Do You Want Me to Pretend to Be Your Boyfriend?

Lunch break was almost over.

That soft whisper about “a call from Sister Kusuke” still seemed to linger in the air of the courtyard corner.

Keita Imaizumi didn’t respond immediately.

He simply watched quietly as the girl beside him packed up her lunch box.

The stabbing pain in his temples that had lasted for days finally subsided completely at this moment.

In its place came a sense of unprecedented calm and comfort.

He leaned back against the bench, his body more relaxed than it had been in days.

All of this was because of the girl beside him.

From the moment she sought shelter from him, to now being pushed into a corner by his words, her intense emotional fluctuations had effectively neutralized the power inside him that was threatening to run wild.

He looked at Yanami’s stubborn yet weary profile,

and her eyes that were especially clear from crying.

There was no denying it—Yanami Anna was very beautiful.

And this beauty, mixed with the faint scent of her shampoo at such close distance, could indeed make one’s mood lift for no reason at all.

Since she could bring him such a definite benefit, helping her out had naturally become something he found… rather enjoyable.

Yanami Anna had finished her lunch and was quietly sipping barley tea from her bottle,

her movements small and restrained.

She seemed to be waiting for Imaizumi Keita’s reaction—

or perhaps she simply had no idea what she was supposed to do next.

Imaizumi Keita decided to break the silence first.

“What do you plan to do after school?”

His tone was much calmer than it had been when they first met in the courtyard.

The question made Yanami Anna’s shoulders stiffen slightly.

Yanami Anna set down her bottle,

and the expression that had just regained its calm was replaced by hesitation.

She turned her head away from Imaizumi’s gaze,

her hands tightening unconsciously around the empty lunch box.

“They… they said that after school… the three of us should go sing karaoke together. They said… it was to celebrate.”

Her voice was very soft,

telling him something that had nothing to do with her yet she was forced to attend.

Celebrate.

The moment that word came out,

Imaizumi felt the negative emotions in the air—just calmed—begin to smolder again.

He had no intention of letting the peace he just regained disappear so soon.

Imaizumi realized exactly what Yanami Anna would be facing…

A small, dim karaoke room.

The whole space flickering with colorful, dizzying lights.

Hakamada Kusuke and Himemiya Karen huddled together,

singing sweet love songs,

eyes overflowing with affection as though the world around them did not exist.

Yanami Anna, the “witness of defeat,”

could only sit alone on the sofa in the corner shaking a maraca.

Her face would probably hold a forced smile of blessing,

clapping hard after each of their songs ended.

A scene like that would only create even more useless “garbage emotions” for her.

Watching Yanami Anna’s stubborn, unwilling expression,

Imaizumi’s heart moved slightly.

“Sigh…”

He spoke with the tone of someone angry at another’s lack of self-respect.

“Shouldn’t you be refusing something like that outright?”

“You acting this pathetic—people will think it’s hilarious.”

“You!”

Yanami Anna parted her lips, wanting to argue,

her brows furrowed and her eyes filled with obvious frustration.

After this short time together,

she seemed to have grown used to this man’s sharp and cold personality.

That faint, nearly broken pride from being an “outcast at the sunny edge”

gave her the courage to throw caution to the wind in front of his mockery.

“Hey, Imaizumi.”

“Can’t you do anything besides make fun of me?”

Her voice wasn’t loud,

but much firmer than before.

“Can’t you… be a little kind and help me find a way out? I don’t want to go… I really don’t want to go…”

Her voice inevitably carried a hint of pleading by the end.

This was exactly what Imaizumi had been waiting for.

A formal invitation—placing the authority to solve the problem entirely in his hands.

Imaizumi straightened slightly,

his expression turning serious.

“A way…”

He repeated the word,

tapping his fingers lightly on his knee as if weighing the options for her.

“There are plenty of excuses to refuse. Being sick, something at home, cram school… but those can only be used once.”

“With Himemiya Karen’s personality, she’ll keep inviting you under the name of ‘we’re friends.’ You can’t dodge forever. That’ll just make your situation in class even more awkward.”

Yanami Anna nodded unconsciously,

fully pulled into his line of reasoning.

“So,” he continued,

“you need something final. Something that completely draws the line between you and them.”

“A reason… that will stop them from ever using ‘friendship’ to bind you again.”

Seeing her confused expression,

Imaizumi slowly guided her toward the answer he had already prepared.

The energy gained from provoking emotions had its limit.

To gain higher-quality energy—shyness, nervousness, trust—

the most direct method was to form the closest relationship,

then engage in direct physical contact.

And Yanami Anna, sitting right before him,

just happened to have a need that allowed him to propose such a thing reasonably.

“You need something personal. Something with top priority. Something important enough that even your best friends have no right to interfere.”

Imaizumi stopped tapping his knee.

He raised his gaze and offered his suggestion.

“For example—you’re going on a date with your new boyfriend.”

“Huh… a new… boyfriend?”

Yanami Anna repeated the words blankly.

Her expression shifted from confusion to shock to disbelief in just two seconds.

She instinctively wanted to deny it—I don’t have a new boyfriend—

but the words stopped at her lips.

Her gaze involuntarily fell on the man who had suggested it.

The man who had just allowed her to stay beside him.

The man who knew all her secrets.

The man who stripped away her defenses with cold words.

The man who was now analyzing her dilemma with complete seriousness.

A thought—ridiculous yet seemingly the only answer—rose quietly from her heart.

She looked into Imaizumi Keita’s beautiful eyes and asked softly, testing the waters:

“Um… that new boyfriend… wouldn’t be…”

She stopped herself midway, feeling the thought was too absurd.

She waved her hands quickly, flustered.

“Ha… Imaizumi, that idea won’t work, it’s way too sudden…”

Trying to laugh away the embarrassment, she hurried to add,

“But—but thanks anyway for the suggestion, I’ll figure something out myself…”

“Why can’t it work?”

Imaizumi interrupted her attempt to escape,

asking calmly.

Seeing her retreating posture,

he knew he had to take the final step.

Such a perfect opportunity wouldn’t come twice.

“Just like you’re thinking,” he said,

looking directly into her eyes with no room for her to evade,

“Let me pretend to be your boyfriend.”

“Eh?”

Yanami Anna’s forced smile froze instantly.

She stared at him in shock,

her mind racing to analyze his unreadable expression—was he serious?

Finally, with a face full of confusion,

she asked what she felt must be the real question:

“Th-this… this doesn’t sound like something you would say at all, Imaizumi?!”