Having Reincarnated a Million Times I Won’t Let My Guard Down Even in a Peaceful World

30: Friendship Between Men

I understand that money doesn’t make someone cool.

However, for some reason, I found myself persuading Milim to let me pay for her ticket.

I don’t understand. “Bending Milim’s will to pay” and “breaking into my not-so-plentiful savings,” yet I still paid… The workings of this mentality are complex and mysterious, even to someone who has been reborn a million times, and I couldn’t grasp my own principles of action.

But after deciding to pay, I felt a refreshing sensation in my chest, so perhaps there was some self-satisfaction in my heart.

I feel it would be too heartless to vividly remember the events of that day at the large-scale amusement facility.

Martin couldn’t bring anyone…

This is not a simple story like “Martin failed!”.

For example, if I invited a classmate, maybe one or two people would have responded to Martin’s invitation.

Or perhaps a junior. Martin, who excelled in broomstick football, had some popularity, and it might have been possible to deceive a junior who didn’t know Martin’s true self and only knew the fantasy Martin portrayed through admiration.

However, as Martin later confessed… he wanted to show off.

I invited senior girls.

So Martin also wanted to invite senior girls.

I told him that I would bring a junior girl.

At that time, Martin hadn’t found a partner who would accept his invitation, and he panicked… and raised the stakes himself. He sought senior girls from the senior division.

It was too much of a reckless move.

To high school students, middle school students were “children”.

Anna is a good example. I was always a “child” to her.

And just by looking at Anna’s appearance, it was clear… there were no middle school students with such tall proportions anywhere. The senior division is composed of adults from the bone structure. They wouldn’t fall for the invitation of someone like us who are insignificant.

I pitied Martin, felt a little superior, and yet praised his efforts.

That day, it felt like I was constantly trying to please Martin—of course, I didn’t neglect Karina and Milim, but Martin was undoubtedly at the center of my heart on the day of pool play.

“Rex, you’re a good guy. Yeah, male friends are great…”

That’s right. We don’t understand girls.

We were still children… Rather than playing with girls, it felt more comfortable to play with boys.

It was just a vague thought… If I had a girlfriend, I wondered if I could boast to my close friends. That’s all I’m thinking.

I think that thought is very childish and disrespectful towards women.

But… I want to boast. I want to casually let my classmates know, without saying it directly, that “I have a girlfriend, you know?” I want to say, “Oh, you figured it out?”

“I understand.”

We embraced each other in swimsuits.

Perhaps it was unusual for middle school boys to embrace each other half-naked, as the surrounding people murmured a little. Milim hit me with her tail, and Karina had a face that seemed awakened by something.

I don’t know what Karina was awakened to when she saw us like that. But Karina said to me, “It’s nice… even that kind of thing between boys.”

She was still on my side. Martin was also on my side.

Seeing me with Karina and Milim, Martin forgot about the pool play that was almost ruined when he took action to “abuse me verbally,” and we enjoyed the pool until dusk.

On the way back, when I escorted Karina to the station, she said.

“Rex, I won’t forget today’s emotions. The impact I saw of the friendship between boys… I won’t forget it.”

It was a bit unexpected that our appearance would move people, but still, if Karina was touched by something, it seemed like a wonderful thing.

So I’m sure today was a good day…

In this life, compared to my previous life, I felt a little happier, I thought.