For Some Reason The Girl Who's Too Popular Only Drinks with Me - Volume 1 Chapter 1.3

The reason Hamasaki Mai left her circle was simple and clear. A single, unwavering fact. She was too beautiful.

Around Hamasaki Mai were shallow-minded followers trying to bask in her beauty, self-proclaimed straightforward idiots who believed they were her true friends, and a bunch of chimpanzees, either Wolfs or Mashes, who just wanted a physical relationship with her.

However, Hamasaki Mai didn’t get involved with anyone, continued to reject confessions, and rarely participated in drinking parties in the first place. She was thoroughly enjoying tennis, but men fought over her, the unattainable, women pretended to protect her while preying on the men she rejected, and ultimately, someone even claimed to be in a romantic relationship with her, saying they were dating. That person was the president of the tennis circle.

In the end, Hamasaki Mai couldn’t stand the internal strife and left the circle at the end of her freshman year.

I think it’s a luxurious problem.

Maybe it’s like an uncontrollable superpower. I can’t relate at all, not having a girlfriend or even friends.

But at the same time, I wonder if this story is true. Perhaps Hamasaki Mai is embellishing, or maybe—though it’s already pretty trivial—there was a completely different reason.

Maybe she’s telling this story to gain our sympathy. If that was the plan, it’s a failure.

Because to me, the story of Hamasaki Mai leaving her circle is irrelevant.

“—And then, you know? The day after I left the circle, I got recruited from all over, and it was so annoying. Isn’t that weird?”

“Wait, why are you suddenly talking so much? What happened?”

Sugino-senpai threw such a blunt comment at Hamasaki Mai’s story. The rapid-fire talking from her stopped abruptly, and the flow of the conversation halted.

Hamasaki Mai looked at Sugino-senpai with a “Huh?” expression, but the senior just smiled and sipped her drink.

“Well, well, drink all you want today. The best way to forget about pointless stories is with alcohol!”

Sugino-senpai brought over the bottle we were keeping and poured it generously into Hamasaki Mai’s glass. The alcohol being poured was a high-proof liqueur, probably enough to knock someone out if drunk straight from a normal glass.

And she just called it a pointless story. Well, even if she said that, Mikami-senpai and I had been holding back from saying it.

“Pointless… pointless?”

Holding the glass filled to the brim with liqueur in her trembling hands, Hamasaki Mai turned to us. Mikami-senpai, chewing on the ice from his umeshu rock, answered in a dry voice.

“It’s pointless. There wasn’t even a laugh.”

Hamasaki Mai’s gaze shifted to me. It’s difficult to respond when looked at like that, but since I have no relationship with her to begin with, I decided to be honest.

“I don’t have friends or a girlfriend, so I didn’t understand what the hassle was about. Maybe having friends is the problem?”

Hearing my twisted reply, Hamasaki Mai’s eyes widened. She might be thinking, why did she have to hear this from such a guy, but it’s her fault for creating the cause. Wanting friends but not a lover is completely unrelatable to me, who has neither.

“Exactly! Having friends is the problem! What you should really make are money trees! Money solves everything without any mess!”

“Putting aside this idiot’s theory, trying to look good in front of friends is definitely a cause. You could probably afford to live a bit more carefreely.”

Objectively, it’s definitely not Hamasaki Mai’s fault, and it’s just my bad personality, but it doesn’t matter. We are fundamentally different people.

All three of us having unexpected reactions, Hamasaki Mai froze with her mouth open, holding her glass. Wondering if we went too far and feeling a bit worried, her face, which had been frozen in shock, gradually turned red. Slowly lowering her head, she began to tremble, then slammed the glass down on the table with a thud.

“Great! This is amazing!”

I involuntarily averted my gaze from Hamasaki Mai, who was inexplicably excited.

The seniors also widened their eyes at Hamasaki Mai’s second dramatic change.

“I’ve never been treated so dismissively before! It’s incredible! I’m not being pampered at all!”

She was a strange woman. Hamasaki Mai turned out to be stranger than I thought. Her large eyes wide open, her cheeks flushed a pinkish-red, she happily hugged herself.

“I’m so happy because I’ve never been treated so casually before! Why is everyone so nice!?”

“We’re not nice.”

“She’s creepy.”

“Who brought this girl here?”

“This! This is what I wanted!”

Hamasaki Mai, hugging herself, writhed in happiness. She took a big gulp of her drink and smiled blissfully.

Normally, anyone seeing her full-faced smile would fall in love on the spot, but considering the flow of our previous conversation, I couldn’t feel that way at all.

A monster born from being too beautiful, perhaps. Regardless of one’s appearance, everyone has their troubles.

Even for Hamasaki Mai, who could rightly be called the most beautiful girl at the university, getting to know her personal side didn’t bring me any closer. In fact, if I’m being honest, it felt like the distance between us only grew further.