Our Dating Story: The Experienced You and The Inexperienced Me - Volume 3 - Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3

Sometimes, Runa looked much more like a woman than her age would suggest. Perhaps it was because of the way she’d lived all this time—trying to become an adult as soon as she could, as she’d put it herself. Or maybe it was due to her accumulated experience.

She normally looked innocent, but occasionally, a more mature look would appear on her face. It always caught me off guard and made me more attracted to her every time it happened.

I wanted to catch up to Runa as soon as possible. To become a man worthy of being her boyfriend.

However, it wasn’t like one’s mental age could rise so quickly. There wasn’t really a way of making an effort to do so.

And so, the most I could do was scramble to find a way to improve myself, no matter what I had to do.

“Like how it would be nice to have three kids.”

Though recalling Runa’s words put a smile on my face, it also planted seeds of anxiety in me.

Three children, in these times? I didn’t have a good idea of what Runa would do after she graduated, so didn’t this mean I pretty much had to get into a fairly reputable university and then get a well-paying job at a fairly reputable company?

As I started to overthink things, my head became filled with things both wild and realistic. So, I picked up the cram school brochure I’d received during one of my summer lectures.

***

“Hey, Ryuto!” Runa called out to me one day after classes and approached me as I was about to leave the classroom with Icchi. “Me and Akari are making croffles at my place this Saturday. Wanna come eat?”

“Cro-what...?” I asked.

“Croissant waffles! I hear they’re popular in Korea right now. When I told Akari we had a waffle maker at home since my grandma bought it some time ago, she asked if I’d let her make some. Said she’ll bring the ingredients.”

“Sounds interesting...”

I didn’t really get what these “croffles” were, but I definitely wanted to eat them if Runa was making them herself... But then, something occurred to me.

“Oh... Sorry. I have cram school on Saturday.”

An “Ah!” appeared on Runa’s face.

“Oh, right. That’s starting this week, right?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m gonna go submit the paperwork today.”

“I see... Then I guess Sunday...? Oh, I’m going shopping with Nicole on Sunday.”

“Yeah,” I said. “No need to force things.”

“But...then we can’t see each other much,” Runa said quietly in dejection.

“I-It’s okay,” I told her. “We’ll still see each other at school every day.”

It was unfortunate that we wouldn’t be able to see each other on our days off, but I didn’t want to come between Runa and her friends.

“Yeah...” she said. Though her shoulders remained slumped, she gave me a smile. “All right, then. Do your best at cram school.”

“I will. Thanks.”

“I’ll try to free up my Sundays from now on,” she told me.

“Okay... I’m sure you want to hang out with Yamana-san, though, so don’t go out of your way too much.”

She’d previously told me that Yamana-san’s shifts often started at noon on Saturdays. That was why she and Runa often hung out on Sundays instead.

“Thanks. I’ll try. Nicole sometimes has work on Sundays too,” said Runa. She then turned her eyes toward Icchi—he’d been standing still beside me like a statue this whole time. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Ijichi-kun. Okay, see ya, Ryuto!”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow.”

I waved lightly at her and Icchi broke out of his petrified state. He gave her a rather unnatural bow.

Icchi then sighed. “You have it so nice...” he said quietly as we walked away from our classroom. “Tanikita-san’s making sweets...? I want some of that...”

Icchi had been mentioning Tanikita-san frequently ever since the other day. He’d probably fallen for her. Though Icchi himself denied it with an “I-It’s not like that!”

As a species, virgins had it rough. Though I supposed the same went for me...

No, wait, I’m on my way to becoming a man worthy of Runa, and then I’ll lose my V-card. Cram school is my first step toward that.

It’s a bit painful that we might not see each other as much anymore, but I should work all the harder for it so I can bring about our bright future.

As I roused myself once more, we met up with Nisshi in the hallway and went to the train station together. I then said my goodbyes to them and boarded a train heading in the direction opposite from home.

I’d decided to attend Cram School K, which was a major one—anyone would’ve heard of it. Its goal was to help you pass your college entrance exams. My school wasn’t all that hard-core about preparing students to get into good universities, but I’d heard that even several students from my high school had been attending this cram school since they were freshmen. That had been how my choice had, simplistically, fallen on this school when I’d had to decide where to take my summer courses. It was the same thing as buying something from a genre you’re unfamiliar with—you end up choosing works people talk about often and that have good reviews.

