“Ahhh, I wish I really was Prince Manwhore!”
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“Wh—? Fuwa?! What’re you talking about?!”
As Haruto shouted to the heavens without any warning, Miyako reddened, eyes darting around. There was no one nearby, fortunately.
“Um, Fuwa…?”
She studiously looked at Haruto’s face. He wore a sad smile as he spoke haltingly.
“If I was really a womanizer like Nayu keeps saying…then I’d embrace you while you’re all depressed like this. I’d kiss you, and then I’d have the guts to take you straight to a hotel room.”
“Fuwa… Really, what’re you going on about?”
Haruto sighed as Miyako blushed, her eyes half open and staring at him.
“Like, you see it in dramas and manga all the time, right? A woman is hurt, the protagonist kisses her out of nowhere, the girl answers in kind, and then the scene shifts to a hotel room in the morning where they’re giving each other a wake-up kiss in the nude… You know.”
“Yes, I’ve seen things like that before…”
“…But sadly, I just can’t do that. People say, like, one thing led to another, but…what how the hell does anyone go from kissing to waking up in the morning? I just have no idea at all. I don’t know where any love hotels are around here, I don’t know how we reserve a room and access it, and if there’s someone at the front desk, he’ll know we’re there just to do it, and isn’t that super embarrassing?”
Then Haruto sighed loudly once more, ready to cry at any moment.
“But I’m not Prince Manwhore. I’ve never kissed anyone, much less screwed them. I’m a stupid virgin, a porn-game addict, a guy with no girlfriend his entire life…”
He gritted his teeth.
“I’m so harmless that I can’t even take advantage of a girl’s tears! And I hate it!”
“Huh…? But I think that’s one of the good things about you…”
Miyako was probably being sincere with him, he thought.
“Well, I still hate it, no matter what you think. Just like…you can’t accept yourself, no matter how much me or Nayu or Itsuki appreciate you.”
“…!”
With a gasp, Miyako’s eyes opened up. Haruto responded with a weak smile.
“…I don’t want to stay a ‘nice guy’ or ‘someone you like as a person,’ no matter how much I’m trusted and appreciated. I want you to be my girlfriend, Miyako…but since I’m not Prince Manwhore, I have no idea how this process works, so even with a golden opportunity like this, I can’t do jack. All I can do is keep parroting these words like an idiot, like I always do…”
He took a breath.
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“…I love you, Miyako Shirakawa. I want us to be a couple.”
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The words were weakly intoned, as if part of a prayer. Miyako, hit squarely by them, stared dumbfounded at Haruto’s face for a few moments.
“I think that I probably…love you, Fuwa. As a person, yes, but also…as a man…I think. Probably…”
Her cheeks were flush, her words just as halting as Haruto’s. It made his eyes widen with surprise and joy.
“But…right now, I’ve got my hands full just with the work in front of me. Right now, work is more important to me than love. I want to become a full-fledged editor, and I want to be on par with you, and Nayu, and Itsuki.”
“Oh…”
Haruto’s face clouded with a familiar resignation.
“So… I still have no idea when this would be, but when the time comes that I can properly accept myself…if you tell me that you still love me then…”
She softly smiled.
“Then please, let’s be a couple then.”
“Miyako…!”
He left his mouth half open, unable to continue. It made Miyako blush.
“I—I know this is really selfish of me, so don’t feel like you have to wait for me or anything! You’re free to go out with Ui, or Chi, or whoever else you want to!”
“Oh, I’ll wait! I’ll wait as long as you need!”
The words were coming out fast from both of them now. Miyako flashed him an embarrassed smile.
“So… Yeah.”
“Right. Yeah…”
Haruto nodded back, just as red. It was a somewhat humid night in late June, in a back alley of an office neighborhood without even the slightest romantic mood to it—but it was here where Haruto Fuwa and Miyako Shirakawa’s love finally developed just a little.
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