CH 1

Chapter 1 – First Love x Prelude –

I want a GIRLFRIEND!

All boys around the age think about it.

I, Hiromichi Sato, have been thinking about it every single day since I was in the second year of junior high school.

However, in reality, it’s impossible.

My looks, below average.

Athletic ability, below average.

Outstanding talent, nothing in particular.

Only my academic performance is reasonable, but it’s time-consuming. And my popularity is rather bad.

That’s why I did not have a girlfriend through my third year of junior high school.

On the contrary, did I ever talk to a girl about anything other than contact information?

Here’s the whole story.

When I was in elementary school, I had some friends of the opposite sex.

Starting from fifth grade, it became embarrassing to interact with a girl, and so I kept my distance.

And then, I realized, what I was doing was “messed up.”

That’s right, I made it awkward and finished my middle school with a mess.

It was messed up.

Looking back over these three years, I was also being impatient with this gray life.

If this continues, then my school life will end without me having a lover.

Noooo….

I hate this. I don’t like it.

I really… really…really want a girlfriend!

I don’t like anyone right now, but I want one.

I don’t have a specific type, but I still want one.

I mean,

If there is someone who likes me, I will like her the most in the world.

I’m confident!

I will love the one who likes me.

Who is it?

That’s why I was so passionate about finding such a Cinderella when I entered high school.

However, this inadequate passion did not last long during the first month.

First, I talked to her starting with a greeting, but I couldn’t follow the second phrase in front of her gaze, which was like “What’s this? Who’s this?”.

Even though I asked my friends who have a wide friend circle to join, but I didn’t know what kind of topic the creature, called a girl, who I hadn’t had proper contact with me for the past three years, so I just gave up.

Apparently, to acquire the cooperation of girls, the skill to cooperate with girls was necessary. OH MY GOD. What’s this a fucking game? Debug it.

And…… just like that,

My first year in high school has gone gray.

“Fu-n-fu-fun-furu-lulu ~~~~~”

But all the stories that I have been saying so far are in the past.

Right now I’m walking on the way to school in the spring of my second year of high school while singing my hums.

In the city where the cherry blossoms are falling and summer is just around the corner, the brightly colored green is shining wet with the morning dew.

I can’t believe I thought such a wonderful world was gray.

Why this change of mind? Of course…

Because she’s here.

Finally, she’s here!

She’s~fu~A girlfriend~fuhu~ She’s my girlfriend.

It’s so important that’s why I intended to say it twice, but overrun a little.

I’m soaring the skies for the first time in my life. I want you to overlook it.

And of course, I didn’t confess.

It’s not about pride rather I don’t have the courage to confess.

I just went through the usual year of a unspectacular high school start-dash with a male friend and was confessed by a girl.

The other party, a girl of the same age who went to different junior high schools from the same elementary school and reunited at this high school.

(Well I was in a special promotion, she was in a different department from the regular course, so I didn’t notice her existence until I was confessed to).

I remember calling out to a child who was isolated when I met her in after-school care, but I couldn’t believe that the flag I set when I was in elementary school would come now.

The moment I was confessed to, the 4K broadcast of my life began.

No, not only the colors.

Everything in this world has changed since that day, a month ago.

From the air on the school road, where I used to feel only the smell of exhaust gas, I began to feel the scent of lush life, and the opening bell, which marks the beginning of a gloomy day, turned into a gospel to announce the beginning of the day with her. When I eat Udon in the school cafeteria with her, I feel that the soup stock has been added with a depth of flavor.

“Well, Riko from the Cheerleading Club told me, so I went to the room.”

“Heh-heh! So how was it? I wonder.”

“Perfect. After all, the athletic club is good.”

You can listen to the conversations of the positive girls in the class who seemed to be jealous in agony with a smile.

Yeah, yeah. I understand. Love is good. It is the pleasure of youth. Let’s do our best together, brothers.

I feel calm.

“Ah? But Aizawa, you were dating Mao Imura of Omefukibe. Did you break up?”

“Isn’t it Sokabe, not Imura?”

“No, I’m not going out with either of them. I don’t think I’ll be serious about a woman of that level.”

“Eh? Either way, They’re both slightly beautiful, aren’t they?”

“They are quite good, right? For me, I’m having a hard time. There is a girl who comes on LINE [TN: LINEバンバン] every day, but she’s a ‘no thank you’. She looks like someone who was fucked two or three times.”