After arriving at Ikebukuro Station and making my way through the crowd, I left through its West exit. After a few minutes’ walk through an area that felt like a business district, Cram School K’s building came into view.

At the reception desk, I submitted my enrollment papers with my parents’ signatures and seals. After I listened to what the staff had to say, I officially became a student there.

I sighed. It felt like I’d instantly become a high school senior who was focused on preparing for his college entrance exams. It was a bit depressing. From now on, I would have to take English classes here every Saturday. Since I’d said I was considering elite universities, they’d put me on a high-level course—I could imagine that preparing for classes and reviewing the material afterward would be hard. And there’d probably be more classes once I got to my third year of high school... My steps were heavy as I headed to the stairs.

Since I’d gone here during summer break, I was already familiar with this building. I didn’t feel like just heading to the underground study room, so I went to the lounge on the top floor first. I figured I’d skim the textbooks I’d received while drinking tea or something.

After I opened the door to the lounge, the sight of its bright interior made me feel just a bit dizzy. Two of its walls were made of glass. The tables and chairs inside were placed at a comfortable distance from each other. There weren’t many people here yet, which made someone as afraid of strangers as I was feel relieved.

I looked over the lounge once more, trying to decide where to sit, but my eyes suddenly became glued to a certain spot.

“Kurose...san...?!” I exclaimed, spotting her from the side. She was at a table by the window.

She wasn’t alone, and a few other girls sat with her at the table. All of them were eating sweets and chatting. Other than Kurose-san, they were all wearing the same sailor uniform.

Kurose-san seemed to be having fun—I’d never seen her like that at our school.

Perhaps noticing my gaze, she started to turn her head my way, at which point I crouched on instinct and hid under a table.

“Why is Kurose-san here...?” I wondered aloud.

Could she have chased me here...? But I shrugged off that thought, figuring I was being too self-conscious. Judging by how close she seemed with her friends, it was unlikely they’d only recently got to know each other. It was safe to assume that she’d enrolled at this cram school before I had.

“What should I do...?”

I hid on the spur of the moment, but now what? Do I make a run for it? Or what, do I go over there without a care in the world and be like, “’Sup. I’m going to this school now too”?

Ever since then... Ever since that last day of the first school term when we’d talked about that photo of us touching, I hadn’t had a proper conversation with Kurose-san. A big part of the reasoning behind that was the fact that since the beginning of the second term, we’d ended up sitting far away from each other. We no longer had much of a reason to talk. I’d ended up hiding like I had in part because of the awkwardness that gap had brought about between us.

And besides...

“But...then we can’t see each other much.”

I couldn’t help feeling guilty about the idea of making Runa lonely and then meeting up with Kurose-san at cram school. After all, if I did, I’d be seeing a girl who’d...liked me...until just recently, and without my girlfriend around.

Now that it’s come to this, I have no choice but to run away from Kurose-san at every opportunity. I need to make sure to avoid all contact. That’s how I can do right by Runa.

Having come to that conclusion, I pretended to be unwell and, feeling embarrassed, left the lounge on all fours.

That day marked the beginning of my survival game at cram school, where running into Kurose-san would mean a game over.

I’d been enrolled in English classes, and they’d already been held twice before I’d started here. At first, I had to diligently come to the school on a regular basis in order to catch up on them with video lectures. I also had to discuss my goals of how high I was aiming in terms of universities with the school’s staff. But while I was at cram school, as well as on my way there, I constantly kept my guard up and surveyed my surroundings, watching out for Kurose-san.

The most stressful times were in the study room. Kurose-san was there regularly, and whenever I went there, she was pretty much always present. So, I would go inside, and if I spotted Kurose-san sitting somewhere, I would predict which way she’d go to get in and out of the room. Then, sometimes, I had to get out, go back to the reception desk, and ask for a seat that was away from that predicted route. This was a real pain.

Even if I went to the annex for self-study, I’d run into the same problem. On some days, or even during some hours on the same day, Kurose-san would be there, and I had to go through the same trouble again.

But since I was doing all this, I somehow managed to study at cram school without coming face-to-face with Kurose-san for the first two weeks.

