Chapter 233.

“Who the hell does that guy think he is!” Rosa fumed in her seat.

When we returned to the classroom, she kicked the back leg of her chair in frustration, pulled it out, and plopped herself down with a visibly disgusted expression on her face.

“Well, the student council president, right?”

“No shit! That guy gets on my nerves. He thinks he’s some sort of knight in shining armor, it ticks me off how he pretends to be a good guy when he’s just a piece of shit.”

“Huh? Why would you think of him that way? He seemed like a pretty nice guy.”

“Nice guy? He’s scum. Do you know how many girls he’s leading on? When they confess their feelings to him, he neither accepts them nor rejects them and asks them to give him some time to think. In reality, they’re all pitiful backups for him. They exist solely to stroke his ego.”

“He’s had his eyes on Alicia for a long time now and actually seems to be seriously chasing after her. Alicia has known him since her first year. She used to be on a few sporting teams for the girls before she quit this semester because of work. She also had an elective together with him in the second semester of her first year. This semester she has third-year physics together with that guy after lunch every day. He even sits next to her and acts all chummy. He’s nothing but an eyesore.”

“Ahhhhh! I can’t stand guys like him the most,” she snarled.

“You’re going to get wrinkles,” I joked and poked her forehead between her eyes.

“Wha- wrinkles, no way~” She felt her forehead and frowned.

“Hurry up and do something so I don’t get wrinkles.”

“Do something? What am I supposed to do? I’m just a little first-year while he’s a scary third-year. The student council president with many people around him who’d support him.”

“If you don’t do something… then I’ll make him disappear.”

“Woah now, would you calm down a bit? You can’t go around saying stuff like that.”

“Haaaaaah. I get it. I just really don’t like him… the way he looks at Alicia gives me the creeps. Alicia doesn’t notice anything weird and thinks he’s a really nice person.” Well, Rosa was quite sensitive to the way guys looked at her, so if she said there was something strange about it, there likely was.

The appearance of the student council president had stopped Jass from saying anything more. He’s been turned into a villain, the enemy of the student council president the second he intervened.

Alicia had a troubled look. She tried to say something but was prevented from doing so with a single look from the student council president.

Everyone who’s seen the scene fell under the impression that it had been the truth. They were now convinced that Alicia and the student council president were an item because Alicia couldn’t bring herself to say anything. If she did, it would be embarrassing him in front of everyone when he was just trying to help her out of the situation she found herself in.

She wasn’t on bad terms with him.

It seemed many people already had a sneaking suspicion that the two of them were in some sort of relationship.

Alicia’s reaction to his intervention had further convinced them that this was the case.

Haaaaaah. Things were getting more and more troublesome.

First Jass, and then, the student council president.

How would one resolve this situation without getting directly involved?

It was at that moment the classroom door slid open and Jass entered. I’d dragged Rosa away when the student council president made his appearance to prevent Rosa from lashing out. I determined that was the best course of action rather than getting involved there.

I’d rather not raise the student council president’s guard toward me. I intended to hook that goth girl up with the student council president to eliminate him, but judging by what Rosa said, that likely wouldn’t be very easy if she was correct. 

Presently, that goth girl hadn’t contacted me for anything since we split up on Sunday. I’d been on the lookout for her this morning at the school’s front entrance, but I didn’t see her arrive. She might have taken the side entrance, back entrance, or simply arrived before me though. She still wasn’t aware that we went to the same school.

“Haaaaaaaah. Ran… it was a disaster.” Jass immediately approached me when he entered the classroom and fell backward onto the empty chair at the desk to my front.

“Well, that’s a shame. Better luck next time.”

“How was I supposed to know it was the student council president of all people? As soon as he appeared, I felt like I was turned into the bad guy. I had no choice but to throw in the towel and retreat. Man, I really let my imagination run wild this time though.”

“That’s a shame. So, are you giving up on her then?”

“Giving up? I feel completely defeated. But I don’t really want to give up so easily. I want to at least slow dance with her to one song. If I could get that much, I could die a happy man.”

“You’re way too desperate.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. Also, can you please stop coming to me every time you want to spill your troubles?”

“Haha… come on man, lighten up a bit. You’ve got such a pretty girlfriend, at least bless and bestow less fortunate guys like me with some of your skills.”

