Vol 2 Chapter 5 (1/2)

[BOKUs.h.i.+NU V2] CUT 5 – TODAY WE WATCHED THE FIREWORKS, AND SHE PRETENDED THAT NOTHING HAPPENED

“Let’s unravel the secrets of Sakamoto’! Now, starting from this week, Hikari here will uncover Sakamoto’s secrets step-by-step! Now then, our first question is, ‘Why doesn’t Sakamoto cut his hair!?’ The truth is, he really takes note of his fierce appearance. That’s why——”

——Slam

“Again…?”

I turned off that effective alarm and sat up. Dammit, no matter how many times I change the alarm, Hikari Yumesaki would always change it back to this one. Why does she insist on being so infuriating? But I’ll ignore this for now, since something else caught my attention.

“What’s this?”

I had climbed out of my bed, and was opening the curtains when I noticed it.

“A teru teru bozu?”

I stared at the teru teru bozu with the ferocious-looking eyes hanging from the curtain. That hair, and those eyes. No, no, no, the hair is way too long. Besides, there was no need to make that teru teru bozu look so frightening.

“It hasn’t rained much lately. The raining season is also over.”

From a closer look, I realized that there was also a long slip of paper hanging from the hem of the doll. It looks like she was doing another one of those stunts I don’t understand.

I gave the teru teru bozu a flick to the head, drew the curtains open, and as the sunlight came in, I opened up the journal only to see the usual lively words written in it, which was enough for me to feel Hikari Yumesaki’s cheerfulness.

“Yahoo! I went out and played with Misaki-chan again today! She’s still super cute! If I weren’t using your body, Sakamoto, I would’ve already kissed her by now!”

“It looks like she’s having fun.”

Hikari Yumesaki had her time shortened by five minutes. But looking at her like she is now, it seems as if that huge tantrum had never occurred. The journal only had things about Misaki written in it.

Misaki Yutera, an undercla.s.sman a year younger than me, and a part-time waitress at the Café Moonleaf.

Her appearance looks pure and sweet, but she’s actually a demoness on the inside. Because of a certain event, our relations.h.i.+p should have deteriorated somewhat…

“Sakamoto, Misaki-chan said that she only had to work the morning s.h.i.+ft tomorrow! I’ve already promised her that we would go out and eat lunch together!”

But as you can see, instead of deteriorating, our relations.h.i.+p has improved to the point where going out together has become a matter of fact. Hikari Yumesaki is probably much happier now to be on such good terms with her favorite undercla.s.sman. Her mood has improved greatly lately, her journal entries are always about Misaki, who hasn’t been pulling as many pranks as before.

The thing is, Misaki was a little bit different from before.

“Remember to treat her! Misaki-chan is a good girl, and she’s been real nice lately. You should let her experience your gentlemanly side!”

“Real nice huh.”

It’s almost as if the demoness had disappeared, ever since that day, Misaki had dropped her mask of purity and became more courteous whenever I’m treating her. In the past, she would always be quick to ask me to pamper her, but now she never presses me to spend money on her.

“Senpai, I said that it’s okay. You don’t have to always pay for me…”

“No, no, it’s fine. I have to in a moment like this…”

Just like that, time flew by, and it was the afternoon. We were at a restaurant waiting for our check.

Misaki and I were nudging each other aside in front of the cash register, fighting over the bill. I could even hear the cas.h.i.+er say under her smile, “You two should hurry up.” How embarra.s.sing, you should just let it go. Hikari Yumesaki seems to think that I did a lot of unnecessary things, and Misaki’s att.i.tude changed, becoming so polite.

“I will interrogate Misaki-chan thoroughly afterwards! If you don’t treat her well, then I’ll pluck out a thousand strands of your hair!”

She even wrote this ruthless line in the notebook yesterday. A thousand is just way too much. Misaki, please, just listen to me.

“Alright, allow me to pay, please.”

I forced the bill into the cas.h.i.+er’s hands, settling the check. Misaki then scowled with a displeased look. I can’t help it either.

The atmosphere became a little bit awkward, and as I turned my back on the unhappy princess, leaving the restaurant,

“…Hmph, how kind of you. Are you perhaps expecting something? Do you want me to be more flirty with you?”

“I’ve already said that’s not it, really.”

“Then that means you don’t think of me that way? How rude.”

And with those words Misaki turned her head to the side with a pout. This girl is so troublesome.

