After that, we all went our separate ways, but honestly, I barely remembered how I even got home.
At first I wondered if it had all been a dream.
But every time I looked at the phone number saved in my contacts under Touga’s name, reality came crashing back.
Lying on my bed, I stared at those digits over and over again, writhing in silent agony.
The stuffed animal sitting by my pillow slipped onto the floor, and when I saw its glass eyes staring up at me like it resented me, I hurriedly picked it up and placed it back where it belonged.
I’m so sorry. I’ll pay more attention to my surroundings from now on.
God, I love him. I seriously love him.
I’d already memorized his number. Which meant that if anything happened, I could call him anytime.
Not that I would ever call him myself!
But still… if I dialed that number, it would connect directly to Touga’s phone, right?
Wait.
Isn’t that insane?
We’re connected.
That’s crazy.
I was way too excited to sleep that night.
The next day at school, Ichika immediately came over to ask what had happened yesterday. Obviously I couldn’t tell her the truth, so I claimed I’d nearly died from stomach pain instead.
She definitely knew I was lying, though.
After that, nothing particularly happened with Touga, and my ordinary life returned.
Or maybe this was where I belonged all along.
A completely normal school life, uninvolved with any capture targets.
Speaking of capture targets, I think I mentioned before that this game had seven romance routes. One of them was a hidden character who only appeared at the very end, while the other six showed up normally throughout the story.
And honestly, one of the biggest reasons the game became so popular was probably the love triangle events.
Even if you focused on one route, there would always be another character deeply involved somehow, and by the end of the game they’d end up fighting over the heroine.
If you wanted to romance Touga, then the love triangle character was his childhood friend: Saionji Kouya, the flirtatious playboy. Fans called him “Kii-kun,” while Touga’s nickname was “Kuro-chan.”
Kouya had spent his entire life getting everything he wanted and eventually became bored of it all. Looking for excitement, he started messing around with girls.
He was handsome, too, so naturally he was popular.
There wasn’t a girl he couldn’t win over.
And then the heroine appeared.
The more he got involved with this girl who wouldn’t fall for him easily, the more he realized he’d fallen hopelessly in love with her instead.
Terrified and confused by these feelings he’d never experienced before, he tried to push her away, only to suffer because he couldn’t bear being apart from her.
And then, finally, he found what real love was.
The scene where he breaks down crying, clings to the heroine, and says—
“I love you. I know you probably can’t believe me. But I’m so hopelessly in love with you I can’t do anything about it.”
—made girls all over the world scream.
A character who always seemed perfectly composed suddenly crying and desperately wanting the heroine?
That’s peak romance.
It hit every single one of my preferences perfectly.
And let me clarify something.
That wasn’t cheating.
I replayed Kouya’s route several times because Touga appeared in the love triangle events.
Again.
Not cheating.
The other four routes were similar.
There was Kujo Aoi, the princely student council president, paired with Akamine Natsuki, the heroine’s classmate.
And Momoyama Ayato, the younger underclassman, paired with their homeroom teacher, Shishido Yukari.
Then there was the hidden route: Hisui-san, the heroine’s stepbrother. He was the only character without a love triangle event.
Every single character had such a strong personality.
It really was an amazing game.
I finished every route, and every single one made me cry.
Seriously.
It was such a good game.
The heroine was adorable, hardworking, and kind, and I loved every character.
Though Touga was still number one.
That was non-negotiable.
…I wonder who the heroine will fall in love with.
No, that’s not right.
I shouldn’t call it “capturing” anyone.
Who will she choose to love?
Out of all these incredible people, who would share that beautiful story with her?
Maybe she wouldn’t even fall for one of the capture targets.
Maybe she’d fall in love with some ordinary student instead.
This world might be based on a game, but I didn’t think everything in it followed the game exactly.
Everyone here was alive.
This wasn’t a world controlled by buttons and scripted choices anymore.
Just like me, the heroine and everyone around her were living people who thought for themselves and made their own decisions.
…And I was making my own decisions too.
Even if what I did back then was wrong, this was still my life.
No matter what anyone said—even if they claimed the game world had gone off course—I still existed here.
Mob character or not, I wanted to live a life without regrets.
One day after school, I was at home reading manga when my ringtone suddenly started blasting from my phone.
It was one of those trendy pop songs that started right at the chorus, and I absentmindedly sang along while checking the caller ID.
