CH 2

A Common Reality with Childhood Friend

TL: I forgot to post this. Sorry.

Childhood friends, what does that sound like to you?

A sweet and sour story about a man and a woman who have been close to each other since childhood, and the joy and sorrow of their budding love as they begin to become aware of each other as the opposite sex as they grow older…… In the movies and comics, it’s the common stuff that’s been used so much that it’s got all kinds of dirt and grime on it.

I’m sure I would have imagined that too if I didn’t know the reality.

Yes, if you don’t know…… the reality.

In reality, that childhood friendship between a man and a woman, a youth story cannot be expected when they had coming-of-age.

Because, unlike the drama, male and female children cannot continue to get along with each other forever, and as they grow up, the difference between the opposite sex becomes clearer, and their existence becomes annoying.

In my case, I clearly remember that it was from “that girl”…

When I was a kid, my childhood friend, who I used to play with, suddenly stopped coming to our usual place, not because of any special incident or quarrel.

Since that day, there was no active interaction with the girl, although not as an enemy, and the friends and the world in which we were placed naturally changed each other… Just estranged, and naturally became irrelevant.

Yes, that’s what childhood friendships between man and woman are like in real life.

When she and I became classmates for the first time in years, we had become such strangers that I didn’t know how to talk to her.

The fact that we are now classmates doesn’t seem to have changed our relationship, in fact, it seems to have accelerated our estrangement.

She “Kanzaki Amane” is an active girl and in an upper community in the class. She always has friends around her, both male and female, and always gives the impression of being in the center of the group, laughing with everyone.

On the other hand, I’m the type of guy who always has a group of four guys that I get along with and hangs out with, a slightly more otaku group.

Of course, I’m not dissatisfied with that.

Rather, I’m not very good at such communities because I don’t have the open-mindedness to get along with everyone.

That’s why I and Amane, who was supposed to be childhood friend, are becoming more and more distant.

“By the way, Yumeji. I heard that you and Kanzaki-san were childhood friends.”

During the lunch break, I was thinking about the barrenness of seeing Amane, who is somehow creating a world different from my own, and then although he is an ace of the soccer club, because of his love for anime, Satou, one of the “usual four”, suddenly said something like that.

“What!? Yumeji, is it true!! Kanzaki-san that little boyish, refreshing, healthy, does not distinguish between boys and girls, and even speaks naturally to an otaku like us without discrimination !?”

The first to react was the bespectacled Kudou, and I instantly knew what he was expecting from his excited reaction. It was definitely the same old story I had been thinking about earlier.

“Well… I’ve known her for a long time but.”

I exhaled with various emotions.

To be honest, she’s very popular. She’s basically the kind of girl who can talk to anyone without hesitation, and she’s liked by everyone from athletics to art club types.

…… Well, as he said, she is “a saint who speaks to someone like me”, she is too humble, and the underclassmen who call her “Onee-sama” are frankly scary, though.

But that’s only for other people. Kanzaki Amane interacts with people other than me without distinction.

However, I’ve been getting special treatment from her for years.

…… Don’t think that special treatment is a good thing, okay? She doesn’t talk to me, she doesn’t look me in the eye, and she’s treated me like that for years.

It’s not a suggestive response. If our eyes met, she would blatantly frown and slowly remove her gaze as if to say “Uwwa, I’ve seen him”.

Once, when I bumped into her who lives next door to me on her way to school, I thought it was strange that she didn’t say anything to me no matter how estranged we were, so I summoned up what little courage I had and said “good morning” to her……. The girl ignored me as if I were air and ran off to school.

When we became classmates this year, I had hoped that maybe we could break our estrangement, but that day my plan was shattered into a million pieces.

Apparently, during the estrangement, I was hated by her like a feather bug.

“There is no way in reality that your childhood friend, who tends to be the rejected one in harem manga these days, will fall in love with you like in those stories…”

“S-sorry. Don’t say anything more! I’m feeling the same way I did when my sister broke down “the impossibility and sterility of Imouto Moe”!”

Kudou who was momentarily excited by my quiet but dark muttering hurriedly apologized.

…… I remember when this guy used to get excited about Imouto Moe and then suddenly stopped talking about it?

“But… Well, maybe the world of you and Kanzaki-san are too different from each other, no matter how much you’ve known each other since childhood… Aa, that doesn’t mean anything bad, you know?”

I’m not sure if Sato thought his words were rude or not, but he gave me a strange follow-up.

You don’t have to worry about it, but… I don’t think I could ever get along with her like I used to.

It’s a different community within the class, but the other side is completely avoiding me.

There’s no way to have any contact with her, and I don’t think I’m going to try to have any now… and.

“Speaking of which, I heard Kanzaki-san had a boyfriend. It’s a world that we who don’t have a partner can never understand.”

“………… I guess so.”

I also recently overheard a rumor that Amane has started dating a slightly flirtatious guy who is sitting next to her and talking to her in a friendly manner.

I didn’t remember holding anything special, but I couldn’t help but feel a strange weight in the pit of my stomach.