My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As Expected

Page 31

I picked up the backpack lying on the ground and slung it over my right shoulder. Inside the backpack were the comics I was going to read in the clubroom today, and a few textbooks I needed to review.

Today will probably be as leisurely as usual, with no one coming to us for advice.

I took a step, and Yui followed immediately behind. If she hadn't come here looking for someone, I probably would have already gone home.

As I reached the door, I heard the teacher's voice behind me again.

"Oh right, Hachiman, I forgot to tell you, this internship program is in groups of three, and everyone can choose to be in a group with someone they like. Don't forget!"

W-what!

Upon hearing those words, my shoulders immediately slumped.

"...How could this happen...I don't want those classmates to step into my house..."

"You still insist on doing your internship at home...?"

When Hiratsuka-sensei saw my tenacious will, she couldn't help but show a trembling expression.

"I thought you would hate the idea of ​​finding a group on your own."

"Huh? Teacher, what nonsense are you talking about?"

I quickly turned my head, swept my hair back, opened my eyes wide, and looked at the teacher, flashing my teeth.

"So much time has passed, the pain of loneliness means nothing to me anymore! I'm used to it!"

"It looks awful..."

"Are you an idiot? Heroes are always lonely, but they're still cool! So 'loneliness equals coolness'!"

"Yes, there is indeed a hero who can sing, 'I only make friends with love and courage...'"

"Right? So you watch Anpanman too."

"Hmm, I've always been interested to know at what age children realize that love and courage aren't friends at all."

"What a strange hobby..."

However, Yukino is right. Love and courage are not friends at all; they are merely illusions wrapped in sweet words. Their essence is actually desire and self-gratification, so they cannot be considered friends. Incidentally, football cannot be considered a friend either (Note 8 is a line from Tsubasa Ozora, the protagonist of Captain Tsubasa).

I don't need any of that tenderness and compassion, or love, courage, friends, or even football.

× × ×

Our office is located on the fourth floor of the special building, on the east side, in a location overlooking the sports field.

Music, a symbol of youth, flowed in through the open windows.

Outside, the sounds of teenagers enthusiastically participating in club activities echoed, along with the metallic clang and sharp whistles of baseball bats, while the band's recorders and trumpets also joined in.

Given such beautiful background music, what are we, the members of the Service Society, doing?

Simply put, nothing was done.

I'm flipping through the shoujo manga I borrowed from my sister. Yukinoshita is engrossed in the leather-bound paperback, while Yuigahama is lazily playing on her phone.

As always, it was a completely zero-point youth.

No matter which club it is, there must be people loitering around in the club office. As far as I know, the rugby club office has turned into a mahjong parlor. They habitually play a couple of rounds before and after practice, so the next morning, we often see rugby club members arguing endlessly about club currency in the classroom or hallway (club currency is a currency that only circulates within their club, and it is very similar to Japanese yen, but it is definitely not cash).

In my opinion, it was just playing mahjong in the clubhouse; but for them, it must have been a very important way of communicating, and a glorious chapter of their youth.

However, how many of those people truly understand the rules of mahjong? There probably aren't many who, like me, frequent ACE in Tsudanuma (Note 9, an amusement park near Tsudanuma Station in Chiba) and are proficient in both Shanghai mahjong and strip mahjong. They must be diligently learning and memorizing the rules to fit into their social circles. Incidentally, while Shanghai mahjong uses mahjong tiles, it has nothing to do with the rules. If you really want to learn the rules, the only way is to play strip mahjong. After all, people will take anything seriously, even for breasts.

Developing a shared language through these methods is an indispensable step in becoming friends.

Yui Yuigahama in the past is a typical example.

Thinking of this, I flipped through a shoujo manga, and after seeing some content unsuitable for children, I shifted my gaze to Yui. She was holding a phone in one hand, a suggestive smile on her face, and letting out an extremely faint, almost inaudible yet very profound sigh. Although I couldn't hear her sigh, the obvious rise and fall of her chest told me how deep the sigh was.

