CH 1

Suddenly, a question.

What would you do if you liked someone but someone else confessed to you?

Generally, they will say no, because they have someone they like.

So what if that person you love completely doesn’t turn to you ?

What if the person you love loves someone else?

In that case, what would you do?

After all, would I refuse because I can’t give up on someone I love?

Or would they go out with someone they love to give up and forget?

A compromise, so to speak. Is the act of trying to satisfy one’s greed with a reachable partner because the person one loves is out of reach?

….Let’s add more conditions.

What if, if I don’t get a girlfriend in the next ten days, I’m forced to quit living alone and get engaged to a recluse girl from who knows where?

And what if the person who confesses to you is the most beautiful girl in school and is known as a goddess?

In that case, what should I do?

You don’t believe that’s possible?　No, no, no, I don’t believe it either.

Unfortunately, I’m not handsome, athletic, or studious, and aside from a rather peculiar family environment, I’m a very ordinary high school boy.

So I’m even more puzzled.

“Komiya Youta kun. Can I hear your reply?”

I, Komiya Youta, can’t believe that the goddess of the school confessed her love for me.

“…… If you’re okay with me.”

I never dreamed that I would end up dating someone I didn’t even like.

◆

Spring.

I, Komiya Youta,  was in a hurry.

[Make a girlfriend by seventeen. If not, you will have to return home. And you are going to get engaged to a recluse girl I know. Okay?]

This is the promise I made to my father when I graduated from junior high school.

After asking to be allowed to live alone to get out of my parent’s house as soon as possible, I was forced to accept the ridiculous conditions.

Of course, I was young and foolish at the time, so I thought, “I can at least have a girlfriend in a year!　I was young and foolish at the time, so I left home with great enthusiasm.

April 11th.

Ten days left until I turn seventeen.

Currently without a girlfriend.

It was hopeless for me to get a girlfriend in the remaining ten days, as I had mastered mediocrity to the point of mediocrity.

“Haaa……”

I still have a year to go and I’ll be fine. I still have six months to go and I’ll be fine. I still have three months and I’ll be fine. I was thinking, “I can afford to be self satisfied,” but here we are.

The limit was ticking away and I couldn’t help but sigh.

If I confess appropriately to all the girls in the area, maybe, but it is too risky.

Besides—–

“What’s wrong? You look pale.”

“Ah no, nothing !”

“Is it really fine? Your face looks red? Maybe it’s a fever.”

“It’s really fine !”

I had someone I loved.

Tohno Hitomi, the girl friend sitting next to me who has been worrying about me and saying kind words to me since a while ago, is someone I have had a one-sided love for nearly a year.

A kind-hearted girl approached me when I was lost at the entrance ceremony and took me to school with her.

I fell in love with her at first sight.

“So, …… something troubling you?”

Her distinctive reddish-brown shortcut sways and she tilts her head slightly, so cute that you want to hug her.

There is no way I can say that my inability to date you in front of me is a problem.

“No, it’s really nothing. I just haven’t been sleeping well.”

“I’m just not sleeping well.　Do you want to go to the infirmary?”

“No, no, …… I’m still fine. If it’s really bad, I’ll go.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

So kind. But now that kindness is sinking in……I want you to abuse me so that I can hate you anyway.

Aa, if it were Tohno san, I might be happy to be abused.

I don’t accept the words, “If you love her so much, confess it quickly”. If I could do that, I wouldn’t have any trouble, and I don’t want people to make fun of my timid nature. 

Someone once told me that confession is a confirmation.

So I’ve been trying for the past year to get her to turn around …… But I’ve been too cautious.

One day after school.

Tohno san, do you have someone you like !?

When I saw her shyly talking to his classmates about such a conversation in the classroom, I was blindsided.

I couldn’t rule out the possibility that it could be me, but the more information I gathered, the closer to zero I got.

It seems that she has a handsome childhood friend. Damn it.

I was afraid of ruining my relationship with her and always put off confessing my feelings to her because I was too scared to do so.

