Chapter 40: Seatmate Breaker
Lunch break.
When Yuuki finished his lunch at his seat and left the classroom to go to the bathroom, he was caught up by a pair of guys who were just making some noise in the hallway.
One had hard hair that seemed like it wasted time in the morning and the other had hair that seemed vulnerable to hair loss and blocked his way like a pair of geese. 1
“Hey, Yuuki. How’s it been with the Seatmate Killer? Have you fallen for her yet?”
“Narito-kun, you do not have to push yourself so hard. You are always welcome to join us.”
Keitaro and Sonoda started saying whatever they wanted.
It was hard to try and ignore them when they were standing in his way.
“You two have been getting along recently.”
“Nah, not really. I don’t want to know this perverted glasses wearing guy.”
“Would you stop talking like that? I do not like being lumped in with a half-hearted person like you, either.”
The two men were already glaring at each other, sparks flying between them.
The unity of the Seatmate Killer Victim’s League seemed to be shaky. 2
“This guy, he suddenly brought up his idol.”
“It was not really sudden. Don’t make me seem preposterous.”
Sonoda took out his cell phone and took a step closer to Yuuki, mumbling something like “Hayami-kun isn’t fun to talk to at all,” so Yuuki took a step back.
Even so, Sonoda forcefully closed the distanced and showed him the screen of his cell phone.
“Narito-kun, have a look at this. I recommend Miyorin.”
The cell phone screen showed a zoomed picture of a girl laughing.
“I see this is your recommendation.”
“What do you think, isn’t she pretty?”
“Yeah…”
Of course being cute is cute.
But Yuuki really wanted to show him a photo of Yui’s face and tell him he liked it better.
However, he didn’t bother spilling fuel onto himself. It was obvious that he would be reminded of it a hundred times.
When Yuuki was in a state of contemplation, Keitaro forced himself to look at the screen as if to insert his face between them.
“…This girl, doesn’t she look a bit like Takatsuki? Oi, aren’t you longing for something?!!”
“N-no! It’s just a coincidence that Takatsuki Yui resembles Miyorin!”
“It’s all the same to me!”
They started fighting immediately.
As they began to wrestle each other, they almost ran into a girl walking down the hallway.
The girl, who dodged a close call, glared at them and said,
“You’re in the way. If you want to mess around, go outside.”
Her voice was surprisingly flat and cold. And yet it reached them clearly.
She had a stern expression on her face and glared at Keitaro and Sonoda with her piercing eyes.
All at once the tension skyrocketed, and the two men3 stood there like frogs stared down by a snake. 4
“What happens if you bump into someone and they fall and get hurt?”
She said that and intimidated them further with her eyes.
After silencing the two of them, she looked around and caught sight of Yuuki, who should have had nothing to do with the current situation.
Then, after staring at Yuuki for a while, she turned her eyes back in the direction of the hall, shook her long black hair that reached to her back, and passed by him.
After that, Keitaro shrugged his shoulders and whispered to Yuuki,
“Oh shit. They were staring at you for a while, what did you do to them?”
“Who knows? I’ve never spoken to her, or rather, who is she?”
“You stepped on a mine without even knowing it.”
How about a completely harmless land mine when stopped on instead?
Yuuki didn’t remember anything about her, and it was genuinely their first meeting.
“Do you really not know her? She’s pretty famous.”
“Really?”
While Keitaro had a dumbfounded look, Sonoda rubbed his chin and muttered,
“Hanashiro Rin… She is rumored to be the most beautiful girl in her class… or even in the school, but she’s got a lot of problems.”
It was an introduction Yuuki’s heard before.
It wasn’t just her eyes, but also her nose is well defined, the outline of her face was slender, so it could be said that her appearance was very good.
She was slender and tall, and her impression was of a different woman in a different sense from Yui.
“Many people like how she looks. But in fact, it seems that no one has confessed. Because they know they’re going to 100% get turned down.”
“I don’t understand why she was so stuck up to warn us, even if she’s a member of the discipline committee. Maybe she reads too much manga.”
“No, I was a member of the discipline committee last year, she’s always been like that.”
“Fuuu, Sonoda, you seem to know a lot about this.”
“Well, she and I… are always at the top spot in our grade. Yep, we are rivals. I’m sure she is quite aware of me as well.”
“Really?”
Despite Keitaro’s swearing, Sonoda unwisely throws water at Yuuki.
“People who are fast are only popular in junior high. Narito-kun, what is your best time for running 50 meters?”
“I forgot.”
“It’s no use asking him. He doesn’t even motivated to do physical education.”
“That’s not the case.”
“Last time we played soccer, I passed it to you and you passed it right back.”
“If I have the ball, I’ll be a target.”
“And that’s how he is. You know what I mean?”
Keitaro snorted with some difficulty as he exaggeratedly held out his hands.
“Anyways, it doesn’t matter how pretty she is, you don’t want her. She doesn’t have any charm. It’s not like I like men, but there are people who are like that, right? It’s a clear sign of disrespect for people.”
“But, well, she’s really athletic. Apparently, she can do quite well. On top of that, when it comes to her look…”
“She’s a Seatmate Killer in a different way. I wouldn’t have a moment’s of peace if one of them were sitting next to me.”
“If Takatsuki Yui is the Seatmate Killer, she would be the Seatmate Breaker.”
“What does that mean?”
According to Sonoda, every boy who has ever sat next to Rin became afraid of her.
They became respectful to Rin and changed.
“Well, it’s just a rumor, but…”
“It would be fun to have the two of them fight each other. Like a dragon versus a tiger.”
“Yuuki, what kind of stupid thing are you saying… Huh? By the way, didn’t she just walk into our class?”
While saying this, Keitaro approached the sliding door of the classroom and looked inside.
As soon as he did, he looked back at Yuuki with a surprised look on his face and said, “Come here for a minute.”
When Yuuki and Sonoda followed suit,
“Come on man, look at that.”
Keitaro pointed to a seat at the back of the classroom, near the window– at Yui’s seat, two people where chatting with each other in a friendly manner.
Notes:
1 The hard hair and wasted time implies the use of a lot of hair product
2 Refer to Chapter 18
3 Can you even call them men? Sorry for the irrelevant footnote, I just had to say it
4 This is an old Japanese saying, which describes an animal petrified from fear. The Western (or at least American) version of this is ‘a deer in the headlights’
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