The Salty Princess Told Me That I Was a ‘Convenient Keep’, so I Tested What Would Happen if I Introduced the Most Beautiful Girl at Another School as My Girlfriend
Then, the next day, one night after the day I met Koga-san again.I overslept because my alarm didn’t go off due to the lack of a mobile phone, so I arrived at school just in time to be late, and opened the classroom door with the same fake smile I always wear.
“Good morning.”
Soon after, some of the guys started calling out to me.
“What’s up, what’s going on? Ochiha.
You’re just about to be late today.”
“Your hair is sleeping, isn’t it? You were playing with Mikami and the others again, weren’t you?”
“Good-looking guys. Even if they’re sleepy, a good-looking guy will still be a good-looking guy. For me, if I don’t spray once an hour, I’ll quickly become disheveled and ugly.”
“You’re going to go bald in the future.’
I have only just joined the class, but they’re friendly to me. They are not bad people, but sometimes it’s a bit hard to follow their groove.
I sit down in my seat after talking to them appropriately. Next to me was already Sakaki-san.
“Good morning, …….”
I said.
“Good morning.”
Sakaki san replied.
Sitting in a chair with the same posture as usual, Sakaki-san was reading some paperback book. She looks the same as usual, even after what happened yesterday.
“…… but she’s still a beauty, after all.”
Just sitting there is a picture. Even if she doesn’t act like someone like me, everyone thinks she’s special. As proof of this, there are a number of boys who have come to the corridor to catch a glimpse of Sakaki-san.
The salty princess. Everyone’s heroine. I’m dating such a popular girl, maybe that’s all the happiness I need.
…… it doesn’t seem like that.
“Hey, Sakaki-san. I have something I want to talk to you about yesterday, do you have …… time after school today?”
“I’m sorry, but I have a prior engagement after school today.”
“Is that the guy from yesterday again?”
“……It’s none of your business.”
Sakaki-san whispers in a low voice without looking at me.
As I said yesterday, she probably only thinks of me as a convenient keep. I stand out because of my flashy appearance, so if you decide that you’re dating me, strange men won’t approach you.
…No, there are people who occasionally say stupid things like telling me to stop monopolizing Sakaki-san, but even so, she’s the one who have malicious intent towards me. There is no one who would say anything directly to Sakaki-san.
“As expected, I can’t accept it.”
I gather all the troublesome hate on me and dates my true love in the shadows. ……It might be time to move on.
“……, eh? There’s no …….”
No matter how much I search my desk, I can’t find my phone at all. Was I mistaken to think I had left it in my desk in the first place? ……, but if so, where did I leave it? Or perhaps I dropped it somewhere?
“What do I do ……?”
It’s the latest model I bought with my desperate part-time job. It was already pretty hard yesterday just to be without it for one night, but if I have to go without my phone for a while from now on, I might die, no joke.
“Hey, hey, what are you sulking about? Ochiha.”
Mori, the friend who talks to me most casually in class, is the one who calls out to me there. I quickly switch my thoughts.
“No, it’s just that I’ve had a bit of bad luck.”
“Bad luck? Don’t lie to me! I heard. Yesterday, I heard you were walking hand in hand with a girl from Mikagami Girls’ Academy.”
“……?
What are you talking about?…I see”
Had someone seen me walking with Koga-san yesterday? At times like this, it’s a loss because people will easily identify you if you have flashy hair.
“You did it. I mean, how did you meet the girl? Please introduce someone to me next time.”
“No, I don’t have that kind of relationship with that girl…”
“There you go, the usual line. You don’t walk hand in hand with someone you don’t have that kind of relationship with, do you? In other words…”
“That’s enough”
And then another friend, Kawaguchi-kun, intervened. Kawaguchi-kun slapped Mori-kun on the head with a robot-like expressionless face.
“Hey, what are you doing? Kawachan”
Mori glared at Kawaguchi-kun with a disapproving expression. But Kawaguchi, without the slightest bit of fear, grabbed Mori by the scruff of the neck.
“You know the relationship between Ochika and Sakaki-san, don’t you?”
“Oh, shit, I forgot.”
“That’s not it. I’m sorry ……, Ochiha. I’m going to go over there and get this one tied up a bit.”
“Not too much.”
“Hey, hey, don’t pull that! I’m sorry.”
Kawaguchi-kun walks out of the classroom, still holding Mori-kun by the scruff of his neck. There are a lot of strange people in my high school…or rather, in my class. Once I played a bright character, I had to keep matching their excitement.
“…………”
Glancing, I turn my gaze towards Sakaki-san sitting next to me. …… but she remains the same, quietly reading a paperback book.
Even when Sakaki-san hears that I might be cheating on her, she doesn’t even move an eyebrow. After all, she probably doesn’t care about me at all.
“I really don’t know what I was doing.’
….I have a promise with Sakaki-san. We made another promise not to interfere with each other, and we started dating. I confessed to her and she decided to go out with me.
So until now, no matter how cold she’s been to me, I’ve put up with it. I thought that if I worked hard, one day Sakaki-san would look at me. I thought that if I worked hard ……, one day I would be able to see the smile of the salty princess.
But no matter how hard I tried, Sakaki-san, who never smiled at me, was smiling happily in front of that man. At that point, the answer may have already been given.
“Really, I’m just a “convenient keep””
What the heck, I almost cried, just a little. I thought I had blown it yesterday thanks to Koga-san, but it doesn’t seem to be that easy.
“…… That’s right.”
Because I liked Sakaki-san, no lie.
“…… haa”
Time passes by, leaving me feeling frustrated. I can’t remember the content of the class at all. Before I knew it, it was after school.
“…………”
Sakaki-san glanced at me for a moment, then quickly left the classroom. Usually I’d ask her to go home with me, but I don’t feel like doing that today.
