I Became Friends with the Second Cutest Girl in My Class

Nitta’s PoV

Last month, the night after the fireworks festival ended.

On our way home, the argument between me and Yuuchin began.

The one who started it was me.

Because I decided that I couldn’t watch it any longer.

*   *   *

“Yuuchin, you like Maehara, right?”

“…Huh? Maehara…? Did you mean Maki-kun?”

“Who else? What? Is it so surprising that I actually called him by his name?”

Well, I understood why she was so surprised. Among our group of five, I was the only one who referred to him as ‘Rep’ instead of ‘Maki-kun’ like the others.

…Wait, that wasn’t important right now!

“So? Do you like him? Or not?”

“…U-Um, Maki-kun, huh…? W-Well, of course I like him… But…”

“I’m not talking about you liking him as a friend, by the way.”

“…”

“Yuuchin, you can just be honest with me.”

“U-Um… Y-You know my answer already, no…?”

“I don’t, so tell me.”

“Ugg…”

She stared at me, as if grumbling, ‘Please just let it slide!’ Well, too bad for her, I couldn’t do that now.

I mean the people who were close to her were all worried about her as they knew that she had been acting strange.

That was why, I decided to clear this up, once and for all.

For both her sake, and the others’.

“…I-I like him as a friend…”

“Really?”

“R-Really!”

“…Hm…”

‘You liar’… I almost spouted out those words, but I managed to stop it at the last second and let out a small sigh instead.

From the way she was acting, it was obvious that it wasn’t the case, but she continued to deny it.

It seemed like she was completely unaware that I had been watching her closely. It wasn’t exactly something to brag about, but I was quite good at noticing when a love affair was about to develop.

No matter how much she tried to deny it, I already knew the gist of what was actually going on.

“Well, I understand your feeling, Yuuchin. Rep is…well, when you actually get to know him, he’s extremely easy to talk to, so you can joke around with him without him taking it to heart. He’s also just a kind and gentle guy, so…uh…how do I put this…? Hm… He’s like the ideal guy for your first love? Yeah, I guess that’s how I’d put it. Objectively speaking, of course.”

“I-I didn’t say anything about him being my first love…”

“So he IS your first love, I see, I see. I had my suspicions but that just cleared everything up.”

“I-I told you I’m not—”

“…Huh? Was I wrong? When I saw you staring at him for the whole fireworks show, I thought…”

“W-What?! Y-You noticed?! N-No, w-wait, I-I didn’t—!”

“Jeez, how could you fall for such an obvious bluff, Yuuchin? Also, do you want to see how your face looks in the mirror right now? I have one with me, tell me if you want to look at it~”

“…Ninacchi, you’re so mean…”

After saying that, she puffed her cheeks before turning her face away. Anyway, that just confirmed my guess, but… Would she be more cooperative with me now?

“Don’t worry, I won’t talk about this to anyone else. Not to him, not to Asanagi, not to anyone else.”

“…What about Seki kun?”

“Of course I won’t tell that idiot… Wait, don’t you normally call him ‘Nozomu-kun’, Yuuchin?”

“…Ninacchi, you dummy.”

That was the second time she complained at me today, nice. Well, I knew that I was being especially obnoxious today since I was doing it on purpose.

“So? Since when did you notice your feelings for him?”

“…Let’s not talk here, someone might hear us…”

“Jeez, you’re worrying too much, Yuuchin.”

I said that, but I knew that Asanagi, who wasn’t with us right now, had extremely sharp ears, so it would be best to be careful, just in case.

There was no way this conversation would be pleasant for her to hear anyway. I mean, we were talking about her best friend suddenly falling in love with her boyfriend here.

In all my life, I certainly wasn’t unfamiliar with people trying to take someone’s partner away, but in most cases those guys were only doing it so that they could show that they can do that. Yuuchin’s case was obviously different from those guys, as she genuinely felt troubled by her feelings.

That was why I needed to listen to what she had to say properly.

After walking for around ten minutes and making sure that there was no one around, Yuuchin finally confided in me what her current feelings were.

“…I think it all started during the class match. But, even before that, after our class’ change, when I didn’t know what to do since it was the first time I got into a different class than Umi, he was always there to help me out. And during the class match, he cheered on me the hardest, more than anyone else in our class…”

“Ah, right, he did that, huh? Well in his eyes, he’s just trying to cheer his girlfriend’s best friend though, so he probably didn’t think much about it.”

“Hehehe, right? But, his voice was the thing that gave me the courage I needed. And it also created an opportunity for me to make up with Nagisa-chan.”

