Chapter 2: CH 2

Thanks, for the help.

Translated by Dawn

Edited by Dawn

Thanks, for the help.

After managing to finish moderating the class meeting.

After school, I quickly left the classroom to go home by myself.

I didn’t have any friends in this class that had just started.

I looked around the school and could barely find one person I could call a friend.

Walking down the hallway, I made my way to the entrance.

I was probably able to do so thanks to my lean and mean movements from the time I left the classroom after the end of the assembly.

The corridor still had very few people.

However, it was not completely empty.

On the way down from the third floor where the Class 2A classrooms were located, I saw Mizutani.

To be exact, there was Mizutani and another man with a shaved head and a solid physique.

Mizutani was talking to the shaved head about something.

Or rather, he was talking to Mizutani one-sidedly.

It was somehow hard for me to get close to them, so I decided to stay in the back for the time being.

“Hey, Mizutani. Let’s go home together.”

The shaved head said.

I see. So that guy was her boyfriend or something.

Well, there was nothing strange about Mizutani having a boyfriend.

In fact, it would be more strange if she didn’t have a boyfriend.

“Sorry, I can’t.”

Mizutani flatly refused. Did she didn’t want to be with her boyfriend?

“Well, isn’t it fine? Here, let me take your bag.”

The shaved head reached for the bag hanging on Mizutani’s right shoulder.

Was he her boyfriend after all?

A guy who wasn’t her boyfriend couldn’t be that forceful, could he?

“Stop.”

Mizutani quickly brushed off the shaved head’s hand.

Un, he was definitely not her boyfriend.

He was just an annoying guy who misunderstood something.

In other words, no one would be bothered if I interfered with the shaved head.

“Mizutani, Kano-chan called you. She said the class representative should come to the staff room after this.”

When I approached the two of them and called out to them, they looked back at me with a snap.

What’s with that reaction, scary.

Especially the one with the shaved head was blatantly staring at me.

“…Okay, I’m coming.”

After blinking several times, Mizutani let out a sigh of relief.

The staff room was on the second floor, that was, downstairs from here.

As the two of us walk down the stairs past the shaved head, we heard a discarded word from behind us.

“It can’t be helped. I’ll wait for you until you’re done with that thing you’re doing.”

“You don’t have to.”

Mizutani replied with a snap.

But in a way, that guy was amazing.

What kind of nerve did he have to go along with Mizutani even after she rejected him so far?

I wished he would share some of his confidence with me.

After we finished the exchange with the shaved head, we went downstairs to the second floor and tried to go down to the first floor.

Mizutani, walking diagonally behind me, said, “Wait.”

“What is it?”

“I thought we were going to the staff room. It’s on this floor.”

When I turned around, Mizutani was pointing to the end of the hallway.

“That was a lie. That’s why we don’t have to go to the staff room.”

“…Ah, it’s like that.”

Mizutani murmured in satisfaction and bowed in place.

It was such a flowing motion that one might believe her if she were told she was an aristocrat.

Her silky blonde hair flowed in a slick motion as she moved.

“Thanks, for the help.”

“….no, it’s not that big of a deal.”

I guess I wasn’t used to being thanked straight away.

Since I couldn’t honestly say, “You’re welcome.”

I mumbled a few words and then continued speaking quickly.

“I mean, if you’re going to run away, you’d better run away fast. Seeing how persistent he was just now, he might at least dash around and wait for you at the shoe rack.”

“That may be so.”

She must have imagined the picture of a shaved head hurrying down the stairs on the other side of the school building.

Mizutani raised her head, put her hand over her mouth, and laughed a little.

Her almond-shaped blue eyes narrowed.

I was momentarily taken aback by her smile.

…It can’t be helped.

I was a virgin with zero experience in love. My opponent was Karin Mizutani.

We went down the stairs and headed for the entrance.

There was no shaved head waiting for us at the shoe rack, and we left the school building without incident.

Not knowing what to say, we walked in silence for a while.

Then Mizutani, walking next to me, opened her mouth in a cautious tone.

“Aizawa, as I recall, you’re way home was the same way as mine.”

“….how did you know that?”

“I see you on the train sometimes.”

“Hee, you noticed?”

“….You just happened to catch my eye.”

Mizutani looked away.

Why? Was there an element of awkwardness in the conversation just now?

….Ah, could it be something like that?

“Just because we’re going home the same way doesn’t mean you need to be concerned about me going home with you.”

Mizutani was probably the type of person who wanted to go home alone.

That was why she stubbornly refused the shaved head’s invitation earlier.

But from her point of view, I was the one who saved her.

I guess she was wondering whether she should say so or not.

I looked next to me and saw Mizutani rolling her eyes.

I thought that might have been a good guess….but Mizutani denied it in a strong tone of voice.

“No, it’s not like that. Rather, it’s the opposite.”

“The opposite…?”

If I took the word “opposite” as it was, it meant “I want to go home together.”

But that couldn’t be true.

Then was the opposite here “inverse (逆)” in the mathematical sense?

Look, you learned that in the first grade of high school, right? Like inverse, reverse, and contrapositive.

I’d never seen it used in daily conversation, though.

Mizutani said simply to me as my brain was busily working.

“Since we’re all the way here, why don’t we go home together? If it’s okay with Aizawa.”