The Best Friend of the Person I Like is Secretly Approaching Me - Chapter 101

Chapter 101

*Haru’s POV

It’s been several weeks since Misa and I started dating Ren.

Of course, various problems came up at first, and each time, Misa and I would discuss them together.

Well, it’s mostly my complaints.

At least within our school, it’s known that Misa and Ren are dating. So I can’t be all lovey-dovey with Ren while at school.

It’s difficult to hug him, and I can’t even hold his hand without being conscious of the people around us.

On the other hand, Misa is allowed to do anything.

She can hold hands with Ren as much as she wants, lean on him, and even hug him without any issues.

It seems she doesn’t go as far as kissing him in front of others, but she could do it if she can bear the embarrassment.

——I’m jealous.

I’m Ren’s girlfriend too… why do I have to be the only one to restrain myself?

I want to touch him more and more. I want to be spoiled by him. But the people around us won’t allow it.

If you exclude sleeping hours, we students spend most of our time at school during the week.

The next most time is spent at home. But Ren isn’t there. So, Misa ends up monopolizing Ren for most of the time.

I felt that I couldn’t stand it if Misa also took Ren away from me during the weekends, so I talked to her about it.

I said she could have Ren on school days, but please let me have him on the weekends.

Misa agreed right away, and I was relieved that I could secure some days to monopolize Ren.

Still, it’s not enough.

Isn’t that weird?

Misa gets him for 5 days a week, and I only get 2 days…

Sure, I was the one who asked, but originally, it was all because Misa lied about dating Ren.

…I wonder what would happen if I told everyone at school that Ren and Misa broke up.

Then it would be strange for those two to be together.

Then I could be the one who gets to be with Ren.

But if I do that, I won’t be able to stay best friends with Misa.

Besides, Ren might start to hate me too.

If he finds out I told such a hurtful lie, Ren might not be kind to me anymore.

I absolutely don’t want that.

…Wait.

But Misa was the one who lied first, right?

At first, Ren was mad at Misa, but now he’s not… I wonder if it’s okay for me to lie too….

No-no. Thinking about this only makes it more painful.

For now, I’ll just look forward to enjoying the two days of the weekend.

Patience. Patience——

***

Lately, Misa has been making extra dishes separate from what she eats, and she’s been having Ren try them.

Misa seems to be good at cooking, and she brings different dishes every day. They all looked delicious.

In fact, I was a bit curious, so I’ve tried one before, and it was really tasty.

Come to think of it, my mom used to told about that.

She said she won over my dad by capturing his stomach.

Ren eats Misa’s homemade meals with relish every day. Maybe he’s already been captured by Misa’s cooking…

This is bad—Really bad.

At this rate, Ren will fall for Misa again. I can’t let her take Ren away from me.

In my panic, I asked my mom to teach me how to cook.

She immediately figured out it was for Ren and teased me a lot, but I didn’t have the time to care about that.

Having hardly ever cooked before, I kept failing at first, and it took a while before I could make something good enough for Ren to eat.

But, since I helped my mom by cutting ingredients, I never had any of those manga-like cooking accidents where you hurt your fingers.

While I’m glad my fingers stayed pretty, part of me regrets not getting injured, thinking Ren might have been very concerned about me.

I thought it might not be too late to injure myself, but I want to keep my hands beautiful for when I hold Ren’s. I don’t want them to be rough or scarred.

Ren once complimented me, saying my hands felt smooth and nice.

I was so happy that I made sure to apply hand cream every day without fail. I don’t want to ruin that.

Besides, Ren is so kind that if my hands were to hurt when touched, he might stop holding them.

I absolutely don’t want that.

Yeah. I should stop thinking about injuring my hands weirdly. Ren wouldn’t be happy with that.

Anyway, about two weeks after I started practicing cooking, I finally made something decent enough for Ren to eat.

It was a bit burnt, but I couldn’t afford to spend more time on it.

Mom said it was delicious, so I brought it to school today, hoping this would be the day.

Yet, seeing Misa’s appetizing cooking made me feel like mine just wasn’t good enough.

If I present this, Ren might be disillusioned with me.

As I was putting away my container, feeling a loss of confidence, Ren, who had been captivated by Misa’s homemade dishes until just now, spoke to me.

“Do you cook too, Hinata?”

“Ah? Why do you ask all of a sudden?”

“Well, I know Misa is good at cooking because she always makes things like this, but I was wondering about you, Hinata.”

“Uh, umm… I don’t really cook much. I just help my mom with dinner sometimes.”

“I see. So that means all your bentos are made by your mom?”

“Yeah… but, this is something I made!”

I said that and took out the container I had just put away, showing it to him again on the desk.

Then he said he wanted to eat it, and he actually ate it and even told me it was delicious.

Ren was considerate of me, and to prevent those around us from suspecting our relationship, he naturally made it seem like he was just eating the food I made.

I’m happy. Ren really is kind. I love him. I love him so much. I want him to be kinder to me. I want his kindness directed only at me. I want him to look only at me, to pour his love only into me and no one else.

Ren. Ren. Ren. I love you, Ren.

Thinking back, even on the day of our recent school trip, Ren was very considerate of me. Though it was a trip, it felt like a date.

Normally, I would have Ren all to myself, but since it was a weekday and there were many acquaintances around, it was the day Misa had Ren all to herself.

I stood half a step away from him while she was close enough to touch.

Whenever he paid attention to me, she would conspicuously hold his hand or something.

When we took a picture to send to Koido-chan, she even wrapped her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder.

Just like the people in class said, I felt like I was intruding on their date. But that’s not true.

I’m Ren’s girlfriend too.

When I felt down, Ren would always act to comfort me.

It made me really happy.

But then, Misa would——

“Rento-kun. Would you try mine too? Here, ‘ahh'”

The elation I was feeling cooled down instantly when I saw Misa doing the ‘ahh’ thing to Ren right in front of me.

Ren, looking embarrassed, opened his mouth and let Misa feed him her homemade cooking, praising it as delicious.

That’s right.

That day too, Misa did the ‘ahh’ thing with the manju to Ren.

Not just that. She did the ‘ahh’ thing with the cake at the café we stopped by, and with the ice monaka, she deliberately chose a different flavor from Ren’s and said, ‘Let’s share the taste’, and did the ‘ahh’ thing again.

I wanted to do that too. I’ve been holding back.

I couldn’t help but feel unpleasant emotions seeing her easily doing what I restrained myself from.

It’s unfair…

Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair. Unfair——

I mean, I mean… I’m Ren’s girlfriend too.

——Why am I the only one who has to endure so much?