I assumed it was either Mom or Ichika.
So the moment I saw the name on the screen, I instinctively hurled my phone across the bed.
The phone bounced several times before finally settling down.
My heart, however, absolutely did not.
The second I snapped back to my senses, I grabbed the phone and frantically hit the answer button with trembling fingers.
“H-Hello?”
My voice cracked horribly, but I had bigger problems right now.
“Took you long enough to answer.”
A devastatingly attractive voice poured straight from my phone and directly into my ears.
Oh no.
This was dangerous.
Panicking, I immediately switched the call to speaker mode, placed my phone in the middle of the bed, and dropped to the floor in a full dogeza bow.
“I’M SO SORRY! I NEVER THOUGHT KUROGANE-SAN WOULD ACTUALLY CALL ME!”
Yes.
The caller was Touga.
Today was officially the anniversary of Touga calling me for the first time.
We should make celebratory red rice.
“What’d we exchange numbers for then? You never call or text.”
“There’s no way I could contact you first! That would be way too presumptuous!”
“You’re as energetic as ever.”
“Yes! I’m so energetic it’s honestly a problem. And hearing your voice made me even more energetic.”
A laugh drifted from the phone.
Oh, come on.
Even his laugh was handsome?
That was cheating.
And wait—Touga actually laughed this much?
In the game, he barely smiled until late in the story, so I never knew.
Mental note taken.
“You’re free tomorrow, right?”
The sheer force behind those words left no room for refusal.
“I’m free,” I answered instantly.
Tomorrow was Saturday anyway, but if Touga asked me, I’d become free even on a weekday.
Naturally.
—A god stood before me.
After arriving at the station meeting spot Touga had texted me yesterday and waiting for a while, the god himself finally appeared.
An all-black outfit shouldn’t have looked that good.
But with his height, broad build, and unfairly handsome face, he somehow pulled it off effortlessly.
An average high school boy wearing those clothes would’ve looked like the outfit was wearing him instead.
Trying too hard.
Painfully overdressed.
But Touga looked like he’d stepped straight out of a stylist’s fashion shoot.
The gods really did play favorites with this man.
Couldn’t they spare a little blessing for the rest of us?
Crying in public would’ve been embarrassing, so I settled for quietly worshipping him instead while imagining a cheerful middle-aged man dancing in his underwear inside my head to stop myself from tearing up.
Touga walked over with an amused smile.
“Been a while.”
“It’s good to see you again. You remain as beautiful as ever…”
“You exaggerate way too much.”
“I am not exaggerating! Your casual clothes are amazing too…”
“Don’t cry.”
“I’m trying very hard not to.”
Inside my mind, Underwear Dancing Uncle intensified his performance.
I squeezed my eyes tighter to keep the tears from escaping, and Touga’s lips curled upward again.
“Let’s go.”
With his hands shoved into his pockets, he started walking, and I hurried after him like a baby duckling.
He hadn’t told me where we were going.
But honestly, as long as I was with Touga, I didn’t care where we ended up.
The station area was crowded, so I carefully followed his broad back through the sea of people until we entered a building.
And inside—
—it was a trendy pancake café popular with high school girls.
“Welcome!” chirped a cute waitress as I looked around the pastel-colored interior.
Ahhh, I see now.
He couldn’t bring himself to come here alone, so he invited me.
Touga liked sweets, so he’d probably wanted to come for a while now…
In the game sequel, he’d gone to an all-you-can-eat cake buffet with the heroine too.
Seriously.
That gap moe was lethal.
A scary-looking guy secretly loving desserts?
Absolutely unbeatable.
At first glance he looked like cigarettes, alcohol, and women personified…
Though honestly, he probably did dabble in those too. The game had always stayed vague about that part.
Apparently he’d made a reservation beforehand because we were seated immediately.
The café was full of girls and couples.
Yeah, no way he could’ve come here alone.
I was already emotionally full just from looking at Touga, but I couldn’t exactly let him order alone.
I chose the café’s Number One bestselling pancakes, while Touga ordered Number Two.
His came loaded with chocolate.
Mine was buried under strawberries and whipped cream.
The calorie count was probably horrifying.
Whatever.
Today I was eating without regrets.
“You really don’t get weirded out by this stuff, huh?”
“Hm?”
While we waited for our pancakes, I was flipping through the menu when Touga suddenly spoke.
