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!~
After school, I was getting ready to go home in the classroom.
It seemed like Hoshimiya didn’t have any work today.
In other words, there was a high chance something would happen on the way home. My “rom-com crisis management sensor” was sounding the alarm.
This sensor is a special ability honed by the insecurities of my middle school days. That said, it’s pretty unreliable. Even when it detects danger, I’m usually too slow to get away.
Just as I was putting my textbooks in my bag, sure enough, Hoshimiya walked over.
Her expression was unusually cheerful.
And I know.
When Hoshimiya Rino has a look like that, she’s usually up to something.
“Seita.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s make a detour on the way home today.”
“Where to?”
“The bookstore.”
At that word, my guard dropped instantly.
The bookstore.
It’s a sanctuary.
Manga, light novels, magazines, strategy guides, setting compendiums. A temple where humanity’s wisdom and desires are sealed within paper. To me, the bookstore was like a save point where I could temporarily recover from the damage of reality.
Plus, today was the release date for the official anthology of I Don’t Need Youth!!.
It wasn’t that I’d forgotten.
In fact, I’d been thinking about it since this morning.
But the reality that I might be going home with Hoshimiya had been hogging my brain’s processing power, causing my priorities to glitch out.
“…I’ll go.”
“An immediate answer.”
“There’s always room for a bookstore.”
“More than me?”
“That’s a weird comparison.”
Hoshimiya puffed out her cheeks just a little.
Seeing that face, my heart skipped a beat again.
Stop it.
Don’t puff them out.
Only heroines on screen are allowed to make that kind of face. When it happens in real life, my “youth complex” goes into a tailspin, asking, “Is this really real?”
As I tried to leave the classroom, Hara and Shinozaki were looking at me.
“Oh, a bookstore date today?”
“Takahara-kun, you should carry Rino’s stuff for her.”
“It’s not a date.”
“Then what is it?”
“A group buying expedition.”
Shinozaki tilted her head with a sleepy expression.
“That’s such a geeky way of putting it.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Hoshimiya and I left school just like that.
The streets were still bright in the evening. Students in uniforms were scattered about, and in front of the station were upperclassmen who looked like they were coming back from club activities. Maybe because she was worried about being seen, Hoshimiya was walking a little closer to me.
No, that’s not it.
Hoshimiya probably just simply wanted to be near me.
Over the past month, I’d come to understand that much.
“Seita, are you looking forward to the anthology?”
“Of course. An official anthology is a valuable resource that lets you see each author’s interpretation. Opinions will be divided depending on whether it’s a comedy episode that pushes the characters to the brink of breaking character, or a precious piece of supplementary content that fills in the gaps of the original work.”
“You’re talking too fast.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s fine. I like it when you talk fast, Seita.”
I almost stopped in my tracks.
“I like it.”
This person really uses those words so casually.
No, maybe it’s not that simple. For Hoshimiya, those words might carry quite a heavy meaning.
Either way, it’s bad for my heart.
“Hoshimiya, please don’t say things like that in public.”
“So it’s okay if it’s just the two of us?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then, how about behind the warehouse?”
“It’s not about the location.”
Hoshimiya laughed cheerfully.
Seeing that smile, I felt a little of the tension melt away.
The old me would have been terrified of this kind of exchange.
Getting close to someone.
Being shown something that felt like affection.
Accepting it.
I was afraid of all of it.
Because I knew the pain of rejection.
But now, there’s a part of me that doesn’t completely reject Hoshimiya’s words.
That scared me, and at the same time, it made me a little happy.
When we arrived at the bookstore, we headed straight for the manga section.
The special display for I Don’t Need Youth!! was stacked high with the official anthology. The cover featured the main heroines all lined up together. It was precious. Dazzling. Particles of youth seemed to be radiating from the pages.
I almost instinctively clasped my hands together.
“Seita, don’t bow.”
“I thought it was a household shrine.”
“I get that, but…”
Hoshimiya’s eyes sparkled as she picked up a copy.
That profile wasn’t Hoshimiya Rino at work—it was the complete and utter otaku.
“Seita, should we buy two of these?”
“Of course. One to read, one to keep.”
“What about one for evangelism?”
“That’d blow my budget.”
“I’ll buy it.”
“Please don’t beat an otaku with your wealth.”
Hoshimiya seriously started to pick up a third copy.
I hurriedly stopped her.
The purchasing power of a top idol is scary.