I take it back. I wonder if these guys could just drop dead.

Well………, sometimes it’s frustrating, but since the past month, my high school life has been more fun and brighter than ever.

I’m sure that’s because I’ve come to see many things more positively now.

It’s all thanks to her.

I have the courage to affirm others because now I have a girlfriend who affirms me.

(ED: affirm = supports)

I would like to introduce her who gave me such courage.

I am now waiting for her arrival in the library after school.

Unlike me, she does club activities, so I have to wait until her club activities are over to leave school together.

I glance at the library entrance and do my homework.

As such time continued, then I noticed the time on my smartphone.

The time is 8:10. ……10 minutes?

The promised time should be at 8 o’clock.

But the entrance door is closed.

She hasn’t come. Why?

Perhaps it was a dream of a man who had never been so popular.

“Hiromichi-kun”

“Uwaaa, hyaaaaaaaaaa!”

Suddenly, a cold feeling crawls up my nape.

Looking back in surprise, I saw a girl standing there with an innocent smile with two juice cans in her hands.

She’s a beauty with a neat and clear look.

Slightly wet hair that extends to the shoulders.

A little shorter than me and a clearly higher waist.

A beautiful girl, as if she came out of the cover of a teen magazine, a girl of the level that you do not see so often.

This is my girlfriend, Haruka Saikawa.

….I’m glad. It wasn’t a dream.

I sometimes get worried that it’s some sort of convenient dream for me to be confessed by a beautiful girl like Haruka. Even now I’m afraid because I’m not popular.

“Ahaha, Are you surprised? I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. The practice took longer than I expected. This is an apology juice. Please take it.”

“No, it’s all right, I just arrived”

“There is no way that you come here just now……in kind of this situation.”

Haruka’s gaze is directed towards the desk.

My notebooks and textbooks were scattered there as a matter of course.

GUAaaaaa~

I can’t believe it.

It’s true. In this situation, it is too unreasonable to have just arrived. If you think about it a little, you’ll know.

I wonder why I’m try to be cool.

Embarrassing. I can feel my cheeks getting hot.

I feel nervous before Haruka, my head and body won’t work well.

But,

“You’re kind…..Hiromichi-kun.”

Haruka doesn’t laugh at me who’s so unrestrained.

Kind. Lovely.

She has a beautiful face and a good personality.

I wonder how much virtue I accumulated in my previous life to be confessed by such a perfect beauty.

Thank you ‘old me’ of the previous life.

“Then let’s go.”

“Oh, oh. I’ll clean this up really quick!”

“Ah, you don’t have to hurry?”

“I know.”

While replying so, I threw my textbooks and writing utensils into my bag at full speed.

Although Haruka is by my side, I don’t have time to be caught in textbooks like this.

Also, today, I have an important promise with Haruka.

We got out of the study room and walked side by side in the corridor.

They talked about what they were talking about at school that day and what they saw on TV yesterday.

A sales talk of my favorite manga and an impression session with Haruka who borrowed it and read it.

Recently, there are various topics such as “Splatoon 2”, where a team of four people including us and two of my male friends plays.

[TN: Splatoon 2- a video game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatoon_2]

If it is only this, it is not different from a male friendship, but of course, she’s my lover, I also consult about a date plan before the weekend.

By the way, today’s topic was about Haruka’s Club Activities.

“Well, I’ve been often praised by directors and teachers lately.”

“Why is that?”

“There’s a lot of depth in the play. I’m becoming a well-flavored daikon out of the other daikon.”

[TN: Daikon, also known as white radish]

“.…Is that a compliment?”

“Ahaha. It’s better than boiled raw [Daikon.]”

“I see, it’s true”

Haruka is in the drama club. It seems that her divorced mother was an actor (although it didn’t work out well) and she was influenced by it.

She says she likes to be in a side role.

However, from the appearance of Haruka who is practicing with her eyes shining as if she is blowing fire while sticking her sweaty hair on her cheeks, she loves her passion, regardless of whether she is good or bad.

I can clearly see that she didn’t fit in the role of ‘side roles’.

That’s why I love to hear from Haruka about her Club Activities.

A person who works hard for something looks dazzling.

Especially if she’s a cute lover.

I can listen to Haruka’s story forever, and I can keep talking with Haruka forever. There are so many things I want to share with her that I always end up running out of time when talking about it.

