“Yūki—Lunch—Rooftop—!”
I turned around to see my childhood friend, Kosaka Yuzuki, waving her lunch bag at me with a carefree smile.
My childhood friend, Kosaka Yuzuki, is popular.
The reason is simple: she's beautiful.
Her well-proportioned features and bobbed, chestnut-brown hair catch everyone's eye.
People say 10 out of 10 who see her at first glance are drawn to her.
Nearly every day, she's confessed to by some boy.
But so far, every single one of them has been rejected.
That's why her nickname is “The Rejection Queen.”
She's one of the three most unattainable girls at Sakuraaya High School.
“I heard you got confessed to again?”
“Huh? Oh… Did Ririka tell you?”
“Yeah. She was talking about it in high spirits.”
“I turned him down, though.”
“…I heard that too.”
Apparently, today it was the school council president and soccer team captain, the perfect Nakagawa-kun, who confessed to her.
He’s got a great personality, excels in academics, is athletic, and is ridiculously good-looking—a flawless guy.
And even his confession got shot down.
Casually and without a hint of hesitation.
“So, Yuzuki, do you have someone you like or what?”
I asked as we ate lunch together on the rooftop, as usual.
“Zuuuurrrrp.”
Don’t answer me while slurping coffee milk from a paper carton.
Noticing my pointed look, Yuzuki pulled the straw out of her mouth and rephrased.
“Why?”
“People think I’m the one. Since I’m your childhood friend and we’re always together.”
This has been said since middle school.
Well, we do eat lunch together at school, walk home together, and sometimes stop by the supermarket to buy groceries, cook, and eat dinner together.
Even on weekends, we hang out like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
And Yuzuki doesn’t hide this from anyone at school.
“Huh? Karaoke later? Sorry, I’ve got plans with Yūki to go to the supermarket and have dinner together.”
She says stuff like that without a second thought.
So, yeah… I understand why people might suspect us.
“Haha, that’s hilarious.”
“It’s not funny.”
I sighed internally.
The glares from the guys at school are no joke.
They’re terrifying enough to make me want to wet myself.
Just the other day, someone put a creepy note in my shoe locker:
“I won’t forgive you. Prepare for punishment.”
Yuzuki laughed herself silly when she saw it.
“It’s not my fault. I just don’t get love or liking someone.”
“Yeah, I figured.”
I’d always suspected as much about her.
Does she even care about things like love or having someone she likes?
Or… does she actually have someone she likes and just hasn’t realized it, ignoring all other guys in the process?
“So, Yūki, do you have someone you like?”
Yuzuki asked teasingly, poking at me as if certain that I didn’t.
It was like she was entirely convinced I couldn’t possibly have feelings for anyone.
“…The person I like is…”
It’s you!! If only I could say that.
Yes, I like my childhood friend, Kosaka Yuzuki.
But I have absolutely no intention of confessing.
Because I know for sure that she’d reject me.
Once, our friend Ririka, suspicious about our relationship, asked Yuzuki how she felt about me.
“Huh? Hmm… He’s kind of like an older brother, and also like a younger brother… He just feels so comfortable to be around.”
An older brother and a younger brother.
That’s how Yuzuki described us.
At that moment, I realized I was a family member to her.
Sure, I might be special and close to her in some way.
But that closeness was as far away from being a romantic partner as you could get.
We were too close.
And that’s why—
“Me? Uh… no, I don’t think so—haha.”
I dodged the question.
“Yūki, you’re no better than me!”
Yuzuki said this cheerfully, as if happy to have found a comrade.
I didn’t laugh along.
“Oh, by the way, is dinner at your place good tonight?”
Yuzuki asked, as if the thought had just occurred to her.
She was asking whether we’d be having dinner together at my house today.
Her parents were often busy and not home much, and today must have been one of those days.
“Yeah, that’s fine… So, in that case—”
“Curry.”
“Hamburg steak.”
“Hamburg steak curry, then…”
“Hamburg steak curry it is.”
Kosaka Yuzuki’s POV
“Thanks for the meal!”
We ate dinner at Yūki’s house.
Today’s menu was hamburg steak curry.
The way we decide what to eat is simple: we each say what we feel like having, then combine the two.
I made the hamburg steak, Yūki made the curry, and we put them together.
Hamburg steak curry: complete.
I like this method because it adds a little excitement—not knowing what kind of dish we’ll end up with.
If the combination is impossible, like curry and stew, we just make one the main dish and the other a side.
“By the way, the hamburg steak was fluffier than usual today. Did you add something?”
“Hehe, actually, I used grated yam.”
We chatted about trivial things like this.
I like this time.
My parents work full-time, so they’re sometimes gone all day.
But I’ve never felt lonely, not once, because Yūki was always there for me.
And he still is.
At times like this, I think:
“…Maybe I don’t need a boyfriend after all.”
“W-What? Where did that come from?”
“I don’t know, it just crossed my mind.”
Yūki made a complicated expression, hesitating to speak, before finally saying:
“…I don’t know if it’s true, but there’s supposedly a way to figure out who you like.”
“No way! Look at you, Yūki! Trying to pull this off despite having never had a girlfriend!”
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