I rolled my eyes and scolded, “Less fortunate my ass. If you didn’t have your bar set so high, I’m sure you’d already have a girlfriend.”

Actually, please bless and bestow me with your inability to get a girlfriend. It seems I’ve gotten rusty when it comes to keeping them away.

“No way, if someone gloomy like you can get a girl like Rosa, I’m sure I can do even better. The sky’s the limit.”

Where his confidence came from, I had no idea. 

“Dumbass, just lower your bar and get a girlfriend already. If you get even one girl to be your girlfriend, your stocks automatically rise in other girls' eyes. You gain the label of someone who is datable.”

“What? No way, for real? Having a girlfriend has such an effect?”

I looked over to Rosa. Jass followed my line of sight and saw Rosa nod affirmatively to my claim.

“Seriously?”

Rosa opened her mouth and confirmed, “Yes. Ran is correct. A guy who has had a girlfriend before appeals more to girls as he’s been broken in. He has experience already and a track record. It’s effectively the same as what prior work experience for a job is to an employer.”

When Jass heard her analogy, he stood up from his seat in shock. He looked like he’d just been told Santa Claus really exists.

“Then the more girlfriends I have in life, the more appealing I’ll be, right? Then I’ll be able to level up to even more attractive girls. So if I start low I can work my way up the food chain.”

I opened my mouth and asked, “Why are you so simple-minded? Nobody said you should have an excessive number of girlfriends in life. At some point, having too many becomes a negative rather than a positive. If you keep changing girlfriends like you’re changing clothes, girls will come to another conclusion. The conclusion that there’s something wrong with you for so many relationships to not work out. The first one or two could be explained away as things not working out between you and that girl. But when your relationship history becomes excessively long, the problem is obviously a systematic one.”

“Oh… I get it. That’s also the same with employers too, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Exactly. So think of a girlfriend as you would an employer. So long as your relationship ends on good terms with her, she can be a good reference for future relationships should your relationship with her not work out.” Why did it feel like I was playing the role of a teacher?

“So by your logic, at the school dance, I should try to slow dance with some other girls first before I try to ask the girl I really like to dance.”

“Huh? Well… I guess that sort of makes sense. You’d demonstrate your experience and have a reference.” I didn’t know if it worked that way for this sort of thing as well. After all, I’d never slow danced with a girl before.

As for the talk of girlfriends, I could only imagine it was true. After I started dating Rosa, that was the conclusion I’d drawn based upon the reaction of other girls.

“Alright, I understand, I’ll do my best.” Jass gave that sort of confident response as he took out a sandwich from his bag and started to eat.

Rosa had also taken out a container with some food to eat for lunch. To forget the incident that transpired, she switched gears by pushing her desk up beside mine.

Jass looked on enviously at me with the way Rosa openly fed me half of her food. “Man… I want that. It’s not fair.” He shook his head dejectedly.

I don’t know why he was envious of this, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. She’d force-feed me if I put up any resistance. It was simply a matter of whether I did things the easy way or the hard way. The hard way wasted more energy just for things to end up like this in the end so I’d long abandoned the hard way and resigned myself to suffer this embarrassing fate during lunch.

She didn’t do this every day, just on the days she didn’t go to spend lunch with Alicia. I still hadn’t corrected my bad habit of skipping out on eating lunch. She forced me to eat breakfast on the days she went to eat with Alicia. The way I knew whether I was having lunch with Rosa on a given day was determined by whether or not she made breakfast for me in the morning.

She was on ‘make sure Ran at least eats breakfast or lunch everyday duty.’ Why didn’t she simply prepare a container of food for me every day and have me eat on my own? Well, it seemed she enjoyed feeding me.

KiraMinoru

Well, it's been a while since I've said anything. Been busy engrossed with a new job and all. Also been getting fcked by interest rates too but that's a whole other story. But anyway, last chapter was the end of volume 4 so I guess it's time for another best girl poll.

Well, maybe I should make it an unpopularity contest this time around instead, a least-liked girl poll since I'm sure there are a lot of people who have complaints about characters. So here's your outlet to complain about them I guess. Might still make a best girl poll next chapter.