughts and decided that first I had to

figure out what the cause was.

So I picked up my phone—and got a shock.

A LINE message from Rena was pulled up on the screen.

It said:

[I'm sorry for bringing up sex out of the blue the other

day.]

Full of regret and panic, I flew out of the library.

But Kikuchi-san was nowhere to be found.

"…This is bad."

My relationship was in serious trouble.