The pure, sweet maiden from before disappeared completely. Right now, walking beside me with an unhappy face was a cold-hearted undercla.s.sman, and her cold eyes matched her current demeanor.

I will probably never see the angelic smile from that day again, and I would be lying if I said I had no lingering thoughts about it, but––

“Huh?”

For some unknown reason, she suddenly grabbed ahold of my right hand, and the two of us began walking next to each other while holding hands. What’s going on?

“This is just a sign of grat.i.tude, grat.i.tude. I’m letting my poor unpopular Senpai experience the joy of holding a girl’s hand. So how does it feel? Is your heart pounding?”

As she said that, she even let out a “Hmph” with a cheeky smile.

Dammit. I knew that I would get laughed at, but my face still became hot. Sigh, looks like the demoness is still alive and well. Although, I could always restrain that evil side of hers.

“…Ah.”

I went back at her by clasping the small hand firmly, even entwining our fingers together. We were holding hands like a couple. See, how’s that?

“Y-You, I give you an inch and you take a mile… Really now, even though you’re so unpopular…”

She was fuming, but the blus.h.i.+ng maiden still didn’t remove her hand. I could even faintly feel her palm sweating. Huh, she’s a tsundere after all.

The two of us walked silently under the glaring sun.

At the same time, I was thinking of something else in my mind.

A strange note that I didn’t understand was written at the end of today’s entry.

“If it’s Sakamoto, then it should be fine. Right, I’ll leave it at that.”

No, this message was not as much meant for me, as it is for Hikari Yumesaki herself.

Sigh, just what is she planning to do this time?

“…There’s more of them.”

Among all of the various developments, summer vacation had ended, and it was a certain morning, after the school opening ceremony.

The number of teru teru bozu hanging from the curtains had increased, and while looking at them, I couldn’t help but raise some doubts in my mind. What’s she trying to do?

Whatever, I’ll just look at today’s entry for now.

“Pop Quiz, Start!”

“A quiz?”

“Let’s find out how diligent Sakamoto was during his summer vacation!”

“What?”

“I’ve left some questions on the next page, and now you have to answer them! You only have ten minutes!”

“Another one of her weird games huh.”

I turned to the next page. Yep, there really are some questions. However,

“Subject: Hikari-chan”

“What’s with this Hikari-chan?”

The concerning questions were below:

“Question 1: What is Hikari-chan’s favorite food? Method of answering=put the respective item on the desk.

Question 2: What is Hikari-chan’s cute point?

Question 3: Please choose from the following list what Hikari-chan’s cup size is: ‘D, E, F, G, H’

Question 4: Hikari-chan is a very cute girl.

Question 5: Beside Hikari-chan, what is the name of another girl that Sakamoto likes?”

What kind of questions are these?

Question 1 is just that you want to eat candy. Question 4 isn’t even a question. I won’t even comment on Question 3.

Anyway, I placed the adult BL books that were hidden under the bed on the desk.

2. “Lack of restraint”

3. “D, E, F, G, H A”

4. “A cute girl would never use the word ‘virgin.’”

I wrote, only to stop at question 5.

“A girl I like…”

I thought of her reason for asking this kind of roundabout question. Usually, anyone asked by a girl who they like would feel excited. Like, “Oh, so she likes me? Heheheh…” that. But I’m pretty sure that Hikari Yumesaki doesn’t mean it that way. Right?

“Whatever.”

I’ll just quickly write down an answer and leave the rest for tomorrow’s me. After that, another day came.

“AAahh! I was wrong! I’m sorry!”

I tore off all of the photos of Kinos.h.i.+ta that were stuck to the table, and then opened the journal.

“Lack of restraint? Are you praising me?”

“It’s not an A! Don’t try to make a fool out of me!”

“Oh, so you don’t believe that Hikari-chan is cute. Why don’t you go ask Kazes.h.i.+ro?”

What greeted my eyes were Hikari Yumesaki’s red corrections (?) on my answers. Kazes.h.i.+ro huh. If I were to ask him, he would definitely give me a serious response, so I’ll leave him alone.

There’s one last problem, the one last reply I was most concerned about was––

“I don’t want to know what type you like, I want a name! There’s probably millions of cheerful, optimistic girls!”

So she wrote.

“Not that I would think so.”

It seems that I won’t be able to convey my feelings to her this way. Even if I do, it’s troubling. However, that wasn’t the real problem here.

Why does she want to know who I like right now?

“What now?”

“How troublesome.”

The number of teru teru bozu hanging from the curtain rod increased further with each pa.s.sing day, and there was so many that I couldn’t open the curtains anymore.