After paying, we stopped by a small park nearby.
We sat on a bench and opened the anthology we’d just bought.
The evening breeze ruffled the pages. Hoshimiya sat next to me, peering into the same book at a distance where our shoulders almost touched.
She’s close.
But I didn’t back away.
I was a little surprised at myself for not backing away.
The first short story was a comedy.
It was a story where the protagonist was surrounded by heroines, and for some reason, they all competed to see “who was the most like a childhood friend.”
I closed the book on the very first page.
“What’s wrong?”
“Reality just attacked me.”
“Before you even started reading?”
“The title was a fatal blow.”
Hoshimiya peered over.
Then, she looked at the title and laughed.
“It’s called the Childhood Friend Championship.”
“Please stop. A similar disaster is unfolding right around me.”
“Do you think I could win?”
“You’re not even eligible to compete.”
“But I’m Seita’s childhood friend, right?”
“That’s just your own claim.”
“For now, anyway.”
“Not that again.”
Hoshimiya giggled.
I reluctantly opened the book.
As I read on, there was a scene where the protagonist, overwhelmed by the heroine’s pressure, was asked to define what a childhood friend is and was completely stumped.
I shivered.
Is the author watching me?
No, that can’t be.
But it hits way too close to home.
Next to me, Hoshimiya is reading happily. Every now and then, she glances over at me, as if to check my reaction. That gaze hurts all over again.
“Seita, you’re just like this protagonist.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Like how you go silent when cornered.”
“No, I’m not.”
“But the way you don’t run away in the end—that’s similar.”
I was at a loss for words.
Hoshimiya smiled gently.
“I like that about you.”
Here we go again.
“I like you.”
Lately, those words have been piercing me like an arrow—straight and inescapable.
I was once rejected by someone I liked.
I was told to stay away.
Ever since then, I’ve been afraid of both showing affection to others and receiving it from them.
But Hoshimiya approaches me knowing that fear.
It’s heavy, it’s a hassle, and sometimes it’s so direct it feels like I might be crushed under the weight of it.
I closed the anthology.
“Hoshimiya-san.”
“What?”
“I probably still can’t give you a proper answer yet.”
Hoshimiya’s expression froze for a moment.
A flicker of anxiety fell into the depths of her eyes.
But I continued.
“But I don’t want to pretend the thing you gave me never happened.”
Hoshimiya blinked.
The evening light softly illuminated her profile.
“…Seita.”
“So, um, I’ll buy a copy of that anthology for promotional purposes someday.”
“Are you bringing up the otaku topic again?”
“I couldn’t stand the heavy atmosphere.”
Hoshimiya was silent for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.
Laughing, she wiped her eyes a little.
“That’s so Seita.”
“Is that an insult?”
“It means I like you.”
“You say things like that all the time.”
“It’s true.”
Hoshimiya moved a little closer to me on the bench.
Our shoulders touched.
I didn’t pull away.
Across the park, elementary school kids were making a racket on the playground equipment. The hustle and bustle of the station area could be heard in the distance. The world was moving along as usual, yet everything around me felt a little quieter.
“Seita.”
“Yes.”
“Can I keep today as a memory, too?”
“You’re asking me?”
“Yeah. If I just assume things, you might run away.”
I was a little surprised.
Hoshimiya had taken a step back on her own.
She was giving me some space.
That made me happier than I expected.
“…Sure.”
Hoshimiya’s face lit up.
“Really?”
“Yes. But please don’t fabricate it as a memory of us as childhood friends.”
“Then, a memory of Seita and Rino.”
I was about to object, but stopped myself.
Because Hoshimiya was looking at me with a hint of anxiety.
Instead, I opened the anthology again.
“Let’s read on.”
“Okay.”
Hoshimiya nodded happily.
With our shoulders still touching, the two of us read the same book.
More than friends, but less than lovers.
That vague distance is probably the closest thing to where we are right now.
The scars from the past haven’t faded yet.
My “youth complex” is still very much alive.
Even now, I scream inside whenever the plot gets too saccharine, and I feel like complaining about the protagonists in romantic comedies.
But for this moment alone, sitting side by side with Hoshimiya reading I Don’t Need Youth!!, I felt like I could believe in it just a little bit.
My youth was shattered once.
But in a strange way, it’s slowly starting to continue.
And right beside me is a current top idol who claims to be my childhood friend.
I still don’t get it.
But I’ve stopped hating that sense of not understanding.
Maigetsu