I Was Supposed to Be Giving Love Advice on the School Radio, but Before I Knew It, the Beautiful Girls at School Were Hitting on Me
It was not until after the public recording was over that Kitahara returned. As I was sitting in the chair that hadn’t been removed yet, Kitahara came running up to me.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Oh, you’re back.”
She sat down beside me, a little downcast as usual.
“Sorry I’m late. I see it’s already finished.”
“Yeah, just a little while ago. Are you okay?”
Kitahara nodded in agreement with my question.
“Yeah, my mother asked me what friends I was hanging out with and it took a long time.”
“……By the way, how much did you tell her?”
“I just told her I was with my classmates.”
“I see…….”
From the way she spoke, I guess the friend’s gender was not specifically mentioned.
Her mother would not think that her friend was a man and that she was being dragged around to a public radio recording.
Kitahara nodded her head.
“Yes, only a classmate……”
Kitahara was talking in a small voice. Perhaps she was tired from the phone call, but it was harder than usual for her to make eye contact with me. She kept her head down and spoke in a small voice.
“I’m glad everything seems to be okay. Shall we go for now?”
“Yes.”
I put my bag on my shoulder and stood up. At that moment, I saw Kitahara’s face, which was lying on the ground.
“Hey, what’s with your red eyes, Kitahara?”
“!?”
Kitahara’s body stiffens with a startle. The fact that her body has jumped up makes it even easier for me to see her face.
She seems to be hiding it with makeup, but it is bloodshot.
“Are you, perhaps you were crying…….”
“No, I wasn’t. I’m not crying or anything.”
“No, no, no, don’t lie. You were crying !”
“H-hey ! Don’t peek at me !”
Kitahara hastily hides her face with both hands. Through the gaps between her fingers, I can see that her beautiful white skin is stained bright red.
“What happened to you? Maybe they’re…..!”
“No, it’s not what you think……!”
Kitahara waved her hand to deny it desperately. She looked so serious that I decided not to press her any further.
“… Seriously, who do you think is to blame?”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“Nothing !”
She looked down and mumbled, so I asked her back, but she got angry at me……
Umm, being sensitive is difficult…….
Kitahara took a deep breath to calm herself down and glanced up in my direction.
“……So, how did the public recording go?”
“Ah !”
Kitahara asks me, and the excitement of that moment comes back to me.
“It was really great ! I was so excited to see it live, and I could enjoy it with all my senses…..it was just wonderful !”
“I see…..by the way, did you have a chance to chat with the MC?”
“Oh, that…..”
I was at a loss for words for a moment when Kitahara asked me about it.
I was selected to participate in the question corner, but I’m not sure what to do then……
“I didn’t win in the end. The odds of winning were too high, you know.”
“Eh? You didn’t win?”
Kitahara looks shocked. This is bad, has she guessed something?
“Ah, but ! Speaking of which, Toyama chan said something good.”
“Something good?”
“Oh, it was during the free talk session when Kitahara was not around, and it seems that Toyama chan was shy, too, and she was talking about how to cure it !”
“Hmmm, during free talk…..”
Kitahara looks somewhat stuck. The sweat dripped down my neck.
“Well, okay, so what? What did Toyama san say?”
“O-oh ! So, you see. She said she’s trying to talk a lot with people she’s close with now. She said it’s hard to talk to a lot of people right off the bat, so we should start by getting to know the people we’re close to and then work our way up from there.”
“I see, so first you need to deepen your friendship with the people around you…”
“That’s right ! So, if I were Kitahara, I would get to know Kinami…….”
“Take this.”
Wouldn’t you get al;ong with Kinami first? That was the moment I was about to say that.
Kitahara clung to my arm with a distracted shout.
“Hey, hey, Kitahara !?”
“What? What’s wrong?”
Kitahara, with a nonchalant expression on her face, moved her body even closer to me. I felt something elastic pressing down on my arm.
“W-what on earth is the meaning of this…?”
“Kageyama kun, you told me to get more intimate with someone I’m close to right now.”
“No, I did say that, but that’s with Kinami and…..”
“Kageyama kun, are you okay with me remaining shy?”
“Guh……”
She hits bullseye…. Kitahara gave a triumphant look for some reason.
What is this, a punishment game? No, this is too fun for a punishment game.
I thought about it for a while, but I couldn’t come up with a conclusion. I convinced myself that it’s okay, and that I should pretend to be her boyfriend, just in case something like that happened earlier.
“Hey, Kageyama kun.”
Kitahara speaks to me with her arms crossed.
“What is it, Kitahara?”
“I have a radio I like.”
“What kind of radio?”
“He was a very funny MC. He has a great sense of humor.”
“Oh, that interesting?”
Most radio programs are usually done by two or more people, but……is that person a one-man show? I’m alone, too, and I could learn a lot from him.
“Yes, he is very listener oriented. When I send him a letter, he definitely remembers it, and he puts the listener before himself, so I feel a sense of closeness.”
“A sense of closeness……that’s certainly important. No wonder Kitahara is a fan.”
That sense of closeness is something I value as well. Perhaps Kitahara listened to my radio show partly because of that radio show. If so, I’m grateful.
However, Kitahara looked a little dissatisfied.
“A fan?”
“You’re not?”
“No, you’re mistaken.”
Kitahara nods, removes her hand, and quickly stands in front of me.
She then raised her index finger and placed it on my chest. My heart skipped a beat.
Kitahara takes a small breath and gives me a confident smile.
“I’m not just a fan, I’m a big fan.”
“…..My bad.”
“Yeah, don’t get me wrong.”
Kitahara stands beside me again. This time she doesn’t take my arm.
“Just for today, okay?”
I was strangely impressed by Kitahara’s face as she gave a hint of a smile.
Maitoshi