Chapter 36. The Popular Girl who just wants to be friends. (5/5)

I leaned in close and forcefully stole her lips.

Her eyes opened wide in shock at the unexpected development.

She frantically pushed me away, to which, I backed up.

“W-W-Waght abu b-buing!” She was so flustered she spat out something incomprehensible but cute.

I smirked at her and explained, “Is the easiest most effective way to get a woman to treat you as her greatest enemy not through forcing yourself on her?”

She opened and closed her mouth trying to say something but the words would not come out. Her lips were quivering.

“Then, if you have nothing else to say, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Hold up! You can’t just go and steal a girl's lips then run away like nothing happened! T-That was my first kiss!”

Huh?

I looked back at her, but I didn’t see the reaction I expected. I thought she’d start crying, but against my expectations, she’d actually recovered and was pouting.

“You said we’re enemies, but who goes and randomly kisses their enemy? Really?” She was complaining.

“Uh… isn’t your reaction a bit weird? Wouldn’t a girl normally cry feeling betrayed and hurt after being forcefully kissed like that?”

“What if the girl already liked you from the start?” Her pure steel blue eyes looked deep into mine as she asked that.

I frowned.

“Surely you jest.”

She averted her eyes to the side and didn’t respond.

“I’ll be going now.” On that note, I made my escape without hesitation.

I’d made a huge miscalculation. Things hadn’t played out the way I’d anticipated at all. I suddenly had the urge to just give up and admit defeat. Why the hell am I even bothering with all of this? 

Haaaah. It can’t be helped. I’ve just got to put up with this for a few more months and I’ll be 16 and not have to worry about it.

When I got home I immediately called Rosa.

“Hello?” Her voice calmed my uneasy heart a bit.

I didn’t want to hide what happened so I came out with it immediately.

“Something bad happened.”

“What is it? Do you need help?”

“I don’t need help, but please stay calm when I say this.”

“What? You cheated on me or something?” The words got stuck in my throat when she jokingly said that.

“Huh? Hey, why’d you go silent?”

“That is…”

“Wait. Seriously?”

“Sort of. I’m sorry.”

“Hmm… I see. Well? What happened exactly?”

I was surprised. I thought she’d get really mad, but her voice sounded quite calm for a girl who’d been told by her boyfriend he cheated on her.

“You’re taking this a lot calmer than I expected.”

“Well, something obviously happened. You immediately called me and obviously had me on your mind. Rather than angry, I’m a bit happy you’re not hiding it from me and being completely honest.” To have a girlfriend this understanding was a waste on someone like me.

I let out a sigh and informed her, “I forcefully kissed that popular friend of yours.”

“Hah! What the hell!”

“I’m sorry.”

“What the hell do you mean you’re sorry! I wanted to be the one who kissed that girl first!”

“Huh?” I felt a sense of exasperation when my brain processed her words.

“What do you mean, huh? Apologize to me for kissing her before I could. That girl is just too good. Even I want to kiss her.”

“No… but… isn’t what you’re getting angry about a bit weird? I mean… I am your boyfriend, right? And I forcefully kissed your friend behind your back.”

“I’ve already accepted that something like this might happen from day one when I figured out you were the one she was searching for. That girl is persistent in trying to become your friend. But I knew you would refuse that at all costs being the type of unsociable person you are. That being the case, I figured you might do something in the future to try and make her hate you. Thus, a forced kiss wasn’t something too far outside of my expectations. Now, if you went and raped her or something, I might have murdered you, but if it’s just a kiss, then so be it.”

The way she’d so calmly analyzed the situation was a bit scary. It definitely wasn’t the type of reaction a normal high school girl would have. She was composed and level-headed. I could only be thankful I had such a peculiar girlfriend. There was no unnecessary drama.

“So? Care to explain? How’d you end up in this situation? You wouldn’t have done it unless you got cornered in a situation you couldn’t get out of, right?”

“Well…” I explained everything that had transpired from beginning to end. I naturally had to explain my disguise and reason for doing so.

She didn’t seem all too surprised.

“Someone punched you… who is he? No, where is that bastard now?” The thing she seemed most angered by was how I’d been punched by someone. 

She sounded like she was out for blood so I had to calm her down, “Relax, he barely hit me.”

“I don’t care. It’s a matter of principle. If I see him... I’ll definitely kill him.”

“Please don’t say something like that. When you say it doesn’t sound like a joke.”

“Who’s joking?”

I let out a dry laugh and said, “Haha... You sound pretty scary.” When I thought about how sharp and long her nails were, I got a bit anxious.

“So? You ended up declaring you’d be her enemy as well out of nowhere?”

“Yeah.”

“What the heck? Why do something like that?”

“Well… it’s a bit hard to explain my thought process for that. The simplest explanation is, she’s a girl who has no enemies and only friends. Too many friends, to the point it’s… unhealthy even.”

“Unhealthy? How can it be unhealthy to have friends? Rather, don’t you think you’re the unhealthy one for having no friends?”

“Well, we’re like two sides of the same coin in that regard. But it’s because I’m on the other side there are things I can see that she cannot. She’s going to break one day. I was just going to sit back and watch the show from afar, but since I’ve gotten in this deep I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone. Fixing my own problem created by her will inevitably fix her own problem. Being too nice is both a blessing and a curse. One day when you aren’t able to choose a side because you want it all, you’ll be torn in two pieces and break down.”

“I don’t really get stuff like that.”

“Well, you’re more like the center of the coin in a way. What ends up holding the two faces of the coin together.”

“If you say so.”

After that, she changed the topic and the two of us talked for a little while longer about completely unrelated things late into the night. It had started out a bit heavy, but by the end of the call, it was really light-hearted.

We ended the call with a ‘love you’ which was a bit embarrassing, but it didn’t feel too bad.