That was a surprise for me too.
Actually, I was more surprised by the fact that the three of them knew my name than I was by the whole penalty game thing. Before now, I’d just assumed they didn’t know my face or name.
Perhaps the reason I’d been able to sneak out of the classroom successfully was that the three of them hadn’t realized I was there at all.
And perhaps I was going to face that confession tomorrow.
Canyon: But what should I do? It’s all just a dare...
Baron: Well, it’s not so bad, is it? You should just go out with her. You don’t have a girlfriend, right? You can think of this as an opportunity for her to get used to boys and for you to get used to girls.
I couldn’t help but sigh at the chat response from Baron-san, who seemed to be taking all this way too lightly. How easy would it have been if I could make that choice?
Peach: I’m against it! Toying with someone’s emotions like that... You have to reject her, Canyon-san!
Canyon: I appreciate that you’re getting angry on my behalf, but you can’t say that so easily, Peach-san.
Canyon was the name of my in-game character, and the one who’d piped up with concern was Peach-san, a girl on the same team whom I got along pretty well with. That said, I’d never met Baron-san or Peach-san in real life, so I didn’t actually know their genders, but Peach-san was most likely female.
Peach: Why not? You’re only being confessed to, so you should just reject her.
Baron: Now, now. Deep breaths, Peach-chan.
Baron-san was doing his best to pacify Peach-san for me. There were just the three of us in the chat; other folks were too busy fighting their way through the qualifiers to join in the conversation.
This is the chat for the entire team, so I bet they’re all going to see this later. I was anxious just thinking about it, but at least we had the chat to ourselves for now.
Peach-san had told me to reject the confession, but it really wasn’t that simple. If an introvert like me were to reject Barato-san, just how many people would I make enemies of?
Of course, she’d be the one in the wrong for doing this because she’d been dared to, but that tidbit of information was only known to the parties involved. Barato-san would be at an advantage in every other regard—in terms of her social position, I mean.
Damned if I said yes, damned if I said no... That was why I needed Baron-san’s advice.
Baron: So I take it you feel you’re damned either way?
My heart skipped a beat as Baron-san seemingly read my mind. How could this guy know exactly what I was thinking, with only a text chat to go off of? This was precisely why I’d chosen to ask this guy for advice.
Baron: Then just say yes. It’d be more beneficial for the both of you.
Canyon: And by beneficial you mean...?
Baron: I mean that you’ll get loads of curious and disapproving looks no matter what you say. She’s popular, right?
Canyon: Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard.
Now that I thought about it, Barato-san was pretty sought-after by guys. With her sweet and chipper personality and her tendency not to discriminate against her classmates, guys at school seemed to fall for her every single day, each clinging to a rose-tinted misconception that maybe she liked them.
It was her fashion that identified her as a gyaru. I’d only ever seen her in her school uniform, but she wore it in such a way as to maximize its cuteness without breaking any school rules. Her short skirt, for example, struck that fine line between keeping her covered and flashing her underwear.
She would also leave her shirt unbuttoned at the top, revealing a generous portion of cleavage between twin mounds that seemed out of place on a high school student. This was part of the reason I’d had the impression she liked to fool around with guys, but...
I didn’t expect her to be that inexperienced. I guess that’s why she turned down all the good-looking guys that confessed to her, whether they be handsome sports team captains; handsome bad boys; or handsome, serious, studious types.
I had mistakenly thought she was in a position to take her pick of anyone she liked, but because she was so unaccustomed to men, not one of them had a chance of dating her to begin with.
People aren’t always as they seem. I’d do better to remember that.
Granted, I was just as much of a sucker as any of those guys, but being confessed to by a girl like that was beyond unexpected, even if she had been dared to do it.
Baron: You’ll leave a better impression as the guy who was confessed to by the popular girl and got dumped a month later, than as the guy who flat out rejected her. Besides, you should think of this as an opportunity.
Canyon: An opportunity?