“Most people would think it’s weird if a guy like me brought them somewhere like this.”
I couldn’t exactly answer, “That’s because I know your character settings,” so instead I said:
“Not at all. Honestly, I thought it was cute.”
Because it was ridiculously cute.
Maybe it was because I already knew this side of him.
Or maybe I was just hopelessly in love.
Either way, all I could think was cute.
Honestly, I was excited to watch a guy with such an intimidating face devour adorable pancakes.
“You really are weird.”
He snorted in amusement after saying that and didn’t continue the conversation.
Our table was strangely quiet compared to the noisy café around us.
But I didn’t mind at all.
The person I loved was sitting right in front of me.
That alone made me happy.
When the pancakes arrived, Touga absolutely demolished his.
The speed was terrifying.
Like some carnivorous beast tearing through raw meat.
At some point the pancakes actually started looking like slabs of meat to me.
I became so absorbed watching Touga consume pancakes like a predator that I completely forgot to eat my own.
“…What?”
He stopped eating and glared at me suspiciously.
But the whipped cream stuck at the corner of his mouth was so unbelievably distracting that I couldn’t stop grinning.
My reaction only made him glare harder.
Quickly apologizing, I pointed at my own mouth.
“You’ve got whipped cream there.”
Touga froze for a second.
Then, after a brief pause, he slowly stuck out his tongue and licked the cream from the corner of his lips.
Question.
Describe my emotional state upon witnessing that scene in under one hundred characters.
—That was insanely hot.—
Actually, I didn’t even need a hundred characters.
Five words were enough.
Insanely.
Freaking.
Hot.
I needed everyone to understand the vast depth of emotion packed into those words.
Like when people say something is “precious” or “emotionally devastating,” my “insanely hot” contained layers upon layers of meaning.
Honestly, I believed it held cultural significance on the same level as the Heian-era concept of okashi.
Because seriously—
Wait.
Calm down.
His tongue.
Touga’s tongue.
The way he just—
—licked the whipped cream off—
Ghk… my heart…
That was so erotic I could cry.
No human being should be capable of making a single tongue movement that devastatingly attractive.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, Touga-sama.
Your existence itself is sacred.
“…Why are you crying?”
“Tears of gratitude for your overwhelming sex appeal, Kurogane-san.”
“Sex appeal… seriously?”
“Your tongue was unbelievably erotic. You’re basically R18 just by existing. Minors would collapse instantly if they saw you. I definitely did.”
“Okay, shut up already.”
“Yes, sir.”
God, this mouth of mine was hopeless.
Why did I always keep babbling nonsense?!
I bit my lip repeatedly in self-punishment before finally starting my pancakes far later than I should have.
We didn’t leave the café until much later.
Why?
Because I ate ridiculously slowly.
Touga finished those massive pancakes at light speed.
I respect you, sir.
Please become my mentor in competitive pancake speed-eating.
“My dream is to become the Pancake Eating King!”
—END—
Seriously though, those pancakes were enormous, and halfway through it just became a brutal battle against whipped cream.
The amount was monstrous.
Even I—someone who usually preferred water over food—ended up ordering tea because the sweetness was becoming overwhelming.
Still, wasting food felt wrong, so I forced myself to finish everything.
Wouldn’t want the Wastefulness Ghost haunting me.
While sluggishly walking toward the station and battling the lingering whipped cream sitting heavily in my stomach, Touga suddenly stopped and turned toward me.
“How’d you get here?”
“Huh? By train.”
His abrupt question briefly wiped my memory clean, but I managed to answer.
“I’ll take you home.”
“N-No, you really don’t have to trouble yourself…”
Ignoring me completely, Touga started walking again.
I followed after him, only to realize he wasn’t heading into the station but toward the parking lot outside.
Huh?
Did he forget something?
Then he stopped beside a motorcycle, grabbed a helmet, and handed it to me.
Confused, I just stared blankly until he sighed and shoved the helmet directly onto my head himself.
“Get on.”
Only after he pointed to the back seat did realization finally hit me.
(HE MEANT HE’D TAKE ME HOME ON HIS MOTORCYCLE?!)
I’d assumed he meant walking me to the station.
Panic instantly exploded inside my chest.
I’d never ridden a motorcycle before—not even in my previous life.
And wasn’t riding one basically forced physical contact?!
