Chapter 81: It's really frustrating
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It was hard to imagine that Hirata Yosuke, who seemed like such a good guy, had such an exaggerated past.
Perhaps the sense of unease Rin felt around Hirata stemmed from this hidden, brutal side of him.
For that reason, Hirata genuinely felt happy seeing Rin being popular among the girls.
As for Yamauchi and Ike, who refused to follow the rules... a fleeting thought crossed Hirata's mind—using violence again to "persuade" them.
However, the moment that idea arose, Hirata forcibly suppressed it.
'No one is being bullied in the class anymore. I don't need to do that. I can't keep doing that…'
With that thought, Hirata withdrew his gaze from the backs of Yamauchi and Ike.
Suddenly, Yamauchi shivered and muttered in confusion, "Why do I feel a chill down my spine? It's not even cold."
"You feel it too?" Ike asked in surprise. "I thought it was just me."
"That can't be right. It's almost summer—April, remember?"
...
At the girls' enthusiastic invitation, Rin Matsuoka agreed to join them for lunch in the student cafeteria during the break.
With their goal accomplished, Kushida Kikyo and Karuizawa Kei led their respective groups, cheerfully bidding farewell to Rin.
The moment the girls left, Rin exhaled a long sigh of relief.
Saved!
"Why do you look like you just escaped something?" Horikita Suzune asked coldly. "You were already quite popular with girls back in junior high. I often heard about you going to the cafeteria with some girl or another."
Rin's mouth twitched. He couldn't deny it—Horikita's words were entirely true.
'Who could blame me?' Rin thought. 'I didn't have much money back then, and the narration system didn't help me win any lottery tickets. So, I accepted all the girl's offers to feed me because I was broke.'
"Even though I was popular in junior high, the girls back then weren't bold enough to team up and invite me to lunch all at once," Rin said helplessly.
If they had invited him one by one, he could have stretched those meals over ten days. But with them all coming at once, he only got one meal out of it.
Ten days of free meals—that would've been perfect. No need to spend money on lunch at all!
Rin glanced at Horikita, who maintained her cold expression, and hesitated for a moment. "Horikita, are you mocking me for relying on girls' lunches back in junior high?"
"No, you're overthinking it," Horikita replied flatly.
"..."
'I really hope I am overthinking this.'
However, Rin couldn't shake the feeling that Horikita was like a volcano on the verge of erupting—ready to explode at any moment.
'Is Horikita angry? But why? What did I do?' Rin wondered aloud, scratching his head.
After thinking for a moment, Rin turned to her. "Horikita, would you like to—"
Before he could finish, Horikita interrupted him without hesitation. "I refuse. I'm not going to lunch with those girls."
"Right, you prefer peace and quiet, not noise."
Horikita glanced at Rin, who was scratching his cheek in confusion. Doesn't this guy get it at all?
I won't go with those girls... but you're not a girl.
Rin really didn't think that Horikita Suzune only wanted him to have lunch with her alone.
Because Rin was familiar with Horikita Suzune, he knew that she liked quietness and liked to be alone.
But what Rin didn't expect was that some girls would change themselves for the boys they like.
Horikita Suzune was such a girl.
She admired her brother Horikita Manabu, so when he said he liked long hair, Horikita Suzune started growing her hair.
In Horikita Suzune's heart, Rin Matsuoka was equally important as her brother Horikita Manabu, and she would change her habit of being alone for him.
Unfortunately, the awkward and arrogant Horikita Suzune couldn't just tell Rin that she only wanted to have lunch with him alone~~
And because Rin was familiar with Horikita Suzune, he often misunderstood what she meant.
This pair of childhood friends was really driving people crazy.
Horikita Suzune refused to go have lunch with the group of girls with him, so Rin looked past Horikita Suzune and at the boy sitting on the seat to her left.
His name was Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, and the narration system judged him to be the boy whose physical fitness was second only to his.
Because of the narration system's judgment of Ayanokoji, Rin became a little curious about him.
Yesterday, Rin had been blackmailing—cough—when he was accepting a donation from his senior, Ayanokoji had been watching from the side. At that time, his expression was calm and indifferent, without showing any fear or anxiety.
This made Rin even more curious about Ayanokouji.
"Ayanokouji, do you want to go to the student cafeteria to have lunch with me and the group of girls during lunch break?" Rin invited Ayanokouji.
!!!
Ayanokouji looked at Rin, his expressionless face revealing a sense of seriousness for some reason.
"Alright"
Yesterday, before Chabashira Sae stepped into Class D's classroom, Hirata took the initiative to suggest that everyone introduce themselves.
At that time, Ayanokoji was constantly thinking about how to introduce himself, whether to give a passionate self-introduction or to learn from Yamauchi and give an exaggerated self-introduction.
Unfortunately, just when Ayanokoji had decided how to introduce himself, Chabashira Sae stepped into the classroom, and the self-introduction initiated by Hirata Yosuke was forced to end.
Afterwards, since everyone had received their student IDs and cell phones, their minds were all focused on shopping and lunch, so the self-introductions did not continue.
Ayanokoji, who grew up receiving brutal training in the White Room, lacked common sense and human emotions. He had come to this school just to experience the life of an ordinary high school student.
And Ayanokoji believed that 'making friends' was a normal thing that ordinary high school students would do.
This was also the reason why Ayanokoji now solemnly accepted Rin's invitation.
"But is it okay for you to invite me to go with you, Matsuoka? The girls only invited you," Ayanokoji asked.
"It's okay. They just said it would be more lively with more people, so they came to invite me to have lunch together. I also asked you to make it more lively, so they won't have any objections and will only be happy," Rin said with a smile.
"Um."
After pulling Ayanokoji in, Rin looked at Hirata.