After My Girlfriend Dumped Me, I Got Reincarnated As A High School Student. That Part’s Fine—But Why Are All My Ex-Girlfriends Here Too? - Chapter 21 – Let’s Study!

That day after school.

I was heading to the library, planning to study using the notebook I borrowed from Hiromi.

“My big brother, studying? Impossible…!”

Hinami, walking beside me, shed a small tear.

Are you my guardian or something…?

Ah, well, she does take care of me a lot, now that I think about it.

Maybe this time, I should call her “big sis” instead…

“You’ll always be my big brother!”

“Yes, ma’am…”

“Yuu-nii! Teach Maria how to study!”

Maria suddenly hugged me tightly from behind.

“What are you saying!? There’s no way big brother can teach anyone how to study! Go away!”

Hinami tried to pull Maria off me.

“Uh, Hina? Could you please stop dissing your brother so casually…?”

“Ehh, even if he’s bad at studying, I still want to learn from Yuu-nii~”

“Maria? That’s not really helping me, you know?”

Why does it feel like everyone has zero faith in my study skills…?

Well, okay, I don’t really have much academic ability left from high school anyway.

“This is what we call the result of one’s daily behavior,” Rio said, shrugging her shoulders.

Daily behavior, huh…

Maybe I should start leaving a Chiro-Choco in Rio’s shoe locker every morning…

She is technically an angel, right? Maybe I’ll get some kind of divine blessing…

“What kind of harassment is that!? And for the record, I’m not technically an angel—I’m a full-fledged angel-in-training!”

Angel-in-training… huh.

I still prefer Gari Ori popsicles over “full-fledged” anything, though.

“Would you listen!?”

Eep… okay, okay—you’re the strongest and best of them all…

“Chiro-Choco tastes good, though.”

“Sure, it’s good, but… having mystery chocolates show up in your shoe locker every day? That’s straight-up horror movie material.”

“It’s fine! I’ll make sure to write ‘Please grant blessings, O God, Buddha, and Rio on every one!”

“That’s not fine! That just makes it even creepier!”

Hmm… guess that won’t work either.

Then how about Big Surprise On chocolate?

“It’s not about the brand of chocolate!? And you’d just be buying those for the collectible stickers, wouldn’t you!?”

Tch. Busted.

Back when I was a kid, I couldn’t afford to buy them in bulk, but lately I’ve been doing “adult buys” trying to get rare stickers.

Though honestly, those chocolates are fine one or two at a time, but if you buy a bunch, you get sick of them fast…

In the end, they just expire before I even finish them.

Good kids, don’t do that, okay?

“Good kids also don’t put Chiro-Choco or Surprise On chocolate in people’s shoe lockers.”

Yeah… I really agree with that one.

“So, you knew it was wrong!? Haah… anyway, I meant your daily behavior—you should try improving yourself in small ways.”

“Daily behavior, huh…”

“Then I’ll write Yuta a love letter every day!”

Shima suddenly joined the conversation.

Where did you even come from…?

“Please don’t do that, I’m begging you.”

“I got rejected instantly!?”

Of course you did.

Getting a long letter from you every single day would be insane…

If something like that showed up in my locker daily, I’d be terrified—and people would probably start avoiding me because of the weird aura around me.

“The Chiro-Choco thing is just as bad, though.”

“Yes, ma’am! I’m sorry!”

“Good… but aren’t you a little too desperate?”

Hey, can you blame me? Being compared to that is kind of depressing…

Then, I suddenly stopped walking.

“Yuta?”

The four of them looked at me, wondering what was wrong, but I didn’t answer. I just stared straight ahead.

Honestly, it’s bad enough just being at the same school, but why does she always appear at the worst possible time?

Standing in front of me was my third ex-girlfriend—Hanaoka Mie.

She was the one I dated before Hiromi, and we were together for over a year.

Her hair was short, about neck-length, with a reddish tint—she said it was inspired by her favorite artist.

“Mie…”

Hinami noticed where I was looking, too.

Of course she did.

Mie was the first girlfriend I ever introduced to Hinami in this world.

They actually got along pretty well, and even after the breakup, I heard they kept in touch for a while…

Now, though, Mie was chatting happily with some guy I didn’t know—an undeniably handsome one.

She noticed me staring, and our eyes met.

Then she gave me a very clear look of disgust and turned away.

After that, she walked off with the guy without a word.

“Was that another ex-girlfriend of yours?”

“Yeah.”

“She really didn’t look happy to see you.”

“Well… I mean, if she didn’t dislike me, we wouldn’t have broken up, right?”

“Yuta, your eyes are totally darting around right now.”

“N-no they’re not!”

“You two were really close, though, weren’t you, Yuta and Mie?”

“…Yeah.”

We really were.

At first, she was super shy—barely talked to me at all—but as we spent more time together, we gradually got closer.

We met each other’s families, too. People used to tease us, saying we looked like siblings because our eyes were similar.

Somewhere along the way, I started to think… maybe she was the one.

The girl meant for me.

But—looking back now—I realize I’d forgotten something important.

That if something has a beginning, it must also have an end.