Ranobe Mo Ore Mo Sukina Gyaru - Volume 1 Chapter 1.3

Gal and Meetup 3

“By the way, I’m going to change the subject——Actually, it’s not going to change.”

“Your way of saying that is pretty odd.”

“Nezumayo-kun, do you have a girlfriend right now?”

“…I’ve never had a girlfriend in my life, let alone now.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Even though she’s the one that asked me, Tsumakawa responds with a lack of interest.

Then, she delivers an unexpected line while twirling the tips of her tea-colored hair between her fingers without blushing as if it was something insignificant.

“Then, how about dating me?” (Text in img)

“…Huh?”

I was puzzled for a moment.

She spoke those words like asking a friend next to her, ‘What class do we have next?’

There’s no passionate emotion behind it; it was an incredibly dry confession, and since it was a confession I wasn’t accustomed to hearing, my brain couldn’t catch up with her words…

Date? Tsumakawa and me?

Before I could even process the cute gal’s confession, I struggled to understand it in the first place.

So, I ended up closely staring at Tsumakawa’s face.

In response, she smiles teasingly at me.

“What? Are you trying to judge whether I have a pretty face or not?”

She’s overly generous with her smiles even to a guy she barely knows…

While feeling bewildered in that manner, I managed to squeeze out a genuine question.

“…but, Minacho-san, you don’t, uh… actually like me, do you?”

“Hmm… I don’t know.”

I don’t know?!

She doesn’t actually like me? Then why did she just confess to me?

“Of course, I don’t dislike you. If you asked me to kiss, I think I could totally do it, but well——I don’t think I’ve developed the desire to do it yet…Ahaha, sorry?”

“Why am I being confessed to, only to be rejected right after…? Is this some kind of paradox joke?”

“No, it’s not like that! ——I mean, I really had a great time just now! So, I thought, maybe I could fall in love with you, and that’s why I asked you out!”

“What——?! So, even though you don’t like me, you confessed to me because you think you could fall in love with me?”

“Yeah!”

…Uh, do gals really have a lax sense of chastity?

Normally, confessing is something you do after you’ve developed feelings for someone, right?

Yet she spent the day with me and came to the conclusion that she could potentially like me — not that she actually like me — and then confessed to me.

…Isn’t the speed of her confession as fast as Formula 1?

I commute to school by bicycle, so I can’t keep up with her!

I felt again that I couldn’t understand gals at all…

For someone like me, the phrase ‘I want you to go out with me’ is a word that might never escape my lips for years.

It holds such weight, fear, and it’s something to be taken seriously.

However, she just casually said it without any fear or sentiment attached.

To her, it’s probably like a cute request, akin to asking a classmate, ‘Can you help me with my homework?’

Such is her sense, and while I won’t deny her conduct, I thought that she was different from me, like I felt that we’re different breeds of human.

So, after considering all that, the only response I could offer to her confession was this,

“I can’t go out with you, Minacho-san. I’m sorry…”

“Ah? Is that so, tensage…”

(TN: テンサゲ, tensage means a state of lowered tension. An abbreviation of ‘Tenshonsage’, which is a combination of ‘tenshon’ meaning a mood or feeling and ‘Sage’ meaning lowered. In english, maybe it was ‘buzzkill’ ? Idk.)

She says those words with a slightly sad expression.

Honestly, someone who’s genuinely sad wouldn’t say ‘tensage’, but still, she seemed somewhat shocked.

Then, she takes another sip of her frappuccino and after a satisfied ‘Mmm,’ she looks straight into my eyes.

“Well then, let’s be friends!”

“Don’t give up that easily!”

With a smile that seems entirely unaffected by the fact that she was just turned down, Tsumakawa presents a new request, and I respond with a quip.

I see, so this is the mindset of a gal… It’s positively scary for an introvert like me!

While I think that to myself, I voice my sincere feelings without holding back.

“Why are you so fixated on me, Tsumakawa-san?”

“..Hm? Tsumakawa-san? Did I mention my last name to you, Nezumayo-kun?”

“Ah…”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Tsumakawa is surprised by my slip of the tongue.

In response, I consider that since it’s already out, there’s no point in hiding it any longer, and I explain our relationship.

“Tsumakawa-san might not have noticed, but we’re classmates in the same class…”

” …Ahaha, uh… Nezumayo-kun. You’re really funny, aren’t you? ——No way, that’s impossible. I mean, if you and I were in the same class, it’d be incredibly rude of me not to realize it. So, there’s no way that’s true…”

” ….. “

“Huh, no way… I said there’s no way that’s true! I like everyone in the class, so there’s no way I forget the faces of my classmates or anything like that——”

” ….. “

” …really? “

Sensing that I’m telling the truth, Tsumakawa’s face turns pale.

Then, she clasps her hands together in an apologetic pose and bows her head vigorously.

“S-seriously? I’m so sorry, Nezumayo-kun… By the way, Nezumayo-kun, your name is, um… What kind of name is it?”

“…I’m Ryosuke Yoda, a first-year Class D student in Private Yuunagi High School.”

“…Ah… Oh, I see! Yoda! It’s Yoda! Why didn’t I notice?! Looking at you, you’re so Yoda! You really are that Yoda!”

“You’re too obvious!”

When I retorted like that, Tsumakawa-san apologized again with a serious tone.

“…uh, I’m really sorry.”

Honestly, there’s no need to feel so bad about it… Not many classmates can actually recognize me, probably less than half.

What a sad follow-up!

As I was scratching my cheek with a somewhat awkward expression, Tsumakawa suddenly raised her head and said:

“Uh… then, if Nezumayo-kun is in my class, from now on, I can discuss light novels with Nezumayo anytime in the classroom… How about that!?”

“Cut it out with these abrupt topic changes.”

“Huh, but seriously! If Yoda, my classmate, and Nezumayo are the same person, that means Minacho can talk freely with Nezumayo in class, right?! Hooray! I’ve won big time!”

“Don’t just declare victory like that on your own. Besides, having a class-related conversation when we’re not even friends——”

“Now about that, as I said before, if being a girlfriend is out of the question, then let’s be friends!”

Tsumakawa tries to steer the conversation back on track, repeating her request.

Not knowing how to respond, I’m left bewildered, and she continues.

“Nezumayo-kun, you seem like a serious guy, so I guess you can’t take dating lightly. Hmmph, my pride was hurt a little, but I’ll forgive you this time.”

“Why am I the one who needs forgiveness when I didn’t do anything wrong?”

“Then, being friends should be okay, right? Let’s become friends!”

” ….. “

“Huh? You’re getting all quiet, what’s wrong?”

While letting Tsumakawa’s words wash over me, I take a deep breath.

Regarding this matter, while I do think that I might be the odd one, still… Due to certain two events, I’ve become unable to believe in ‘three-dimensional women,’ including her.

With that in mind, I said my response to Minacho-san, who I always enjoyed talking with on Twitter.