Chapter 6: It's Cute to See a Boy Who's Being Forced to Understand the Difference in Performance Between Him and His (Former) Close Friends

It's Cute to See a Boy Who's Being Forced to Understand the Difference in Performance Between Him and His (Former) Close Friends

Time leaps forward, as if I'd lost consciousness, and I'm now a middle school student.

I'm 14!

I'm attending... a middle school?!

I'm right on the edge of being a loli. Starting next year, I'll be able to call myself a legal loli. That's just a guess.

Honestly, I don't care if I'm a loli or not; what's important is that I'm attending a private middle school. Thanks to my dad's hard work and my intellectual prowess compared to my peers, I'm a scholarship student at a prestigious private middle school. Tuition is waived, so how much my dad earns doesn't really matter.

The reason I'm attending a private middle school, even getting a scholarship, is to achieve my goals.

If there's a place that attracts kids with some kind of unique talent, or relatively talented kids, then the chances of encountering a brilliant talent increase slightly.

The expectation is high considering someone as average as me is entering, but I still have a lead to be able to call myself a genius at 15. I'd like to find what I'm meant to find before my expensive shoes wear out, but encounters are a matter of chance and fate. If it were easy to find someone with a little searching, idol scouts wouldn't have any trouble.

Still, dreamers like me can't help but keep looking.

A sparkling light for the future, a wonderful person who will spread happiness around the world.

The only way to meet such a person is to gradually increase your chances. Repeated trial and error. Effort may not increase the number of attempts, but it does increase the possibilities. It's not outrageous to travel to various places and meet many people, but that approach might mean squandering the stars you've worked so hard to find.

Aside from the fact that I'm the type who values ​​quality over quantity, I'm a strikingly beautiful girl now that I'm a fine middle school student.

As usual, I've got not the slightest hint of paternal features, but as Mama's daughter, it's only natural.

...Am I really her daughter? I was born with short telomeres. I don't want to end up like that!

Well, assuming it's only natural that I'm a lower-level version of Mama, let me introduce some of my fun friends who were influenced by my hard work and entered the same school as me.

The first one is Tomohiro-kun, my next-door neighbor, and a great childhood friend. I won't go into the story of how hard he worked to get into the same school as me, as there probably won't be much demand for it. If anything, it's the dad next door who's working harder than Tomohiro-kun himself, who's making more money. Apparently, his son passed the entrance exam despite being completely confident he wouldn't get in, so he's working overtime to pay for tuition. That's tough.

Tomohiro-kun, completely unaware of all this, looked incredibly happy after passing the exam thanks to my one-on-one lessons. His smile, unaware of the sacrifices his father made, is adorable. The parents next door, who don't let him know about it so he doesn't feel guilty, must be wonderful parents. Still, they're not as good as my Mama.

Now, my second fun friend is Satoshi-kun. Unlike me, he's a natural and talented student, and he's attending the same school as me on a scholarship. He's not sure where he'll go yet, but if he can make use of his abilities, he has the potential to succeed in some field. He's definitely the one who shines the brightest among the kids I'm around.

The rest are mostly wealthy kids. They're the kind of privileged kids who come from families who can afford high tuition fees and send their kids to cram schools. If someone from an average family like me were to hang out with these guys, my wallet would dry up in no time. We just have that much different financial senses.

Then there are the kids who are naturally talented and are sent there because their parents have high expectations of them. Many of these kids fall into the category of pure precocious. Probably about half of them, like me, will just be ordinary people once they hit 20.

My Nakama!

Now, as you can probably tell from this introduction, my cute Tomohiro-kun is in the underdog category at this school. Or rather, because of me, he's close to the wealthy kids in terms of ability, but in terms of money, he's on the side of the precocious kids. When that happens, a sad situation inevitably occurs:

"Good morning, Hiro-chan! Let's do our best today too!"

"Oh, yeah. Okay. Good morning, Mashiro-san."

He loses his confidence. Everyone around him becomes superior to him. In this situation, his self-esteem slowly erodes, and he becomes depressed.

