Ranobe Mo Ore Mo Sukina Gyaru - Volume 1 Chapter 5.1

Gal and Light Novel 1

Today is a sunny Sunday, and it was a little after 2 o’clock in the afternoon.

I, who had finally received my long-awaited paycheck from my part-time job the other day, had descended from my home in Saitama Shintoshin to Omiya Station.

From there, I made my way to the nearby Animate store.

Alright! Today, my wallet is feeling pretty heavy, so I’m going to buy a bunch of light novels and manga that I’ve been wanting to read.

By the way, the number of books piled up in my room right now is four general literature books, eight light novels, and two manga.

Why do otaku always ignore their stacks of books and go out to buy new books? While pondering about such things, I stepped into the Omiya Animate store.

And there, I saw——A stylishly dressed gyaru named Tsumakawa, with an excited expression like that of a young boy, gazing at the newly released light novels neatly stacked on the shelves.

Wait, Tsumakawa!? What’s she doing in Animate!?

For a moment, I thought that, but come to think of it, she’s Minacho, the light novel reader… It makes sense for an otaku living in Saitama to appear in this area around Omiya Station, where stores like Mate and Melon Books are clustered.

Saitama Prefecture is a kind place for otaku, after all.

So, trying not to be noticed by Tsumakawa, I unconsciously hid behind a bookshelf.

Then, the female store clerk who had been arranging the shelves suddenly spoke to Tsumakawa.

“Welcome. Are you looking for something?”

“Oh, Yuzuppe! Long time no see! Why haven’t you come to see me lately?”

“Well, you didn’t come to the shop. I’ve been working part-time here on Sundays.”

“Huh? But I’m always the one who comes to see you, wouldn’t it be nice if you visited me once in a while too? That’s unfair.”

“What’s unfair about that? We’re just customers and store staff at Animate. It would be weird if I went to see you.”

“Don’t you do novel deliveries or something? Not like regular online shopping, but if I called Yuzuppe, could you provide a service to deliver freshly released light novels within 30 minutes?”

“Freshly released light novels? Don’t get carried away, customer.”

As the Animate store clerk retorted, Tsumakawa chuckled in amusement.

Then, after enjoying a short conversation, they said their goodbyes.

“Well then, I should get back to work.”

“Yeah! Do your best!”

With this exchange, the store clerk returned to sorting the shelves.

As I gazed at this scene, slightly surprised, suddenly Tsumakawa, who had been looking this way, noticed me and exclaimed, ‘Ah!’.

How did she notice me looking at her?

After that, Tsumakawa, for some reason wearing a mischievous grin, approached me, placed her hand on my shoulder, and with a smile, said,

“Oh, you knew I was here? It’s not like I’m invisible to you… am I? …but why didn’t you say anything to me? Hey, why…why, why, why, why, why, why!”

“Whoa, could you please turn off those scary eye highlights and stop coming at me like a yandere!? How are you even doing that?”

“Fufu——I’ve found you, Nezumayo-kun!”

“Stop saying creepy stuff with those eyes! It’s scary!”

As I retorted, Tsumakawa once again burst into loud laughter, seeming to be having a lot of fun.

…Does being a gyaru mean you can have enjoyable conversations with anyone? Share some of those communication skill with me!

“Well then, let me greet you again——Nezumayo-kun, yay!”

“Do you really have to greet me like that…? Fine. Hello, Tsumakawa-san.”

“Nezumayo——No, Yoda. Is it because Yoda-san is a hardcore otaku, that’s why you come here seeking some otaku treasures in the form of light novels? www”

“Yeah, that’s right Www. Also, Tsumakawa-san is a gal, but she loves light novels too, so you can’t really say speak for others, can you? www!”

“That’s true! WWW, this is beyond amusing! WWww”

After saying that, Tsumakawa chuckled at her own words.

What’s with this vibe? While thinking that, I changed the topic and asked her about something that had been bothering me.

“…It’s not really important, but Tsumakawa-san, are you friends with the Animate store staff? How do you become friends with a store staff?”

“Huh? Well, if you go here a few times, you naturally become friendly, right?”

“I can’t grasp the concept of a normalcy of extroverts… Could it be that you have like 300 friends on LINE?”

“Ah, well, I don’t really use LINE much, but I had around 800 mutual followers on Instagram.”

“800!? That’s enough people to build a nation!”

“You’re exaggerating. You’re so surprised that you’re messing up your retorts——Well, now I’ve carefully selected my mutuals and narrowed it down to around 100 people… You know, I realized that among the Insta interactions I’ve had so far, there are a lot of guys I don’t really care about. So now, even if someone asks me if I’m on Instagram, I lie and say I’m not, and I’ve stopped following people frequently. I probably haven’t done the Insta mutual thing in like three billion years.”

“You’re exaggerating the timeframe way too much. Three billion years ago, humans didn’t even exist.”

“Hahaha. But this is serious! I’ve decided I’ll only mutually follow genuine people on Instagram. — In fact, Miona is not the promiscuous type of gal. I’m more of a refined, neat, and tidy type of gal! How about that!”

“Don’t create contradictory statements like Black Mayonnaise… It’s impossible, those two attributes don’t go together.”

“Actually, I’m a virgin! Yay!”

“That’s definitely a lie!”

As I retorted, she laughed again and then said, ‘For now, it’s true though. But, even if I say this, you might not believe me,’ with a mischievous grin.

It’s hard to believe that someone like Tsumakawa, who has probably had around fifty boyfriends, is inexperienced.

In any case, since entering Animate, I’ve mostly observed Tsumakawa and engaged in conversations with her, but I have a goal today.

I reminded myself again that I came here to buy my beloved light novels.

With that in mind, I left her with a simple ‘Well then, I’m going to check out the light novels’ and headed to the new release corner.