NOVEL NEXT chapter 23
23. Fake Love
23. Fake love
As far as I remember, that scene was probably…
***
The time everyone left after school.
It was quiet inside the academy without a single person.
She was the only one left, and she was sitting on the stairs illuminated by the evening sunset, sobbing and crying.
With her sobs, the shadows she and the setting sun cast also trembled. And beside it, a shadow appeared again.
“Senpai, I’m here.”
“It’s black…”
The owner of that shadow is Haruta Toyoda. He was an ordinary male student and the main character of this anime who would later set up a harem of beautiful girls.
She just cries even though he came.
After receiving her call, he could have been taken aback by the sight of her crying, but he calmly patted her on the back.
After how much time had passed, she seemed to have calmed down from his patting, and she stopped crying and looked at him.
“Hey, junior.”
“Yes, senior.”
“I am really a bad owner? My best friend since childhood, Koinu-chan, died, and even the moment he died, he was looking for me! I! …I wasn’t there..?”
“…”
Tears began to well up in her eyes as she looked at Toyoda.
“What is the schooling like? Koinu-chan had such a hard time! Me, I…”
“Senior.”
“Koinu-chan will resent me… I’m sorry, I’m sorry Koinu-chan. I-“
“Senior.”
Toyo cut her off.
“Huh..?”
At Toyoda’s words, she looked at him with watery eyes.
And when he looked into her eyes, he said with a warm smile.
“I have this thought. Koinu-chan will be happy even after death.”
“…Why?”
“(Touching his cheeks shyly) There’s no way you can’t be happy when such a pretty and kind owner is feeling sad, right?”
“So, Sonna…(Face turns red.)”
“And seniors are prettier when they smile (frown their nose).”
After Toyoda’s words, she suddenly lowered her head.
Toyoda said, feeling restless at seeing her like that.
“Eh-? Senpai?”
And then her back started to tremble.
She soon burst into laughter.
“Puhahahaha! Toyoda-kun, you’re an idiot.”
“Eh-eh?!?”
I was worried that she was upset by her own words, but I was taken aback by her bursting into laughter.
Leaving him behind and laughing for a long time, she turned her gaze away from Toyoda and looked somewhere in front.
And her eyes start to shine brightly. She said in a brighter voice.
“By the way, you know me. The words of your juniors are somehow very comforting? hehehe. Arigato, Haruta-kun.”
“It’s nothing, Senpai.”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
“Ho-ho-ho-ho!”
…Toyoda’s consolation, oblivious to the old dog’s actual doctor.
And comforted by that comfort, she fell in love with Toyoda that day.
Ha…. Yes, this could be called the dog incident.
I’ll say it again, the original intention of the production team was to traumatize the viewers so they didn’t want to see it again.
That kind of development must have been intentional….
***
After meeting in the morning, after continuing to walk, we came to a street near an academy where students started to appear.
As promised in advance, we started holding each other’s hands.
Her hand trembled.
“Are you okay..?”
“Uh, yes.”
…The reason why we even hold hands like this is to let everyone know quickly that we are dating.
So you can achieve your goal more quickly and reliably.
While holding her hand and walking with her like that, in front of her front door, Toyoda, who was coming from another street, met her eyes.
Toyoda was a bit surprised to see me holding hands with a senior female and going to school together.
And Osana Najimi…. When our eyes met, I averted them. What’s up with him? The guy who glared at me.
I greeted Toyoda with a hand gesture, and Toyoda asked me without vocalization.
‘Who are you? Could it be a lover?’
I nodded and answered the same.
‘Oh.’
Toyo puts on a surprised expression once again.
To be precise, it’s a fake lover, but… , I was in the middle of contemplating whether or not to tell this to close people, so I decided to keep it a secret for now.
If you say it for nothing and then the fake lover somehow spreads, everything you do now will become nothing.
***
I arrived at the front gate of the academy.
In order to make time with her, I saw that she left her house a little later than usual.
Unlike usual, I could see quite a few students on the main road from the front gate to the main building.
“After….”
Before entering the front door, she took a deep breath and said to me.
“Let’s go.”
She has a determined expression.
“Yes.”
So we entered the main gate.
One two…
Soon after, dozens of students received burdensome stares from a large number of students.
