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!~
From the moment I stepped through the school gates, Hoshimiya’s pressure had been building.
No, wait—it wasn’t Hoshimiya.
According to her, it was Rino.
The current top idol, who was trying to force that name out of my mouth, was walking right beside me.
“Seita.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s practice during lunch break today.”
“Practice what?”
“Calling each other by first names.”
“Please don’t give me assignments that are harder than classwork.”
Hoshimiya—no, Hoshimiya is fine for now. In my mind, she’s still Ms. Hoshimiya. Calling each other by first names is a mid-story event in a romance comedy. It shouldn’t happen recklessly.
Even in I Don’t Need Youth!!, it took seven volumes before the protagonist called the heroine by her first name.
Seven volumes, mind you.
That’s a substantial build-up in terms of page count.
And we’re trying to do that just over a month after meeting. The pacing is glitching. At an editorial meeting, this is the kind of thing that would get shut down with, “The readers aren’t mentally prepared for this yet.”
But Hoshimiya, sitting next to me, won’t stop.
“I’ve been calling you Seita the whole time, you know?”
“You just started calling me that on your own, didn’t you?”
“You can call me too.”
“So it’s permission-based, huh?”
“Yeah. Special permission.”
“I don’t need it.”
“You do.”
Hoshimiya is smiling.
But the expectation deep in her eyes was so earnest that I couldn’t just brush it off.
A name.
Just a way of addressing someone.
I should have been able to think of it that way, but to me, it felt strangely heavy.
A long time ago, there was a girl I liked. I tried to call her by her first name, but in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I was afraid of closing the distance, so I faked it by using her last name followed by “-san.” As I kept faking it, she was the one who ended up pulling away.
If I don’t get close, I won’t get hurt.
That’s what I thought, but by not getting close, there are things I lose.
I’ve only recently begun to realize such obvious truths, little by little.
Lunchtime.
We headed to our usual spot behind the warehouse.
Our home and vacation house.
In a place where even the official name is a complete mess, I opened my lunchbox. Hoshimiya sat down next to me. Today, we were even closer than usual.
“You’re close.”
“If you call me by my name, I’ll move back a little.”
“Don’t use that as a bargaining chip.”
“Then I’ll stay close until you call me.”
“Isn’t that blackmail?”
“Please.”
Hoshimiya tugged on my sleeve.
In her fingertips, there was not just her usual assertiveness, but a hint of anxiety as well.
“I want Seita to call me Rino.”
Her voice was soft.
“Not as Hoshimiya Rino, but just Rino.”
Hearing that, it was hard to back down.
Not her stage name, but the name of just one girl.
I was afraid to say it.
I felt like the moment I said it, something would change.
It felt like I’d be drawing a clear line across the distance we’d kept vague until now.
But Hoshimiya was waiting.
Waiting for me to cross that line.
I set down my chopsticks and exhaled.
“…Ri—”
My voice caught in my throat.
Hoshimiya’s fingertips twitched.
“Ri?”
“…Rino-san.”
I said it.
I’d said it.
At that moment, every member of my inner “Youth Complex Committee” stood to attention.
Agenda: Seita Takahara finally calls the heroine by her name.
Verdict: Immediate removal from the courtroom due to excessive youth concentration.
I collapsed inside.
In reality, Hoshimiya was completely frozen.
Her large eyes were wide open, her mouth slightly parted, staring at me. A few seconds later, her cheeks began to slowly turn red.
“Seita.”
“Yes.”
“One more time.”
“I can’t.”
“Please.”
“Once is my limit.”
“One time isn’t enough for me.”
“That’s way too wasteful.”
Hoshimiya looked down and covered her face with both hands.
Her shoulders were trembling slightly.
“Rino… Seita…”
“You’re the one who made me call her that, Hoshimiya.”
“Rino.”
“……”
“You just called me Hoshimiya.”
“No, I mean…”
Hoshimiya looked up, seeming happy yet slightly dissatisfied.
“Seita, I’m Rino.”
The moment she said that, I felt like another escape route had been blocked.
I looked away, trying to escape into my lunch box.
But Hoshimiya wouldn’t let me.
“Seita.”
“…Yes.”
“I’m going to call you Seita. You call me Rino, too.”
Her words were sweet.