However, one Saturday—after my second-ever English class at cram school—an incident occurred.

During that day’s class, I’d happened to correctly answer the teacher’s question. I was happy about it, which made me less wary of my surroundings than I usually was.

All students had to take the stairs to move from floor to floor. If you ran into someone on the stairs, there generally was no escape. So, when taking them, I had to wait at landings and carefully check the area I was headed to.

That day, however, I neglected to do that and went downstairs in a normal fashion, thinking it would be fine. That was my mistake.

By the time I saw the familiar black hair and an “Ah...” crossed my thoughts, it was too late. Kurose-san and her friends had just turned at the landing ahead and were heading my way.

I instantly dodged, but she was already too close. There was only a meter and a half of distance between us.

It’s over. She’ll see me.

But as I thought that...

“Oh hey, Yamada! Long time no see!”

Suddenly, some guy grabbed my head and forcibly pulled me toward him.

“What...?!” I exclaimed.

I didn’t know him. Since I was of average height and he’d managed to do a full nelson on me from above, he must’ve been pretty tall. Perhaps he was as tall as Icchi—though, unlike my friend, this guy was slender.

Whoever he was mistaking me for, he’d ended up covering my face, and thanks to that, I appeared to have avoided the danger.

He led me to the hallway on the floor I’d come from while Kurose-san and her friends went farther upstairs. They were probably heading to the lounge.

Seeing that she was gone, I spoke up timidly. “Um... I’m not Yamada...”

“I know,” replied the guy, finally removing his hands from my head and freeing me. “I helped you out. That cutie you’re always running away from was finally about to see you, right?” he asked, grinning at me.

This guy was good-looking, but that said, it wasn’t like he had finely chiseled features. He had a prominent nose, but also monolid eyes with long slits, as well as thin lips. His bushy, black hair with thick bangs stood out more than his face—I felt like the length must’ve been annoying as his hair probably got into his eyes.

Basically, he was one of those guys who just had an aura of handsomeness. I wished a gloomy guy with a generic face like me could have something like that.

“Wait, what did you just say?” I’d inadvertently been staring at him, so it had taken me some time to process his words. “Do you know me?”

He nodded. “I’ve seen a lot of you these past two or three weeks. You’re always running from the same girl in the study room. It was way too suspicious, so you stood out.”

Someone else noticed me avoiding Kurose-san...? Man, that’s so embarrassing.

“So, what’s up with her? She your ex? A stalker? Would it be dangerous if she saw you?”

“Huh?! N-No...”

My relationship with Kurose-san was difficult to explain. As I hesitated to say more, the guy put his hand on my shoulder again.

“Well, it sounds fun, so tell me your story,” he said. “I’ve been in the study room since morning, so I’ve been looking for a change of pace. Let’s go to the lounge...though she’s likely to be there, so let’s make that some café in the area instead.”

“What...? Whaaat?!”

I couldn’t keep up with him, but since he’d rescued me from my predicament, I couldn’t just shrug him off either. Before I knew it, my legs were obediently carrying me out of the cram school at his suggestion.

“I see...” The guy sighed once he’d heard me out at a nearby café. “So, of all people, your first love, who once broke your heart, turned out to be the sister of the girl you’re dating now, huh.” He spoke quietly and sounded impressed.

His name was Sekiya Shugo. Apparently, he was what they called a ronin—someone who’d graduated from high school, hadn’t gotten into a college, and was waiting for another chance to do so. At Cram School K, he attended a course for high school graduates. He’d explained all this on our way to the café.

“So, what’re you gonna do?” asked Sekiya-san. “Are you gonna keep running from her until your college exams are done?”

That left me at a loss for words.

I’d ordered an iced coffee since it was the cheapest thing on the menu, but it was bitter and I wasn’t a big fan of the taste, so I didn’t feel like continuing to drink it. Sekiya-san had offered to split the bill, however, so I would have to finish it before we left here.

“I do think it’s unrealistic, but right now...” I replied.

“How about going to a different campus?”

“I don’t think that’d be worth it...”

At our high school, Kurose-san and I spent every day in the same class. Moving to a different campus farther away from both my house and my high school just to avoid her felt like going too far.

“Maybe I should’ve just said hi the first time I’d run into her, but since I hid myself instead, things kinda ended up like this...”

