CH 138

The next day, I went to school with Shi-chan as usual, and we separated in the classroom and went to our respective seats.

And just like yesterday, I was killing time until homeroom by playing with my phone, while Shi-chan was surrounded by her classmates again today.

On that same morning, as if in déjà vu, I was approached by someone.

“Good morning, Ichijo-kun.”

“Hmm? Oh, good morning, Nishiki—-“

As I returned the greeting, I looked up from my phone and involuntarily froze.

The voice was definitely Nishikida’s, but it was not the Nishikida I knew.

You may not understand what I am saying, but I looked up to see a mysterious beautiful girl with long black hair whom I did not know.

However, upon closer inspection, I found that the beautiful girl was definitely Nishikida-san, with beautiful straight black hair instead of the usual braided hair, and she had changed her glasses to contacts.

–I was surprised at how beautiful Nishikida-san actually was.

I was honestly surprised.

It was not only me, but all of my classmates in the classroom were surprised by her transformation.

“Who is that beautiful girl?”

“She must be Nishikida-san if she’s sitting there, right?”

“Seriously? She’s actually that beautiful?”

“She looks like an amazing model. ……”

Such voices could be heard from inside the classroom.

However, Nishikida-san, who sat next to me with an indifferent look on her face, had changed her appearance, but nothing she did had changed, and she was reading as usual without showing any signs of caring about her surroundings.

At any rate, Nishikida-san, who was sitting next to me, had suddenly transformed from a plain girl into a Yamato Nadeshiko who made everyone look back at her.

And Shi-chan, seeing Nishikida, had an indescribable expression on her face, as if she were on the lookout for something—-.

The last class of the morning was over.

In other words, it is now time for lunch break.

Incidentally, the morning passed normally without any conversation with Nishikida other than the morning greeting.

Classmates also glanced at the suddenly transformed Nishikida, but did not seem to be able to talk to her, so the morning passed without any change.

However, Shi-chan’s eyes on me during class were even stronger than yesterday, and during break time, she kept coming to my seat.

Well, Shi-chan is obviously wary of Nishikida-san sitting next to me.

(Nothing much, and even if there was, I’m only Shi-chan. ……)

I thought so inwardly, but since I could not say such a thing in the classroom, I spent my recess time talking with Shi-chan, except in the restroom.

Well, whatever the reason, I was happy to be able to spend time talking together like this again.

At lunchtime, we ate lunch together again at the cafeteria and returned to the classroom, chatting and laughing for a while.

We had some time left in the lunch break, so I decided to go to the bathroom with Takayuki.

“Well, I was surprised to see Nishikida-san, I never thought she would turn out to be such a beautiful woman.”

“Yeah, well, it seems to have made Shi-chan very wary of me.”

“Well, that can’t be helped. I can understand how she feels.”

“There’s nothing going on.”

“Maybe it’s the woman’s heart that makes her curious. I don’t know.”

So it’s a woman’s heart, huh?

Well, it’s true that when I tried to imagine a scene where a handsome guy I don’t know is sitting next to Shi-chan, I thought it’s not very nice, so I guess that’s what it means.

So I think about it.

When that situation arises, what would I have to say or do to Shi-chan to make her feel safe?

When I thought about that, I had a clear idea of what I should do.

There was no need to do anything special.

I returned to the classroom while talking with Takayuki, and then went to my seat —- not to my seat, but to Shi-chan’s seat, which was still surrounded by my classmates.

“So, Shi-chan, do you have time to go home today?”

And I talked to her in a normal way.

Of course, I knew that Shi-chan had no plans after school.

“Eh? yes, sure?”

“Good, I have someplace I want to go, so let’s go together.”

“Y-yes! I will go! Definitely!”

Thinking back, it’s been a while since I’ve asked Shi-chan out like this.

Furthermore, this is probably the first time I’ve ever had to talk about something like this in front of my classmates who are listening.

Even so, I felt I had to come over to Shi-chan’s seat and tell her the this.

Because if there was a handsome stranger sitting next to Shi-chan, what would Shi-chan do to make me feel at ease?

When I thought about it, the answer I came up with was this.

–I would be happy if Shi-chan came to me, leaving the guy sitting next to me alone.

So I decided to come over to Shi-chan’s seat and strike up a conversation with her.

Shi-chan had come to me in the morning, but that wasn’t enough.

I thought that by visiting Shi-chan, I could show my intention to her, and she would be happy to see me.

And Shi-chan smiled at me, as I had hoped she would —-no, she smiled even more happily than that.

Was she happy that I came to her seat like this, or was she happy that I had unusually invited her in front of everyone?

Shi-chan didn’t show any signs of caring about her classmates around her, but only looked at me with the expression of a maiden in love.

She was so happy that the rest of the class, perhaps reading her mood, moved away from her, creating a space that was just the two of us.

“I’m looking forward to it.”

“Then I’ll tell you where we’ll go later.”

“Yeah, okay! Ehehe♪.”

And so we made a promise to go out together after school.

My idea seemed to have an extraordinary effect, and Shi-chan’s piercing glances at me during the afternoon classes disappeared.

However, I still felt Shi-chan’s eyes staring at me, so I quietly turned around during class and there she was, resting her cheekbones on her hands and smiling at me.

She must be really looking forward to what’s going to happen next, because she was so cute and easy to understand today.

I don’t know if she heard our exchange or not, but I ended up not having any particular conversation with Nishikida-san that day—-