Part-1 Ch-06 Ep-04

 Maki is acting strange. This morning, she came all the way to my house to pick me up. That part is fine. It’s happened before. But somehow… I can’t quite put it into words, the intensity radiating from her smile is incredible.

“I’ve decided to change the kind of muscle training I do.”

As we walk to school, she suddenly says that. I sneak a look at Maki’s status window. All her stats, including muscle strength, are nearly maxed out already, so honestly she doesn’t need any more training. She looks slender, but the strength she holds is unbelievable.

She has practiced martial arts since she was young, after all. Even Todoroki-kun from the judo club once said, “She’s probably really strong. I’d love to spar with her sometime.”

But I obviously can’t mention her status numbers, so I rephrase it into something a typical teenage girl might say and ask, “Dieting?”

“No. I don’t want to lose weight. Actually, I’m even thinking I should eat more and put on some fat.”

“Ehh… why would you do that?”

“To get a more voluptuous body.”

“…So what, exactly? You want to gain fat while shaping up to go full hourglass figure? For what reason?”

“For you, obviously.”

She says “for you” so casually and so seriously that I’m the one who ends up flustered. Given the situation, it sounds exactly like I have a preference for girls with amazing figures.

How did it turn into this.

Besides, Maki is perfectly fine as she is. It feels strange for her to change herself to match what she thinks are my tastes.

“What are you spacing out for? We’ll be late. Come on, come here.”

Something is definitely off.

The Maki calling me with such a gentle, enveloping voice, the Maki who just naturally takes my hand, the Maki who is trying to reshape her body into an hourglass for my sake.

Everything feels like the usual her, yet also not like the usual her.

It feels like our childhood-friend intimacy has suddenly leveled up. Is she my girlfriend now or what.

“Whoops, ah, sorry. Wait a sec.”

With all that swirling in my head, we arrived at school, and I suddenly remembered Seishuku-san. I need to ask her about the details of the fan club’s activities.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m looking for Seishuku-san for a bit.”

“Huuuuh…”

Let’s see, where is she… I peek into their classroom.

“Ah, there she is! Seishuku-saaan. Ah, Maki, you can go to the classroom first, it’s fine… huh…?”

My face is suddenly grabbed from behind and forcibly turned around. When I look back, Maki’s face fills my entire field of vision. She’s so close we could kiss, and my heart leaps.

“It’s fine, but don’t look around at other people so much. I’m the one next to you. Come right back, okay?”

She says it so close I can feel her breath, and I frantically nod. Behind us someone screams; it’s Seishuku-san and several other girls, and they’re getting ridiculously excited. Thanks to that, I couldn’t ask a single thing I wanted. And it’s all because Maki suddenly started acting weird.

“So, are you two dating now?”

During PE, since it’s raining, both boys and girls are playing basketball in the gym.

While I’m resting after being substituted out, Kagami-kun asks me that.

“Hah? There’s no way Maki and I are dating.”

When I respond like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, he forces a smile and repeats, “No way you’re dating… huh.”

Even from his perspective, Maki’s behavior today seems off.

“It’s not just off. It feels like she’s finally gotten serious.”

Serious about what, exactly?

The only clue I have is that it probably started with yesterday’s incident.

When I tell him about yesterday’s conversation with Maki, he says, “I see. So from her point of view, it looked like Seishuku confessed to you and you weren’t exactly against it,” and everything finally makes sense.

“Oh, so Maki thinks I’m going to be taken away and feels lonely?”

“No, that’s a little diff…”

“There’s no way I’d ever start dating someone else and leave Maki behind.”

“You’re saying that with a straight face?”

“You should just tell her that directly,” Kagami-kun says seriously, so I tilt my head and reply, “Eh? I always tell her that.”

“…There’s a lot I want to say, but it’ll give me heartburn, so I’ll stay quiet.”

Kagami-kun seems unwell today. But thanks to him, I finally understand why Maki started acting strange. Now I just have to properly tell her that I’m not in that kind of relationship with Seishuku-san.

But… how do I say it?

In the end I still have to explain the fan club situation, so the conversation has to begin there.

While I’m thinking about it, long homeroom begins, and classes for the day come to an end.

Looks like I have no choice. I’ll talk to her again after school.

Just as I reach that conclusion,

“Yes, with that, our class’s cultural festival attraction is decided: a maid cafe.”

Clap, clap, clap. I join the applause for the attraction that was apparently settled while I wasn’t paying attention.

I didn’t hear a single word.

This is exactly why Maki always scolds me for spacing out.

“Hm?”

When I look at the blackboard properly, under duty assignments there are “Maid” and “Prince,” and my name is the only one written under Prince.

Why is there a prince in a maid cafe.

“Um, excuse me, I think my assignment is a little strange.”

“Eh? Didn’t you say it was okay when Asahina-kun and the others asked you the other day?”

“Ahhh… I did. Probably.”

So that earlier thing was about this. It finally clicks. I glance at Maki. She’s looking at me with a slightly displeased face. I can clearly read her lips saying, “Because you were spacing out.”

It seems that for this cultural festival, I’ll have to be both a maid and a prince

.

“…This is going to be rough.”

Imagining my future a month from now, I slump my shoulders.

(End of Chapter 6)