But they weren’t an order.
They were a request.
So, leaving my chopsticks where they were, I steeled myself.
“…Rino.”
Just her first name.
Even though it was my own voice, it felt as if it didn’t belong to me.
Hoshimiya’s face turned bright red in an instant.
She froze completely, still clutching her lunchbox.
“Hoshimiya-sa—Rino?”
I corrected myself.
I corrected myself.
It’s over.
There’s no going back now.
Rino slowly looked at me.
Her eyes were glistening.
But her expression was so happy it looked like it might break into a smile.
“Seita.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll never forget today for the rest of my life.”
“I knew that.”
“The day you first called me Rino.”
“You’re quick to turn things into anniversaries.”
“Because it’s important.”
Instead of grabbing my sleeve, today she gently touched the back of my hand.
Just our fingertips touching.
She wasn’t holding my hand.
But even that was enough to make my heart race.
I never thought that just calling her name would change the distance between us so much.
No, maybe I actually knew it all along.
That’s why I’d been avoiding it all this time.
“Seita.”
“What is it?”
“Call me again.”
“You’re asking for a lot.”
“I want to hear it in Seita’s voice.”
“……Rino.”
This time, it came out a little more naturally than the first time.
Rino closed her eyes and placed her hand over her heart.
“I can’t. I like you.”
“Please don’t come stop my heart during lunch break.”
“It’s me whose heart’s been stopped.”
The Rino who said that and laughed wasn’t the usual Hoshimiya Rino.
She wasn’t the famous idol shining in the center of the classroom, nor the celebrity smiling perfectly on set.
She was just a girl who looked utterly delighted to have me call her name.
The prep bell rang.
We packed up our lunches and left the area behind the storage room.
In the hallway leading back to the classroom, Rino moved a little closer to my side.
“Seita.”
“……Rino.”
When I called her name, she smiled happily again.
Overwhelmed by the power of that smile, I looked away.
“It feels strange, doesn’t it?”
“Get used to it.”
“I’ll try.”
“I’ll call you ‘Seita’ more often, too.”
“You already call me that plenty.”
“It’s not enough.”
“That’s scary.”
As we entered the classroom, Hara and Shinozaki immediately looked our way.
“Huh? Rino, aren’t you blushing like crazy?”
“Takahara-kun, what did you do?”
“Nothing at all.”
Before I could answer, Rino smiled happily.
“Seita just called me Rino.”
The classroom erupted in a buzz of excitement in an instant.
Hara shouted.
“Wait, finally!?”
Shinozaki clapped, still looking sleepy.
“Congrats! That’s progress, huh?”
“It’s not progress.”
“Takahara-kun, did you call her Rino?”
Hara grinned and pressed in on me.
I took a step back.
“No, it just happened naturally.”
“Then call her that right now.”
“Is this a public execution?”
Rino looked at me.
Her face was full of anticipation.
Please don’t.
I can’t run away when she looks at me like that.
I let out a small sigh.
“…Rino.”
The atmosphere in the classroom exploded.
Hara banged on her desk, Shinozaki muttered, “That’s so high school,” and the boys around us shot me indescribable glances.
Rino covered her face with both hands, her cheeks flushed all the way to her ears.
“Seita, that’s cheating in the classroom…”
“You’re the one who made me say it.”
“But I’m happy.”
I sat down at my desk and buried my face in my hands.
My peaceful high school life was long gone.
And today, I had finally started calling Hoshimiya Rino… Rino.
More than friends.
Less than lovers.
In that ambiguous space, only her name had taken the first step.
But strangely, I didn’t mind it.
If anything, I felt a little warmth deep in my chest.
Just before class started, a small note slid over from my right.
“Seita, please call me Rino from now on.”
After hesitating for a moment, I wrote my reply at the bottom.
“I’ll do my best, Rino.”
When I handed the note back, Rino buried her face in her desk.
Her shoulders were shaking.
She was probably laughing.
No, maybe she was just so happy she was falling apart.
Staring at the blackboard, I silently apologized again to the protagonist of I Don’t Need Youth!!.
This “calling each other by name” event is way too powerful.
It’s definitely worth dragging out over multiple volumes.
And I realized, just a little bit, that I had already reached the point of no return.
Maigetsu