A confession so soon? It’s only been a few days into our new school year. There’s no way someone already wants to confess to me. I can’t believe anyone would decide that I was the one by now. All this makes me think it’s some kind of trick. A joke to make fun of me later on, or even a trap by some guy I’ve crossed. Even though I can’t think of a time when I crossed another person. I’m sure that’s a possibility somehow.

Yet, Taisei won’t tell me anything about who left this note. Though from the way he’s acting about the note, it appears to be a genuine letter. He’s the kind of guy who’s always got my back, so he would let me know if something was up. Meaning whoever left it on my desk fully intends on revealing their feelings for me.

They want to see me after school. On the roof, specifically. Kind of cliche, but I can’t argue against that decision. For a moment, I consider on if I should go, but the choice is easy. Of course I’ll go there to meet whoever this person is. The note says if I choose not to come, then they’ll take that as a silent rejection. Which I find to be unfair either way. At the very least, if I decide not to accept their feelings. I need to do it to their face. There should be no coward’s way out.

That said, I also don’t know how I should respond. Given the anonymous nature of this note, I have no clue of knowing who the girl is. I can assume that it must be one of my fellow classmates. So far, those have been the only girls I’ve chatted with other than Juria’s friend group. At least I assume that her friends are not among the potential people to have left this here. I’ve barely talked to any of them and I believe they’d like to know me more if they were interested instead of doing this.

It’s settled then. I’m certain it’s one of the girls in my class. They likely were worried since there are also others interested in me that they wanted to get a shot before it was too late. I can’t blame them for feeling that way, but it’s a tricky situation to be in. There’s a higher chance of me rejecting them because I don’t feel comfortable with most people here yet. I don’t even know if I want to have a girlfriend right now. But if I’m going to answer, it has to be a proper rejection of their feelings. I can’t leave them thinking they still have a choice by saying I’m not looking for a relationship.

I just don’t know what to do. I planned on going to Juria during the second break, but with this on my mind. I don’t think I can have a proper conversation with her and deal with this at the same time. So as much as it pains me, I’ll just have to delay talking to her until after I resolve this confession. A shame really. If I did accept that rejection, then what would she think after what I did to her yesterday? Disgust? Disappointment? Maybe I’m wrong in thinking she’s that upset with me. It’s entirely possible that she could be happy that I got a girlfriend, just like she’s always said she would.

With that, I’ve made up my mind and mentally prepare myself for what’s to come. When class ends, I bid a farewell and good luck to Taisei as he heads out with the baseball team. He tells me that he’ll tell Juria I won’t be able to walk home with her after school this time. Mainly to clarify that I’m not going to be there due to this obligation, not because of what’s happening between us.

As I walk up the stair, I feel a light tremble to my steps. I need to hold onto the rail or else I feel as though I might stumble back and fall down multiple flights of stairs. It’s frightful to be walking into a situation where I don’t any answers yet. It’s impossible to know what I’m going to say, how I’m going to react. Compared to this morning, this is like a boss fight to a tutorial level. My parents made for great guides back then, but what would they say…

No, I have to decide for myself here. As much as I want to rely on others, I need to be the one to determine my own feelings to this matter. It’s the only way my heart can have peace.

Finally, I open up the door to the roof. There, I see a lone girl standing, looking out to the view. She’s the one who left me the note. When I opened the door, its creaking sound created catches her attention. She turns to look at me and I get a glimpse of her face.

Huh? I don’t recognize this face at all. She’s not one of my classmates, that much is certain.

“H-hi…” Shyly, she greets me as I approach. “I’m sure you’re really confused.” The girl introduces herself to me by awkwardly extending a hand. “M-my name’s Koiki, it’s n-nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too?” I’m confused. While I was expecting them to feel a bit awkward given the nature of a confession. I can’t say this was what I had in mind. “Um, you are the one who sent me this note, right?”

“Yes… And I need to be honest with you right now.” At first, I assumed it would be an explanation as to how she fell for me. Why she decided this was the way to go about a confession. You know, normal things like that. Instead, I got something a little different. “This isn’t a confession to you.”

“What? Is this some kind of trick?”

“No no, that’s not it at all!” She backs up in fear and put up her hands as if I’m about to attack. I never thought I looked like the kind of guy to lay a hand on a lady, even if she did wrong me. Guess I sound more upset about this than I thought I would be. “But, you’re always surrounded by a lot of people. So I couldn’t come up with a better way to get to talk to you alone. Sorry…”

“Then, what is it you want to talk about?” It must be important if she went to all this trouble. While I would’ve been fine with a normal conversation, and she certainly was free to pull me aside if it needed to be private. This works for me too, I guess.

“You see, I know you’re a popular guy. And there’s a lot of girls around you, that you’re pretty sure are going to ask you out, right?”

“Yeah.” I don’t really need someone to pump up my ego, if that’s what she’s going for. At the end of the day, I don’t really care about all the girls that want to talk to me. It’s up to them if they want to do anything about it. I’ll let my feelings be the answer to that. “So?”

“I’m telling you to not accept any of their confessions.” Okay, now that’s extreme.