The Best Friend of the Person I Like is Secretly Approaching Me - Chapter 119

Chapter 119

“The current Yosaki-senpai and Hinata-senpai are not suitable to be Senpai’s lovers. From now on, I will be by Senpai’s side, so please distance yourselves from Senpai.”

Unable to comprehend the meaning of Koido’s words, Misa and Haru freeze for a moment. However, the next instant, they glare at her and become furious.

“What is that supposed to mean! You want us to break up with Ren!?”

“I see, you were after Rento-kun as well. You’ve been planning to get rid of us from the start and become his only lover, haven’t you?”

Despite being showered with their angry voices, Koido does not flinch; instead, she sighs with a look of exasperation.

“As I said before, I’m not trying to become Senpai’s girlfriend or anything like that. To begin with, I don’t really understand romantic feelings.”

“I don’t think someone who doesn’t understand love has the right to interfere with our relationship.”

“It’s because I don’t understand that I’ve been analyzing romance from a third-party perspective. So I think I have an unbiased view of love. Well, I haven’t reached the point of having such feelings myself, though.”

“Biased? I don’t really get it, but why do we have to be told such things by Koido-chan⁉”

“Why, you ask? It’s because Senpai is suffering.”

Hearing that Rento is suffering, the two stop their counterattack.

They open and close their mouths, unable to find the words, as if something has dawned on them.

Seeing this, Koido sighs once more and continues.

“The reason I spoke about Senpai’s constitution earlier is because of this. Senpai is currently under a lot of stress. And that stress is due to his relationship with the two of you.”

“W-wait a minute. Rento-kun is dating two girls he likes? Why would he feel stressed?”

“It’s because Senpai doesn’t want this relationship. The current relationship was forced by Yosaki-senpai and Hinata-senpai, right? Did senpai ever wish for this?”

“But when we suggested this relationship, Ren also nodded in agreement…”

“Senpai tends to be a bit easily swayed. Maybe he just got carried away by your momentum and nodded. Plus, maybe he thought it could be like before, where the three of you could get along well. In other words, if you two had been able to share senpai nicely, I wouldn’t have had to butt into your relationship like this. Well, I personally thought that would be unlikely… Do you two know that Senpai has been going to the hospital recently?”

“What…”

“No way…”

Haru and Misa show a stunned reaction. It’s not that they hadn’t been concerned about Rento’s health at all. It was because Rento had been acting in a way that they wouldn’t notice.

However, only Saki had been able to sense his ill health after that particular incident of being late the other day, it couldn’t be said that Haru and Misa were always considering his condition.

“He’s getting by on medicine for now, but he’ll collapse again someday. That’s is, because the two of you.”

Being confronted with the reality that it was their fault, Rento might collapse again; their expressions instantly turned gloomy.

But they can’t just give up here. It’s not so easy to let go of someone they love.

“…It’s pathetic that I had to be made aware of this by Koido-san. Thank you, Koido-san. It seems we were a bit reckless. From now on, we’ll pay more attention to Rento-kun’s health.”

“I need to cool my head. Ren wanted us to get along, but we’ve been continuously fighting instead. To continue being with Ren, we have to be mindful of these things.”

After receiving Koido’s advice, the two of them resolve to make their relationship with Rento even better.

Hearing their declaration of determination, Koido lets out a completely exasperated “Ha?”

“What are you talking about? I said earlier that you two can’t continue dating senpai.”

“Yes, that’s why we, Haru and I, are reflecting and trying to change our approach.”

“It’s not something that can be changed just like that. To begin with, that’s not the only issue. The problem with the Senpai is…”

“…What’s wrong with us?”

“Well——”

Koido crossed her arms and pondered for a bit before answering Haru’s question.

“For Hinata-senpai, it’s quite simple. To put it bluntly, you rely too much on Senpai. Certainly, Senpai is the type who is pleased when someone depends on them, but there’s a limit. Despite this, Hinata-senpai depends entirely on senpai.”

“I-I know that. I’m aware of it. But if I keep resisting my urge to depend on Ren, I feel like Misa will take Ren away from me in the meantime…”

“I understand that you are driven by the frustration of having to make your own moves in a relationship like this, and that is why you are so spoiled by senpai. That’s also something you brought upon yourselves.”

“…Ugh.”

“Anyway, Hinata senpai, please be a bit more independent. Senpai tends to overdo things, so from my perspective, I’d feel more reassured if he had someone who could support him instead.”

Haru is disheartened by Koido’s admonishment.

Meanwhile, Misa had a smile on her face.

“I can support Rento-kun. After all, Rento-kun needs me—”

“To be frank, Yosaki senpai is the one who’s full of problems.”

“…Excuse me? What are you talking about?”

“Yosaki-senpai demands too much from others. It might be because you set the excellent Yosaki-senpai herself as the standard, but others are more mediocre than you think. The basics of communication involve empathizing with such people. Yosaki-senpai, you’re failing at this, which is why you don’t have close friends other than Senpai and Hinata-senpai.”

“Y-you, you’ve been talking nonsense since a while ago.”

“I’m saying it because it seems you wouldn’t understand otherwise. Also, Yosaki-senpai, you’re bad at being pampered. Honestly, considering this, I feel like Yosaki-senpai and Senpai are a particularly bad match.”

“What! …It’s true that I’m not good at relying on others. But… I’ve been trying to let myself be pampered by him lately. He spoils Haru unconditionally. Every time he does, he shows a lovely smile. So, I thought I had to be pampered too…”

“Being pampered isn’t something you force. It’s something that should come naturally, like leaning on someone. If you can’t do that, it ultimately means you don’t trust others’ capability, Yosaki-senpai. You can’t truly believe from the bottom of your heart that they will support you without faltering, that they can firmly hold you up. That’s why you end up being awkward at being pampered. For example, you might create a situation where the other person has to support you by hurting yourself. But you’re not the only one who gets hurt by doing that.”

Misa, having been thoroughly presented with sound arguments by Koido, bit her lip, unable to find any words to counter.

After finishing her remarks to the two, Koido let out a sigh and settled back deeply into the sofa.

“I’ve been observing the two of you from a distance since you started dating, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for you. You wanted a senpai who was floating on the water’s surface by scooping the water in front of you. By doing so, you create ripples, and without realizing it, senpai drifts further away.”

Koido uses such a sarcastic tone to convey that no one has really caught Rento.

“But I also do feel sympathy for you. After all, everyone, including Senpai, is immature. Maybe that’s what love is, but pushing your egos on each other is too much. Senpai was saying it’s for the two of you, but actually he was acting for himself.”

“Don’t talk about Ren like that!”

“I will say it—because that’s the truth. If he truly cared about you two, he would never have accepted such a relationship. He wouldn’t build a deep relationship with two people at the same time.”

“No… I hate that! I hate it when people speak ill of Ren, but I hate it even more when Koido-chan acts like she knows everything about Ren!”

“I actually do know him. I know about Senpai, and saying ‘No, I hate that’ won’t change anything. If you hate it that much, then please make an effort to know more about Senpai than I do… Do you two know? Senpai gets confessed to quite a lot.”