The School’s Top Idol Is Acting Like She’s My Childhood Friend for Some Reason and Just Keeps Closing the Distance on Her Own…?! ~Stop Getting All Gloomy on Me Just Because I Turned You Down!~
That night, Hoshimiya kept sending me messages for quite a while.
Even after the shoot was over, she sent me photos of the hot tea she’d been drinking in the green room and a close-up of just the cuff of her outfit from that day. Though they were snippets of the glamorous world of a celebrity, the content she sent had a strangely down-to-earth feel to it.
“This tea was too sweet.”
“But Seita, you seem like the type who’d like this.”
“Nah, I’m not really into things that are too sweet.”
“Then next time, tell me what kind of drink you like, Seita.”
As we exchanged messages like that, before I knew it, it was past my bedtime.
Rino Hoshimiya.
A girl from a distant world who appears on TV and in magazines.
And yet, on my phone, she’s complaining about tea that’s too sweet, and if my reply is even a little late, she fires off a barrage of messages: “Did you go to sleep?” “Hey, did you go to sleep?” “You’re still awake, right?”
The Hoshimiya who is a celebrity, and the Hoshimiya she shows only to me.
Lately, that difference has been weighing heavily on my heart.
Lying in bed, staring at my phone, I found myself thinking of the protagonist of I Don’t Need Youth!!.
He, too, often pretends not to notice the heroine’s true feelings.
Even though he knows, he’s afraid that taking a step forward will change their relationship, so he escapes into jokes. As a reader, I want to yell, “Just go for it already!” but right now, I understand him just a little bit.
What lies beyond that step isn’t necessarily all sweetness and light.
That’s why it’s scary.
But staying on the sidelines is starting to feel just as painful.
The next morning, I walked into the classroom feeling a bit sleep-deprived to find Hoshimiya already surrounded by Hara and Shinozaki.
They seemed to be talking about yesterday’s photoshoot. Hara was leaning in with keen interest, while Shinozaki, looking sleepy, was checking something on her phone.
“Rino, is this from yesterday’s shoot?”
“Huh, is it out already?”
“There’s a little bit on the official story.”
Hara peered at Shinozaki’s phone screen.
I made my way to my seat, trying not to look.
I felt like if I looked, I’d lose.
But Hoshimiya noticed me right away.
“Seita, good morning.”
“Good morning.”
“Did you get a good night’s sleep last night?”
“Someone kept messaging me, so I’m a little sleep-deprived.”
“Is it my fault?”
“Pretty much.”
Hoshimiya looked apologetic for just a moment.
But the next second, she smiled, looking a little pleased.
“But it’s because you replied, Seita.”
The way she said it was, once again, bad for my heart.
Hara smirked.
“You two are getting pretty close this early in the morning.”
Shinozaki waved his phone around.
“Takahara, have you seen this?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“You should check it out. Rino looks totally like a girlfriend.”
Like a girlfriend.
That phrase stuck in the back of my mind.
Hoshimiya’s expression froze for just a moment.
“Saki, don’t show that to Seita.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because Seita will make a weird face.”
“What do you mean, a weird face?”
Before I could say anything, Shinozaki turned the screen toward me.
There, Hoshimiya was pictured—apparently taken during yesterday’s shoot.
The set looked like a school commute at dusk. The composition suggested someone was standing next to her. Hoshimiya was smiling as if looking up from the side. It was a soft, sweet expression—as if she were really walking home after school with someone she truly liked.
It was beautiful.
At the same time, it bothered me a little.
The thought that the person she was directing that expression at was someone off-screen made my chest ache.
It’s just work.
I know that.
But even though I know it, my feelings don’t listen to reason that easily.
“Seita.”
Hoshimiya’s voice rang out.
She was staring intently at my face.
She probably noticed that I’d swallowed hard.
“…It’s work, and I think it suits you.”
I managed to say.
Hoshimiya’s eyes wavered slightly.
She looked happy, but also dissatisfied.
“Is that all?”
“Huh?”
“Is that all you have to say?”
This is bad.
I’d stepped on a landmine again.
The light in Hoshimiya’s eyes slowly faded. Hara and Shinozaki let out a small gasp.
I frantically searched for words.
But with my classmates in the classroom, I didn’t know how far I could go.
I lowered my voice slightly.
“…I didn’t like it, a little.”
Hoshimiya’s fingers stopped moving.
“It looked like you were giving that kind of look to other people.”
The moment I said it, the sounds of the classroom seemed to fade into the distance.
Hoshimiya froze.
Hara covered her mouth, and Shinozaki, unusually, kept her eyes wide open.
Feeling my face grow hot, I looked away.
I’d definitely said too much.
No, but it was the truth.
Hoshimiya was silent for a while.
Then, she slowly pinched my sleeve.
“Seita.”
“Yes.”
“Say that again.”
“I won’t.”
“Please.”
“I can’t.”
“Then I’ll replay it in my mind for the rest of my life.”
“Please don’t.”
Hoshimiya looked down.
Her shoulders were trembling slightly.
I thought she was crying.
I was wrong.
She was smiling.
She just had a face that looked like she was about to cry, even as she smiled.
“I’m glad.”
She murmured softly.
“I’m really still here inside you, Seita.”
Her voice was so desperate.
Both Hara and Shinozaki had stopped teasing her.
Hoshimiya Rino, who always shone in the center of the classroom, had her expression shattered by just one word from me. It was a little scary, but I couldn’t look away.
Hoshimiya looked up.
She was already smiling again.
But deep in her eyes, a moist, intense heat still lingered.
“Seita, we’re going to the vacation home for lunch today, too.”
“It’s my home.”
“Yeah. Our place.”
“Please don’t just go and put it in our joint names.”
Our usual banter.
And yet, today it sounded just a little different.
Even after class started, Hoshimiya’s face from just a moment ago lingered in my mind.
“I’m really here, inside you.”
Those words played over and over in my head, just like the famous line from I Don’t Need Youth!! written on the page.
I used to think romantic comedies were just fairy tales that existed only on screen or on paper.
I thought real-life youth was much more bitter and painful—something someone like me would never experience.
But right now, sitting next to me is a heroine who’s heavy, troublesome, and—even as she shines as a celebrity—can be brought down by a single word from me.
And I can’t take my eyes off her.
There are still more than three hours until lunch break.
And yet, I was already thinking about what I was going to say to Hoshimiya behind the storage shed.
Maigetsu