Introvert's Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me! Volume 5 (eBook)

Yuishi (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-5556-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Yoshin and Nanami have finally left behind the relationship that started with a dare. With the realization that they're both head over heels for each other, they promise to rebuild their bond for real and reveal the truth to their families and friends. When all is finally out in the open, they embark on their fresh new start. So what comes next? From watching Shibetsu's basketball game to getting flirty at the pool, there are heaps of new memories to make and many more dates ahead of them. Will this infatuated introvert and his guy-shy girlfriend be able to handle a relationship that's even sweeter and truer than ever before?

Textauszug

Prologue: Changes Noticed, Changes Unnoticed

It started with an offhand remark.

“Is it just me, or do those two seem closer somehow?”

I didn’t know who’d said it, but the words definitely reached our ears. Nanami and I looked around, wondering which “two” the comment referred to. We immediately heard someone laugh and say, “You two, you morons.”

Are we closer? I wondered. Nanami and I looked at each other and tilted our heads in puzzlement. After all, we were behaving the same as usual. Seeing our reactions, though, the people around us continued murmuring that we had indeed stepped it up a notch, but it’s not like we meant to come off that way.

“Well, that’s to be expected, isn’t it?” Otofuke-san mumbled.

“I mean, of course you’d be closer than before,” Kamoenai-san said.

Seeing our clueless expressions, the two friends smiled in exasperation. Their voices were so soft that only Nanami and I could hear them, but it seemed that even they agreed.

After that, we ended up getting told the exact same thing at lunchtime and after school, by our classmates and even by our teachers. As we continued to wonder whether something had actually changed, Otofuke-san and Kamoenai-san tried to explain how they saw it.

“Seriously, you guys seem way closer than you used to,” Otofuke-san remarked.

“Yeah. I mean, it’d be crazy to claim that you weren’t,” Kamoenai-san said, giggling.

I still didn’t quite understand what they were talking about. I mean, sure, Nanami and I were holding hands as we spoke, but that was the same as always. That said, it had taken a while for us to get to that point too.

“Really? Aren’t we the same as always though?” Nanami asked, placing her index finger on her cheek. Her friends both scratched their cheeks, their faces twitching.

“Uh, it’s not about physical distance or anything,” Otofuke-san explained. “It’s more like your emotional distance. Thinking about it, I guess you two were always physically close.”

“Yeah! It’s your whole atmosphere, though of course you’re literally close too.”

Were we really, though? In any case, they’d given us something else to think about. Atmosphere, huh? What an abstract explanation. Maybe that was why our classmates had been so vague.

“Are we really that different?” Nanami and I both asked simultaneously, making Otofuke-san and Kamoenai-san burst into laughter. Even though it was just an accident, Nanami and I found ourselves blushing.

Once they’d finished laughing, Otofuke-san and Kamoenai-san grinned and took their leave, telling us they shouldn’t get in the way of the young, happy couple. Oh, come on—we’re all the same age here, I thought.

Still, as I watched the two walk away, I felt secretly relieved that things hadn’t gotten awkward between me and Nanami’s friends. They were both so important to Nanami, and I didn’t want to make her sad or anything.

When I glanced at Nanami, our eyes met. She’d been looking at me too. She smiled at me awkwardly, making me laugh.

“Do you think we’ve changed that much?” she finally asked, tilting her head again.

“Hmm. I feel like we’re the same as always,” I replied, still unconvinced.

Even so, I knew from reading manga that people rarely recognized these kinds of changes in themselves. I wasn’t sure if the same were true in real life, but maybe that was what was happening to us now. Maybe everyone else could see the change more clearly than we could.

Besides, we already had an idea of what had caused the change. In fact, we had too many ideas, and all of them had something to do with my relief that things hadn’t become weird between me and Nanami’s friends.

I took a moment to think back on what had happened. This might sound kind of cliché, but where there’s a beginning, there’s always an end. That’s just a fact. The end would always come, whether you wanted it to or not, and that was neither good nor bad. I should know, considering I’d just experienced one of those ends.

Perhaps others might feel that that hadn’t been an end but rather a transition. For me, though, it had most definitely been an end. If anything, I felt like our weekly dates were the transitions. That, too, was kind of cliché, but there were always stops and starts to everything.

