Volume 1 - CH 5

Amano-san avoids men.

“Your name is Amano-san, right? I’m Arai Hinata, nice to meet you. The two over there are Kominato-kun and Kamiyama-san.”

Arai turned her usual smiling face toward Amano. Amano then blurts out a reply, her face turning bright red.

“…Pleased to meet you.”

Good, it seems that she has opened up to Arai. I heard she’s not good with men, but I wonder how bad she is with them.

I approached Amano, who had finished her conversation with the panel.

“Amano-san, what were you doing there? Were you practicing your conversation skills? If so, we should just–”

As soon as I spoke, Amano turned to the panel and resumed her conversation with the two-dimensional magical girl again.

“Hey, hey, A-chan. What do you think? I think picking up girls is creepy. What? It’s because Harusame is cute? That’s not true at all!”

I see… she’s so bad with men that she can’t even look at them.

Well, in that case.

My mischievous spirit ignited. Let’s keep talking to her even if she ignores me.

Actually, I’m going to force my way into the conversation.

“Yes, that’s not true at all… I don’t think there is no such thing, Amano-san is cute… she’s super cute. But I’m not trying to pick up girls. I’m trying to recruit people for my club.”

Amano blushed momentarily at the “cute” part, but then spoke to the panel again.

“They are soliciting me for something! Frankly, it’s not suspicious, creepy, gross, or harsh, but it could be a scam.”

“It’s not a scam. I’m starting a new club and wondering if you want to join.”

“Oh… really…? Did you go… to the new crepe scam shop? It wasn’t…! The crepe shop! I was on my way… home from a club activity…”

Okay, the conversation is starting to mix up funnily. I give one more push to make sure the strategy is working.

“Oh yeah, I think we can all go to a crepe shop on the way home from club activities. It’s not a really formal club.”

“The spawning grounds of the hardy anchovy are… mainly at the… base of seaweed, such as kelp and wakame seaweed.”

One more breath.

“Speaking of wakame, here’s a horror story… the more you chew wakame, the better it tastes.”

“Boo-hoo.”

Okay, Amano laughed at it. This is my special move, an unexpected pun.

Usually, I keep this move to myself because of the delicate atmosphere surrounding me as soon as I use it, but it seemed to have a great effect.

Amano hurriedly held her mouth and grabbed me by the chest with her little hand.

“What the h**l are you talking about?”

“Sorry, sorry, I just made the funniest pun ever.”

“What’s with that? I hate both men and puns! And I don’t like puns that aren’t very funny…”

Amano’s cute face was so close to mine that I was embarrassed, and as I looked away from her, I muttered something to myself.

“But you laugh at it…”

Amano’s face turns bright red as she puts more strength into the hands grabbing me.

“I’m not laughing! I’m not laughing! I just… sneezed a bit, that’s all!”

Harusame Amano squeezes my throat. Arai rushes to get between us.

“Hey, Amano-san, calm down, okay? Calm down, Amano-san.”

“We have formed a club called “Conversation Club” to practice having a conversation. I’d like to talk more with Harusame-chan.”

“Ah, ah… well… I can’t help it, so can I join you? I’m good at talking to people… and I’m good at… talking to people…”

Amano answers with a bright red face.

“You’re not good with talking with ”people”, but with that panel, right?” I had to stop myself from saying that.

Arai squeezed Amano’s hand, which was turning bright red.

“I’m glad to hear that… Let’s do our best together, Harusame-chan!”

“Ni, ni, nice to meet you, Arai-san… Oh, but can I kill that guy over there? I’m not good with men…”

Arai answers Harusame’s disturbing question with her usual smiling face.

“Yeah, you can kill him later. I’ll just put your name and class here…”

Arai then pulls an application form out of his pocket and hands it to Amano.

I wonder if I should pretend I didn’t just hear the strange words that came out of Arai’s mouth.

In the hallway at dusk, I looked at Kamiyama-san next to me.

She was still dripping with sweat from her uniform and the paper bag on her head, but her hands were clasped tightly in front of her large b*****s and she was waving them vertically in support of Arai.

I wonder if she is happy to have made it safely to the club.

I was a little happy to see Kamiyama-san’s happy face.

No, I couldn’t see her face exactly. But anyway, I was just a little bit happy.