CH 4

Today was just like any other day.

Being the most hated person in class, I was stomped, pacified and cursed by the delinquents and gals, and Miyashita-san, who sits next to me, gave me a tongue lashing and a sigh every time before class started.

After school, they made me run around the school yard for no reason, crawl on all fours and imitate a pig, and after being told, “I will train to fight, Piggy!” and after being punched several times, the delinquents in the class were satisfied and went off to play somewhere else.

Apparently, my body is a good sandbag for them.

— So my after-school activity started a little late.

I opened the door to my club room to show up at the literary club I belong to.

“Sorry I’m late!”

“Ah, Yamamoto-kun, you’re finally here…! You want something to drink? I’ll make some tea.”

“Yamamoto~! Good work! You were out fighting again, weren’t you? Make sure you take good care of yourself in this room!”

Two seniors from the literature club, Yuni Ajiro and Shoin Yoshino, welcomed me warmly.

Ajiro-senpai is a sophomore female senior.

She is small, and has long bangs that cover most of her face.

As symbolized by her hairstyle, she has a withdrawn personality and is always timid, lacking self-confidence.

But the face that you can sometimes see through her hair is very beautiful, and I’m sure there must be some deep reason as to why she is deliberately hiding it.

Yoshino-senpai is a sophomore male senior.

Senpai is a history lover, and his way of speaking is somewhat old-fashioned.

He is an interesting senior who is always friendly to me and often shares his history and trivia with me.

“A-ha-ha-ha, don’t worry about being late, Yamamoto! Our club’s motto is freedom! Literature and art are born from free ideas! It’s nothing that requires an apology!”

Finally, the third-year head of the club, Kiyohiko Takamine-senpai, opened his favorite fan and laughed maniacally as he fanned himself with it.

“Thank you, Takamine-senpai! Ajiro-senpai, may I have some tea?”

“Un! Wait a minute…!”

These are the four members of the Literature Club, including me.

Everyone is male, except for Ajiro-san, despite that, it seems that this place is comfortable for her too.

Club activities include reading books over a cup of tea, making and talking about literary works.

Everyone in the literature club is very nice and treats me like a normal person, even though I’m such an ugly person.

Really, it’s a very cozy place.

“But it sure would have been nice if you could have come a little earlier, because Ajiro-kun has been looking a little woozy all this time, hardly reading a book.”

When Takamine-san teasingly said this, Ajiro-senpai was so surprised that she knocked over the teapot and spilled the tea that she had just brewed for me.

Ajiro-san hurriedly retorted back.

“Hey, hey Chief! You don’t have to say that!”

“Ajiro-shi, I understand exactly how you feel! It’s not uncommon for a student to suddenly stop coming one day and then drop out of the club~”

“N-no way! If a kind and quiet new student stopped coming to our club after joining us, I’d think it was my fault…”

“Don’t worry! I love this club! So I will never quit on my own! More importantly, are you alright? I’ll go get a rag now.”

I wiped up the spilled tea with Ajiro-san, who apologized profusely.

After that, I walked with Ajiro-san to the nearby washbin to wash the rag and refill the kettle with fresh water.

◇◇◇　　　　　　　

“Uu~, Yamamoto-kun, I’m sorry~”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m happy enough that you were making a cup of tea for me!”

“Yamamoto-kun, you’re so kind…! Thank you…”

When the two of us were soaking the dust cloth in water and washing it, something fell out of the breast pocket of Ajiro-senpai’s shirt when she bent down.

She didn’t seem to notice, so I picked it up before the water washed it away.

“Ajiro-san, you dropped something.”

“Huh? —Ah!? ◎△$♪×¥●&%#?”

What I picked up was an acrylic keychain of some kind of beautiful young character.

When I showed it to her, Ajiro-senpai raised an inaudible voice and panicked.

Then she got down on her knees to the keychain I was holding.

“Zeke-sama~! I’m sorry~! I had it in my breast pocket so carefully, but I can’t believe I dropped it~!”

All I could do was watch in amazement.

After apologizing for a while, Ajiro-senpai finally noticed me and how I reacted and rushed to take the key chain from me, her face turning bright red.

“S-sorry for startling you… I, I’m… actually an otaku who’s really in love with this video game character.”

“Uh…”

Without waiting for my reply, Ajiro-senpai began to defend herself desperately with tears streaming down her face.

“No, I know! I know there’s no Zeke-sama in real life. This must be strange for you! But I’m afraid of men in real life so much so that I don’t like them, so I hide my face with my long bangs so they don’t come on to me, and I can only be with kind and gentle people like the members of the literature club, other than them, the only other people I can be with are two-dimensional—”

“It’s alright! I’m not picking on you! Rather I believe it’s a good thing, who or what you like!”

When I said that, Ajiro-san showed a surprised expression and then shed tears again.

“I see… Yamamoto-kun, you won’t pick on me, right…? That’s really sweet of you… Uhehe.”

“Of course! Everyone has one or two hobbies that they are having difficulties telling other people about. And definitely, I’ll keep it all a secret for you, so don’t worry!”

“You will? Then… that’s, you see…”

Ajiro-senpai looked at me with some kind of slightly expectant eyes while fidgeting.

“I’m actually into… cosplay as well…”(E/N: Well sh—)

Saying that, Ajiro-senpai showed me the screen of her phone while her face turned bright red.

There, in what appeared to be her room, was Ajiro-senpai, dressed as a bishoujo character.

“Ehehe… though it’s not that perfect!”

I don’t know the character so I don’t know if it’s perfect or not.

The only thing I could tell was that Ajiro-senpai, with her whole face revealed, was ridiculously cute.

“W-when I’m cosplaying, I can become the character too, how can I say… cosplay is, it gives me confidence even though I’m like this.”

“Is that so! That’s wonderful! I think it’s a great hobby! I don’t have that much confidence in myself at all though… Haha…”

As I said this, Ajiro-san’s eyes lit up.

“Yes, that’s right! Then how about you try cosplaying with me, Yamamoto! That way you might gain some confidence! I’ve always wanted someone to do it with!”

“Eh…?”

I was a little taken aback by Ajiro-san, who just said the most outrageous thing.

I’m a big guy, 130 kilograms, for me to cosplay… must be rocks or something…?

“Cosplay with me! So… we can go to Comiket together sometime!”

“Uh, so… right! Someday! Someday, when I get the chance!”

I managed to dodge it, but Ajiro-san, who seemed happy to have her hobby accepted, reminded me, “That’s a Promise then!”.

“And thanks for saving Zeke-sama from the torrent! I thought it wouldn’t fall out from my shirt’s breast pocket because of the pressure…”

As Ajiro-senpai said that, she put her hands on her b*****s, which were clearly larger than average.

But she soon realizes her blunder and starts apologizing to me in a hurry.

“Oh, I’m sorry! I said something strange! This can be considered a sexual harassment, I guess!”

“It’s fine… rather… thank you.”

“Um… you’re welcome?”

Ajiro-san, if you keep up your cosplay hobby, maybe someday you will meet a nice person who looks good in a Zeke-sama cosplay.

Whatever it is, it’s a really good hobby.

I wonder if cosplaying will make even this ugly me love myself a little more.

Monsters, or demons, might work pretty well.

(Well, I think I’d be considered as one if I went to Comiket or something like that…)

With this thought in mind, I walked toward the clubroom with Ajiro-senpai, who was in a slightly better mood.