Which meant wrapping my arms around Touga’s waist while pressing against his broad back?!
“THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!”
“Hah?”
The pressure in his voice felt less like “Hah?” and more like “The hell’d you say?”
It was unfair how quickly he could switch back into delinquent mode.
You were eating pancakes five minutes ago!
Bring back Cute Touga!
Cool Touga was dangerous too, but right now I wanted Cute Touga.
“I don’t know how motorcycles work, and everyone says the closeness is intense!”
“You’re just sitting behind me.”
“But you have to hold onto your driver’s waist!”
“Quit whining and get on.”
No right to refuse.
Understood.
Yes, yes.
A lowly mob character like me should obediently accept this glorious reward.
Honestly, though, was this okay?
Had I used up all my luck already?
Was I going to die from heart failure tomorrow?
When I awkwardly climbed on where he instructed, Touga sat in front of me and started the engine.
The loud roar made my shoulders jump.
“Hurry up and hold on.”
Before I could react, he grabbed my arms and wrapped them around his waist.
GYAAAAAHHHHHHHHH.
Waist.
Smell.
Back.
Congratulations, me.
I can die without regrets now.
Next life, I’ll happily reincarnate as an insect.
I’ve already experienced enough happiness in this one.
Wait.
Am I getting a nosebleed?!
“You’ll fall off holding on like that.”
So, with all the shame and desperation of a dying woman, I fully clung to Touga’s waist.
His body heat seeped through the fabric.
He was warm.
Alive.
His back was so broad.
What was this.
This was my first time feeling something this overwhelmingly masculine.
A back capable of making even women who’d forgotten romance fall in love again.
World peace could genuinely be achieved through this man’s back and waist alone.
Ah.
So Touga was actually the hero destined to save the world.
And I was probably Villager H.
No.
A plankton would be fine too.
As long as I existed in the same world as him, I was happy.
Thank God I was born human.
While I silently offered prayers of gratitude for my existence as a human being, the motorcycle finally started moving.
The moment it did, even my delusions vanished.
Terrified of falling, I clung desperately to Touga the entire ride.
Sorry in advance if I get a nosebleed and stain your clothes.
Actually no, wait, the excitement nausea is back—
Can my body please stop reacting like this?!
The motorcycle sped through familiar streets before eventually stopping in front of the school.
When Touga asked where to drop me off, I told him here was fine and carefully climbed off the bike.
The second my feet touched the ground, my legs nearly gave out.
Leaning weakly against the gate while clutching my nose, I somehow managed to thank him.
“Thank you… very much…”
“What’s wrong with your nose?”
“I might just be on the verge of a nosebleed. Please don’t worry about it.”
“I see.”
Then, casually, Touga patted my head a few times before driving away.
I died on the spot.
Barely managing to crawl home in my near-death state, I noticed I’d gotten an email.
From Touga.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
How many events is this guy trying to cram into such a short period of time?
Yesterday: a phone call.
Today: pancakes, a motorcycle ride, and now a text.
So what, tomorrow’s my funeral?
I was too scared to even open the message.
After thirty straight minutes of staring at my phone in my room, I finally gathered the courage to read it.
The message was simple and blunt, exactly like Touga.
“Sorry for dragging you around today.”
That was it.
Sorry?
I’d been happier than I’d ever been in my entire life.
Today was basically a treasured lifelong memory.
And Touga—someone who almost never apologized to anyone—was apologizing to me?!
Tomorrow really was going to rain spears from the sky, wasn’t it?!
This was the same Touga who never lowered his head, never admitted fault, and was feared, respected, hated, and admired by every delinquent around him.
And he apologized to me?!
What?!
Touga, did you eat something weird?!
I immediately typed out a reply.
“Not at all! I had an amazing time! The pancakes were delicious! Watching you eat pancakes was honestly the cutest thing ever. Thank you for blessing me with that sight. And thank you for taking me home too! You looked unbelievably cool on your motorcycle. Honestly, you looked like someone who gathered all the coolness in the entire world into one person, and I was genuinely worried I might get a nosebleed. Did I stain your clothes? If I did, please tell me and I’ll buy you new ones! Today will stay with me forever. Thank you so much.”
…Somehow it became ridiculously long.
But every word felt necessary, so I sent it exactly as it was.
Then I spent ages staring anxiously at my phone waiting for a response.
None came.
