Does This Love Suit Your Taste? - Volume 1 Chapter 1.2

Terrine 2

I rushed down the stairs and changed my shoes when I reached the student entrance.

With no one around, the sound of my shoes dropping onto the wooden rack echoed loudly, amplifying the emptiness I felt inside my heart.

The cherry trees planted along the entrance rotary were already asserting the end of spring with their green-tinged leaves.

While heading towards the school gate, I sighed as I thought back on what had just happened.

It feels strange to say it myself, but when it comes to famous people within the school, I’m one of them.

But it’s not like I’m saying I possess an appearance that matches that of Shirahime Rira or that I’m brimming with talent enough to compete with her.

We’re complete opposites in every way.

Honor student and delinquent, angel and devil, the moon and a mud turtle——It goes without saying which is which.

(TN: The comparison ‘The moon and a mud turtle’ is maybe a metaphor for the sky and the ground.)

This is what happens when I decide to come to school after frequently skipping.

Still, it’s not like I enjoy being in conflict with anyone.

I’m just…

“…trying to be the person I want to be, that’s all.”

While looking down, I let out another sigh. Right at that very moment——

“Wait! Kiminami-kun!”

Hearing a high-pitched call stopping me, I turn around.

“——?”

There stood the girl with the short hair.

Shirahime Rira—the current talk of the school, S-Hime.

“Huff-… huff-…”

Had Shirahime been running?

She was panting her breath and resting her hands on her knees.

Once her breathing steadied, she held her now shorter hair in her hands as it swayed in the wind while smiling gently.

“…Ehehe, I’m glad. I made it in time.”

This was my first contact with Shirahime Rira.

By coincidence, it happened on the very day she had cut her hair short.

…Why is the S-Hime here?

I never had the slightest interest in S-Hime before. I only knew the commonly known facts and occasionally saw her behavior at school. I never cared to learn more about her.

But after seeing her hair cut short, I became a bit curious.

“…What is it?”

The S-hime that everyone in the school adores and yearns for yet unreachable is here.

The honor student and the delinquent. The reason why the unreachable would call out to me.

What is S-Hime doing here?

Anticipation tingles up my spine.

“…I came to stop you from leaving. Let’s go back? I’ll apologize with you.”

——And with Shirahime Rira’s words, I was quickly disappointed.

On second thought, I wasn’t even sure what I had expected from Shirahime or why I was disappointed.

Shirahime showed a bashful smile. Her myriad of smiles—That must be why she’s so liked by everyone. She’s a friendly person.

But I can tell it’s all just pleasantries.

“…Did you really come all this way just to say that? Don’t stick your nose in where it doesn’t belong. You have no reason to go that far for me.”

“Uh, umm…”

Shirahime, while twirling the ends of her new short hair around her finger, pondered for a moment before speaking as if struck by a sudden realization.

“Ah! Look, I’m the class representative!” (Class respresentative/Class president.)

“…I know that”

“Hahaha, I see…”

Shirahime smiled again.

——Ah, this girl just doesn’t click with me.

Even if she cuts her hair, Shirahime Rira is still Shirahime Rira.

Shirahime always has a hundred percent smile on her face when talking to anyone, never showing even a momentary lapse in emotion. But humans can’t be without ups and downs. So some part of that hundred percent was false.

I can’t stand her ingratiating smile.

It’s really hard to understand how she can present such a tailored version of herself to others even when there’s nothing particularly funny or interesting about the situation.

“If we’re done talking, I’m going to leave.”

“…Before you go, may I ask just one more thing?”

Even as I glare at her, Shirahime never loses her smile. She alone attempts to approach me with kindness, unlike anyone else who keeps their distance.

Always opposing something and disliked by everyone, I am different from Shirahime, who is always proper and loved by everyone.

There is something about that aspect of S-Hime that I just can’t stomach.

“Those are nice earrings.”

“Yes?”

“Why didn’t you take off that earring?”

“Why do you care… It’s my choice.”

It seems like an obligatory question to blame me.

Though she seem oddly concerned about the situation, I didn’t feel the need to give a serious answer.

Just like Shirahime always tries to be right, I justified my own actions.

“Your hair, it doesn’t seem to be getting a good reputation.”