At first, I would take them off since they were a bother, but Hikari Yumesaki threw a tantrum and said, “Don’t take down the teru teru Sakamotos!” I was left with no choice, and had to leave them hanging.

I bitterly complained, opened up the journal, and saw the first line written in large letters,

“Stupid Sakamoto! Pervert! If you keep on staring at Misaki’s thighs, she’s going to get mad!”

“Ugh…”

What an unexpected telling off. Now that I think about it, Hikari Yumesaki has been criticizing me a lot lately,

“As a punishment, I deleted your entire secret folder of foot-fetish anime! I want you to reflect on what you’ve done!”

“WWHHAAATT!? What have you done?”

I hurriedly turned on my computer with desperation, and opened up the folder––

“…Dammit.”

At the top of the folder was a text doc.u.ment, and after seeing the t.i.tle, I apprehensively bit my lip.

“Just kidding☆ Were you worried? Were you worried? Giggle.”

Grrr….

In fact, the doc.u.ment read,

“Since you’re hopeless, Hikari-chan here will tell you the secret to looking at thighs without being caught! When you stare at her, pretend to mess with your bangs and you won’t be so easily discovered!”

“…Heh, who would ever do that? How dirty.”

I mean seriously, she’s always writing something so dumbfounding and meddling in other people’s business.

On that day, after school,

“Senpai?”

“What——!?”

“You’ve been fiddling with your hair for a while now, is something wrong?”

Huh, what? Have I been caught? No, I’m still safe, right?

“I-It’s nothing.”

“Hmm. I see.”

Misaki had a sad look in her eyes on me, but she didn’t push the matter further. Looks like I’m safe.

Hikari Yumesaki wrote in the journal, “I made another date with Misaki~!” and so I once again went to Café Moonleaf after school today, waited for Misaki’s s.h.i.+ft to end, and went out on a date with her. It was just that the location of our date was quite unexpected.

“Still though, I never thought that you would like coming to the arcade.”

“Hehe, constantly wearing a professional smile at work does build up a lot of stress.”

Misaki replied as she held the joysticks of a fighting game. How frightening. S-She doesn’t mean me does she…?

“Senpai, are you feeling stressed?”

“Huh!?”

S-Stressed?

“If you are——then why don’t you play a round with Misaki as your opponent?”

She said as she pointed towards the console across from her. Oh, so she meant that. That scared me for a moment.

…Dammit, what’s with that mischievous look of accomplishment on your face? Was it on purpose?

“It’s really stressful. If I act a little kinder, those customers act like they’re my boyfriend. Although thanks to this, I managed to receive a lot of gifts from them.”

“O-Oh…”

I used to also buy her stuff haphazardly, so I didn’t know how to respond to her. Misaki must’ve realized it from the expression on my face because she quietly let out a gasp, and continued talking timidly,

“I-I’ve already stopped doing that though. I was just a little bit carried away, and I won’t do those things ever again…”

“I-It’s okay. No worries, you have your own circ.u.mstances too.”

She seemed to have plenty of her own troubles. Although I can’t say that I’ll forgive her because of this,  I didn’t have to be too harsh on her

“…Senpai, you aren’t mad about this now?”

“Huh? Oh. I’m not mad at all.”

“…T-That’s good.”

At that moment, Misaki had on a timid look, but she quickly refocused her attention onto the console screen. What was that about? I put that thought aside for now, and looked around the arcade parlor, while secretly snickering to myself.

Misaki soon became engrossed in her game, and I stood behind her, heheh. What a lovely sight. Even though Misaki’s personality was a bit like “that” , she was still a nice and adorable undercla.s.sman, and bringing in a cute undercla.s.sman into a place full of guys is such an enjoyable experience! Ahahaha, even when I close my eyes, I can still feel all of the jealous looks surrounding me. In reality, there wasn’t even a relations.h.i.+p between Misaki and me, and I couldn’t even be called her purse, but no one else knew this private information. Ahahaha, feels great,

“Ah, hmm…”

As I was releasing all of the unwanted virgin power (?) that I had acc.u.mulated throughout my life, Misaki let out a tempting sound that made me return my attention towards her.

“Hmm… Ah…”

I looked at the console screen, and saw that she was currently struggling in her battle.

Woah, although I don’t know who her opponent is, those tactics are unruly. Using counter-throws and such demonic combos, that play style is almost foul play. Who’s the idiot fighting a girl so seriously?