That’s why I almost gave up on my feelings for her.

How shameful to give up before even confessing.

I want to give up but I can’t. But I also have to get a girlfriend.

Only frustration grew, time passed, and spring break ended.

Toward the end of the year, it was so hard for me to talk to Tohno san that I avoided her for no reason at all.

Even so, Tohno san, who is now in the same class as me, is still kind to me.

Every time I talk with Tohno san, I am flooded with unnecessary thoughts again.

…… but if you can’t confess anyway, let’s just ask what’s on my mind at the end.

I have to ask myself whether she really loves her childhood friend or not. If I could hear her say that she really loves her childhood friend, I might be able to give up on her once and for all.

Or perhaps there might be a possibility.

The last bad step? Whatever!

“B-by the way. I heard that..”

“Hmm? What is that ?”

“Tohno san has a childhood friend, right?”

“Eh, where did you hear that!?…….. I have.”

Oh, I knew it……..

Here is a pathetic man who asked his own question and is now depressed himself.

No, …… It’s not over yet !!

“W-What does that person mean to you, Tohno san?”

I still have to ask in a roundabout way here because I’m still a bit scared.

“Eeeh ?! W-what’s that out of the blue… That, of course, means a lot to me, Aki chan.”

Even calls him with a nickname….even though I’m just [Komiya kun]

At this point, I have already lost. It is only natural that her childhood friend and I have accumulated different numbers of years. 

Oh, man, I’m desperate!

“B-By that, You mean you l-l-l-l-l-like him?

I ask…….I asked it !!

Maybe this is what we call giving up.

——hmm it’s just a childhood friend

If only I could have heard that one word…… I was impressed with myself for my own resignation even here.

“T-That…..yeah…that’s right..”

Perhaps embarrassed, Tohno san blushed and answered in a voice that became progressively quieter.

K.O. completely defeated.

…… it’s over. The more I listened, the more hurt I felt, but I couldn’t stop myself.

I can tell by the look on her face. She seems to like him a lot.

“D-Don’t ask too many strange questions. You have to listen to the lesson properly, okay?”

With that, the conversation was forcibly interrupted, leaving only despair in my heart.

I’m sad to say that I’m still not ready for this kind of finalization.

But I can’t go out with Tohno san.

Still, I must have a girlfriend.

“Oh, God!　What am I supposed to do!!!!　I’m not going to get a girlfriend in a week!”

Struggling with such a dilemma, after school, I greeted the day with a feminine and woozy feeling.

She appeared before me, a half-wit, plopped down on my desk.

“Komiya kun”

“I-Ichikawa san !?”

When I looked up when I was called, there was Ichikawa Aoi from the same class.

Did you hear that?

Where I was screaming my head off. Ha, that’s embarrassing …….

Ichikawa san, however, sat at the desk next to mine and stared at me as if she didn’t care what I was thinking.

“Ee, Can I help you?”

“Yes, I’ve been looking for you.”

“……..me? Why ?”

Unfortunately, Ichikawa san and I don’t have that much contact. We were in the same class in our second year and have only exchanged a few words.

What does she want with me?

“I have something to talk about with you.”

“Something to talk about….”

“Yes. Do you want to hear it ?”

“Wel…..”

I can’t even understand what you’re talking about.

But I agreed, thinking that if I was alone and just brooding and worrying, talking would distract me.

“Thank you. Komiya Youta kun.”

“Ssuu”

She calls my name, and my heart leaps.

When I look at Ichikawa san, she stares at me intently with serious eyes.

Please don’t. I don’t have a tolerance for girls. 

However, her beautiful eyes captured me with strong power, as if she had decided to do something.

W-wait a minute? W-what is this feeling…C-could it be?

“Well, hear me out.”

My throat rumbled at the unfamiliar situation. I nodded my head in silence.

“I like you. Will you go out with me?”

And then came the unexpected words.

I, Komiya Youta, received a confession for the first time in my life.