Chapter 380: On-Screen Couple

If the person he liked was Nanami…

Then what was that feeling in his chest when facing Mashiro?

There were only two possibilities.

Either he greedily liked both at the same time.

Or that flutter was just an illusion.

He was simply taking care of Mashiro like a pet girl, feeling like he had to look after her properly. He was drowning in his own self-satisfied kindness.

Being a pervert, he hadn’t had many chances to show kindness to others before meeting Mashiro.

Only Mashiro saw past his pervertedness.

She treated him like an ordinary person.

Because both of them were extraordinary.

But if this was really the case…

Then did he merely see Mashiro as a cuter version of “Hikari”?

Was he just using Mashiro?

And to make using her easier, he even fooled himself into feeling that heartbeat?

“No…”

Neither answer was acceptable to Himekoji.

But there was no third option.

The moment he realized this, all strength left his body. He didn’t need a mirror to know his face had turned pale. He didn’t need to touch it to know it was cold.

“So that’s what it was…”

Feeling low, the gloomy words slipped out.

“Akito?”

Mashiro, done with her Baumkuchen, was staring straight at Himekoji.

But her voice sounded so far away.

Like a transparent wall stood between them, with Mashiro on the other side.

……

A greedy person liking several people at once is commonly called scum.

And treating a living girl like a pet to satisfy one’s own excessive, unexpressed kindness? That probably isn’t any better than scum, right?

So, even with the “pervert” option gone, it seems he wasn’t a good person from the start…

The moment he reached this conclusion, despair, like falling into a giant pit, washed over him.

The self-made persona seemed to crumble right then.

Himekoji stood frozen, his hands and feet ice cold.

“Akito is strange.”

Mashiro’s seemingly cheerful voice couldn’t reach Himekoji’s ears anymore.

……

From that day on, he couldn’t face Mashiro normally.

Meeting in the living room in the morning.

“Akito, good morning.”

“Y-Yeah…”

He pretended to pour milk into a cup, avoiding her gaze.

She handed him the prepared Bento before leaving.

“Want to eat lunch together?”

Mashiro voiced her wish.

“Ah, um, I have something to do at lunch break.”

He smiled unnaturally, telling an awkward lie.

When Mashiro came to his room at night, he’d say things like “I’m going to take a bath first,” or “gotta use the restroom,” or “going to grab a late-night snack.”

To shorten their time alone, he unilaterally kept making excuses.

Though at the time, he only thought about getting away with it, looking back, he felt his behavior was cold and not okay.

Mashiro clearly sensed this subtle change.

He remembered when the “trial period” just started—Mashiro, who wasn’t good at expressing feelings, seemed fresh and joyful every day. She made everything seem fun, even sometimes standing on tiptoes while walking.

Now, that was gone.

Replaced again by that original expressionless face.

Silently, she complained and protested against the distance Himekoji kept.

“Sigh…”

This couldn’t be what they meant by “trying,” right?

In the end, maybe neither could learn anything from it.

“Hime-hime-kun?”

“Huh? Oh?”

“We’re live right now.”

Kasumigaoka gently bumped Himekoji’s leg under the table with her calf. He snapped back to reality.

“Ah! S-Sorry!”

He’d spaced out during a live stream…

Pushing down the messy thoughts about Mashiro, Himekoji gave apologetic looks to his co-host Kasumi Utako and the viewers watching the stream.

“My apologies. Shall we… continue?”

They were hosting a light novel review live program, held every quarter by their publisher.

Last time, the guest reviewer was an industry senior, and the work reviewed was Kasumigaoka’s Love Metronome. This time, it was Kasumigaoka and him as co-hosts, reviewing new works by rookie authors.

“Pfft. Were you up late writing last night? Didn’t get enough rest? That’s not good. Novel deadlines can wait, health comes first.”

Kasumigaoka kindly gave him an easy way out.

“Ah, right. I’ll be careful.”

Himekoji took her cue, hoping to move on.

But the Danmaku wasn’t having it.

Instantly, half the screen filled up with “???”

“Take an IV drip and KEEP WRITING!”

“Where’s Vol. 3 of Ore no Imōto? Slacking off, Teacher Luqiu! Where’s the old you?”

“Mystery SOLVED! Now we know why Ore no Imōto Vol.3 is delayed! Teacher Luqiu picked up Kasumi the Slacker’s bad habits!”

“Kasumi Utako Sensei, is this the reason you always put off submitting your work?”

The live-stream room was full of interactive readers; a wave of danmaku popping up all at once startled Himekoji.

Sure, besides pushing him to submit, some viewers had different things on their minds.

“Wow, Kasumi Utako Sensei is so thoughtful!”

“But the author sitting next to her is a pervert, you know! You don’t need to be so nice to him, Ms. Kasumi!”

“Didn’t you hear what Ms. Kasumi called Teacher Lu before? Ji! Ji! Kun! They get along great—same job, same publisher, even the same age! They seem really good together, in talent and looks!”

That simple danmaku was actually spotted by both Himekoji and Kasumigaoka simultaneously.

Himekoji peeked at Kasumigaoka beside him and felt a bit guilty for some reason.

Kasumigaoka didn’t overthink it; she acted cheerful and quickly made that “smart and sensible” viewer a moderator.

…

“Shall we move on to the next work to review? Oh, the next one is one of my favorites—’The World Silenced’!”

Before the show, both had carefully read all the contest entries long ago, so Kasumigaoka’s comment was no mere empty praise.

“Hmm, I remember this work very well too. It placed second overall among the contest entries, didn’t it? I think it won a silver award.”

Himekoji chimed in.

“It definitely deserved that prize.”

They spoke like they had been partners for years, smoothly talking back and forth with the right timing.

“The story shows a world cursed to lose speech and writing, where people couldn’t talk or connect at all.”

“Right, when I first started reading, I was curious how such a background could be made fun with good content.”

Himekoji stroked his chin and began recalling the novel’s opening.

Kasumigaoka nodded in agreement:

“I felt the same, but as I kept reading, the author’s warm, romantic, plain yet simple love story touched me.”

“Feelings that come through without speech or writing… it was truly amazing…”

That thought from Himekoji came from his heart.

Maybe that was the charm of that piece.

After that, Himekoji waited for Kasumigaoka to take her turn speaking.

Since the detailed reviews during the show were usually her job.

But she didn’t start right away.

Himekoji was puzzled and turned to his partner in surprise, so their stares met suddenly in front of the camera.

For a split second, time seemed frozen…

Then Himekoji caught on to something and blushed bright red, hurriedly turning his face away to look elsewhere.

It was only a few seconds of camera time, so it shouldn’t have been a big deal, but somehow that shot worked too well, and the danmaku started teasing all over again—

“Haha! Look, look, Teacher Luqiu got shy!”

“Did you get a screenshot?”

“Is Ms. Kasumi being sneaky? Was she teasing Teacher Lu?”

“Pfft! Think about it… feelings shared without words, just a look to get the idea—haha!”

“Exactly! ‘I like you’ needs no words; one look says it all—Ms. Kasumi is amazing!”

“Suddenly, I kind of want to support this couple—why?”

“A Fujisawa couple? Wouldn’t the Fujisawa editors bring out the torches?”

“I want to bring a torch too, okay!”

“Aaah! \&$\$&\…”

Akiko, who was by her computer watching the stream for some reason, gritted her teeth, slammed her keyboard, and typed out a mess of random letters.

…