“After all, my phone, what should I do with it?”
Should I go to the police or something? No. If I lost it at school, should I talk to the teacher first? ….. it’s getting all sorts of troublesome.
Just as I was thinking this, a voice rang out.
“Hey, you seem kind of grumpy, don’t you?”
“You are …….”
The man who approached me was a man wearing a sweet-smelling perfume who was talking to Sakaki-san yesterday in a friendly manner.
“In any case, nice to meet you? Sakashima Ochiha-kun.”
A fresh smile, different from my fake smile, probably …… a natural one. A group of girls still remaining in the classroom are happily making noise at the edge of the room.
Maybe …… this guy is a popular guy I just don’t know about?
The man said, with a fresh smile on his face.
“How about it, Sakashima-kun? Let’s have tea together from now on.
About yesterday,…… no, I want to talk a little about Saori.”
“…… Saori, right?”
The man who calls Sakaki san by her first name, as if it were a matter of course. I exhale loudly.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not in the mood for a pleasant cup of coffee.”
“Don’t worry.
It seems they have good tea there.”
“……, that’s not what I’m talking about.”
He’s kind of troublesome. He is the type of person who is not on my side, both in the past and now. He has a good-looking face and is tall, but he has a unique atmosphere.
…I wonder if this kind of man is Sakaki-san’s type?
“Well. All right, all right, let’s go. I’ve been wanting to talk to you too.”
No matter what I ask, Sakaki-san won’t answer. In that case, it might be faster to talk to this man and clarify the relationship between the two of them than to worry about it alone.
“What is it? You’re more honest than I thought, aren’t you?”
The man looks at me with a testing gaze. I don’t make eye contact and stand up.
“It’s not that I’m not honest, it’s just that I don’t like trouble.”
“I like it, okay? I like troublesome and honest kids.”
“I’m not listening.”
Then we both leave the classroom.
“Fufu”
It annoyed me to see how much fun the man seemed to have, but I didn’t show it on my face and just followed his back innocently.
◇
Sakaki Saori was anxious.
“…… let’s go home early.”
Since yesterday, no matter how many messages she send, she didn’t get any reply. He must be angry. With that in mind, Saori had been listening to him all day today, but Saori had no idea what he was thinking.
A lover only for form’s sake. A convenient keep. One of those stupid guys who don’t know much about you, but just look at your face and body and tell you they like you. She’s only going out with him because of the circumstances, not because she’s in love with him.
“……That, should have been.”
Muttering softly, Saori quickly walked down the hallway as if trying to escape. …But, as if to hold her back, she could hear whispering voices whispering about her.
“Ah, it’s Sakaki-san. As beautiful as ever.”
“But I hear he’s having an affair.”
“Ah, Sakashima-kun? I see, he was walking arm-in-arm with a girl from Mikagami Girls’ Academy, weren’t he? he’s dating such a cute girl, and there’s no way he’d cheat on her”
“But I heard Sakaki-san didn’t even let him hold hands with her. If she’s so arrogant and talks down to you, wouldn’t you be tempted to cheat on her?”
“Sakashima-kun seems to be popular too.”
People who don’t know each other well talk about people they don’t know well. It doesn’t matter whether the stories are true or false. The only thing they are interested in is whether the story is interesting or not.
“…… ridiculous.”
Saori increases her walking speed. Still, she can’t escape the feelings that spread in her chest.
It’s true that they haven’t held hands and that she has been cold to him all this time. If he changes his mind, there’s no way around it. She has a commitment to him, but that’s no way to keep a person connected.
In fact, he’s been ignoring her calls and messages since yesterday.
“But that’s…..”
Saori didn’t really have anything to do after school. She was just afraid of talking to Ochiha and being rejected by him.
“Ah, there you are! Wait, Sakaki-san!”
Then, Mori, a friend of Ochiha’s from the same class, called out to her. He runs towards Saori at full speed, not caring about being seen.
“…… what do you want?”
Saori looks at Mori with cold eyes. But Mori didn’t seem to mind and said with a serious expression.
“I wanted to apologise for what happened this morning. I took the strange gossip seriously and said something like Ochiha was cheating on you, didn’t I?”
“That’s …….”
“Sakaki-san might not care about that kind of thing, but I wanted to apologise to you just in case. …… sorry.”
Mori scratched his head to disguise his embarrassment and continued speaking.
“That guy may look like he’s flirting, but he’s actually quite a serious guy. He and I have been friends since we were in the same class, and we’ve only been together for about a month, but even then, he’s still very serious about Sakaki-san. I know he cares about you.”
“Sakashima-kun…. me?”
“Yeah. he often talks about Sakaki-san. Like she’s pretty and smart, and she’s too good for him. And he seems to be doing a lot of things to keep the guys from picking up on her. So I don’t think you need to worry about any strange rumors.”
The expression on Mori’s face shows that he trusts Ochiha. …For some reason, Saori’s chest ached.
“Well, I’m going. I’m really, really sorry about this morning, okay?”
With that said, Mori immediately leaves this place. Saori, who was left behind, slowly started walking while holding her aching chest.
“I took it for granted. ……”
Now that she thinks about it, he has always been good to her. When she forgot her textbook, he lent it to her without asking, and when she felt like she had more than enough for group work, he always called out to her
She has never given anything back to Ochiha. Rather, on the contrary, she rejected him again and again with cold words.
“Because he doesn’t know anything about me. I don’t believe …… people who say they like me when they don’t know anything about me.”
Ochiha and Saori have been dating for three months. The cold heart of the salty princess was slowly melting the ice. Saori now realises her heart like that.
“…… tomorrow, let’s talk a little.”
Saori increases her walking pace. The depressing gossip was no longer in her ears.
-Maiban