Chapter 132 – Beloved Character

It seemed like the girls in class 2-11 were aware of my existence, Nakamura-san's attitude proved that. It's just that I didn't expect to receive this much attention.

I assumed that those in the preparatory class would be more mature than the students from regular classes, but the number of eccentric girls here exceeded my expectations, including Nakamura-san.

"Um, Nakamura-san? …I don't think it's okay for me to be here… I should just leave–"

"Hehe don't worry, Boyfriend-kun, I'll let you off after I'm done with you. For now you should just make yourself comfortable, we have tea and snacks for you~"

"…I have a bad feeling about this…"

From the other girls' gazes, I expected that they would bombard me with a lot of questions if I were to give in.

I wanted to leave, but Nakamura-san blocked me from leaving and the other girls sealed the back door before I realized it. In the end, I had no choice but to resign myself to whatever they had in store for me.

Nakamura-san then dragged me to a seat right beside Umi.

"Jeez, why are you here? I told you to not come here, right? Why didn't you listen to me?"

"…In my defense, I didn't know that this would happen, but still, sorry…"

"…It's fine… I didn't think that they would go this far either…"

Before I knew it, we were surrounded by the girls.

…I swear I saw some of them grinning at us, but that was probably just my imagination… Right?…

"So this is the our class idol's boyfriend, huh?~"

"He is shorter than I expected."

"Look at him, he looks so scared, he's so cute~"

Yes, I'm scared… Their gazes looked scary…

…Was this really the glorified class 11? The preparatory class? I didn't wander into a lion's cage by mistake, did I?

"It'll trouble him if all of us were to talk to him at once, so, let me do the talking. Okay, everyone? Don't worry, I know what you guys want to ask him, you can leave it to me!"

"Huh? What are you on about, Nakamura? You just want to monopolize him, no? As if I'll let you!"

"Yeah! You can't do whatever you like just because your grades are higher than ours!"

"Then, why don't you guys try to steal first place from me next midterm? I want to see you guys do it."

Actually, only Umi had the right to monopolize me. I was about to say that, but I knew something bad would happen to me if I were to say that.

By the way, Nakamura-san got the highest grade in this class? I knew that she wasn't an ordinary person.

"Uh, Umi?…"

"…I know what you want to ask, don't worry, I was the same as you when I first entered this class…"

Back when we were in the first grade, those girls were in separate classes, so they weren't that conspicuous. But now that they were together, their personality stood out.

Most of them, including Nakamura-san, looked normal, but they were quite eccentric.

Will Umi be influenced by them?

Oh right, they said she was the class' idol, what was that about?

Well, she's gotten prettier by the day so I understood where they were coming from.

"Back when she introduced herself, I always thought that Asanagi-chan was a smart, athletic, stylish and pretty girl. She could make a perfect poker face too, so she stood out. But then I stumbled upon her secretly grinning at a boy's picture on her phone~"

"The embarrassed Asanagi-chan was so cute~ Good job on discovering that side of her back then, Nakamura."

"When we saw that gap moe, the position of the class' idol was pretty much decided."

"She fell in love with an ordinary-looking guy instead of someone really popular, that made her a lot more approachable than before~"

"I know, right?"

Hearing Nakamura-san's words, the girls surrounding us nodded in agreement.

The whole picture thing probably happened after I sent her those pictures of mine a while back. Still, I didn't expect that this would happen.

I thought that sending those pictures to her was a bad idea, but it seemed that things worked out for the better for Umi? Maybe…

…Still, those girls saw my embarrassing pictures… Ugh…

"You're loved, huh, Umi?"

"Mm… I'm glad that I'm able to get along with everyone like this, it's just… I didn't expect this to happen…"

"I feel you."

Still, she seemed to be more of a 'beloved character' rather than the center of the class. But because of this, the atmosphere was more amicable than before.

Also, I kind of want to see Umi's embarrassed face when Nakamura-san found out about her cute side.

Anyway, from the way I saw it, class 2-11 seemed to be centered around Nakamura-san and Umi. They got along well, so there didn't seem to be any issues. Our class couldn't even compare to this… Poor Amami-san…

The atmosphere in class 2-10 was really bad compared to class 2-11.

No matter how good Amami-san and Arae-san were, I couldn't see them winning against Umi's class in the class match. This was basketball, a team sport. Two people who stood out could never beat a team who could coordinate well with each other.

I'm curious about how the match would play out when they faced each other later on. 

"Wait a minute, Boyfriend-kun!"

"Please call me by my name, it's Maehara."

"Ah, sorry, Maehara-kun. Can you wait for a bit?"

"…Why?"

"Why are you in such a rush? I'm not done questioning you yet."

"…I see…"

"Hehe~"

Since I knew that Umi was doing well, I decided to run away quickly… And was stopped by Nakamura-san.

I thought that I could slip by because they were all busy fawning over Umi, but Nakamura-san kept a closer watch on me than I thought.

"…Maki, just give up… If you keep trying to run away, this won't end…"

"…Right…"

After that, I was questioned by Nakamura-san for 30 minutes before she released me.