I told myself this was just how life was for a background character, but it still hurt a little.
But later that night, after I got out of the bath and relaxed in my room, my phone suddenly rang.
I scrambled to answer the second I saw the caller ID.
“HWEH— I mean, hello?!”
“Why are you loud even when answering the phone?”
“Eek—sorry! I’ll be quiet! I’m really sorry!”
Ah.
I could hear him clicking his tongue through the phone.
Pain.
“That text was way too damn long. Reading it was exhausting.”
“Y-Yes… I’ll be more careful next time…”
His voice sounded irritated somehow.
Thinking I’d upset him, I apologized again, only for him to mutter:
“It’s not your fault.”
Not my fault… but he was still irritated?
What was bothering him?
…Actually, this felt familiar.
There’d been a scene like this in the game.
The heroine noticed Touga acting strangely and pressed him about it, only to learn he’d gotten into a fight.
Apparently fighting let him forget everything else for a while, but once it ended and he was alone again, all his thoughts came rushing back and left him angry and restless.
He ended up taking it out on the heroine.
But even then, she treated him gently, and through that warmth, Touga gradually began opening his heart.
That was how it happened in the game.
…Honestly, the heroine’s emotional strength was incredible.
If I’d just been an ordinary high school girl without memories of my previous life, I probably would’ve been too scared to go near him anymore.
She really was amazing.
Maybe Touga was upset for a completely different reason right now.
But it wasn’t my place to ask.
I was just a mob character.
Still…
If it was the same reason as in the game, then I wanted—even a little—to ease that pain somehow.
So I quietly spoke.
“Kurogane-san.”
“What.”
“I like you.”
“…Yeah?”
“I know I’m probably not very useful, but if anything happens, please tell me. I’ll do whatever I can for you.”
I couldn’t say something beautiful like the heroine would.
I didn’t have the words or emotional intelligence to move someone’s heart.
But even so—
In my own clumsy way—
I wanted to comfort him.
If he’d never received love from his parents, then I wanted to give him enough love to make up for it.
If he wanted love—if he wanted to understand it—then I wanted to be the one to show him.
Even though that role belonged to the heroine.
Even though a mob character like me had no right to think such things.
After a long silence, Touga finally murmured quietly:
“…Come over to my place right now.”
“…Eh?”
My heart slammed violently against my ribs.
Right now…?
It was already nine at night.
A high school boy and girl meeting alone that late naturally made certain thoughts appear in my mind.
I still had memories from my previous life and, well…
Experience.
So of course my brain went there.
Though honestly, Touga probably had no shortage of girls already, so there was no reason he’d ever look at someone like me that way…
While my thoughts spun wildly out of control, his voice came through the phone again.
“…Just kidding.”
Liar.
He wasn’t the kind of person who joked about something like that.
“Kurogane-san, I—”
“Say my name.”
He cut me off before I could answer.
I was going to say I’d go to his house.
Instead, he told me to call him by his name.
I wondered why.
But I didn’t ask.
Even if I did, he probably wouldn’t answer.
And somehow, I felt like stepping any further into his heart wasn’t something I was allowed to do.
“Touga-san.”
“…What.”
“I love you, Touga-san. More than anyone else in the world.”
A long silence followed.
Then, quietly—
“…I…”
—“Why was I even born?”—
His voice was so faint I almost missed it.
That line appeared in the middle of the game too.
The heroine overheard him whisper it while staring at the rainy sky from the rooftop.
Those weren’t words someone like me was supposed to hear.
So I pretended I hadn’t heard them at all.
To cover it up, I just kept talking about all the things I loved about him.
Touga said nothing.
But I continued talking until he finally started speaking again.
I wished he could someday become happy enough to stop thinking like that.
Happy enough to truly feel glad he’d been born.
No matter how much I poured love into my words, it probably wouldn’t change anything.
If I’d been the heroine instead… would something have changed here?
Would the heroine have been able to reach his heart?
That was something a mob character like me would never know.
——From that day onward, our relationship changed a little.
Whenever something happened, Touga started calling me.
And I would keep talking endlessly about all the things I loved about him until he calmed down.
I didn’t know why he chose to call me.
But honestly, as long as he did, I didn’t need a reason.
At school, though, we never spoke.
Even when our eyes met, we immediately looked away.
Somehow, without ever discussing it, that became the unspoken rule between us.
