I Feel Like I’ve Become a Bothersome Person Getting in the Way Between My Childhood Friends. - Chapter 2

“What’s your relationship with Stanley?”
“Where did you even meet him?”
“Who’s ‘Xeno’!?”

My head hurt from the rapid-fire questions coming from their cute faces.
Standing in front of me were the Cool girls. During lunchtime, on my way to the cafeteria, someone grabbed my backpack from behind and cornered me. I was surprised, but I already had a good idea what this was about, so I told Tomonori, who was supposed to eat lunch with me, to go on ahead.

The reason these Cool girls, who normally wouldn’t even make eye contact with a Loser like me, were talking to me was simple. It was about Stanley Snyder, just like they said. Because I failed to stop him, Stanley, who doesn’t care about school caste systems, ended up treating me like a “person he knows” in front of everyone. I really wish he had thought about the consequences a little more.

“Uh, well, I have a friend from another school named Xeno, and through him, I just happened to talk with Stanley outside of school. That’s all, really. There’s nothing between us, haha.”

I wasn’t lying. Not technically.
The girls didn’t look very convinced, but they reluctantly backed off. Everyone wants to eat lunch, and there’s no time for gossip in the hallway. If this were high school, I probably would have been bullied, but since they were only eleven, things didn’t escalate that far. I had to hand it to them — they had the guts to confront me like that in the middle of the hallway instead of behind the school building like in Japan. I honestly wondered if they’d be okay being seen by their precious Stanley.

“You’re pretty popular, huh.”
See? Just like that.

“I think the popular one here is you… Also, I’d really appreciate it if you didn’t talk to me at school, considering my position.”
Even now, I could feel people’s stares burning into me. At least the Cool girls were gone. Thank goodness.

“Got it. From now on, I’ll just text you if I need anything.”
Waving his hand, Stanley walked off in the opposite direction. I headed toward the cafeteria, praying I could avoid any more unwanted attention. But of course, things didn’t go that smoothly.

“Hey, I heard you’re close with Stanley. How did that happen?”
“Introduce me to him too! You can do that, right?”
“If you’re really that close with Stanley, you’ll help me get to know him, won’t you?”

This time, I was stopped by the Pretty Cool girls. Pretty Cools are the ones who want to get close to the Cools. Since I’m lower on the social ladder, they probably saw me as an easy tool to use to climb up. Somehow, the story had twisted into me being “close friends” with Stanley.

And unlike the Cool girls, these ones didn’t believe me when I tried to explain. The Cools could afford to back off because they were confident in themselves. The Pretty Cools were desperate, so they clung to even the tiniest possible connection.

“Then introduce us to this Xeno guy.”
“Yeah, through him we can get to Stanley, right?”

If I introduced them to Xeno, he’d definitely shut them down immediately. There’s no way a ten-year-old prodigy who’s already in college would get along with them. Even I, a former university student, could barely keep up with his conversations. Thinking about that painful knowledge gap made me sigh, but I quickly came up with excuses not to introduce him. I said things like we weren’t that close, he was difficult to deal with, or he was too busy. Lies, all of them.

Still, they wouldn’t give up, so I finally said I’d “try to talk to him” but couldn’t promise anything. Of course, I had no intention of doing that. After being told, “You’d better!” I nodded hard, then sprinted to the cafeteria. I’d had enough. I just wanted to get back to my group — the Losers. I’d never longed for them this much. I was sure they wouldn’t ask me anything like that.

Except they did.
Not about connecting me with Stanley — it was worse.

“Is it true you’re dating Stanley!?”
“So Aria’s part of the Cool group now, huh?”
“Can we get in on that too?”

By the time the rumor reached the Losers, it had twisted so much that Stanley and I were now “a couple.”

“It’s not true! Stop yelling weird stuff like that!”
I felt like I had said that exact line somewhere before.

The cafeteria was full of tables, each one tied to the social hierarchy. The big table in the center belonged exclusively to the Cools. No one had decided it officially, but no one else dared sit there. The Pretty Cools occupied the tables surrounding it, while the Losers were pushed to the edges. I was sitting at a table belonging to the Losers’ “otaku group.”

“Everyone’s talking about you.”
“We’re all just waiting for Aria to invite us to one of those parties with drugs.”
“Drugs and booze in middle school? That’s peak Cool!”

This is America for you. Depending on the state, marijuana is legal, so there’s barely any stigma around it. They say by the time students reach senior year, over ninety percent have tried drugs. To someone like me, who’s Japanese on the inside, that’s unthinkable. These kids all need to attend an anti-drug lecture or two. Even Tomonori, the other Japanese kid, looked shocked by the conversation.

“Man, America’s crazy. Drugs are okay here?”
“Of course not! You’d get arrested if you did it in public. You gotta do it secretly.”
“So, when are you inviting us to a party?”

I could practically see how rumors grow their own legs. That’s how stories get twisted. At this rate, by tomorrow it’ll be, “Aria and Stanley are dating and spending every night high on booze and drugs.” No way. The thought alone was terrifying.
Feeling bad for crushing their hopes, I gave my third explanation of the day.

“Oh, so that’s how it is.”
“Yeah, I figured as much.”
“But what do we do now? The rumor’s already everywhere.”

Whoever spread that rumor deserved at least one punch. Just being “acquainted” with Stanley had caused me enough trouble. If the Cools heard the “dating” rumor, I’d definitely get harassed for “causing trouble” for Stanley, even if it wasn’t true.

“Then how about this,” Tomonori suddenly said as we were all brainstorming.
“Why don’t we just say we’re dating?”

“…What?”

To my surprise, everyone around us nodded like it made perfect sense. I was the only one who didn’t follow.

“Think about it. If we pretend we’re together, people will realize the Stanley rumor isn’t true. They’ll figure out it was just a misunderstanding.”
“That’s genius!” someone said, clapping their hands. It didn’t sound entirely problem-free, but I got caught up in the atmosphere and nodded.

“It’s just pretend. We’re not actually dating.”
“Yeah, just pretend.”

Everyone raised their cups and cheered.
“A toast to the new couple!”

I couldn’t help but laugh and join in. Maybe I was being played, but everyone looked happy, so it was fine.

Next to me, Tomonori smiled quietly and said, in Japanese,
“Looking forward to it, Aria.”

It was the first time I had heard Japanese in a long while.

Got a fake boyfriend while trying to stop a rumor