I climbed up to the rooftop penthouse to find Kanade Tanaka, the otaku with the red-rimmed glasses. I sat down next to her and we both gazed up at the sky.
"It’s cloudy today, isn’t it, Ryouta-kun?"
"Yeah. From the look of it, it’ll probably rain this afternoon."
"I suppose so."
It was only seven-thirty.
With an hour left until morning homeroom, I felt like I could just sit here and relax with Tanaka—wait!
"That’s not it!!"
"Eek! Why the sudden shouting? Are you having some kind of emotional breakdown?"
"That’s not it either! I didn't come here to chat like we’re some old married couple!"
"A-An old married couple? Getting married to a gloomy otaku like you... Yeah, no. That’d be rough."
"You’re a gloomy otaku too!"
Tanaka stuck her tongue out at me.
In truth, she was even more of a gloomy otaku than I was. The fact that she went out of her way to spend her mornings on the roof just to avoid being in the classroom meant she was arguably at the top of the gloomy caste.
"Anyway, enough with the jokes. What do you actually want?"
Tanaka was so easy to talk to that I’d accidentally let my guard down. It was time to get down to business.
"Well, the thing is..."
"?"
Tanaka tilted her head, brushing her bangs aside.
"I need you to know that everything I'm about to tell you is the absolute truth."
"My, you’re certainly being dramatic."
I wasn't trying to be dramatic. It was just that I didn't think there was any way she’d believe I had gotten close to the entire Beautiful Girl Trio in a single week. I had to emphasize the point.
"You know that group of girls in my class? Ichinose, Miyama, and Kuroki? They were in your class last year."
"Ah, the Beautiful Girl Trio. They live in a world that has nothing to do with me. Now that you mention it, are you in the same class as them this year, Ryouta-kun?"
"Y-Yeah, I am."
"Heh. But a gloomy otaku like you and girls like them would never cross paths, right? Did they say something mean to you?"
That was the natural assumption to make. But she was wrong.
"Actually... I kind of became friends with them."
"............Huh?"
Her reaction was exactly what I had expected. She took off her red-rimmed glasses, rubbed them vigorously against her uniform, and then slid them back onto her face.
"With the Beautiful Girl Trio? Friends? You, Ryouta-kun?"
"Yeah. I don't blame you for not believing me. It started because I was surrounded by them after a seat change, and after a lot of stuff happened, we just... became friends."
"He-Heh?"
Tanaka’s mouth moved as if she had just tasted something bizarre. She looked at me with utter confusion.
"Um, I hope you don't mind me asking, but have your delusions been getting worse lately, Ryouta-kun?"
"I knew you wouldn't believe me!"
"How could I? What on earth would lead to a gloomy otaku like you—someone destined for the lifetime virgin course and a career as a NEET wizard—becoming friends with girls that glamorous?"
This girl’s opinion of me was subterranean. A total stranger would probably have more respect for me.
"W-Wait! Are they threatening you, Ryouta-kun? Are they making you buy them things, or stealing your stuff, or sending you... weird pictures!?"
She seemed convinced that our "friendship" was actually some kind of extortion scheme. Although, thinking about it... Miyama had made me buy her cutlet curry, I’d won a UFO Catcher prize for Ichinose, and Kuroki had definitely sent me some weird pictures.
"Anyway! I can't go into all the details, but it's true that we’ve become friends. Just trust me on this, for the sake of our friendship!"
"Our... friendship... Fine. I'll believe you for now. Go on."
Tanaka gave a small, skeptical nod. She was the one who kept sidetracking the conversation in the first place.
"So, Kuroki from that group went to our middle school, right? It seems like every single boy in our grade back then confessed to her."
"Ah, that story? I remember there was a bit of a rumor back then that Ryouta-kun was the only boy who didn't confess."
"A rumor!?"
That was the first I’d heard of it.
"How did anyone even know I was the only one who didn't? Did someone go around asking every single boy in the grade if they’d confessed to Kuroki?"
"You wouldn't know, since you’re a boy."
"Know what?"
"The truth is, there was a 'certain' rule among the girls in middle school."
"A rule?"
"Among the girls in the same year as Rui Kuroki, there was something called the List of Boys Who Confessed to Rui Kuroki."
A list of boys who confessed to her...
Could that be related to "that day" Kuroki had mentioned?