"Just between us—there was actually a movement among the girls to compile a 'List of Boys Who Confessed to Rui Kuroki.'"
"Wh-what the heck is that...?"
"Back in junior high, since every boy in our year was head over heels for Kuroki-san, it apparently caused a lot of headaches for the other girls. The way every single one of them fell for her... it was frankly abnormal."
"That's... true, I guess..."
Even from my perspective as a guy, I understood just how bizarre that situation had been.
"What do you mean by 'headaches'?"
"Well, if Kuroki-san is that popular, it means that for the other girls, the boys they're interested in won't even spare them a glance, right?"
"I mean, yeah?"
"So, to find out if the boy they liked had already been rejected by Kuroki-san, the girls would apparently report information they saw or heard to a LIME group to turn it into a list. It seems the girls generally checked that list before making a move on the guy they were after."
"Are... are you serious...!"
I couldn't hide my shock. It was a scandalous revelation, far beyond anything I expected junior high students to be capable of.
(Girls actually do that!? Th-that's terrifying...)
However, Rui Kuroki herself was such a rare, irregular existence that perhaps the other girls felt they had to use their heads like that just to survive.
"Well... as a loner myself, I only happened to hear rumors about the list during P.E. class. I just happened to catch wind of the rumor that Ryouta-kun was the only one who hadn't confessed. But since Ryouta-kun was such a gloomy otaku, nobody was interested in that rumor, and it faded away pretty quickly."
"Guh."
It stung my pride as a man, but I couldn't deny it.
To begin with, my time in junior high was my Dark Era—the absolute peak of my cringeworthy adolescent otaku phase.
I had plenty of "black history," like the time I wrote a ten-thousand-character fan letter to an author detailing my love for a character with massive breasts, a big butt, and thick thighs. I even used to greet my figures every morning and say "goodnight" to them before going to sleep.
(Well, you could also say it was an era where I was so obsessed with the 2D world that I had zero interest in 3D women.)
"Wait, if you only heard about it through rumors, does that mean you never saw the confession list yourself, Tanaka?"
"Eh? M-me?"
"Even if you were a gloomy otaku, you were in the middle of puberty back then, right? Surely you had a crush on a guy or two. Didn't you want to know what was going on with them?"
"N-no... I... well..."
Tanaka took off her glasses and stared intently at me while wiping them again.
She had always had a habit of wiping her glasses whenever she was surprised or flustered. It looked like she was hiding something from me.
(What's this? Was Tanaka actually some shoujo manga heroine? Like, she was only pretending to be an otaku while secretly pining for some handsome guy in class—?)
"I... in the first place, I didn't need to ask. Or rather... I already knew, even without asking."
"Huh?"
"I mean—well—that's right! I-I'm devoted to my oshi! In the past, it was characters from otome games, but now I support VTubers! Of course, Ryouta-kun is the same way, right!?"
"O-oh. Yeah, that's right."
I see, so Tanaka has always been a 2D fan too.
Come to think of it, this might be the first time I've ever had a conversation about romance with her. It was news to me.
(I thought she might have liked one of the extroverted guys in class... but I guess once you've looked at 2D handsome guys, you can't go back to 3D men.)
"I guess both you and I haven't changed, huh?"
"..."
"Hm? Tanaka?"
"...Hmph."
"Wh-what's with the puffed-out cheeks? Did I say something to make you mad?"
"It's nothing. More importantly, getting back to the topic, didn't you have something you wanted to ask me about Kuroki-san?"
"Crap, that's right."
Now wasn't the time for nostalgia.
I had to ask Tanaka if she had any idea what "That Day" Kuroki mentioned actually referred to.
"Actually, it seems Kuroki has had her eye on me for a long time because I never confessed to her back in junior high."
"She's had her eye on you because you didn't confess? Eh, what does that mean?"
"Kuroki is such a perfectionist that she didn't like the fact that I was the only one who never approached her. And when she talked to me about it, she said 'ever since that day.' I'm really curious what 'That Day' is... Do you have any idea?"
"How should I know! In the first place, the only connection I had with Kuroki-san was seeing our names next to each other in first and second place on the rankings board, or passing each other when she gave the Student Council President's speech back when I was a broadcasting committee member!"
Wait? It turned out Tanaka had more points of contact with Kuroki than I did.
I had never spoken to her once, and we hadn't even brushed past each other.
"In other words, are you that curious about 'That Day' when Ryouta-kun had some kind of contact with Kuroki-san?"
"Yeah. It feels creepy that she knows about it but I'm the only one who doesn't."
"I understand the feeling. But is there anything Ryouta-kun did that would involve her? Like helping her when she was being bothered by delinquents, or saving her from a groper?"
"What is that, some kind of light novel protagonist backstory?"
"You, who are surrounded by the Beautiful Girl Trio, have plenty of potential to be a light novel protagonist!?"
Tanaka retorted with unusual intensity.
"Let me tell you, there shouldn't have been a single event in junior high that would have given Kuroki any rom-com vibes. In the first place, I've never saved a beautiful girl in my life."
"I thought so... Ryouta-kun saving Kuroki-san is just... hm?"
"What is it, Tanaka?"
"Oh, no... I feel like I'm about to remember something. That was, surely... yes..."
Tanaka began to mumble to herself as she tried to recall something.
Did she know something?
I had absolutely no clue, but...
"Ryouta-kun. I might have one lead."
"Huh? Seriously?"
"I remembered! A connection between you and Kuroki-san that you're absolutely unaware of!"