It was the morning after the casting for the play had been decided.
I woke up early as usual, and after finishing my daily logins for my social games, I prepared to drag myself out of bed... or at least, I tried to.
"Ugh... I really don't want to go to school!"
After a night's sleep, I’d had time to think about it calmly, and the conclusion remained the same: the last thing I wanted to do was play Snow White.
It was a bit late for regrets, but I found myself wishing I’d stood up to the extroverts back then. Then again, if I’d rebelled at that moment—especially with those rumors about Miyama floating around—I probably would have been completely ostracized by the class.
(In the worst-case scenario, it might have even escalated to bullying... Sigh.)
The more I dwelled on it, the more listless I felt.
I hated the thought of my cross-dressing becoming a legendary story at a future high school reunion, but taking the role had been a necessary move to protect my current peace.
Yes, it couldn't be helped... but then came the finishing blow: the announcement of the Double Cast for the Prince Role.
That was the real root of my anxiety.
Yuria and Kuroki playing the Prince... no matter how I looked at it, I had nothing but a bad feeling about this.
After all, playing Snow White meant I’d have to perform a kiss scene with those two.
"Hey, Ryouta! If you don't get down here soon, Ryouta's Father says he's going to eat your breakfast!"
"What?! That shitty old man!"
I vaulted out of bed and sprinted straight for the living room.
In the end, skipping school wasn't an option. I smoothed down my bedhead and stepped into my leather shoes at the entrance.
When you're a Loner, missing even a single day of school leads to one of two outcomes: you either stand out for the wrong reasons or everyone forgets you exist entirely. I couldn't afford to just take a day off.
Snow White will just have to be what it is... Miyama said she was going to give it her all as a Dwarf (the busty kind), so I have to work hard too.
"I'm heading out... Huh?"
As I stepped outside, I rubbed my sleepy eyes.
I caught a glimpse of black hair near the front gate.
Someone was leaning against the wall right by our nameplate, clearly waiting for someone.
"Hehe... Good morning, Ryouta-kun."
The person waiting by the gate was none other than Rui Kuroki.
She looked different today. Instead of the navy blue winter uniform she’d been wearing until yesterday, she was dressed in a crisp, white, short-sleeved summer sailor uniform. It was a refreshing change.
"W-Why are you here, Kuroki?"
"Oh my. I had no idea Ryouta-kun lived here. What a complete coincidence."
I’ll say it again: you really need to look up the definition of the word "coincidence" in a dictionary.
"You definitely knew this was my house. Alright, who told you?"
"I didn't hear it from anyone. It was just that there were only two nameplates with the surname Izumiya in this area. One belonged to an elderly couple, so through the process of elimination, I realized this had to be Ryouta-kun's house."
Rui Kuroki prattled off her "brilliant deduction," essentially admitting that her previous comment about it being a coincidence was a total lie.
This girl... I seriously have no idea what's going on in her head! Why did she go through the trouble of tracking down my house?!
"Wait, Ryouta! That's... R-R-Rui Kuroki! Why is she standing in front of our house!?"
As we stood there talking, my sister came out behind me. The moment she saw Kuroki, she was so shocked she literally fell on her butt.
It was a total overreaction, like she’d just seen a monster or something.
Then again, Rui Kuroki was famous even among people older than us...
"Oh, are you Ryouta-kun's older sister?"
"Y-Yeah."
When I confirmed it, Kuroki immediately stepped toward my sister and gave a textbook-perfect, elegant bow.
"It is a pleasure to meet you. My name is Rui Kuroki, a classmate of Ryouta-kun. We are currently involved with each other as very precious friends."
"I-Involved!? H-Heh, not bad, Ryouta. Though you probably haven't 'done it' yet."
Tossing out an entirely unnecessary dirty joke, my sister scrambled up and started jogging toward the gate.
"I-I've got a super handsome boyfriend at university too, you know! And we're doing it every single day! So don't think you've won just because of this, Ryouta! You big dummy!"
My twenty-one-year-old sister, who possessed the mental age of a six-year-old, shouted her parting insults and fled toward her university as if she were escaping a crime scene.
"Hehe, it seems your sister got the wrong idea."
"And whose fault do you think that is!?"
That was easily my best retort of the day.