CH 32

That day, I was heading towards Koenji, a different station from the one I usually use.

There is an all-you-can-eat sweets store near JR Koenji station.Touko-senpai and her friends are there discussing what the girls should do for the “winter event at the circle. It is now mid-November.From now on, Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day, and many other “hot winter events” are waiting for us.The circle we belong to plans an event every year to coincide with these events.We get together under the pretext of gathering the requests of the girls for the event.I was there as a lone male who happened to be there to eat cake. I ordered a drink and two cakes on the first floor, and took them upstairs with me.It was a weekday afternoon, but the seats were reasonably occupied. …… First of all, I had to find the seats where Touko-senpai and the others were and approach them. ……

That’s what I thought, and I was about to go to the back. “Hey, isn’t that Isshiki-kun?” I heard a voice calling out to me.When I look, it’s in the shadow of a pillar, but there Kazumi is waving at me.Touko-san and four other women from the circle are with her.I take my tray and approach the table where they are seated. “Isshiki-kun, are you alone?” Kazumi asks me very naturally.Just as we had planned. “Yes, I’m alone.” “If you want, you can sit here.” Kazumi points next to her. 

“I’m sorry. I’ll take your word for it then.” I pulled out a nearby empty chair and sat at the same table as the girls.Except for Touko and Kazumi, all four of us are girls from the circle.Mina, a sophomore in the economics department, Ayaka, a freshman, Manami, a sophomore in the literature department, and Yuri, a freshman in the commerce department.All four of them are influential girls in the circle.As expected of Touko-senpai. Her selection of people was not too shabby either. Mina, a sophomore in the economics department, asked me. “Where did you meet Kazumi? She doesn’t even belong to our circle.” Before I could answer that, Kazumi answered. “I knew him through Touko. The other day, I was looking for a book on programming at the library, and we got together. Since then, I’ve been asking him for programming assignments from time to time.” “Oh, really? But, Kazumi, don’t go around messing with the first-years in our circle. Isshiki is a newcomer with a lot of promise.” Mina said and laughed. “I’m going to be a part of this circle from now on, so you can’t complain anymore.” Kazumi laughed back. “But you’re dating Karen, aren’t you? It’s too late now, isn’t it?” It was Manami, a second year student in the same department of literature as Karen, who said that. “Yes, that’s right.” I cover it up with a vague reply. “Karen Mitsumoto, I don’t really like her that much. though she seems to be popular among boys.” 

Mina said with a shrug. “Mina, you shouldn’t talk like that in front of Isshiki.” Manami stopped her, but her face was still smiling. “Oh, yes. I’m sorry, Isshiki-kun. I’m the kind of person who says what I think, so don’t worry about it.” Then Ayaka, a first year economics student, opened her mouth. “But I agree with what Mina says. Karen’s demeanor is very different when she’s with a guy than when she’s not.” “Yes, she was terrible at the summer camp, too. I was quite taken aback by that too.” Yuri, a first-year student in the School of Commerce, agreed.I knew that Karen had a bad reputation with the girls in the circle from my senior, Touko.And here’s the line I’d say: …… “But I’m Karen’s boyfriend, so I believe in her. She’s a good girl at heart.” And then I follow up.According to Touko-senpai, “Whenever you hear a bad word about her, make sure you follow up. You don’t have to agree with the other girls on this one.”. The four women looked at each other for a moment. “Well, yeah. I think Isshiki-kun is going out with Karen because she has some good qualities.” “Actually, Karen is pretty cute, isn’t she? She’s really cute.” “Maybe she’s the type that boys can’t leave alone. Don’t worry about it too much.” But Mina was the only one who didn’t forget to add a few words at the end. “But I think you should choose the right woman to go out with.”

I really want to clear my mind of the fact that I had a relationship with Karen.My mouth is going to rot when I say, “she’s a good girl at heart.”I want to reveal my true feelings and say, “Karen is a rotten woman from the inside out! I want to expose her to the world. However, Touko-senpai said, “Girls think that guys who say bad things about their girlfriends are the worst.So, if you hear someone say something bad about Karen, don’t go along with it,” However, I had heard from …… Touko-senpai that the other girls’ evaluation of Karen was quite bad.If it hadn’t been for the affair, I might have been quite shocked. 

“Oh my god, that selfie I just took, I look so ugly!” Kazumi said, looking at her phone.She was trying to change the subject.And that’s my cue to switch to the selfie app. “What does it look like? Can you show me?” I quickly called out to Kazumi. “Hey, I just took this picture in this store. Don’t I look ugly?” It’s a normal shot, but that’s okay because we’re both acting here. “Yes, you do. It’s probably because of the light source. So if you adjust the skin color and white balance, you can get a better picture.” Then I took control of Kazumi’s phone. “Oh, it’ s looking good now. That’s Isshiki. You can’t post it on social media unless it looks like this.” Kazumi said overly. 

“Are you familiar with camera apps, Isshiki?” The other three girls were also interested.The other three girls were also looking at me with interest. “I don’t know much about it, but I wanted to try making it myself. So I did some research.” This is true.I’ve tried to make a camera app on Android to see if I could make some extra money.However, it seems that a certain amount of know-how is needed to “make it look pretty and beautiful”, and the application I made was not enough to make it sellable. “So, what kind of app would you recommend now?” It was Yuri who leaned forward. “I’ve been using the K app for a while now. Nowadays, the most popular apps are SO, UL, BP, and B9. I think SO is the most popular. SO is good for natural enhancement, and UL and BP are also good for processing.” “I’m using UL, but it has so many functions that I don’t know what to do with it.” Manami said. 

“I think the most important thing is to feel the skin, so for UL, you can go to …….” So I spent some time explaining the features and recommendations of selfie apps to the women.I also added a few words about “processing techniques for different situations. The original source of all of this was something I heard from Touko-senpai.The only things I researched were the current popular selfie camera apps and the paid services.There was no way I could understand the processing techniques.I’m just passing on what Touko-san told me from her fellow models. Ayaka said in admiration. “Amazing, Isshiki. You know a lot about these things.”