Every Morning the Most Popular Girl at School Sits Next to Me on the Train

It was the very last day of summer vacation and I was at Mon Pet Kuwa, where I worked part time.

I had a short shift today from 12:00 noon to 3:00. When I entered the break room, Echizen was already there in her uniform. It seems today as well, I’ll be with Echizen. For the past 2 weeks or so, the amount of times when Echizen and I are together has become less, so it feels like a while since this has happened.

“Thanks for your hard work, Echizen.”

“Thanks for your hard work.”

After giving her a light greeting, I enter the changing room. It’s the first time I’ve seen Echizen since the school information session. Speaking of which, we parted with a weird atmosphere at that time. However, the shock from Mamiko was so strong that I don’t remember very well, but I feel like Echizen had a sad expression…

To be honest, I can’t exactly think further than this. My mind was just full of thoughts about Mamiko. I completely don’t feel any motivation to do anything. So, it’s relief that it’s still summer break. If there was school, I feel like it was at the level where I would have to take a break from school.

“Haaa~”

I dislike myself for trying to hang on to Mamiko. However, I can’t help it, I was never given a reason for why we broke up. All she said was “Let’s break up” and that was it. Isn’t that just too terrible?

“Haa~”

I let out another big sigh. With such a downhearted feeling, I exited the changing room as Echizen looked towards me. It looked like she was staring at my heart.

“What is it, Echizen?”

“Aren’t you sighing to much? It’s a bit uncomfortable.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Well, it’s not a good thing to sigh in front of others. I’ll be careful from now on.

“And well? Why are you sighing like that?”

It was time for my shift, so I tried heading out onto the floor, when I called out to Echizen, who was also doing the same.

“Ah~ No, nothing really.”

“… Really?”

“Really really.”

Unlike usual, Echizen tried to ask me a question, but I answered it lightly. There’s no need to tell her specifically that I had recently broke up. It would be weird and quite bothersome after all.

Echizen and I went out onto the floor and organized the empty shop like we normally did. We took our time going from one seat to the next. Then when that was over, we ended up with lots of free time. Echizen and I were standing about 1 meter apart from each other.

At a time like this, we would normally be talking about Human Beast Wars, but I haven’t logged in recently for the event so I don’t have much to talk about. As such, it continued on like before in silence. Before the silence would make me feel awkward, but now, not so much. Well, I probably don’t really want to talk to anyone right now.

“Something is definitely wrong, you seem kind of down.”

Then, Echizen muttered that. Her voice was soft so I didn’t know if she was talking to me, but I knew that she was facing towards me.

“No, everything’s normal.”

“No, something’s weird. Besides, you were sighing. Something definitely happened.”

“It’s not a big deal. I just lost my wallet, that’s all.”

If I let it go on, it seems like she’ll keep asking questions, so I made up a random lie. However, it seems that Echizen doesn’t seem to believe me as she continued to stare at me. Mamiko also pretty easily saw through my lies, but am I really that bad at lying?

I think that on the inside, but there’s no way that I can say that on the outside. Pretending not to notice that she was looking at me, I held a poker face as I continued to look forward. After that, I continued to feel a sharp gaze on me all the way until 3:00 when my shift ended.

My shift ended and I got back home earlier than usual. As usual, neither my parents or my sister were home. I returned to my room, and laid down on my bed. As a change of pace, let’s play Human Beast Wars…

With that thought I took out my smartphone and started up the app. Since, it’s been about two weeks, there were quite a few updates. After two minutes, the updates finished and the screen changed to the title screen. I looked at various things after logging in. It seems that there are a few interesting events going on, but I don’t really feel like doing events.

Anyways, I feel like finding some small fry to hunt right now. When I was just about to start a D rank quest, I received a message. It was from my party member Ryoma-san. Somehow, it’s been a while since I got a message from Ryoma-san.

[Yosshii-san, long time no see!]

It seems like when it’s just Ryoma and I, he’s always super lively. It was only through a screen, but I felt more energetic. It was because there was he was someone that wouldn’t change.

[Long time no see. Sorry, I haven’t been able to login that much recently.]

[It’s alright!]

That was all Ryoma-san sent. It’s surprising, I thought he would ask what for the reason… However, I was only able to think that for a brief moment.

[Why weren’t you able to login?]

Ryoma-san ended up hitting me with that question. Well, I was expecting that though. He basically doesn’t know anything about me right now after all.

“What should I say…?”

I was thinking of making up a random lie at first, but there isn’t really a reason to do that with Ryoma-san, is there? Since it’s an in-game relationship, there’s no problem even if I just say the truth. He would care about it to a certain point, but since he’s still just an in-game companion, he won’t care that much.

Besides, I don’t want to lie to Ryoma-san.

I took a deep breath as I typed the characters into the chat.

[I broke up with my girlfriend you see… and I wasn’t in the mood to game due to shock.]

After typing the words in, I was once again made aware that I had broken up with Mamiko. Well, there’s still nothing I can do about it now. I tapped the reply button with as calm of a feeling as possible.