“Why?” he asked. “Do you feel guilty because of your girlfriend?”

I thought about it for a while and then told him the truth. “I don’t want to make her worried anymore,” I said, remembering last summer’s events. “She’s important to me, so I’ve decided to avoid getting personally involved with Kurose-san from now on...that is, her sister. But now we’ve ended up at the same cram school. On top of that, now I have less time to see my girlfriend while I’m preparing for college exams, so if she finds out that Kurose-san goes here too, I think that might make her worried.”

I hadn’t imagined for a second that Kurose-san might’ve been here when I’d applied.

“I’ve thought about it—how I would feel if our positions were reversed. If my girlfriend went to a cram school and her ex was there...and then I found out... I’m pretty sure it would bother me, at least to some degree.”

“I hear you...” said Sekiya-san, lifting his face after listening to me with his arms folded. “Guess you’ll have to stay on the run for now. I’ll help you out.”

“Huh...?”

I was grateful for his offer, but he’d said it so casually that I couldn’t think quickly enough to thank him properly.

“I’m at the Ikebukuro campus every day,” he continued. “If I see her, I’ll tell you where she is over LINE. Give me your LINE ID.”

“O-Okay...”

Doing as I was told, I somehow ended up exchanging contact information with someone I’d only just met. This was a first for me.

He looked at my account profile. “What...? Your girlfriend’s not your profile pic?” he asked, sounding disappointed. “You say they don’t look like each other, but your girlfriend’s gotta be hot as hell if she’s her sister, right? You don’t have pics of her?”

Sekiya-san seemed like a lady-killer, and his eyes were filled with curiosity.

I shook my head on instinct. “No. None.”

“Bullshit. I know you just don’t want people to realize what a horndog you are.” Even though he said that, he didn’t press further for pictures. “All right, I’m gonna go to the study room. You?”

“Huh...? Ah, me too.”

I was about to quickly force down the remainder of my almost-full iced coffee when Sekiya-san reached out for it from his seat.

“Let me have that if you don’t want it. I’m a caffeine monster.”

“Eh, huh? Oh, okay...”

Avoiding the straw sticking out of it, Sekiya-san drank what was left of my iced coffee directly from the glass in large gulps like it was a beer.

“When you spend the whole day in the study room, you get sleepy, no matter how much coffee you drink. I’ve had so much over the past half year that it doesn’t really affect me anymore,” said Sekiya-san, putting down the glass. There was only ice left inside. He then got up, holding the tray in his hands. “Order something you actually want to drink next time. I’ll help pay again,” he casually added.

As I was still sitting down, I grabbed my bag and hurried to my feet. “Th-Thank you, very much,” I said.

I felt a little pathetic doing nothing but following his lead and kowtowing like I was his lackey, but being older than me, Sekiya-san looked really mature.

“Gotta say, though, I’m sure you’re worried about Kurose-san or whatever her name is, but you should focus on studying while you’re at cram school,” Sekiya-san said from beside me on our way back to the building. We’d be heading to the study room once we got there. “Trust me—there’s not a single good thing about becoming a ronin.”

Coming from a guy who actually had missed his chance to get into college, those words sounded convincing.

I sighed. “I’ll do my best.”

“It must be nice to be in your second year of high school. You can still aim for anywhere you want. If only someone had told me that back then...”

Just then, I heard Sekiya-san’s breast pocket vibrate. He pulled out a smartphone, looked at the screen, and clicked his tongue.

“Something up?” I asked him.

“It’s my old classmates from high school. They’re like, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to come to the class reunion today?’ Of course not, those fucking idiots,” he said, practically spitting that out. He then put his phone away in his pants pocket. He wasn’t carrying anything in his hands since he’d apparently left his stuff in the study room. “It’s only been half a year since we graduated. What fucking class reunion? They’re just a bunch of smooth brains getting together to brag about their sparkling college life.”

Wow. He looked so mature back at the café, but he’s actually rotten to the core...

Ronin sure are scary.

Then, as we were just outside the cram school...

“Ah!” Sekiya-san suddenly cried out, crouched down, and hid behind me.

“Huh? Seki—” I began.

“Don’t say my name! Just stand there silently!”

