Chapter 10: Dont Worry, Im Here For You, Ryoya

“…It’s already this late?”

I woke up to the sound of an alarm blaring throughout my room and slowly climbed out of bed. I was absolutely terrible at getting up in the morning, so this time of day was always miserable for me.

After fixing my bedhead and changing out of my pajamas and into my school uniform, I headed to the dining room and started eating the breakfast that had been prepared for me on the table.

At the same time, I opened my mobile game, collected my login bonus, and started running through some random dungeons. Using up the stamina that had fully recovered while I was asleep was part of my daily morning routine.

Because I always did this first thing in the morning, I ended up arriving at school just in the nick of time. But it wasn’t like I had any friends to chat with if I got there early, so I didn’t particularly mind.

Incidentally, Dad, Mom, and Mio had already left for work and school, respectively. I was the only one still at home at this hour.

“Oh, they’re doing the swimsuit gacha again this year, huh? Come to think of it, summer vacation is just around the corner.”

After finishing my dungeon runs, I checked the game’s announcements and was reminded that summer vacation was approaching. The normies were probably going to have a wonderful time during their break, but for a loner like me, it was little more than an extended weekend.

Last summer vacation had been pretty much the same as any ordinary weekend, and I had barely done anything that felt like a proper summer event.

If I had to name something, there were only two things: my family of four had visited Grandma’s house in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, during the Obon holidays, and I’d gone to the local summer festival after Mio invited me.

Of course, I also dreamed of spending summer vacation playing at the beach or in the mountains with friends, or going to a fireworks festival with a girlfriend. Unfortunately, those were experiences completely out of reach for a loner like me.

I was sure that only a privileged few, like Reona and Riona, could enjoy the kind of glamorous summer vacations that looked so good on social media.

“Well, this summer probably won’t be much different from last year. I’ll likely spend it doing assignments here and there, reading light novels, and grinding away at my mobile game.”

I was in the middle of making that pessimistic remark when I suddenly heard the sound of a key turning in the front door.

Had Mio forgotten something and come back to get it?

No, if that were the case, she probably would have asked me to bring it to her. While I was wondering about that, the dining room door opened, and Reona and Riona walked in.

“Good morning, Ryoya!”

“We came to pick you up.”

“Hey, hold on a second! Why do you have a key to my house?!”

“Your mom gave us a spare key yesterday, just before we left.”

“Yeah. We told her we wanted to come pick you up in the morning, and she said we could.”

“…Seriously? How can Mom trust people she’s only met a handful of times that much?”

I couldn’t tell whether Mom was just too easily won over or whether Reona and Riona were simply that good at winning people over. Either way, the two of them now had free rein to come and go from my house whenever they pleased.

After that, the three of us set off for school together. Since they’d gone so far as to come all the way to my house to pick me up, I couldn’t exactly tell them I wanted to go separately because I didn’t want to attract unwanted attention.

“Still, you two showed up at my place at exactly the right time. If you’d been even a little later, I would’ve already left.”

“…I guess you could call it a woman’s intuition.”

“Yeah. Just a coincidence…”

After hearing my remark, the two of them fell silent for a brief moment, looking slightly awkward. But they quickly came up with those answers.

Something about their reactions struck me as odd. However, I was still pretty sleepy, so I didn’t think too much about it.

“Ryoya, what rank did you get on the last midterm exam?”

“Uh, that’s a little embarrassing to say…”

“I told you my rank yesterday, so it’s only fair that you tell us yours, too, Ryoya-kun.”

Since Reona had answered when I’d asked her, it would have been pretty unfair for me to refuse to answer now. Reluctantly, I forced myself to swallow my embarrassment and replied in a quiet voice.

“…Around 180th.”

“Hmm. You look like such a serious student, Ryoya-kun, so I didn’t expect your ranking to be that low.”

“That’s exactly why I didn’t want to tell you!”

People often told me that I gave off a serious first impression, but whenever they found out my grades weren’t particularly good, I always got reactions like that.

Well, Amaki High School was a fairly competitive school, so my deviation score on nationwide mock exams had never once fallen below 50. But when those scores were measured against the school’s own academic standards, the results were always a little hard to comment on.

“Don’t worry, Ryoya. I’m here for you.”

“Yeah! With Riona helping you, you can even aim for the top of your grade!”

“That’s reassuring.”

We continued chatting and joking around, and before I knew it, the school gates had come into view. Since we were close to school, there were plenty of other students heading in, just like us.

And, just like yesterday, we attracted a lot of attention.

There was no need to explain why. It was because I was walking alongside Reona and Riona. The looks I was getting practically screamed, Why is a guy like him walking with them? I felt so uncomfortable that I could barely stand it.

“…Sorry, I don’t think I can hold it in anymore. I’m going ahead.”

Unable to withstand the pressure, I blurted that out without waiting for a response, then sprinted toward the shoe lockers.

I ended up killing time in the restroom until just before the bell rang for first period.