Displeased, I silently craned my head to see who was sitting at the console across. It’s probably some unpopular guy who has a nasty-looking face——

“Huh——————!?”

My back froze. Impossible, I was struck by a spell of dizziness once I saw who it was.

“K-Kasumi…”

Why is she here…?

“……..And here I thought that Sakamoto was troubled with something….Who knew that he was just enjoying himself….”

She quietly mumbled something to herself, and that look terrified me from the bottom of my heart. Why is she looking at me like that? Her eyes look as if she discovered something that had destroyed her family, like her husband’s mistress…

As I was thinking that, we made eye contact with each other, and I couldn’t help but quickly look away. c.r.a.p, did she sit at the console facing us because she found Misaki and me… This is really bad…

“Ah…”

At that moment, Misaki was struck by Kasumi’s demonic techniques, and lost.

“Tsk… What the…”

Seeing the unyielding look on Misaki’s face, I suddenly felt a sense of apprehension. L-Let’s go for now. You must feel hungry, so let’s find a nice place and eat some sweets——

“Senpai! Help Misaki take down that opponent!”

The premonition came true——!!

Wait, wait! c.r.a.p, the surrounding looks were stabbing into me. The current atmosphere felt like, “In a situation like this, the boyfriend should coolly take down the opponent. He was proudly showing off just moments ago, so he can’t run away now…”

But I have to run away shamefully from this fight. If I took on this challenge, then the situation would get incredibly worse…

“Senpai~”

As I was planning my retreat.

“If you beat him, then Misaki will let you enjoy all you want today”

Misaki let out her prettiest professional smile, and hugged me from behind——Ah, it hurts! Stop it! Why are you using your fingernails to pinch me——It hurts so much! Are you seriously this stubborn!? I get it! I’ll do it!

I completely lost to Misaki’s brutality, taking her chair… Huh? My phone is vibrating. An email? At this timie——

Bzzz!

“If you lose to me, then you’ll have to do ①,②, and ③. Kasumi.” (T/N: I’ll be nice and help you guys remember. ① = a kiss, ② = a French kiss, and ③ = Eh? Down there!?)

“…………………………………………………………….”

Cold sweat trickled, and the match started——Ah! Kasumi is blatantly taking it easy on me! It’s so obvious that even Misaki could tell, watching from behind! What do I do!? Do I win or do I lose!?

“Senpai, if you lose…then you know what will happen right?”

“Uh, you see…but…”

“Senpai.”

Misaki said as she pointed her index finger out, and stroked it down my cheek. Ahhhhh…… However, I could hear lots of tongue clicking from the other side.

I tragically faced this dilemma, and my willpower slowly depleted like my HP bar. After much trouble, my choice was——

“……I won…….”

Holding ice cream in my hand, I was sitting dejectedly in the lounge room at the arcade. Ahhh, my cellphone has been vibrating for quite some time now, with emails coming one after another, but I didn’t have the courage to read any them. This is bad… It’s too dangerous… When I was leaving I could faintly hear Kasumi saying, “Starting tomorrow, no matter what I have to use…”

“Giggle, thank you very much. Ahh~ I feel so happy right now.”

Misaki let out a cheerful smile as she sat next to me, eating the soft serve ice cream that I bought for her. She had completely put aside her elegant demeanor, and was dangling her feet back and forth. That’s way too lax of her.

“But it’s been a long time since I’ve last came to the arcade with someone. Giggles, two is definitely more fun than one!”

“Did you used to come with a friend?”

“Not really a friend. I would occasionally come here with a very dear person.”

——!

Hearing this unexpected answer, I couldn’t help but gulp.

“Someone… dear to you?”

“Yeah, I think I told you about this yesterday too.”

I didn’t hear about it. Hikari Yumesaki, you should be writing these things down, seriously.

“A very nice person. Although to say love…would be an exaggeration, but for me, that person’s irreplaceable. I can still remember when that person used to comb my hair for me.”

O-Oh… comb your hair huh…

“We often took photos together, sticking our faces next to each other… Heheh, it was quite embarra.s.sing.”

“………Tsk.”

…However, even though her personality was a little off, she’s still cute anyway. It looks like even she has her complicated past.

I didn’t know why but, I felt sad knowing of Misaki’s past with another guy. No, there wasn’t anything more to that. It was just that I’m a bit depressed…

It’ll probably be awkward if I remained silent.

“Senpai, are you taking it personally?”

“Huh?”

I turned my head, only to see Misaki looking at me with a cheeky smile on her face.

