I ran frantically in the direction Fuyunagi-san had run off to, after she threw a tantrum and bolted.

“Damn it, where did she go!?”

She’s stunningly beautiful, has an amazing figure, excellent grades, and on top of that, is exceptionally athletic. Against someone like her, the only thing a shut-in otaku like me could possibly rely on is the simple fact that I’m a male.

But then it occurs to me.

Even if I run myself ragged looking for her and did find her… what would happen then?

If it’s just going to end with suspicions of cheating and endless nagging and unfounded accusations, maybe it’s better to just leave things as they are?

Just being able to experience dating someone as popular as Fuyunagi Shizuku is a valuable thing.

It was a remarkably valuable experience for me.

So isn’t it okay to stop now?

I was starting to find it troublesome anyway.

Even if we broke up like this…

“Taku-chan…”

“Fuyunagi-san…”

She appeared suddenly from the crowd.

As if she knew I was here all along.

Was she watching me search from a distance?

“You were looking for me… I’m happy…”

“….”

“But you know… cheating is bad, right?”

“I’ve told you countless times, I haven’t been cheating!”

“But… you were with Sakurada-san, weren’t you!?”

“Haa… please stop making me repeat myself so many times.”

“But!!”

“Then let’s just break up, shall we?”

“Eh…? ”

“I’m tired of this… I haven’t been cheating, not even once! You keep accusing me of things I didn’t do!! It’s exhausting!!”

“Wait… wait a minute? Are you dumping me…? Are you going to dump me…?”

“That’s right… I am.”

“………Haa…… haa… haa… No way!! That can’t be happening!! That absolutely can’t be happening!!”

Fuyunagi-san collapses, clutching her head in her hands.

She looks utterly desperate.

What has pushed her to this point?

To her, I’m probably just a fun little distraction, nothing more.

“You’re my boyfriend… my lover! That’s why it’s not okay! Breaking up is unacceptable!! I won’t allow it!!”

“But Fuyunagi-san doesn’t believe me when I say I haven’t cheated, do you? Then we have no choice but to break up.”

“No, no!! Absolutely not! We are not breaking up!!!”

Why is she being so stubborn…?

Could it be… does she actually like me?

No, that can’t be right…

I don’t feel the same pure affection from her as Sakurada-san does for Sado.

I only sense a pretense… an intention to seduce men.

“…Alright! Alright! You haven’t been cheating! You haven’t been cheating at all!! I believe you! I’ll believe you! So please! Don’t say we should break up!!”

“Let’s change locations for now… there are too many people here…”

“Eh…? Yeah… okay…”

I realize we’ve attracted attention.

The sight of a breathtakingly beautiful girl with disheveled hair frantically begging a mediocre guy like me is drawing stares.

It’s bad enough seeing guys eyeing her like that, but what’s even worse is the thought of some man-whore coming over all, “Heyyy, what’s wrong? Wanna talk?” while clearly aiming for Fuyunagi-san. With how on edge she is right now, I have no idea what she might blurt out if someone tried to hit on her.

So we headed down an alleyway, away from the crowds.

“I-I don’t want to break up with you, Taku-chan! No, that’s not it! I won’t break up with you! I’m never breaking up with you!”

“I’ve wondered this for a while now… why do you cling to someone as ordinary as me so desperately? I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that would make you fixate on me that much…”

“That’s exactly it…”

“Eh…? ”

“You see… you’re special to me!”

“Special…?”

“As you well know, I get a lot of attention from guys… they come onto me even if I do nothing… it’s always been like that! If I just smile at them, they immediately try to get close. Every single guy is the same… it doesn’t matter if they have a girlfriend or not… that’s what I thought men were like.”

“….”

“But you’re different. Even when I smile at you and try to approach you, you don’t say a word to me… you just seem annoyed… You haven’t tried to flatter me or court me…”

“W-well… that’s because Fuyunagi-san is too much of an unattainable flower… someone as unremarkable as me wouldn’t even dare speak to you.”

“That might be true… but more fundamentally, you just aren’t interested in me at all. You have no interest in me whatsoever.”

“N-no that’s not true!”

I think she’s cute and her boobs are big and I find her sexy… At the very least, I don’t have zero interest in her.

“That’s just superficial attraction, isn’t it? You’re a boy, Taku-chan… you’re bound to be somewhat interested in my body. You’ve been looking at my chest and legs, haven’t you? But you don’t have a strong desire to possess me, do you? If you did, you wouldn’t even consider breaking up with me.”

She noticed I was checking out her tits…?

“That’s what attracted me… You are clearly different from other boys. You don’t idealize me and you don’t show any interest in me! You don’t pursue me or become obsessed with me! Do you understand how amazing that is? Taku-chan, you’re special to me!”

“Just that…?”

Could that really be it? It is possible when it comes to her.

It’s a sensibility that almost certainly wouldn’t exist in any normal girl.

People generally don’t become interested in someone who shows no interest in them.

But she’s been the center of attention since childhood.

She’s constantly being spoken to, shown interest in, and showered with affection.

Therefore, a person who doesn’t show her any interest is incredibly fresh and stimulating.

In other words… that’s all it is…?

It’s just that.

“So Fuyunagi-san thinks if I genuinely develop feelings for you, you’ll get bored and dump me?”

“Eh…? ”

“Because that’s what you mean, right? If the attention of others is normal for Fuyunagi-san, then when I truly fall in love with you, you’ll lose interest in me and discard me. That kind of relationship is doomed to fail.”

“No! I… I…”

She can’t retort.

She knows it herself.

This make-believe romance won’t last long.

“If someone Fuyunagi-san genuinely likes appears in the future, I’ll just be an obstacle. And that’s not something I want.”

“Wait… wait a minute…”

“That’s why we should really break up.”

“Noo… nooo… I don’t want to… I really don’t…”

I left the scene.

Fuyunagi-san keeps calling out my name.

But I don’t turn around.

Our fun little game is over today.

I might be criticized as a scumbag.

But that’s unavoidable.

I was too young for love anyway.

It was just too much to handle being Fuyunagi-san’s “boyfriend.”

I really am better off alone.

That’s what I realized once again.