But,……….It’s different today.

As the school gate approaches, the number of words between us naturally decreases.

Then, in front of the school gate, we kept silent and….stopped.

…….Yesterday, we made a special promise.

The school gate is the boundary.

When I glance at Haruka, our eyes met.

The line of sight can be solved without being entangled.

However, Haruka shyly turned her eyes away.

But instead, Haruka offered her right hand to me who was standing next to her.

That’s right.

We’ve been dating for about a month.

We’ve talked to each other to try a little harder to reduce the distance between us, and we decided today will be our first day to hold hands!

It’s not something that either of us pushed it, but something we decided.

So I took Haruka’s white fish-like hand, hand… with courage, and hold it!

Fuhoooo..

My heart leaped upon the touch of her fingers.

Is this the hand of a girl?

Much thinner and softer than those of a man. More than anything, it’s fine.

The difference in feeling makes my heart flutter.

How does Haruka feel?

When I glanced at her, she was also slightly blushing.

“Ehehe …It’s a little embarrassing, right?”

“Rr, really? (Treble)”[TN:  high pitched sound]

Really. A little embarrassed? A little?

Obviously, I’m a little far from it.

I’m so nervous that a mysterious treble pops out of my throat.

In the past month, my chicken heart was so tense just by being together at first, was forged into a fluke stone that ordinary conversations could be natural, without any mending. But now, it has shattered by conscious exchanges with the opposite sex.

As a matter of course, ‘Popular characters’* hugs every girl who are not even lovers, I wonder what kind of nerves they have?

[TN: 陽キャ]

I can only think of them as an alien.

And when I was thinking about that,

“I’m sorry. It’s strange that it takes a month just to hold hands. But it’s the first time, I’m in this kind of relationship with a boy. I’m nervous…..”

Haruka apologized, her face was clouded.

Apparently, It was my fault because the number of words was reduced.

No! I was so nervous that I just didn’t know what to talk about!

Of course, I replied quickly.

“No, It’s same for me as well, or rather it’s not at this pace. It took me a month to hold hands, but it’s only one month, right?  I think it’s going well! Because, you know, how much we can get along with each other in a lifetime if we hold hands in a month!”

“Tsu~~~~!”

At that moment, Haruka’s cheeks, which were already red, turned bright red as if they were on fire.

I think that the body temperature transmitted from our connected hands has also risen sharply.

Maybe….but did I just say something weird?

Really?

Ah, I did! I said “lifetime”!

Wow, bold!* Even though you’re still in high school, what are you saying?

[TN: キッツイ]

“Hey, no! No, no! No, a little too far ahead! Of course, as for my feelings, I didn’t mean that, I said it in a deeper sense. I wonder if I should do that …! “

Oh no, it’s wrong!

No matter what I say, I’m just overcoating her feelings with my feelings.

How do I get this under control?

If it continues like this, Haruka will seriously misunderstand me.

I thought so and felt tempted.

“Unn. I’m glad.”

Haruka squeezed my hand even harder and leaned against my left arm and smiled.

It is not an innocent smile that she shows to a friend.

But a special smile that she only shows to me as a lover.

“I told you that I was praised for better acting performance, right? I think it’s because of you, Hiromichi-kun.”

“Eh?”

“Because I’ve been having a lot of fun every day since I started dating Hiromichi.

The world is shining like never before, and a gentle feeling that I didn’t know until now is overflowing from my heart. It gives me the power that I have never had before.

..…I didn’t know.

“I am so happy that there is a reliable person in this wide world who dearly think of me…….. So, thank you Hiromichi-kun. Me too. I loo~~ve you, Hiromichi-kun!”

“That………”

….I understand now.

I was born in this world to meet Haruka.

There can be no other girl who likes me straight as a human being.

There can be no other girl who can value the same thing as me, except Haruka.

I can’t think of anything, except Haruka.

That day, Haruka stayed close to me until we parted at the station.

Although we were too nervous to speak honestly. The sound of Haruka’s heartbeat, which was as loud as mine, was transferred through our close contact, but it was still perfect.

It takes about 15 minutes.

Those 15 minutes were arguably the best time in my 17-years of life as Hiromichi Sato.

And… Ah….it was just after this.

I was convinced that I could not think of anything but Haruka.

The blueprint of youth with Haruka. I believed that it will continue in the future.

I met someone who turned everything upside down.