CH 10

Chapter 10: I Told You Not To Use Honorifics With Ronin, Didn't I?

TL: Akabane

TL: Ronin = Gap year student.

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The flirtatious guy was about to put his hand on the shoulder of the sober girl. The girl must have sensed this. She shrank back a little. But she didn't reject him with words. No, she can't do that. She couldn't do it. The boys' shyness makes them a bosch. Girls will become someone's prey. Because neither of them can have words. They can't speak because they are afraid. Even if they are dealing with someone who wants to prey on them, they don't say no because they are afraid that they will be disliked. The sober girl is a lot like me in the first round. So I grabbed and stopped him before his hands touched her.

"...Eh...what?"

The sober girl raised her head and looked at me. Her eyes peeking out of her bangs looked surprisingly cute, and she seemed surprised.　

"Hey? What the hell are you grabbing?"

The moody flirtatious guy was ogling at me. It's depressing. I have to make this kind of person understand the pecking order.

"Oh? What are you talking to me like that? I'm older than you. Show some respect."

I bluffed a little. To make him think he was mistaking me for someone else.

"What? Oh, you're my senior...no, I mean..."

The flirtatious guy suddenly shudders. It worked. He thought I was a senior. This kind of guy is vulnerable to visible pecking order. And this guy has an air of juvenility about him, which is probably due to his current status. He's not used to college yet, and he's still pulling on the common sense from high school. If you are older, you are a senior. But in college, there are usually older classmates. He's still naive.

"Are you trying to ruin our face? Sexual harassment is not allowed in our circle. No matter how drunk you are, you're out. It's not a "pub" or "brothel". We don't coddle them. Hmm?"

"Eh...no...it seemed like you didn't mind. I was just..."

"It wasn't just a coincidence, you idiot. If I hadn't stopped you, you would have received a warning from the university. You could have been expelled."

"Eh, no! That's not what it is!"

"Luckily, I stopped you at the last minute, so it's safe."

The trick to threatening someone is to push them to do you a favor. I learned this the hard way when I was in my first round of working life, when some anti-company people got involved in my business. The darkness of the construction industry runs deep.

"Oh, thank you."

"Yes, yes. It's good to be able to thank people properly. Go. Get away from this girl. Go to another group. And I'm telling you, don't talk about this mess you just made. Don't embarrass me. Okay?"

Finally, I glared at him as hard as I could. The flirtatious nodded and walked away from the girl. The tatami room is large. He went in with a group of what looked like friends far away and looked away from us. I was successfully scared off.

"Oh, um, oh, thank you. Senpai-sama..."

Senpai-sama...this girl seems either too nervous or too scared. I sit next to the sober girl. I want to protect her because that guy is still asking about us.

"Senpai-sama sound weird. Besides, that was just a bluff. I'm a freshman like you. A ronin! Kukuku."

The sober girl pouted and smiled a little later.

"I see that you did. Thank you."

"Honorifics are fine. If you're a ronin or a current student in the same grade, it's normal to use a polite colloquialism."

This is a common problem among current students, who tend to use honorifics for ronin students for a while. On the other hand, ronin students tend to be frowned upon when they speak in a casual manner to those who are a year above them in the same grade. Japanese is difficult.

"I, um, I can only use honorifics...my accent is too strong...I can't speak well without using 'desu-masu'."

"Oh, I see. But, really? Where are you from? I'm from Hokkaido, by the way."

"I'm from Satsuma."

"Oh...I see..."

I thought "Satsuma" was an old fashioned way of saying "Satsuma". But it's hard to hear the accent there from the Kanto region's standard language. I can understand her reason.

"He's still watching us, so let's have a little chat."

The sober girl turned her face toward the atmospheric flirtatious guy with a huff. Her mouth was tightened, and she nodded toward me with a cocked head.

"Tell me your name. I'm Kanahisa Tokiwa, a student of architecture in the Faculty of Engineering. You can call me Kanata or Kanade or something."

"...I call you Kanata-san. My name is Yuzuriha Momiji. I'm in the mathematics department of the Faculty of Science."

"Eh? Really? That's amazing! You're in the math department?"

Our math department is bad. What's bad mean is that everything is bad. The math department is full of people whose math scores are higher than those of medical schools. It's a place where people are so smart that we don't even know what they're talking about. It is one of the havens of geniuses in our university. Incidentally, it is also one of the places where the female ratio is said to be the lowest. In fact, the Imperial Capital University itself is almost like a boys' school, with a male-to-female ratio that is overwhelmingly male.

"It's strange, isn't it...me doing math..."

"No, you're not! The math department is a group of geniuses, and I rather admire them for their brilliance!"

"But I'm the only woman in the department. All the girls who came to our university from the same school were in literature or sociology... I couldn't go into the liberal arts because I'm not good at geography... mathematics is the only thing I have going for me."

Isn't it normal to go into the liberal arts because you can't go into the sciences? The modesty of her words seems to me to be a bit confused.

"I think you're great! Yeah! Girls who can do math are so cool! Yeah! Ahaha."

But my compliments didn't seem to resonate with the sober girl. She still hugged her knees and put the forehead on her lap.

"But everyone at school says I'm too good at math, too manly, not cute and ugly. They say I only have female hormones in my chest... they say I can only do math and I suck at makeup... they say I'm..."

She's getting depressed in a negative way on her own. This girl is a disaster. This kind of negative thinking must really make her look like a f*cking idiot from the perspective of a hottie. She was safe because he's a casual guy, but if he were a professional, she'd be in a love hotel by now. Let's change the subject.

"Oh, yeah... If you're here, then you're interested in education, right? Are you aiming to become a teacher in the future?"

"I'm not interested at all. I was invited by some kids from my old school. They wanted me to go out for drinks. I went to an all-girls school, so I never met any boys, and since we were all college students, we all wanted to meet boyfriends, but I don't really understand that kind of thing, but I couldn't say no..."

Wow...from what I've heard, this girl doesn't even have any female friends. She's a "shady person of shady people". It sounds like she was brought in as one of the headcount. Or she's probably just bait for the boys.

"Today, too, I couldn't join in the conversation well, and when I was alone in the corner, the guy from earlier got involved with me, and I was scared, but if I said no, he seemed even more scared... I'm scared of college. I want to go back to Satsuma..."

Momiji sinks to the floor. It's really pathetic. I was about to address her to someone around Ayashiro. But Ayashiro, who was sitting far away from me, was giving a very passionate speech to the seniors. I felt sorry for her if I interfered. I want to give her confidence.

"Momiji. Why don't you try raising your bangs a little?"

"...Eh? Yes...yes..."

She was about to say no, but in the end, she couldn't say no to me either. I really don't want to force her to do it, and I want to respect her will, but there is a word in the world called shock therapy.

"Excuse me."

I take a bit of portable hair wax out of my jacket pocket, let it blend in my hands, and use it to style her bangs.

"Now look at that."

I hold up a hand mirror in front of her face. I could see in the mirror that her eyes were exposed under her bangs. There was a very beautiful face there.