Four transitions and one end, all in this past month. I’m talking about all this as though it happened some weeks ago, but actually it had only been a few days. And every single one of those things had been an extremely precious, irreplaceable experience.

There might be people out there who’ve experienced similar things to what I had, but nonetheless, I would say with certainty that my experiences were unique. Thinking about it, though, I should probably describe them as being “our” experiences rather than just mine, and the more I thought about it, the more strongly I felt that this was a story that both Nanami—my girlfriend—and I shared. Yup, girlfriend. Nanami was my girlfriend.

I was once again overcome by the sense of security that came with being able to call her that. Not so long ago, there’d been a chance that I would lose the privilege to do so. Although I don’t know for sure just how likely that might have been, I was glad things had turned out the way they had.

Yeah, I know, I know. There’s no point in beating around the bush. Still, I can’t help dragging my feet like this. One thought always leads to another whenever I recall what had happened on that fateful day, but even so, I should make myself clear: the end I’d experienced had been that of my relationship with Nanami.

Actually, that’s not entirely correct, but it wouldn’t be incorrect either. Saying that makes it sound like she and I actually broke up, but it wasn’t like that. What I meant to say was that the relationship that had ended wasn’t our relationship in general but the false one based on a dare.

Ugh, saying it like that makes it sound terrible. But it’s true—until just a little while ago, Nanami and I had been going out because of a dare. At least, for Nanami, it had been because of a dare; for me, her confession had been like a bolt from the blue (though I might be using that expression incorrectly). And, just the other day, that dare had ended.

The dare had ended, but our relationship hadn’t. Honestly, that was all there was to it; but even so, I couldn’t help but feel like a long and winding road had finally gotten us to this point. One month felt like a whole year, and yet it also felt like the blink of an eye.

When Nanami had admitted she’d confessed to me on a dare, I’d been so overcome with surprise that I’d felt my blood run cold. I mean, I’d never expected her to come clean. But after that, we’d both talked things over and decided to continue our relationship with each other. I know that sounds a bit stiff, but that’s the only way to describe it.

All’s well that ends well. When one thing ends, another begins. Thus the somewhat twisted relationship between Nanami and me had received a fresh start. But then...

“I wonder what’s different though,” I muttered.

I mean, when I stopped to think calmly about what had changed, I couldn’t help thinking nothing had. Sure, I understood that people around us thought differently, but my feelings and my attitude hadn’t changed one bit. I had thought that maybe time would pass and something would change, but that hadn’t been the case at all. Clearly, change wasn’t always the right thing to pursue, but I still couldn’t help wondering if that was okay.

After all the mental gymnastics, I finally came upon one thing that was sure to change, though it sure had taken me a while to realize it. It was the fact that I was now one-hundred-percent confident that Nanami liked me. Those sound like the words of someone who’s way too full of himself. Still, for a guy in his teens, knowing that the girl I liked liked me back was a huge confidence booster.

Although until now I hadn’t been sure how she felt, now I could act with confidence. Act...as in, do what? Hmm... Okay, so now I have more confidence, but what am I supposed to do next?

My train of thought suddenly stopped there. I felt like my mind was going in circles.

“What are you groaning about?”

At that moment, I felt Nanami poke my cheek. It would have been easy for me to claim that nothing was wrong, but I wondered if perhaps it would be better to share what was on my mind.

Yeah. Nothing good would come even if I tried to hide it. I should just tell her, I thought.

“I was just wondering how we were going to change moving forward,” I confessed.

“Change? Is there something you want to change, Yoshin?”

Seeing Nanami tilt her head in a puzzled fashion, I wondered if I’d put it too simply. I suppose it was just a bit difficult for me to put my thoughts into words. I mean, how was I supposed to phrase it? Still unsure, I attempted a second explanation.

“Well, I mean, until just recently, our relationship had been kind of fake, right?”

“Fake... Yeah, I guess you could say that. What about it though?” she asked.

“Then on our one-month anniversary the other day, it stopped being...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.1.2024
• Reihe/Serie: An Introvert's Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me!
• Reihe/Serie: An Introvert's Hookup Hiccups: This Gyaru Is Head Over Heels for Me!
• Illustrationen: Yuishi
• Übersetzer: Yuishi
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Romane / Erzählungen
• Schlagworte: Heartwarming • High School • male protagonist • Personal Growth • Slice of Life
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-5556-4 / 1718355564
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-5556-9 / 9781718355569