That day, I, Nanami Barato, confessed to a boy for the very first time. A boy in my class who was quiet and gentle. A boy who didn’t stand out. A boy I’d never really spoken to before, whom I didn’t even know that well. But the boy I confessed to, Yoshin Misumai, was undoubtedly a kind boy.
As long as the boy had been someone gentle, my confession could have been to anyone. When I say it like that, I sound like a random street attacker, but I was sure I must have seemed that way to him. After all, I hadn’t confessed because I liked him.
I’d confessed to him on a dare.
That’s right, a dare—a challenge where I was supposed to tell him I liked him and then go out with him for a month. It was the punishment I had to face for losing a game with my friends.
A dare like this was the very worst act of toying with someone else’s feelings. Somehow, though, I had ultimately decided to go through with it. I realize again this was the lowest of decisions.
Hear me out, but this hadn’t been my idea in the first place. My friends, Hatsumi Otofuke and Ayumi Kamoenai, were the ones who’d dared me to do it. I’d been reluctant at first, but in the end...I’d accepted the dare. If I think about it that way, I guess there was no point in making excuses. In the moment that I’d told them I’d do it, I had become just as guilty.
You see, I knew I looked confident because of the way I dressed, and my clothes tended to be somewhat revealing, but for various reasons, I had a hard time talking to guys. My friends had been the ones to help me build up my appearance like a wall to protect my heart.
In the end, it was a fragile barrier that wasn’t much of a wall at all, but when I dressed like that and hung out with the two of them, I was able to interact with guys fairly normally. I think I’d even managed to become friends with a few of them.
But my appearance wasn’t enough for me to do that without them. I still couldn’t be alone with a guy. At least, not before that day. And precisely for that reason, my two friends were worried about me.
It was fine for now, but I planned to go to college one day. Hatsumi wanted to be a cosmetologist and Ayumi a designer, so they were both studying hard, their hearts set on vocational schools.
The three of us might have seemed brainless because of our looks, but our grades weren’t even that bad. We were working just as hard as anyone else to achieve our dreams.
But with us being on such different paths, the time would eventually come when my path would deviate from theirs. They were worried I’d go off to college and get tangled up with some weird guy while they weren’t there looking out for me. In fact, Hatsumi and Ayumi were more worried about me than my own parents and were sure to constantly remind me not to get strung along by some strange guy.
That was probably why they’d suggested a dare this time around—so that I could get just a little bit more used to guys and keep myself safe in the future.
My friends had probably chosen Yoshin-kun because he seemed like the safest option. I’d never spoken to him personally, but it was true he was quiet and always alone. That considered, they weren’t the only ones who believed he was harmless.
And so, after a bit of a pep talk from my friends, I had plucked up the courage to confess to him.
And I’d done it that very same day.
Even though I knew how bad this was, I’d confessed to him out of my own selfishness. I truly was the worst.
But dare or not, this was still my first confession. I’d been confessed to before, but never the other way around. The night before, I’d lain there unable to sleep, mumbling quietly to myself as my nerves tormented me.
“Tomorrow... Tomorrow, I have to confess...”
When the time had finally come, however, it wasn’t my own nervousness that surprised me, but Yoshin-kun himself.
So many guys had confessed to me up till that point—the captain of the basketball team who couldn’t keep his eyes off my chest, that guy with a bad-boy complex who kept staring at my legs, that serious-looking guy with glasses who kept eyeing my bare arms... Not a single one had been looking at my face during their confession. And every single one had looked at me as if they’d been expecting something.
But Yoshin-kun was different.
He had looked into my eyes and only my eyes—not at any other part of my body. He had looked me in the eyes with seriousness. He’d done it for my sake.
Faced with a reaction so different and so unexpected, I felt something other than nervousness. And the moment I finished confessing with all of my courage—courage? Come on, girl, this was only a dare!—Yoshin-kun had come running toward me.
In the blink of an eye, he had pushed me to the ground and covered my body with his.
So shocked by his behavior—Huh?! Am I being attacked?!—I’d simply lain there unable to do anything. And at that moment, I couldn’t help but feel...disappointed.
Was he just the same as all the other guys before him, or maybe even worse?
All of a sudden, I’d become fearful that this guy would assault me. I’d screamed, but my legs had refused to move. All I could do was close my eyes and scream, unable to put up any meaningful resistance. But, I’d quickly realized how wrong my perceptions had been.
As I’d fallen to the ground, the sound of water splashing and the thud of a hard object rang in my ears, which was followed by a shock that reverberated through his body into mine.
When I had opened my eyes in fear, wondering what had happened, I’d been met by the sight of Yoshin-kun, soaking wet and bleeding from the head.
His blood had dripped down onto my cheek...and he’d smiled at me.
“Are you okay? Barato-san...? Are you hurt?”
Those very first words, spoken while he was sopping wet and injured, had expressed genuine concern for me. And immediately after that, he’d collapsed.
Not knowing what was happening, I was overwhelmed with confusion. But I soon realized he’d acted that way to protect me and felt ashamed for my earlier disappointment. I almost panicked, thinking he’d died because of me, but by some miracle, he was still breathing.
Without another thought, I got to my feet and ran for help. There was no way I could carry him by myself.
As I ran, my breathing became heavier and my heart beat faster, but I couldn’t tell if my quickened pulse was because I was running or because of Yoshin-kun.
When I finally reached the staff room, I called for a teacher and asked them to carry him to the infirmary. My heart kept pounding and my chest felt tight as I gazed at his unopening eyes.
The school nurse freed Yoshin-kun from his wet clothes, treated him swiftly, and laid him down on a bed. I could have cried when they told me that he was going to be all right.