Volume 4 - Me, Her, and our Changing World
Chapter 9
In the end, they agreed to save the “how we started dating” story for another day, mostly for the sake of my mental health. But now, Chinatsu and the other three were getting excited over a completely different topic.
Alright then, strategy meeting time!
The way all three of them nodded at Toudou-san's comment made me realize something. Even though Chinatsu had talked about wearing a mask, it was clear she had managed to build a genuine friendship with them after all.
“First off, Satou… Hmm, since there’s also a girl named Satou, and there’s also the other Satou-kun, can I just call you Hajime-kun instead? …Ehh, what’s with that face, Chinatsu? Is that a no?”
Toudou-san began talking, but when she mentioned how she’d address me, she gave Chinatsu an exasperated look. When I turned to look, Chinatsu had puffed her cheeks slightly in protest.
“It took me a while to start calling him Hajime, you know… But my mom and you both just went and did it so easily. I mean— it’s fine, it’s fine, but still…”
“Oh no, that expression definitely doesn’t look fine, ahh, Chinatsu-chan, you’re too cute! I’m screenshotting this moment in my brain!”
“I see… so Satou-san is monopolizing this side of Chinatsu-san, hm. I’ve never really understood romance before, but I think I’m beginning to understand what it means to feel jealous.”
The conversation wasn’t progressing at all. And honestly, I wanted to go home. I mean, I was the only guy sitting at a table with four girls, all of whom were known to be cute in our class, and one of them was even clinging to my arm. Every time a waiter walked past to bring an order or clean a table, I could feel their eyes on us.
I mean… if I were them, I’d probably stare too.
“Fine, whatever. I’ll just call you Satou. Anyway, first things first, rumor control.”
“Thanks, Toudou-san. I’m sorry about all this... But, uh… can we really do anything about rumors? Even if we’re not hiding that we’re dating, going around and announcing it would be weird, right?”
When she mentioned “rumor control,” I couldn’t help voicing my doubts.
“…Wow, you really have no self-awareness, do you? If you two had never interacted before, that’d be one thing, but now? Even if you think you’re just acting normal at school, if someone spots you together, I guarantee the whole school will know within a week. No exaggeration.”
“..…”
Hearing her say that in such a matter-of-fact tone, I looked over at Chinatsu and realized she might be right. And at the same time, I started worrying that all that attention might actually make people resent me. When I mentioned that concern, Toudou-san shook her head confidently.
“It’ll be fine. Sure, rumors are scary, but if something has enough influence to drown them out, you just use that instead. Chinatsu has a lot of influence at our school, and if we all back her up, I think we can totally suppress the spread of the rumors.”
“I mean, I get what you’re saying, but… I honestly can’t picture it. Chinatsu, do you get it?”
“Huh…? Oh, um… kind of. Actually, I’ve kind of thought that if our relationship ever did get found out someday, that’s how I’d want to handle it.”
She said that so naturally, and when I saw Sakurai-san and Hojoin-san both nodding like it was obvious, I realized, maybe this kind of social power dynamic among girls was just… normal?
Eh? Girls sure are scary.
"I suppose it's no surprise that you don't understand much about these kinds of things, Satou. I mean, it looks like you’ve never really cared about any of this social stuff, you know? …Now that I think about it, you’re kind of weirdly neutral. You’re not especially close to anyone, not in any clubs, not on any committees, but you’re also not some socially awkward otaku or a loner. You’re just… there. Plus, you talk fine and don’t stutter or anything, so you’re not bad at socializing either… hm?”
“Err… Toudou-san?”
“Ah... sorry, sorry, I went off on a tangent. Anyway, like I was saying, there are all sorts of girl cliques. You’ve got the makeup-loving gal types, the idol fans, the club cliques, or ones like us who just hit it off in class, and others who came from the same middle school. Well, as for the boys in our class, there are no delinquents, so it’s basically just a split between sporty and not-sporty types.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
I didn’t know about other classes, but in ours, there weren’t any super popular guys. You could say everyone was scattered, or you could say there wasn’t any real hierarchy to cause drama. That was what probably made Chinatsu’s group stand out even more.
“And, Chinatsu, don’t take this the wrong way, okay?”
Toudou-san looked at her seriously before continuing.
“The fact that you, Chinatsu, are dating Satou from our class, and that you’re totally head over heels for him, is going to be hot news in every girl's clique. I mean, Chinatsu, you’ve handled things well, but there are tons of guys who like you. And naturally, there are girls who like some of those guys as well. So, honestly… although this might sound conceited coming from me, but since you’ve got us around, you hadn’t stood out too much. If you’d been on your own, being single would’ve made you stand out too much and in a negative way.”
I had to admit, she had a point. Chinatsu was ridiculously cute, in my opinion. But Toudou-san was also beautiful and can be easily on the same level as her, just a different type of beauty. And both Sakurai-san and Hojoin-san were striking in their own ways. Together, the four of them had this natural aura that made sense of why Chinatsu never stuck out awkwardly before as she’d always been balanced within the group.
While I was quietly nodding in agreement, Toudou-san went on.
“So, what I mean is, we make it obvious after school or something. Make sure people see. There’ll be a bit of a fuss afterward, sure, but then we spread the real story properly among the girls network. Most of the guys, except the ones seriously in love with Chinatsu or the socially clueless ones, will side with you two. It's not like all of them will actually cause trouble. Plus, any guys who already have girlfriends? We can get them to stay neutral through their partners."
“…I see.”
Honestly, that was all I could say.
Eh… do girls really think this far ahead about how their actions affect social dynamics?
"Ideally, the plan would be foolproof if we could get an influential guy, like the Satou-kun from the basketball team, for example, to back us up. But yeah, in the end, it’s all up to you, Satou.”
When Toudou-san finished her explanation, Sakurai-san looked like she wanted to say something but didn’t. To be fair, I probably could ask the other Satou-kun for help, but it felt wrong to drag him into something like this. So instead, I nodded and said, Yeah, I’ll do my best.
Toudou-san seemed satisfied with me and nodded, then turned to Sakurai-san and Hojoin-san, subtly asking if there was anything they wanted to add.
"Hmm... Another thought I have is, perhaps we could find a way to highlight one of Satou-san's more obvious strengths? After all, people tend to judge others based on what they can see with their own eyes and what they hear from multiple sources."
"Rena-chan, you're a genius! That's a great idea. He's definitely going to be the center of attention for at least a week, so if we can show off something that makes people think, 'Wow, Satou-kun is actually amazing,' it'd be perfect. And, Chinatsu-chan… though I'm asking this with great hesitation... what are his strong points? ...And we already get that he's incredibly kind, so give us something else."
Hojoin-san proposed an idea, Sakurai-san supplemented it with her own, and then, hesitantly, and almost fearfully, directed a question at Chinatsu.
“What do you mean? I can totally list tons of good things about Hajime!”
“That’s… not what I meant. It’s just, judging by how you are right now, you’ll only say good things. What we need is not flattery, we need facts.”
“Haha…”
“Why are you laughing, Hajime!?”
Chinatsu turned to me, puffing her cheeks again as I chuckled.
“I was just thinking how glad I am seeing that you were able to open up and talk like this. And that your friends are all genuinely kind people. I’m really grateful they’re taking this so seriously. And seeing you be yourself around them… it just makes me feel relieved. That’s all. So I ended up laughing a little.”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
All four girls stared at me.
“…This part of him is exactly one of his strong points."
“Mhm, I get it, but we need something besides it.”
Apparently, the girls had reached some kind of unspoken agreement. Chinatsu squeezed my arm tighter, and I felt the gazes from Toudou-san and the others become even warmer.
