The Silent Me Who Talks on the Phone at Midnight with the Class’s Most Beautiful Honor Student - Chapter 1

Episode 6 – Yossi-san

Well, anyway, just being able to chat peacefully with strangers like this is already a good thing—

“Hey, you know… I was thinking, talking on the phone is fine and all, but wouldn’t it be faster if we just met in person?”

“Huh? Met… for what?”

“To see if we’re actually compatible, of course! Face-to-face is always better than just through a screen, right?”

“Uh, well, I’m not really looking for that kind of thing…”

“Come on, are you free this week? We could go to a café, or see a movie! Oh, and there’s this brand of bag I’m kind of interested in, so I thought it’d be nice to check it out together.”

Here we go again! This is totally a dating-app move!

“Uh, I have to get up early tomorrow, so I should sleep soon. Thanks for your time, Yukipi-san!”

“Wait, hold on! Muku-kun, before you go, could you register on this site for me—”

“Anyway, good night!”

Peaceful my foot! She was clearly trying to scam me at the end!

“Haah…”

I hung up, but decided not to send a thank-you DM. If I did, she might just try to push some registration link on me again…

“Oh? There’s another message.”

A DM had come in from an account with a cute cat icon. Maybe it was someone who got interested after seeing my latest post. Actually, every time I post, at least one DM shows up. Honestly, I can’t help but be impressed by my own popularity.

The sender turned out to be a girl named Yossi-san. She said she was also a second-year in high school, same as me.

“Nice to meet you. I listened to your sample voice and it’s really wonderful! I’d love to talk with you sometime. At school I don’t get many chances to be honest with people, so if we could become friends, I’d like to be able to share worries and all kinds of things.”

Wow… she seems really serious and left a good impression. Alright, I’ve still got some time—let’s try talking to her.

I sent: “Would now be okay?” She said she was just getting ready for bed, so we decided to start in five minutes.

A little nervous, I pressed the call button on the app. After a few rings, her voice came through.

“Ah, hello, is this Yossi-san?”

“Y-yes, that’s me. You’re Muku-san, right? Good evening.”

“Good evening. Thanks for your DM.”

Her voice wasn’t shrill at all calm, easy to follow, and very pleasant on the ears. I was just about to compliment that, but she spoke first.

“Your voice is… really cool.”

“Eh ah, th-thank you.”

Even if it’s only over voice chat, being praised so directly like that still makes me blush.

Now, what should I talk about first? Some people are so good at conversation they can just jump into an interesting story right away, but I don’t have that kind of skill. Honestly, just having a normal chat is fun enough for me.

“Yossi-san, were you about to head to bed? Did you finish your homework and stuff?”

“Yes, I’ve finished everything. I even did some prep work.”

“Wow, you actually prepare in advance? That’s amazing! I can barely keep up with homework and test studying. What kind of prep do you usually do?”

“Today it was math, so I worked on practice problems I thought I might stumble on. I’m not really good at math. That’s why I chose the humanities track.”

“I get that. I’m the same—I was weak in math, so I went humanities too. So, what subject are you good at?”

See? Even with simple topics like this, the conversation keeps flowing. Hearing about other people’s experiences is really interesting, too. I’m not the type who can tell funny stories or show off a ton of knowledge, so having these easy, down-to-earth talks suits me best.

And as the subjects shift, I get to know more about her, and also see how well we click. Even if it’s only voice, there are definitely people who are easy or hard to talk to. Yossi-san was clearly one of the easy ones. Plus, unlike Yukipi-san, she didn’t seem to have any ulterior motives.

She must have felt the same way about me, because she kept bringing up new topics one after another. Maybe she’s the kind of person who’s also popular at school. Either way, she was great at conversation. I just nodded along, completely absorbed in her stories.

“…And then my friend suddenly went, ‘Actually, maybe I’ll get that chocolate instead.’ If she did, then I wouldn’t be able to buy it. So on the spot I said, ‘Oh hey, by the way, this ice cream is really good!’ and recommended it.”

“Ah, clever move! That’s a good strategy!”

Hearing my response, she lit up and said, “Right?!”

“I pitched it with the enthusiasm of a YouTuber doing a sponsored ad, and managed to convince her to switch to the ice cream. Thanks to that, I got the chocolate!”

“Nice! Honestly, just listening to you now makes me want to go buy that ice cream too.”

“Hehe, Muku-san, you’re a really good listener. I end up talking way too much.”

“No, no—it’s because you tell your stories so well, Yossi-san. I could listen forever.”

When I complimented her back, she laughed happily and said, “That makes me so glad.”

That’s one of the charms of #Tsubo (voice call hashtags)you can just honestly say how you feel. Since it’s not face-to-face, you end up saying things you’d normally be too shy to say out loud. At first I was embarrassed, but little by little I’ve gotten used to it.

Just then, she suddenly let out a small sigh.

“Haah…”