“Ah, yeah. Maybe I shouldn’t have done it.”

Shirahime listlessly ran her fingers through her side hair. It looked like she was regretting having cut it.

I dismissively chuckled at her troubled face.

“But it’s up to the person themselves about what kind of hairstyle they want to have.”

“…?”

“It’s the same thing.”

Shirahime blinked in surprise and just stared at me in a daze.

She looked unusually clueless, a face that was hard to imagine coming from the object of everyone’s admiration, Shirahime.

I thought that Shirahime making this kind of face seemed much more endearing than the usual Shirahime.

“I think that hairstyle—”

Just as I started to speak,

“Hey! I won’t let you escape, Kiminami!”

I could see Kondo-sensei running towards us from the entrance.

“Shoot… that guy’s still chasing after me… wait…”

“More than before…?”

As Shirahime pointed out, I asked for backup, and now there are about three more teachers. I need to run away.

“Look… maybe we should go back——what!?”

By the time Shirahime tries to stop me, I’m already climbing the fence that surrounds this school. A fence like this is nothing to me.

“W-wait! What are you doing!? It’s dangerous!”

“Shortcut! Going all the way around to the main gate is annoying.”

“At this height…?”

I straddle the fence as tall as a cherry tree and as I turn to descend, I make eye contact with a dumbfounded Shirahime through the mesh.

“L-let’s just go back now! You might still be forgiven!”

“Didn’t I tell you? I am who I am, and I’ll do what I want with my life! I don’t need some old man’s forgiveness or anything like that.”

No matter what anyone says, I am me, and Shirahime is Shirahime. That is an unwavering fact, an unchangeable truth. So whether she cuts her hair or I put earrings in my ears, that’s our business and our freedom.

Jumping down from a certain height off the net, I put my hands on the fence I had climbed over and told Shirahime a parting message.

“So if you cut your hair yourself, be proud of it!”

“!”

I started running back in the direction of my escape, not even trying to see what kind of expression Shirahime Rira had on her face.

However, it’s not just the school that stands in my way.

After finally managing to escape from school, I entered the alleyway that serves as a shortcut home, only to encounter a trio of bad-looking guys hanging around.

It seems I can’t get through unless they make way. The idea of turning back because of these guys doesn’t cross my mind.

“Hey, you’re in the way.”

As I say this, one of them who looks like the leader narrows his eyes and stands up.

“—Ha? What’s your problem? Why are you even going through this narrow alley?”

“That’s my line. Why are you guys hanging around here?”

“Tsk… you’re so short, yet you’re so cheeky… Keep it up and I might have to lay my hands on you, okay?”

“…Oh?”

Everyone, each and every one of them, they don’t even try to understand me, just getting in my way…

“I-I remember now…”

As another man’s forehead began to sweat, he stood up and took a step back.

“This guy, could he be that Kiminami Toui… The one who ‘made a mountain of corpses at the pier’ in the past or… ‘The one who single-handedly annihilated a yakuza hideout’… He’s a well-known delinquent around here… Senpai, maybe we should reconsider this…”

Staring down the three men, the one who had been acting cocky first pulled his heel back, and the two beside him similarly drew back their feet to open up the space.

Let me clarify that those rumors are just rumors. They’ve probably gotten worse without me even knowing. But honestly, I don’t care about that.

“So, who’s the cheeky short kid?”

“Hey, don’t get cocky. Do you really think you can beat the three of us?”

“Even if three losers gang up, they’re still losers.”

“You..! I’m gonna kill you——”

Thud—

The guy in the middle, who had raised his fist to strike, leaped back like a fish jumping out of the water and then fell to the ground on his back.

My toes had struck his chin as I kicked upwards.

And then, the guy, unable to move or speak due to convulsions, could only flop on the ground like a fish cast out from the sea.

Definitely a loser.

“There, one down.”

“Eek…senpai! senpai!”

Even I have to admit, it’s a finishing technique comparable to that of a skilled sushi chef (板前).

I don’t like fighting, so I smiled kindly at the remaining two who looked at me with frightened puppy eyes.

“Cry your hearts out, you scum. Then I’ll forgive you.”

” “Y-yes! I’m so sorry!” “

This is me, Kiminami Toui.

I guess it can’t be helped if I’m called a delinquent.

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