Some children start to mumble as they see us.
“After…”
The senior was nervous and seemed to have a hard time even breathing.
Perhaps this appearance of her will imprint even more clearly on everyone that we are dating.
***
“So, are you dating Mori Akari-senpai?”
“I saw the two of them holding hands! Did you see Mori Akari-senpai’s face blushing?”
“Eh- Honto? Is that Akari-senpai?”
“So, you’re dating, right?”
Indeed, I wondered if the effect of holding her hand and her reddened look were sure to be effective. Shortly after arriving at the class, some children started asking me questions.
“Uh, well… That’s how it works.”
“Ohhh!!”
“Kyaa-!”
And among the cheering children, a child asked me.
“Then, by any chance… Is this really your first love? I know the rumors I heard before aren’t true, but I was wondering if this is true too.”
Uh…?
“How do you…?”
“Was it real?? Awesome! Completely unexpected!”
“Wait. Could you tell me who told you that?”
The kid from the same middle school is probably the culprit.
Because of that girl, Iinazuke, everyone from the same middle school didn’t know her.
Just. If it’s Kurutta’s son again this time…
“Eh? Yoji-chan told me about it? And he’s already quite famous!”
“…”
That son of Inazuke….
***
Time passed, the bell rang, and at the same time the teacher came in.
And not too long after, Kurutta came into the class, and after being scolded by the teacher, putting hands together… Such an ordinary, ordinary morning assembly time passed.
Like that, it was break time after the first period.
Kurutta, who had been somewhere, spoke to me in an angry manner.
“Keuuugh! Haiseki! To betray our industry like this! Are you going to violate Article 1, Paragraph 1 of the Industry Act!”
“Article 1.1?”
What else is that?
“Non-interference principle for beautiful girls!”
…You guys are working by making such a law.
But.
“When did I enter the industry?”
“Okay! There will be no compensation as said in the ‘industry’!”
“…”
Reward? Ah, that’s what I said yesterday.
…I’m sorry, but I wasn’t sorry at all.
Because it was clear that it would be useless anyway.
***
It’s time for lunch.
Me and Mori Akari-senpai, as we promised beforehand, went out to the outdoor shelter next to the academy and ate lunch together.
She starts to take out the lunch box she has packed.
Wait… What floor is that..?
One, two, three, four, five…?
Her lunch box with a total of five layers.
This was also something that in her original work, when she was dating Toyoda, she would often fight.
I was taken aback by her lunch box.
“Uh… Senior? I guess you fought earlier…?”
“Ah, yes! Ma, that’s right. This is it. Isn’t wealth enough?”
“Oh, no…. Could it be…. It’s not… “
The size is big, but there was another reason why I was embarrassed.
‘Where did that come from…?’
Any object of that size would surely be by the time you go to school in the morning. No, even objects of that size were nowhere to be found in her!
In the bag? There was no way to get a lunch box of that size, and even if it was on the second floor, it would have been fortunate.
…So, when I heard about the lunchbox this morning, I thought it might be the original 5th floor lunchbox….
“Um… Senpai? Where did you get this by any chance?”
“Eh, eh? I brought it cheap…?”
“…”
She seemed a bit surprised by my question. Eyes also shake.
…Suspicious.
“Wouldn’t that be enough of a bag to fit in empty hands in the morning?”
“B, it’s a secret! Don’t ask anymore….”
…Anyway, there must be something I don’t know about.
By the way.
She seemed more nervous than in the morning.
Normally, she would have said something to her to ease her nerves. In fact, now I had no intention of saying anything to the nervous woman.
…I’m shaking to death too.
Here, there, and over there again. Dozens of students through the window. Or, in the same outdoor shelter, he was watching us sitting on a bench.
“After….”
I expected it to some degree, but… He’s more popular than I thought, senior Lee.
And in the end, she couldn’t stand it and spoke her first.
“That… Junior..?”
“Yes?”
“Maybe we’re getting too much attention..? Maybe we’ll go somewhere else…”
I also like to move to another place, but…
“Isn’t this kind of a good thing? A lot of people shouldn’t know, they’re dating.”
You have to make sure you get things done.
“That’s right…?”
She just let her tail down.
“…”
Though I think about it again, I wonder where the proud and confident girl of yesterday has gone.