The next day, there was a different girl at my house.

"Hee~ Where are your naughty magazines~?"

"Oi, stop that."

Instead of Sakura poking around my house, today would be Shizu's turn to invade my household.

She had randomly texted me the day before to ask me if she could come over, to which I agreed without even asking her for the reason.

Shizu definitely has to have a good reason, right?

As expected of my best friend.

I have full faith in her.

"So, what did you come over here for?"

"To hang out of course!"

"..."

I stand corrected.

Looks like we're just going to be hanging out today.

"What do you want to do then?" I asked.

Shizu puffed up her chest with pride in response to my question. "Hm humph! We're going to be playing truth or dare!"

"What are you? A little kid?" I asked her with a completely deadpan expression on my face.

I'm not even sure why I was getting nervous about having this girl over in the first place, it's clear that she just wanted to mess with me.

"Actually, I'm in high school. So I'm not a little kid anymore," Shizu pouted.

"Yeah, no duh. I'm in the same class as you," I sighed. "Let's just get the game started then."

Shizu and I sat on my bed facing each other and flipped a coin to decide who would go first.

I ended up losing, so Shizu would be the one who asked the first question.

"Truth or dare?" Shizu asked me, with a mischievous smile on her face.

I decided to go with the safer option since it was the first question. "Truth."

"If you met a genie, what would your three wishes be?"

Oh, this question is actually something normal.

"My three wishes would be: to get sent to another world, get overpowered abilities and status, and get a harem."

"Wow, you are really an otaku."

"Same goes for you! You literally watch and read the same things I do!"

That otaku insult was completely unwarranted because she is equally as bad me when it comes to otaku habits.

"Okay, your turn," I said. "Truth or dare?"

"If I say dare, are you going to make me do perverted stuff? You silly lecher~"

"Answer the question..." I replied, exasperated.

"Then, dare."

With a malevolent smile on my face, I sentenced Shizu to her doom. "I dare you to do a backflip!"

"...Dude, seriously?" Shizu looked at me with pity.

"What's wrong?"

"That dare was seriously lame..."

It's not my fault!

Even if Shizu is my best friend, I can't just ask a girl to do something humiliating as a dare!

It's against my moral code of honor, so please blame my parents for raising me as an upstanding gentleman.

"Alright, here I go!" Shizu jumped up from the bed.

As instructed, she did the backflip I asked her to do.

Flawlessly, I must say.

The only problem was...

"I saw your panties."

"Pervert."

Such an exchange was had after the fact.

There was a faint blush on Shizu's face after I had pointed it out, which made me feel a bit bad even though it wasn't my intention to be a weirdo.

I had forgotten that she had a skirt on, which resulted in the skirt being flipped up when she did the backflip.

Please, future me. Remember this lesson well. Do not ask a girl to do a backflip when she's wearing a skirt.

"Okay, my turn!" Shizu quickly recovered from the embarrassment. "Truth or dare?"

Since I went with truth last time, let's go with the opposite.

"Dare."

What is she going to make me do?

"Please open the window and yell out about how happy you are to be hanging out with such a beauty right now~"

Ah, there we go. This is the humiliating thing that I had been waiting for her to ask me to do.

No point in delaying the inevitable, I made a promise with her.

Opening the window to my room, I yelled out as loud as I could. "I AM SO INCREDIBLY OVERJOYED TO HANG OUT WITH A WORLD-CLASS BEAUTY THAT IS MY CHILDHOOD FRIEND RIGHT NOW!"

"O-Okay! S-Stop!!! You're embarrassing me too!" Shizu pulled on my shirt for me to stop.

"Then why did you ask me to do it?!"

"I thought it was going to be funny, not embarrassing..."

For some reason, both of us were blushing immensely.

Hey hey, you were the one that made the dare in the first place...

"Alright, truth or dare?" I asked her after coughing loudly to clear the awkward air.

"Truth."

I quickly searched up a list of truth or dare questions online and found one that was a bit interesting.

"Who are you most jealous of?"

Shizu seems like such an upbeat character that is indomitable by her environment, so I wonder who she could possibly be jealous of?

Who would the top of the top be jealous of?

To my surprise, it was an answer I didn't expect.

"Sakura."

Wait, what?

Why did Shizu say Sakura?

They had barely known each other for a few days, so I can't possibly imagine why she would be jealous of Sakura.

"Why are you jealous of her?" I nervously asked.

In response, Shizu looked deep into my eyes with a sorrowful expression.

"She has everything I don't."

The expression that was on my childhood friend's face at this time...

I never wanted to see it again.