I heard that things between her and Araecchi were quite tense after the class’ change, but now they had grown close enough to eat lunch together every day… Or no. It was more like that she clung to Araecchi so much that she just gave up trying to get rid of her. Well, since it was THE Arae Nagisa we were talking about, the fact that she didn’t make much fuss about it from the very start meant that she probably didn’t mind hanging out with her.

“But, that was just the beginning… After that… I think, probably after our karaoke party, I started to notice that my feelings towards Maki-kun changed. When I saw his sleeping face, at first I thought that it was cute, but…somehow, my heart started beating faster and faster…and…u-um…”

“You fell for him right there and then, huh?”

“…”

Yuuchin just nodded without a word.

Honestly, I just wanted to check if her feelings towards him were just a simple crush or not, but… This was more serious than I expected…

What happened back then was that she finally found out about that side of him, the side that had been carefully guarded by his overprotective ‘girlfriend’. Add that to everything that happened before it, it wasn’t a wonder that her feelings would bloom into something that was even more intense than a simple friendship.

For a girl like her especially—those who didn’t care about appearances—it wouldn’t be strange if that didn’t happen. Considering that the boys who had spoken to her only did so because she was pretty, Maehara seemed all the more appealing to her.

Anyway, this confirmed what I wanted to confirm.

Now, the only thing left to do was to find out how to deal with those feelings.

“So, what are you going to do now, Yuuchin? Or rather, what do you want to do?”

“…Why are you asking me that…? You already know the answer…”

“I want to hear the answer straight from you!”

I knew that she didn’t want to be in this situation either. Honestly, none of them had done anything wrong. Maehara was just cheering up a friend who seemed down, a perfectly normal and natural thing to do as a friend.

That was how our friendship of five worked.

This was just nothing more than an accident, the kind of accident that striked out of nowhere even though you had done your best to be careful.

But, even if it was an accident, now that it happened, something needed to be done.

“Yuuchin.”

“Yes?”

“Confess to him already. Tell him that you like him.”

“?!”

And so, I told her that; my honest feelings.

I’ve said it just now and I’d say it again. This was an accident, there was nothing that could be done about it. It was an unavoidable accident that just occurred when two people cared for each other.

Everyone knew that Yuuchin wasn’t the kind of person who’d try to steal someone else’s boyfriend, all four of us—Asanagi, Rep, me, and even that idiot Seki—and all the people who knew her; everyone knew that.

That was why I figured she should just come clean and confess. Tell him that she didn’t mean it to turn out this way and say that she came to fall in love with him.

If it was me who was in her position, it would most likely turn out differently, but since it was her, they’d definitely just let it slide.

Well, Rep might distance himself from her, but that should be way better than what was currently happening. It would be better for her to put an end to this first love of hers as soon as possible so that she could move on and fall in love with someone else.

“If you’re worried about Asanagi, don’t worry, I’ll be there for you. I’ll make it so that you and Rep can remain ‘friends’ even after you confess your feelings to him.”

“…Why…?”

“Hm?”

“Why are you so nice to me, Ninacchi…? We’ve only known each other for a year, why would you go so far for me…?”

“Well, I know that this is so out of character for me, but, you know…”

If it was me from the past, I’d never have done such a thing. Rather, I’d just leave everything to the ‘kind and capable’ people like Rep or Asanagi, though I’d still watch and support them from the sides.

But this time…

“Well, you’re an ‘important friend of mine’, aren’t you? It’s a matter of course that I’d help you out, especially in a time like this.”

Maybe, before I realized it, I was influenced by the others from our group of five.

I didn’t know that kindness was contagious.

“So? Have you made up your mind?”

“…Mm.”

The moment I saw Yuuchin nodding her head, relief washed my heart. If this situation continued, there was a good chance that our friendship would break apart, and I…would lose one of the few places that I felt comfortable in.

If possible, I, too, wanted our group of five—the place where I could just be myself without needing to care about anything else—could stay strong until our graduation.

…But, even such a small wish seemed to be difficult to attain.

“I’m sorry, Ninacchi, but I…am not going to tell him about my feelings. I’m the one who fell in love with him on my own, so I have to bear with this feeling on my own… I should be able to find a way to deal with it…”

“Wha—”

The moment I heard her say those words—though she averted her gaze from me, I could still hear the firmness in her voice—I just lost it.

It was the first time in a long time that I had truly lost it. I knew this wasn’t a good response in this situation, but I couldn’t help it.

Though I had grown up to be a high school student now, I once again realized that…deep inside, I was still a sh*tty brat.

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