Chapter 279: Thank Goodness It Was Kasumigaoka
Chapter 279: Thank Goodness It Was Kasumigaoka
Hiratsuka-sensei left.
Because as a teacher, getting jealous competing with students just wasn’t cool at all.
Then, the trouble shifted to Himekoji.
When a teacher was present, this lot at least knew how to behave themselves.
But the moment the teacher was gone, the war among the girls escalated to white-hot intensity.
Soon enough, the flames spread to Himekoji.
“Onii-chan, you probably need to give me an explanation!”
Finally freed from the handcuffs, Akiko angrily pinched the soft flesh around Himekoji’s waist with her small hand.
“You weren’t faithful! How many girls did you attract while I was gone? Everyone who visited you in the hospital were girls? I’ve been protecting my purity for you all this time we were apart!”
“Faithful? Please talk properly… Also, your purity wasn’t for me, it’s for yourself! Finally, my purity is still just fine too!”
Communicating with his Imouto was truly difficult. Himekoji felt exhausted.
…
Everyone who visited Himekoji in the hospital were girls?
No, no!
“Um… Akiko-san, Hayato and I are guys, you know?”
Tobe raised his hand to complain about Akiko putting him and Yama into the female category.
Speaking carelessly? That’s a matter of principle! Even if she was Himekoji’s Imouto!
“Ah, Tobe-kun, and… me, I’m also a guy.”
Perhaps feeling shy about the whole gender thing, Totsuka spoke timidly while fiddling with his fingers.
“Oh, right, you are too.”
Tobe just casually nodded, acknowledging it.
At least that conversation was somewhat normal.
Elsewhere, however, Himekoji was hearing yet another one of those tired arguments that seemed endless.
“Alright then, thank you, Kasumigaoka, for specially taking time out of your busy schedule to visit our Himekoji. Now that you’ve seen him and delivered the fruit basket, it’s time to hurry off to your Book Signing Event in Kyoto. Don’t keep your readers waiting. Yes, exactly. Goodbye, Kasumigaoka Utaha… and good riddance!”
Hold on!
Weren’t you guys all united just a moment ago, ganging up on Yukinoshita?
See? That so-called alliance was way too fragile!
Crumbling apart in the blink of an eye?
The one who could drop the temperature of the room faster than a late autumn chill with those words was, naturally, none other than Eriri.
The girl sported her trademark Blonde Twin Tails, like a crafted accessory, making even her “tsundere” attitude seem deliberate.
“Oh? That tone of yours definitely sounds like you’re desperate to get rid of your rival. Don’t worry about my signing. With all that free time you have, you should worry more about yourself. Isn’t it almost the end of the month soon? Somebody might soon be crying tears and snot, begging on their knees for a deadline extension. So maybe it’s better to watch your words now.”
Kasumigaoka’s performance remained reliably stable.
Even though her expression and tone seemed lazy, her words packed a real punch.
“Aww, how unpleasant. Someone finally takes an interest in your work, yet you can’t graciously accept their kindness. They say all authors are paranoid, narrow-minded eccentrics, and it seems those rumors aren’t unfounded~”
“The illustrator who only escapes reality through anime and video games every single time a deadline looms dares to say that?”
“Seriously, you two! Stop performing this worn-out bickering routine anytime, anywhere! This is a Hospital Room!”
Himekoji couldn’t take it anymore and spoke up to stop them.
Only for—
“Shut up, you Pervert!”
“Shut up, you cheating scoundrel!”
Sure enough.
Whether it was fate or what, every single time Himekoji tried to stop a fight seemed to end like this.
…
While it seemed like they spoke in unison, the girls’ actual words had one key difference.
Eriri noticed it quickly too—
“Huh? Cheating scoundrel?”
That was a new vocabulary!
Was she showing off her light novelist word bank?
That wasn’t the point right now! Of course she knew what ‘cheating scoundrel’ meant!
Eriri felt a vein twitch and realized this word wasn’t simple.
“Hey! Did something happen behind my back?!”
“Things happening behind your back? There are many. No… rather, everything happened behind your back.”
This remark from Kasumigaoka stabbed Eriri right in the heart.
Moreover, to everyone else in the Hospital Room, it landed like a Bomb.
“Huh? Between Kasumigaoka Senpai and Himekoji, they two…”
“Hey! It’s not like that!”
Feeling everyone’s eyes in the room focused on him instantly, Himekoji hastily denied.
Things that happened behind Eriri’s back…
Well… spending a night in that Love Hotel, drinking milk tea at Kasumigaoka’s place, and watching a movie together with the tide rising and falling… and that’s it?
He really wanted to say “and that’s it” with a flat tone inside his head, but guilt washed over him instantly.
He hadn’t thought much of it before, but now it shocked him!
So… they had already done things on that level?
The other party had been acting like it was nothing, completely unconcerned, that’s why Himekoji could subconsciously ignore or conveniently forget all those events with an “easy conscience”.
He was terrible.
But he was also… glad.
Glad that the one involved wasn’t anyone else, but Kasumigaoka.
The Kasumigaoka who allowed him to do anything, and also allowed him to do nothing.
…
“No?” Kasumigaoka countered.
Even though Himekoji couldn’t see her, he could feel her gaze upon him.
To come all the way from Kyoto… just to see someone like him…
It wasn’t worth it.
“Was… was there?”
Too scared to answer, Himekoji felt disappointed in himself once again.
Kasumigaoka’s question felt like a hot potato; Himekoji just tossed it back.
Undoubtedly, that was the wrong choice.
But Himekoji didn’t have another option.
Because all the choices in his life… they were all wrong.
…
“In dreams and stories… there were.”
“Hey! Kasumigaoka!”
Hearing that, Eriri immediately realized she’d been tricked again.
She yelled out indignantly.
“Huh?”
The other listeners in the room seemed equally surprised.
Thoughts raced: this famous Senpai from school really was a strange person.
Was that a confession?
To the school’s other infamous Pervert?
It truly was bold.
…
Eriri’s reaction, as well as the reactions of everyone around, meant nothing to Kasumigaoka. She glanced at Himekoji, then slowly withdrew her gaze.
“It was a wonderful dream, and a wonderful story.”
“R-Really?”
Strangely, it felt like he was being saved.
Even though Himekoji knew Kasumigaoka was lying.
Lying for him.
They were both liars.
He knew that.
A Pervert’s story could only be terrible.
…
…