Chapter 15: Beautiful Girl, Spending Her After School

It was the second day of high school, during after-school hours.

Right now, I was standing in the mobile phone corner of a big electronics store, with Sakurako-chan, Moeka-chan, and Ryoji.

Why was I here? To answer that, I need to rewind a little—back to when the committee assignments had been announced earlier today.
A lot had happened even after homeroom ended.

Once the committee assignments were done, I had collapsed onto my desk, completely drained. That was supposed to be the last event of the day, meaning it was time to go home.

“Hey, hey, Ayumi-chan! Tell me your email address!”

Moeka-chan had appeared, phone in hand. It didn’t have number keys—so that must be a smartphone!

I didn’t really understand the classification system, though. Since I didn’t own a phone, I couldn’t tell what made one “smart.”
From what I’d seen, if it had no buttons it was a smartphone, and if it did, it was just a cellphone…? But wait, aren’t smartphones also cellphones?

“I don’t actually have a phone,” I said.

“What!? Really!? Why not!?”

“Uh… well, why…?”

I couldn’t exactly explain, “Because I basically hung out only with Ryoji in middle school and was kind of a loner, so I never needed one.”

While I fumbled for an answer, Sakurako-chan jumped in.

“Maybe Ayumi-chan’s parents were worried she’d get caught up in some scam or phishing thing, since she can be kind of oblivious… or a little airheaded sometimes.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Moeka-chan nodded, apparently satisfied.

It saved me from further questioning, but honestly, it didn’t sit right. I’m not airheaded! And sure, maybe I don’t always notice what’s going on around me, but still…

“But, you know, in middle school there were still a few people without phones. High school’s different—everyone has one. It’s super inconvenient not to! Especially now that you’re on the sports festival committee. You’ll be staying late sometimes, right? It’d be better if we could reach you.”

“R-right…”

She had a point. Being on a committee meant there would definitely be times I’d stay late.
Ryoji usually gave me a ride to the station on his bike, but if our schedules didn’t match, I’d have to take the bus—or walk home alone.
Having a way to contact people probably wouldn’t hurt.

“You’re so cute, Ayumi-chan—if you walk alone at night, you might get snatched up in no time!”

“Hahaha, no way.”

I didn’t think the neighborhood was that dangerous, but… given my appearance now, I probably couldn’t run fast, and I definitely didn’t have any strength. It was kind of worrying.

“Yeah, it’s not just for safety. I also wanna text you after we get home!”

“Yeah, exactly! Ayumi-chan, there’s this new app called ‘MINE’ that everyone’s using—it’s free and lets you call people!”

“Oh, wow. I don’t really get it, but it sounds cool.”

I didn’t even know what an “app” was, but I nodded along.
Still, if everyone else was using these apps to chat and hang out, and I was the only one left out… that didn’t sound good.
It felt like the start of a “loner flag.” Yeah, I definitely wanted a phone now!

“I guess when everyone has one, it really makes you want one too.”

“Right!? Then let’s go check them out after this!”

“Eh, right now!?”

Wait—was this what people called an after-school hangout? I’d always kind of admired that!

“Ah, but I’ve got something to do first… Can we go after that?”

I remembered the letters I’d tucked away in my bag. I’d read them in the bathroom this morning, before the teacher came in.

All three said basically the same thing: ‘Love at first sight!’
Well, of course. It had only been two days since school started, and I didn’t even know what any of them looked like.

Two of them added something like, ‘If your answer’s yes, please contact me,’ followed by an email address.
Naturally, my answer wasn’t “yes,” so I could probably ignore them. Besides, even if I wanted to reply, I didn’t have any way to send an email anyway.

More importantly, the idea of someone wanting to start dating without even meeting first didn’t sit right with me.
Come on, if you’re a guy, have a little more guts! I thought, even though I wasn’t exactly one to talk.

The third letter, however, said, ‘I’ll be waiting after school today.’
I wondered what he’d do if I hadn’t read it. But since I had, I couldn’t just ignore it—it would feel too cruel.

Now that it was already after school, I was probably keeping him waiting.

“Could it be… that you’re going to reply to one of those letters from this morning?”

