My Childhood Friend, Who I Made a Promise To Spend the Future With, Dumped Me... But Ever Since I Started Dating a Beautiful Girl From School, My Childhood Friend Has Been Acting Strange - Episode 17

School was over for the day, and all that was left was heading home.

Tōma Suzuki had barely exchanged any words with his childhood friend, Azusa Saori, throughout the entire day.

Having finished preparing to leave, Tōma made his way to the school’s entrance, where he changed into his outdoor shoes at the shoe locker.

Suzuha Kamiya had left earlier, saying she had something to do, so Tōma planned to head home alone.

“Senpai, are you heading home now?”

A familiar voice called out from behind just as Tōma was walking toward the school gate.

Turning around, he saw his junior, Tsubaki Sakurada, standing there.

She was a girl with a distinctive bob-short hairstyle.

“Tsubaki, huh?”

“I’m free today.”

“Even as a library committee member, you don’t have any duties?”

“Yeah, I was allowed to leave early today. So, Senpai, would you like to go into town with me for a bit?”

“Into town? Well, I don’t mind. Is there something you need to buy?”

“Yes… something like that. But you’ll understand once we get there.”

With that, Tsubaki walked up beside Tōma on his left, and the two of them headed toward town together.

“Senpai, you’ve been glued to your phone for a while now. Is it something important?”

“I made a promise to my little sister, Emi, this morning. We were deciding on what to do for dinner, so I was messaging her about it.”

Tōma showed his phone screen to Tsubaki as they walked.

“Oh, I see. You’re discussing whether to buy ready-made meals from the supermarket with your sister.”

“Exactly. I was planning to stop by the supermarket and meet up with Emi. If you don’t mind, can I call her over now?”

“Eh? Oh… I don’t mind, if that’s the case…”

Tsubaki’s tone suddenly became hesitant.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing… By the way, is your sister doing well? I haven’t interacted with her in a while.”

“Emi’s as energetic as ever.”

“I see. That’s good to hear.”

Tsubaki’s expression returned to her usual unreadable calm, and her tone became noticeably more detached.

Did I say something wrong?

Tōma tilted his head in confusion.

“Onii-chan, sorry to keep you waiting!”

As they walked past a bookstore in town, Emi Suzuki came running toward them.

“You got here pretty fast.”

“I happened to be nearby.”

She beamed as she spoke, then turned to Tsubaki.

“It’s been a while, Tsubaki-san.”

“Yes, it has,” Tsubaki replied coolly.

“Onii-chan, you were planning to stop by the bookstore, right?”

“Yeah, the supermarket will be after that.”

“Yay! I actually wanted to get a book too!”

Emi excitedly clung to Tōma’s arm as they entered the bookstore, with Tsubaki following behind.

Since it was the evening, there were a decent number of customers inside.

“Senpai, I’ll be looking over there for a bit.”

Apparently, the book Tsubaki wanted was in a different section, so she walked off on her own.

“So, Emi, what kind of book are you looking for?”

“I need a novel for school. We have a designated reading time in the morning, and I wanted to find something for that.”

“A novel, huh? That reminds me, we had morning reading time too back when I was in middle school.”

Tōma had attended the same middle school as Emi two years ago.

Every morning, there had been a fifteen-minute reading session, and he had diligently read novels during that time. Nowadays, he still read occasionally, but he mostly enjoyed manga.

“I think the novels are over there. Let’s check it out together.”

“Yeah, but… I want to try reading more difficult novels. I want to prepare for high school by reading more serious books.”

“That’s a great attitude. By the way, how’s your high school entrance exam prep going?”

“It’s going well!”

“That’s good to hear. But you should also take some time to relax. When I was preparing for exams, it was really tough, and looking back, I think I should’ve eased up a bit.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. If you push yourself too hard every day, you’ll just end up exhausted, and that won’t help.”

“Hmm… yeah, that makes sense.”

“When you’re reading, I think it’s good to pick something that helps you refresh your mind too.”

Tōma stopped in front of the bookshelf.

“How about this one?”

“Is this… a novel?”

“Yeah. It’s called a light novel. It should be fine for school reading time, and personally, I recommend it.”

Tōma handed her a student-friendly light novel featuring an illustrated cover with anime-style characters.

Emi held the book with both hands and flipped through the pages.

“This kind of story looks interesting! Are light novels mostly fantasy?”

“There are other genres too, like school life stories and modern fantasy.”

“Wow, there’s a lot of variety! I think I’ll give it a try.”

Her eyes sparkled as she eagerly began picking out a light novel to read.

“I’m going to check on Tsubaki. You go ahead and choose your book, Emi.”

“Okay! Thanks, Onii-chan!”

“Sure, I’ll be back soon.”

Tōma left Emi behind and walked toward the section where Tsubaki had gone.

Ah, there she is.

Away from the shelves of novels and manga, he spotted Tsubaki standing in front of a shelf displaying game magazines.

She seemed to be contemplating which book to pick

“Tsubaki, have you decided on what you want?”

He approached her from behind and stood at her right side.

“Senpai. I’m still thinking about it.”

“What are you considering?”

“This one, I suppose…”

Tsubaki pulled out a magazine featuring a special on virtual streamers who were currently at the peak of their popularity. The cover displayed several well-known VTubers.

“Virtual streamers, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you still watch VTuber streams often?”

“I do. They’ve become quite a big deal lately.”

“I see.”

“What about you, Senpai?”

“I watch them sometimes, but not as much as I used to.”

“I still follow them regularly. And actually… I’ve been thinking about something.”

“What is it?”

“I kind of want to try becoming a VTuber myself. What do you think?”

Her sudden confession left Tōma momentarily speechless.

All he could say was, “If you’re interested, I think you should go for it.”