"what happened?"

It wasn't me who asked that question, but Yukinoshita. Her gaze didn't leave the paperback in her hands, but she still sensed that Yuihama was acting strangely. Did she hear that sigh? Truly, she's a devil with devil ears.

"Ah, um... it's nothing, I was just a little surprised to see a rather strange letter."

"Hachiman, if you don't want to end up in the police station, stop spreading those filthy things."

She actually concluded that the letter was sexual harassment and treated me like a criminal.

"It wasn't me! What proof do you have? Show it to me!"

Upon hearing my protest, Yukinoshita revealed a victorious expression and brushed aside the hair that had fallen over her shoulders.

"What you just said is enough to serve as evidence. A criminal's lines never go beyond 'Where is the evidence?', 'What a brilliant deduction! Don't you think you should switch careers and become a novelist?', 'How can I share a room with a murderer?'"

"That last line must have been spoken by the victim..."

That's practically a sign of death.

When Yukinoshita heard me say that, she tilted her head and asked in surprise, "Is that so?" Then she flipped through the paperback in her hand. It seemed she was reading a mystery novel.

"No, I don't think the criminal is an autistic man."

Yuihama was several beats slower in getting justice for me. Upon hearing this, Yukinoshita stopped flipping through her novel and looked at her questioningly, "Where's the evidence?" Hey! You really want to treat me like a criminal?!

"Hmm... how should I put it? This letter is about class matters, so it shouldn't have anything to do with the autistic boy."

"We're in the same class, after all..."

"I see, so Hikigaya-kun isn't the culprit."

"That could actually be used as evidence..."

Hello everyone, I'm Hachiman Hikigaya from Class 2-F.

I'm injured again, and I can't help but mentally introduce myself. But at least I'm not being treated like a criminal, which is a good thing, right?

"...Anyway, this kind of thing happens all the time, so I won't worry about it too much."

Yuihama slammed her phone shut, but the heavy feeling was as if she were simultaneously closing the door to her own heart.

She said that kind of thing happens all the time... By the way, I've never received a letter like that.

...It's so great to have no friends!

But honestly, having many friends means constantly facing these complex issues, which is really exhausting. From this perspective, anyone who reaches my level of understanding can be liberated from the defilements of worldly views. If we were to use a Buddhist analogy, I would be practically Shakyamuni Buddha—truly great.

Yuihama closed her phone and never touched it again.

As for the contents of that letter, I can only speculate, but it probably wasn't anything pleasant. Not to mention, she's a fool, a blunt and outspoken idiot, and an overly kind person who's always worried about me and Yukino, so she might have some unnecessary concerns.

She leaned back in her chair and stretched out her arms, as if trying to force herself to shake off her unhappiness.

"...So boring."

After sealing away her phone, which she used to pass the time, she casually leaned back in her chair and said something. That movement made her breasts stand out very noticeably, making me unsure where to look. In the end, I could only look towards Yukinoshita's chest, where I didn't have to worry about such a thing.

The chest beneath the snow is like a cliff, making it absolutely safe.

Hearing Yuihama say this, Yukinoshita closed the paperback and advised the other party:

"If you have nothing to do, hurry up and study. There's not much time left before the regular exams."

However, she didn't force the other person to study in the slightest; her tone was completely indifferent. This was understandable, though, since for Yukinoshita, regular exams were as commonplace as eating and drinking. She consistently ranked at the top in all exams, big and small, so the upcoming regular exams wouldn't affect her at all.

Yuihama probably knew this too, and somewhat embarrassed, she looked away and muttered:

"Don't you think studying is pointless? You won't need it after you enter the workforce..."

"Here it comes! The words idiots say most often!"

Her reaction was exactly what I expected, but it actually startled me so much that I cried out. Seriously? High school students still say things like that?

Yuihama was probably a little angry when she heard herself being called an idiot, so she protested agitatedly.

"Studying is completely pointless! High school life is short enough; isn't it a waste to spend more time studying? You only live once!"

