The Fate of the Protagonist Who Chose the Harem Ending - Episode 10

Ee~……?

“Hey, Haru, was I really eating in that kind of situation?”

“If I had to say, yeah, you were.”

“Finally noticed, did you…?”

While moving to have lunch with Shizuku and Aiba, I responded to Shizuku’s comment about when we saw Ichijo eating in the classroom surrounded by girls.  

The other guys in the classroom, as usual, were glaring at Ichijo’s harem with envy.  

“As someone involved, I didn’t realize it. But looking at it as a third party… that’s gross.”

“Of course it is.”

Shizuku seemed to have become indifferent or even slightly disgusted. 

Even though she’d initially judged Ichijo’s position within that harem state as acceptable, she now outright called it gross.  

Noticing us, Ichijo glared in our direction. But he didn’t do anything more than that.  

“Let’s go. It has nothing to do with us anymore. Honestly, I’d rather they just do whatever they want.”

“Agreed. Let’s go, Shizuku-chan.”

“Yeah.”

With that, we headed to the cafeteria.  

—

“But you know, I feel kind of bad, joining you two for lunch like this.”

“What are you saying? We’re close enough that it doesn’t matter, Yuri-chan.”

“Exactly. If anything, I feel like I’m the one intruding.”

As we spread out our lunchboxes at the cafeteria table, Aiba said that. I responded affirmatively, assuring her it was fine.  

Still, I couldn’t help wondering if I was the one being a nuisance here.  

Just as I thought that, Aiba said something completely out of the blue.  

“I mean, you two are a couple, right? In a way, I’m the outsider here.”

Shizuku and I exchanged glances, both thinking, *What is she even talking about?*  

Aiba seemed to be under some kind of weird misunderstanding.  

“What are you saying, Yuri-chan? We’re not a couple.”

“That’s right, Aiba. Shizuku and I aren’t dating.”

When I explained that Shizuku and I were just close childhood friends, Aiba looked dumbfounded. Her expression was as if her hair had just stood on end.  

“…Huh?”  

That was all she said before she slumped forward, head in hands, onto the table.  

A few minutes later, Aiba told Shizuku to come over to her house.  

—

After school. 

On the way home together, Shizuku and I talked about Aiba.  

“What is Yuri-chan thinking? Asking me to come over to her house like that.”

“I wonder… But it’s Aiba, so it’s probably not something bad.”

Well, she’d find out once she went over, right?  

Chatting like that, we reached a conclusion, and Shizuku said she’d go see Aiba.

I waved her off as she headed toward Aiba’s house.  

—

A few days later. During lunchtime.

Aiba told me not to bring a lunch today.  

She even threatened that if I brought one, she’d tell Shizuku I’d assaulted her in some wild delusion.  

Faced with such an unreasonable demand, I told my mom I didn’t need a lunchbox that day.  

“……..But now I’m starving,” 

I muttered to myself when someone came looking for me.  

“H-Haru. Would you like to have lunch together…?”

Standing there, holding two lunchboxes,  

her face flushed red and fidgeting nervously,  

was Shizuku.