Sakurako-chan caught on immediately.

“Yeah.”

“You’re so proper. But if you keep replying to every single one, pretty soon guys will start asking to ‘just talk alone for a bit’ as an excuse to meet you.”

“No way,” I said with a laugh. No one would go that far just to talk to me.

Sakurako-chan and Moeka-chan exchanged a look and sighed.
Had I said something wrong again without realizing it…?

It was the first time anyone had confessed to me face-to-face.

The message was simple: “It was love at first sight! Please go out with me!”—basically the same as what had been written in the letter.

The one confessing was a boy from Class B—the class next to ours.

Confessions are intense. It must take a lot of courage to say something like that, but being on the receiving end is nerve-wracking too.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought I might faint.

And even though I’d never met or seen him before, for some reason, I felt a little happy. Maybe even… drawn to him, just a bit.
So this was the power of face-to-face contact, huh?
Well, it’s only natural to feel flattered when someone likes you.

Unfortunately, I was still a guy on the inside—so there was no way I could meet his expectations.

“I-I’m sorry. I’m not planning on dating anyone.”

When I said that, his face fell.

Ugh, the guilt hit me hard. But giving false hope would only make things worse.
With all my… complications, dating just wasn’t possible.

“T-then… how about being friends!?”

He pressed on.

Friends, huh?
Part of me thought that would be fine, but we were in different classes—we probably wouldn’t even see each other. Was that still “friends”?
What is the definition of friendship, anyway?

Wait, did I even ask Sakurako-chan or Moeka-chan for “permission” to be friends?

After overthinking it to death, the only thing that came out of my mouth was:

“Um… I don’t think that’d be a good idea either.”

Looking back now, I have no idea why those words even came out of my mouth.

But the moment I saw his face, I knew I’d made a mistake.

Thinking about it later… yeah. Refusing even to be friends was probably a bit harsh.

“G-got it! Then next time we meet, I’ll make sure I’ve worked hard enough that we can at least be friends! See you!”

He blurted it out quickly, then spun on his heel and ran off at full speed.

Tough guy… I mean, I did just turn him down, but still—running off without sulking like that was kind of cool.

“How did it go?”

Sakurako-chan and the others were waiting by the school gate.

“Yeah, I managed to turn him down, but… I kinda feel bad about it.”

“I don’t think you need to worry that much,” Moeka-chan said, gently patting my head. “It’s not like it was someone you’d been close with, right? You didn’t even know him.”

Her hand was warm, and the way she patted me felt really nice. Especially when my head felt cloudy like today—it was comforting.

“…So, uh, why is Ryoji here?”

“Something wrong with that?”

“Well, not really, but you didn’t have to wait for me. You could’ve gone home first.”

Ryoji looked a little grumpy. I couldn’t really blame him—I hadn’t told him anything and had made him wait for no reason.

“Sorry for keeping you. We were about to go look at phones—want to come?”

“Hmm… I waited this long, so yeah, I’ll tag along.”

And just like that, the four of us headed to the electronics store.

The mobile phone section was almost completely filled with smartphones now.

There were so many different kinds that I couldn’t tell what made any of them different.

We weren’t actually planning to buy anything today—just to look around and get an idea of what models were available before I decided later.

High schoolers like me couldn’t sign a contract on our own anyway. Without a parent present—or a consent form—it wasn’t possible. So, yeah, actually buying one today was out of the question.

Still, playing around with the demo phones while everyone showed me things was surprisingly fun.

“How do you turn this on?” I asked.

“Here—press the button on the side,” Moeka-chan said, demonstrating.

The screen lit up in vibrant colors.

“Wow… it’s so pretty. Technology’s amazing.”

I picked up another device nearby and pressed the same button. Huh? Nothing happened.

“Ayumi-chan, that one’s just a dummy model—it doesn’t actually turn on,” she said with a smile.

“Wha—!”

“Adorable…”

Ah… I’d walked right into that one. So embarrassing.

“How about this one?”

Ryoji pointed to a phone.

It had a sleek black body and sharp edges—definitely a cool-looking smartphone.

“It’s dust- and water-resistant, and it’s got high specs, so you won’t have any trouble with it.”