I began to wonder if Baron-san was talking about what he’d said earlier about me getting used to women, but as it turned out, that wasn’t what he meant at all.
Baron: If you were to accept her confession, you’d be going out with her for at least a month, right? Then during that month, how about you try to make her smitten with you?
Peach: Baron-san?! What are you saying?!
Canyon: Huh?
Peach-san was shocked at Baron-san’s suggestion, while my response was downright idiotic.
Baron: Oh, maybe “smitten” is kind of old-fashioned. Did I sound old?
That’s not what we’re so surprised by, Baron-san.
My hands paused at the unexpected suggestion. Peach-san seemed just as speechless.
Baron: Look, you have a huge advantage: the fact that you already know she was dared to do it.
Canyon: Right... Yes, I do know that. But is that really an advantage?
Baron: Sure is. Think about it. What would happen if you didn’t know? You’d be elated, thinking she had a crush on you, wouldn’t you?
That was certainly true. Even as an introvert... No. Especially because I was an introvert, the feeling of superiority that would come with being “chosen” by one of the popular girls would have brought about a considerable change in me.
Canyon: Well, I would definitely be happy. I might get cocky for being chosen by her and get kinda carried away.
Getting so full of myself when I didn’t even have any friends would be ridiculous.
Baron: If that were the case, you’d go through all that only for her to break up with you a month later. But because you know this is a dare, you’ll be able to accept the situation calmly.
Calmly... Do I seem like I’m calm to you? I’m talking to you precisely because I’m not calm.
Baron-san continued explaining, paying no mind at all to my thoughts.
Baron: You should work hard for a month to get her to like you, and then you can break up with her yourself. If not, you can continue going out with her. The choice is yours, but...if it were up to me, I’d say your life would be way more fun if you continued dating her.
Canyon: Baron-san, are you by any chance enjoying this?
Baron: Of course I am. Oh, and do keep me posted, okay? Hearing about the love affairs of a real high school student makes for an amusing pastime.
I slightly regretted having consulted Baron-san about this, but the more I listened to his logic, the more I came to think it made sense.
It could have been that my thoughts were being conveniently strung along, but it was ultimately his advice that helped me make up my mind—I was going to accept Barato-san’s confession.
Baron: Oh, but do act like a good little high schooler. She’s not comfortable around guys, so don’t immediately get all touchy-feely.
Canyon: I would never!
An introvert doesn’t have the guts for that! Besides, I was chosen for this precise reason. The whole premise would go up in smoke.
After that, I got back to the game while keeping an eye on Baron-san’s advice. Peach-san was still against the idea, but maybe she gave up in the end, because she stopped replying.
Did I make her mad? She seemed worried about me, so I should apologize next time she replies back.
On a side note, we successfully made it through the qualifiers, only for me to be teased by my teammates later on...but that’s a story for another day.
♢♢♢
That night, maybe out of nervousness that I would soon be confessed to, I found it hard to get to sleep. Even at school the next morning, I was kind of spacing out, and with the near empty classroom so quiet, I was close to dozing off at my desk.
It was in that near empty classroom, with me in my absentminded state, that someone called out to me.
I turned toward the source of the voice, my gaze locking onto a pair of thighs visible from below a skirt, and... No, no, I’ve got to look at her face.
“Hey, Misumai, do you have time to talk after school today?”
As expected, the voice belonged to Barato-san. Her long brown hair looked soft as it swayed, and her voice was trembling slightly.
“Oh, yeah. No problem, Barato-san,” I said.
“Thanks. Then I’ll see you after school,” she said.
In that near empty classroom in the early hours of the morning, that was all Barato-san said to me. She seemed somewhat brusque and nervous, or did it just seem that way because I knew the circumstances?
After her short exchange with me, she quickly returned to her two friends.
I didn’t like to be tardy, so I usually arrived at the classroom early, but today, the girls were just as early as I was. Maybe they’d chosen to get here now so as not to create a scene.