You may not be a brilliant mind, but you have the best childhood friend, me. If you were a simple person who could find all your self-esteem there, you probably wouldn't be suffering so much.

It's a sad story.

Well, I was the one who raised you that way.

Before enrolling, you were beaming with excitement at the thought of going to the same school as your beloved childhood friend. But that spark of determination, burning with determination to become someone who wouldn't shame Hikari-chan, was lost with the results of your first test.

Compared to your childhood friend, who was a scholarship student, you were just behind the class. Seeing Tomohiro-kun struggle with this disparity and helpless to do anything about it made my appetite increase.

His parents encouraged him, saying, "You'll do fine if you just work hard!" And I told him I'd teach him anything if he had any questions.

But despite those words of encouragement, his second test results weren't much better.

The look on Tomohiro-kun's face when he received them made my heart ache. It's adorable to see someone lose their confidence.

My chest feels warm and a warm feeling overflows.

Ahh, this is love.

And at the same time that overflowing love was born inside me, Tomohiro-kun lost his self-esteem. His strong heart, which had thought he could do anything if he tried, snapped, and he was no longer able to believe in anything from the bottom of his heart. It was around this time that he started calling me Mashiro-san instead of Hikari-chan. His fragile, strong heart, which he had raised to avoid placing too much strain on himself, was broken.

It's so sad.

And what's even more unsustainable is that he has to watch me, who objectively shines brightly, even though he has lost his self-esteem.

Normally, he would feel like a burden and would distance himself, but since childhood, Tomohiro's personality has been largely shaped by me. Even if he were to distance himself from me now, my roots have run deep enough that it would be the final blow.

Yup, reincarnated people are no good.

Though he doesn't shine with a dazzling brilliance, Tomohiro-kun's gentle glow makes him the perfect snack.

If I ever get tired of him, I can easily change his flavor, and he's truly a wonderful person.

I'd almost like to recommend Tomohiro-kun to every reincarnated person. Any reincarnated person who's recommended something like that is a real loser though.

We walk to school together.

It's a warm, sunny morning that reflects my heart.

In contrast, everything around Tomohiro-kun is somehow dark.

In truth, he probably wants to get away from me, want to accept that we live in different worlds, but Tomohiro-kun's world is just too small for that. That's why, even though he exudes such a dark aura, he can't leave me. He probably knows that's why he feels out of place.

Ah, I really love him.

Now, my childhood friends' fun chats, where I mostly do all the talking, will end once we get to school.

Tomohiro-kun is very modest and seems reluctant to be friendly with me at school. Is he the male version of Yamato Nadeshiko who walks three steps behind me?

Once we arrive at school and our classrooms, we each talk with our respective friends. And by "respective," I mean, unlike me, the popular girl who's always surrounded by people, Tomohiro-kun doesn't really have any friends.

Maybe the reason he stands out like that and doesn't get bullied is because most of the kids there are relatively well-behaved.

...No, I think it's because they recognize him as my favorite.

Well, to sum it up, my relationship with Tomohiro-kun now is like that of a girl we used to get close to, but now out of reach.

When we were little, he used to say he wanted to marry Hikari-chan, so I'm sure I'm his first love.

I wonder what he'll do if I find a boyfriend somewhere else? My intellectual curiosity prickles a little.

Hiding these thoughts with the angelic face I inherited from my Mama, I go around saying hello to the kids who seem eager to talk to me.

Although I may be out of reach, I'm not the type to become lonely and be labeled as a loner; I'm aiming to be the class mascot that everyone loves.

The loner type can give up on troublesome relationships, but I can't make friends if I discover a talent.

There's a trade-off between ease and effectiveness. To be honest, getting along with classmates feels like a waste of effort, but I have my tasty snack Tomohiro-kun, so it's okay.

Author Note:

Hikari is the type who leaves snacks far away from a disabled puppy and feels love when she sees him crawling to get them. That's no good (╹◡╹)