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 29

Tōma Suzuki woke up in the morning.

Feeling a slight sense of tension, he raised his upper body.

Yesterday, Tōma had fallen asleep on the floor of his own room.

“Good morning, Tōma.”

“Uh, yeah… good morning, Suzuha-san.”

Tōma quickly reacted to her sudden greeting, stood up, and returned the morning salutation.

“It’s already morning, huh? But somehow, I feel like I slept really well.”

Suzuha Kamiya, who had been resting in the bed where Tōma usually slept, stretched as she sat up.

Tōma, on the other hand, had not rested well at all.

The reason was obvious.

Because he had to sleep in the same room as Suzuha.

When Suzuha had come out of the bath last night, Tōma had been somewhat flustered by her appearance.

Her hair, dried with a hairdryer, looked silky, and her pajamas, which slightly revealed glimpses of her underwear, were a bit too much for a high schooler like Tōma, even though they were dating.

“Sorry about yesterday. I ended up using your bed to sleep.”

She adjusted her position to sit at the edge of the bed, turning her body to face Tōma.

“It’s fine. I couldn’t exactly let you sleep on the floor.”

“Then we could’ve just shared the bed.”

“Y-Yeah, maybe… but, you know, that would have been kind of awkward.”

“But I wouldn’t have minded sharing it, though.”

Suzuha gazed up at Tōma with an upward glance.

Being stared at so intently like that made him feel self-conscious.

Tōma gave an awkward smile before suggesting they should get breakfast soon.

“I hope we can find out more about CyberTask this week.”

“Yeah. But we have no connections with that company. How are we supposed to approach them?”

After finishing breakfast, the two left the house and walked toward school.

They had just parted ways with Tōma’s younger sister, Emi, at a traffic light intersection.

“By the way, have you received any new emails on your account, Tōma?”

“…No, nothing so far.”

Tōma checked his SNS account on his smartphone as he answered.

No new messages had arrived, and nothing seemed to have changed.

Out of curiosity, he also checked the account of a virtual streamer who had done a live broadcast yesterday.

A new post had been made, thanking viewers for attending the stream.

Seeing that message, accompanied by a nonchalant photo, only made Tōma more annoyed.

Regardless, he still wanted an answer regarding what had happened during the stream.

It was only natural that getting a response would take time.

It depended on how that virtual streamer explained things to the company, but Tōma hoped for a clear answer.

Was the streamer using Suzuha’s avatar without permission?

Or was the company itself allowing it?

They needed to make that clear.

But there was no way the company would be complicit in such a thing…

At least, Tōma wanted to believe that.

“I wish CyberTask would hold some kind of event. That would help us, right?”

“Yeah… but I doubt things will work out that conveniently.”

“You’re right. It’s not like events just happen when you need them.”

“But… looks like there actually is some kind of event happening.”

Tōma, looking at his phone, spoke to Suzuha walking beside him.

“Huh? Really?”

“Yeah. But it’s an event that requires an invitation.”

“You mean like a lottery draw?”

Suzuha peeked at Tōma’s phone screen.

“Seems like it.”

“Can we still apply for it now?”

“Doesn’t look like it. The deadline was a month ago.”

“What? No way… so what do we do now?”

Suzuha slumped her shoulders, looking dejected.

“Guess we’ll have to find another way.”

“Another way? Like what?”

“Not sure… but there has to be something.”

“Something, huh… This isn’t getting us anywhere.”

“Well, we’re just regular people. It’s not easy to get in touch with a company we have no connections with.”

“If only we knew someone connected to CyberTask…”

Suzuha sighed as she and Tōma continued walking the path to school, frustrated by their lack of progress.

Even during lunchtime, they had not come up with a solution.

As the morning classes ended, Tōma and Suzuha left the classroom, walking down the hallway.

They were so close to figuring things out, yet they couldn’t move forward.

It was frustrating.

Feeling restless, Tōma checked his phone again.

A notification for a new message popped up.

Startled, he immediately opened his SNS.

However, the response he received was vague and generic.

In short, the company stated that no one had been using someone else’s avatar without permission.

Huh?

What does that mean?

That can’t be right.

Tōma stared at the message, wide-eyed in confusion.

“Suzuha-san, look at this.”

He turned the screen toward her.

“Huh? You got a reply?”

“Yeah. But you should take a good look at it.”

“…Wait, what? ‘No one has used someone else’s avatar’? That makes no sense.”

“Right? I was shocked too.”

“This is definitely suspicious.”

“Yeah… If someone actually used your avatar without permission—”

Their conversation had drawn the attention of people around them, especially when they mentioned “avatar.”

Noticing the curious stares, the two decided to quickly leave the hallway.

“Phew, that was close.”

“Yeah, we were getting some intense looks. Do you think just saying ‘avatar’ was enough to make them suspect anything?”

“Maybe not… but virtual streamers have been getting really popular lately. It’s possible someone made the connection.”

“Don’t say such scary things!”

Suzuha’s voice wavered slightly with anxiety.

They had now arrived at a more secluded hallway.

Then, they headed downstairs to the school’s first-floor cafeteria.

Since neither of them had brought lunch, they had decided to buy something from the school store.

As they arrived at the store—

“Se-Senpai!”

“Tsubaki?”

They ran into first-year student Tsubaki Sakurada, who had just exited the store.

“You’re not working in the library today?”

“I took the day off. Also, Senpai, I have something I need to tell you.”

“Me?”

“Yes. It’s about what we talked about before.”

“Before?”

Tōma tilted his head in confusion.

Though he had interacted with Tsubaki for a while now, he couldn’t immediately recall what she was referring to.

“I mean… about becoming a virtual streamer.”

Tsubaki whispered softly, speaking only to Tōma.