Even after he said that, I still didn’t really get it. “High specs” sounded impressive, but since I couldn’t imagine using it for anything besides calls and texts, it didn’t mean much to me.

Still, since Ryoji recommended it, it was probably a good one. I picked it up.

Whoa, big. It felt almost too large for my hands to hold properly.

“I don’t think I could even carry something this big.”

“Hm, yeah, five inches might be a bit much for Ayumi-chan. Even Moeka couldn’t handle that size, right?”

“Yeah, I think so. If it’s too big, it’s hard to use. Ayumi-chan, I think this one would suit you better.”

The smartphone Moeka-chan pointed at was rounded and designed around a pink color scheme. It was smaller—something even I could probably hold comfortably.

“Does this only come in pink? It might be a bit too cute for me.”

“What!? Ayumi-chan, Ayumi-chan! You’re this cute yourself, but you don’t want your phone to be cute!?”

“Wait, what do you mean ‘myself’? Is the phone supposed to be my other half or something?”

“Well, it’s full of your personal info, so calling it your second self isn’t that far off,” she said with a grin.

Ugh… now I just felt like I was going to drop it.

Still, aside from the color, Moeka-chan’s suggestion seemed like the best option. The color variations were apparently white and pink—clearly targeted at girls.
Well, white wasn’t bad. Guys or girls could use that without it looking strange.

I pressed the power button. Huh? No buttons on the front. How are you supposed to use this thing?

“You use your fingers on the screen to control it,” Sakurako-chan explained with a small laugh.

I tried sliding my finger like she said—and it moved!

“Whoa, it worked! It moved!”

I couldn’t help but smile and started fiddling with all sorts of things.

“Moeka, Ryoji—this girl is dangerously cute right now,” Sakurako-chan said, reaching out to pat my head.

I wasn’t sure why she was petting me again, but… it felt nice, so I let her.
Besides, the shiny toy in my hands was way more interesting at the moment.

“Ahh, seriously, she’s so cute it makes me wanna mess with her,” Ryoji muttered.

“Hey, don’t say that! Coming from you, it sounds like a crime!” Moeka-chan shot back.

Ryoji was generally handsome and composed, but sometimes he’d do the weirdest things. And unfortunately, his weird moments almost always involved me.

“I’m the picture of a gentleman, thank you very much.”

“A ‘gentleman’ doesn’t peek at a girl’s panties while groveling on the floor,” Moeka retorted.

Exactly! I still hadn’t forgiven him for that one.

“Come on, it was a rare opportunity! Who wouldn’t look?” Ryoji said matter-of-factly.

“Ah… fair point,” Moeka nodded.

“Wait—no, don’t agree with him, Moeka-chan! That’s not something you should just accept!”

Honestly, the two of them were starting to sound just like the student council president…

“Anyway, let’s ignore those two. Ayumi-chan, are you gonna go with that phone?” Sakurako-chan asked, bringing the topic back.

“Yeah, I think this one’s easiest to use,” I replied.

It was smaller and fit perfectly in my hand compared to the others. Definitely Moeka-chan’s good eye at work.

“I see. Then you’ll just have to convince your mom!”

“Ugh… Mom, huh…”

“Wait—‘Mom’? You call her Mommy!?” Sakurako-chan blurted out in shock.

Oh no. I usually said ‘Mom’ when talking outside, but I accidentally used ‘Mama’!
At home, if I didn’t call her that, she’d glare at me—so I just did it out of habit!

“N-no, it’s just—she gets mad if I don’t say it that way in front of her!” I explained in a panic.

But my excuse didn’t save me.

“No no, ‘Mama’ totally fits you better, Ayumi-chan! It’s adorable! Your mom clearly has great taste!” Moeka-chan beamed.

Aah, why does it always turn into this!?

“But convincing Mama might be tough, right? Smartphones are expensive,” Sakurako-chan added teasingly.

“Could you not emphasize ‘Mama,’ please?” I groaned.

And with that, we wrapped things up for the day.

Everyone said they wanted to email or message me, and honestly, I wanted to try it too.
Still, smartphones were really expensive…
How was I going to convince Mom—no, Mama—to let me get one?