"That's why we can't afford to fail."

"Your thinking is too negative!"

Please say it's "risk avoidance".

"I think your high school life was a complete failure, wasn't it?"

Yes, in fact, I didn't avoid any risks at all. Hey, come on, is my life really hit a plateau? Is this what they call "checking out" in English? What does it have to do with hotels?

"No, that's not right. I've never failed; I'm just different from others. It's a personality trait! 'Everyone is different, everyone is great'—that's what it means!"

"No, that's right! It's a personality trait! My poor academic performance is also a personality trait!"

Yui and I cracked a joke, uttering the second most common phrase idiots say. Speaking of which, the word "individuality" is really useful.

"Misuzu Kaneko would be angry if she heard you say that..." (Note 10: "Everyone is different, everyone is wonderful" is from Misuzu Kaneko's poem.)

Yukino sighed and put her hand to her forehead.

"Yuigahama-san, you just said that studying is meaningless, but that's not true. The meaning of studying should be something you find for yourself. That's why everyone's purpose in studying may be different, but there's no need to completely deny the value of studying."

This makes a lot of sense, or rather, it's a nice-sounding thing for adults to say; in other words, it only makes sense among adults. They come to this conclusion when they reminisce about the past and discuss "the true meaning of education." In other words, it doesn't make sense for us, who are transitioning into adults.

In fact, only someone like Yukinoshita could come to this conclusion, and genuinely believe it not just to show off.

"Yukino is very bright, so there's no problem... but I'm not suited for studying, and none of the people I know are studying..."

Upon hearing this soft muttering, Yukinoshita's eyes immediately sharpened. Yuihama noticed the silence in the room had made the temperature drop considerably and quickly shut her mouth. She probably remembered that Yukinoshita had said some very harsh words to her about this before, so she was trying to make amends.

"N-no, I'll study hard... By the way, do autistic boys study too?"

Oh, she managed to change the subject before Yukino got angry. It seems she wanted to shift the focus to me, but unfortunately—

"I studied hard."

"You betrayed me! And I even considered you a foolish ally!"

"How rude of me! I ranked third in Chinese in the whole grade, and my other humanities subjects are not bad either."

"You're lying... I've never heard of that..."

By the way, our school doesn't post everyone's grades; they only send individual scores and rankings to each student. While it's still possible to find out other people's rankings by asking around, since I don't have any connections in this area, no one knows my ranking, and they certainly won't ask. Of course, they won't ask about anything else besides rankings.

"Could it be that the autistic man is actually very intelligent?"

"It's not that good."

"...Why is it you who answered?"

Although my score might be slightly lower than Yukino's, I'm definitely smart enough. So, Yui clearly became the idiot among us.

"Ugh... So I'm the only one who has to play the idiot..."

"That's not true, Yuihama-san."

Yukinoshita's voice was rather cold, but a hint of warmth could be felt in her expression, and her eyes were resolute. Upon hearing this, Yuihama's face immediately lit up.

"X-Xiao Yukino!"

"You're an idiot to begin with, you're not acting like one."

"Wow~~"

Yuihama playfully punched Yukinoshita in the chest with her small fist, while Yukinoshita impatiently let her hit her, letting out a soft sigh.

"What I mean is, judging a person's worth by exam scores and rankings is inherently foolish. There are also people who do very well on exams but are terrible at being a decent human being."

"Hey, why are you looking at me?"

Yukinoshita didn't just glance at me; she was practically staring right at me.

"Let me clarify first, I studied because I enjoyed it!"

“Eh…”

"Because you have nothing else to do besides studying, right?"

Yuihama looked surprised, while Yukinoshita chimed in, making my facial muscles twitch.

"Oh, just like you."

“…I don’t deny that.”

"You should at least deny it! I'm starting to feel sorry for you!"

Yukinoshita acted nonchalantly, but Yuihama's sympathy overflowed. She not only spoke up for her but also hugged her tightly, as if she wanted to get closer to her pain.

"...I'm so sad."