“I see, so that’s how Senpai sees Misaki… Giggle.”

“N-No, that’s not it! Definitely not like that——!”

“So that’s why you come by to the shop everyday.”

“Uh………”

T-That’s because Hikari Yumesaki’s made promises selfishly…

“In fact, yesterday, you complained to the manager, ‘You should have the waitresses’ skirts be shorter!’, senpai. That’s probably the reason too.”

That idiot!

“Also, you’ve said  ‘Misaki, you should come over to my place next time.’ I mean really, if I were to go to your house, just what would you do to me?”

“Uh…”

You’re doing this on purpose now, aren’t you…

“Anyway, I do owe you grat.i.tude, senpai, so just work hard ok?”

Misaki smiled in a provocative way. Feeling displeased, I put on a rigid face——

“Hmph, I would never do such hart work.”

Ah, I bit my tongue! c.r.a.p! That’s right, laugh at me!

“Giggle, how hilarious. Oh that’s right, Senpai. Wanna take some commemorative photos together?”

“To commemorate what…”

Although I said that, I reluctantly agreed with a disgruntled look. I’m so soft.

At that moment, a sweet apple scent suddenly came from behind and drew near my ear.

“Ah, and also.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t have to pretend fiddling your hair, senpai. If you want to take a look, then you’re free to do so at anytime.”

“………!”

“Let’s go, Senpai”

The demoness’ whispers made my face sizzle.

Dammit, I’ve been found out!

On another day.

“I got to do my own research!”

It was the second semester, and due to slacking off, my summer homework was still not finished (it was mostly Hikari Yumesaki’s fault). I was told off by my teacher two days ago, I directed my anger towards Hikari Yumesaki, ordering her to, “Hurry up and do the homework!” And her response was the above. It seems that she has her own research to do. The thing is.

“Her research probably has nothing to do with the homework.”

Then just what is she doing? I really don’t understand her.

There was even another notebook on the desk, and written on the front cover was:

“Conquest”

Some kind of strange work again? What are you trying to conquer?

I opened the notebook——

“Akitsuki Sakamoto: the heroine.”

“Heroine!?”

Why are you writing this kind of things!? I’m the heroine!?

Next to the ill.u.s.tration of a character resembling me were large letters,

“Looks like a delinquent, but he’s actually just a timid uke-type and likes guys.”

(T/N: Most of you are probably familiar with yaoi/BL (Boy’s Love). Two common terms used in the genre are “uke” and “seme.” The uke is “pa.s.sive” (on the bottom) while the seme is “aggressive/dominant” (on the top). Highly recommend that more research NOT be conducted.)

“Just what is she doing this time…”

“Route Difficulty: E, harsh-looking on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside, so he’s quite easy to conquer. His whole body gives off the innocence of a virgin. Always careless. All the gamers calls him ‘Bakatsuki’.”

Bakatsuki… (T/N: The pun was originally a portmanteau with an insult (Baka means idiot) followed by “月” (tsuki), which is the last character in his first name. Credit goes to Ping for this great choice of reference.)

“However, he’s actually really kind, and if you were to tidy up his appearance he would look quite cool. Since he has such a cute personality and yet a cold glare, he has an unshakeable popularity in the gaming room. Rating: ★★★★★”

“………”

Whatever, reading it just confuses me. So, she thinks I’m a five-star huh.

Just as my mood improved, I turned to the next page.

“Yukiko: the little-sister character. Route Difficulty: A. A junior high girl who is slowly learning the joys of being a woman. Although her route difficulty is high, her tsundere-level is unparalleled. Rating: ★★★★★★★★”

“Kasumi-chan: the large-b.r.e.a.s.t.s character. Route Difficulty: C. A bit quiet and yet perverted maiden. Has a lot of ecchi CG scenes. Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★”

What followed were an 8-star and a 10-star rating. Doesn’t that mean that my five-star rating is the lowest!?

“That idiot is really full of herself.”

I continued to noisily flip through the notebook. There was some extensive data written on all of my cla.s.smates, and then——

“Misaki-chan: the female undercla.s.sman character. Route Difficulty: AAA. An incredibly popular and beautiful maiden. Her alluring way of saying ‘Senpai’ has conquered the souls of countless men. Occasionally she shows her s.a.d.i.s.tic side, yet she still captures one’s heart. Has a pair of thighs that can get Sakamoto addicted to foot femdom anime. G.o.dly! Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★.”

“What a high recommendation.”