Without much of a choice, I did as asked, having no idea what this was about. Several students left the cram school and passed by us.

“Phew...” Sekiya-san eventually stepped out from behind me. “Those were my juniors from high school. It’s way too lame when your huge show-off senior ends up as a ronin bumming around at the same cram school as you, don’t you think?”

I sighed. I considered telling him it was even lamer to keep avoiding them like this, but couldn’t bring myself to.

Hey, wait a second... Did he notice I’m steering clear of Kurose-san because he’s been doing the same thing with other people?

“Okay, look,” he began. “When you’re outside like this, you can hide behind something. But when you’re in a building, it’s important to check where people are headed in advance. Oh, and it’s a must to get on good terms with the staff. Sato-san at reception is kind, so when I stop by, she tells me stuff like ‘The girl in School A’s uniform was headed to the lounge.’”

Watching Sekiya-san explain all this with pride, I thought to myself, Man, ronin sure are scary...

***

Thanks in part to my encounter with Sekiya-san, my life at the cram school started to more or less get on track.

Meanwhile, however, a new topic came up at my normal school.

It was the last long homeroom of September.

“I’d like five volunteers for the school festival committee,” the class representative announced, standing in front of the blackboard. “Anyone interested, please raise a hand!”

The cultural festival at my school was held at the beginning of November and included the public holidays.

Just like the previous year, this committee wouldn’t be active for too long, but it would be rather busy, so joining wasn’t very popular with extroverts who had fulfilling personal lives.

“I have my club, so I can’t.”

“Me neither...”

At the same time, introverts who just went home after classes didn’t want to do something that would put them in the spotlight like that, so we could only keep quiet.

“C-Come on, isn’t there anyone? I’m sure it’ll be fun.” Our homeroom teacher sounded desperate. She was a young woman who had just started taking care of our class this year.

However, the room was completely shrouded in silence. Everyone stared at their desks and nervously held their breath. We were all trying to avoid eye contact with the teacher and the class representative.

“You know, it’s hard to raise your hand at times like these unless someone else does it...”

“Yeah, exactly. If only somebody volunteered first...”

Whispers like that passed through the room as students began to watch out of the corners of their eyes to see what everyone else was doing. That was when...

“I’ll do it,” came a feeble voice, and a fair hand timidly rose into the air.

It was Kurose-san. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment, and her nervousness made her hand tremble above her.

“Thank you, Kurose-san,” the teacher replied, sounding fairly relieved.

“You’re a big help, Kurose-san,” the class representative added, looking glad.

Gazing back at the two of them, Kurose-san looked happy and bashful.

Kurose-san...

I recalled what she’d looked like at cram school, surrounded by friends.

Perhaps she actually did have many friends. But considering what she’d done here right after transferring to our school... After she’d spread rumors about Runa, our classmates were still keeping her at arm’s length.

Was she lonely? Did she volunteer because she wanted everyone’s gratitude?

Another thought crept into my head too. Wait, maybe she genuinely wants to participate in the committee.

“Anybody else?” asked the class representative.

Immediately...

“Yes, me!”

Surprised to hear that voice, I turned to see Runa raising her hand with such vigor that she was practically about to stand up in her seat.

I was astonished. Runa’s going to participate in the school festival committee, of all things?!

“Oh, if Runy’s in, I’ll bite too!” said Tanikita-san, raising her hand as well.

For some reason or another, I looked at Yamana-san too, but she was looking at her nails and not showing any interest in this. I figured she couldn’t join because she had work.

Then, I caught sight of Icchi, whose seat was diagonally in front of Yamana-san’s. He had a hell of a look on his face, like he was in agony or in torment... His face shifted from red to blue and back again as his expression changed over and over.

And then, it hit me—it must’ve been because of Tanikita-san. Since she’d volunteered, he must’ve wanted to participate as well, but he struggled to find the courage.

Then...

“Hey, Ryuto! You should join too!”

Turning to the source of the voice, I saw Runa looking at me with sparkling eyes. The sight of it made me recall something.

“I’m thinking of becoming friends with her.”

“What?!”

“Even if I go with a direct approach, she’ll reject me. But we’re classmates, right? Nobody at school knows we’re related. So even if I’m all pushy and ask to be her friend, I don’t think Maria can just shrug me off.”