“Hi. Natalia.”
“Hi, July. We meet again.”
Natalia, who had been reading a book, glanced at me. Come to think of it, I hadn’t checked other kids’ status windows since the nickname stat opened. I opened Natalia’s status window.
<Character Status Window>
◈ Name: Natalia Newton
◈ Age: 17 (11th grade)
◈ Popularity: 21%
◈ Affection: ???♥
◈ Nicknames: Brown hair, Zero presence, Nerd, Natalia who?, Na-Na-talia New-New-ton
◈ Special Notes: The only protagonist of ‘Pizza Saver’, has scopophobia and stage fright.
“She’s a plain nerd, but if you look closely, she’s pretty. Why does she go around hiding that beauty?”
Zero presence for a protagonist was too much. It must be because of Natalia’s timid personality. Anyway, ‘Na-Na-talia New-New-ton’ has already established itself as a nickname. The kids at this school are too mean. A kid suffering from scopophobia and stage fright might stutter a bit.
“Natalia, do you like theater?”
“……I like it. I like plays too……”
Natalia’s voice was so small I had to make an effort to listen carefully. Is it embarrassing to like theater? With scopophobia and stage fright, it could be.
“Wow, you even read plays. What do you like best? I don’t know anything about plays.”
“I like ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’ the best. It’s interesting.”
Natalia pulled up the corners of her mouth. As I told Natalia, I didn’t know anything about plays, so I had no idea what the work she liked best was about. I just tried to roughly guess the content from the title, failed, and threw out another question.
“Hmm, the title is difficult…… Do you like stories?”
“I like them. ……I like how protagonists, supporting characters, and extras are divided. In reality, everyone says things like ‘Every person is precious,’ ‘Everyone is the protagonist of their own life!’ but it’s all bullshit. In the end, the world is divided into protagonists, supporting characters, and extras. But in stories, they don’t tell such naive and stupid lies. Everyone’s position is already set.”
“……”
I was a bit, no, quite surprised by the cynical tone. Her evenly raised lips seemed to twist slightly. Did she always have such a bad personality? She wasn’t like this last time…… She must be having a bad day. For now…… let’s sympathize.
“Yeah…… This world isn’t that naive. People don’t consider the president’s life and a pizza delivery person’s life the same.”
“Right. That’s how this world is originally. But July, can I read my book? It’s an important part, so I want to concentrate.”
“Oh, okay. Sorry for disturbing you.”
I moved to the seat next to Natalia’s and asked the System inwardly.
Does she have family issues? Why is she so cynical?
idk 🙁
This useless……! No, what’s Natalia Newton’s family situation?
Mom, dad, older sister, Natalia.
She has an older sister……! Just from hearing she has an older sibling, I arbitrarily imagined Natalia’s family circumstances. Ah, Natalia might have grown up being compared to her sister! That’s why she has a twisted side. Though it seems I’m projecting my own case too much.
This time I pretended to stretch and turned back to open Joel’s status window.
<Character Status Window>
◈ Name: Joel Gomez
◈ Age: 18 (12th grade)
◈ Popularity: 80%
◈ Affection: ???♥
◈ Nicknames: Drug dealer, Joe, Future criminal, Big D, That 12th grader
◈ Special Notes: Main character of the drama ‘Pizza Saver’
“I’d like to try dating him, but he wouldn’t accept a freshman like me……? He’s a senior, handsome, and sexy……”
……When did his popularity go up again? And a date with a kid like that? What date? It seemed like something someone young would think because they were a freshman who didn’t know better. But what is the D in Big D? Joel Gomez doesn’t have a D in it.
What words start with D? Desk, Develop—no, it’s probably not a verb…… D, D…… Dust? That fits perfectly. Big dust. Or Dog. Big dog. It fit too well. I was giggling to myself when the System started displaying letters one by one.
D
I
C
K
“……”
🙂
……I should pretend I didn’t see that. But the System window kept shoving the word in capital letters in front of my eyes, so I shook my body this way and that and eventually closed my eyes. Then—
“Pfft! Puhahaha! Puhup!”
—at the sound of outright mocking laughter, I opened my eyes. I could tell whose laughter it was without turning around. It was Big D. Of course, Big D from Dust and Dog.
***
I was quite tense, but fortunately, no musical keyword was generated again. Natalia sat in a corner seat and participated in class very quietly. Perhaps because of the incident where Natalia ran out of the classroom, the teacher didn’t make Natalia say much either.
“Now then, shall we all talk about what the space called ‘school’ means to you? Starting with the person next to Nata……lia.”
So one by one, they talked about what the space called ‘school’ meant. The answers were almost all similar. Joel Gomez, who I thought would be insincere, opened his mouth while sitting crookedly and shaking his legs when the teacher’s index finger pointed at him.
“Hamster wheel.”
What is he, a hamster? Hamster wheel my ass. That old sentiment came to mind—being in the prison called school, wearing the prisoner’s uniform called a school uniform, waiting for release called graduation. Hmph, is that eighth-grader syndrome? So cringy. I was grumbling when my turn approached, and after thinking for a moment, I answered.
“A place of learning. I find attending classes very interesting.”
Just as I smiled brightly, the System window turned on.
New!
Popularity decreased by 1!
New!
Popularity decreased by 1!
New!
Popularity decreased by 1!
……That can drop too? And I also heard a voice openly mocking loudly, “Pfft, puhup, pfft! A place of learning, he says! A place of learning!” It was obvious who it was. That son of a bitch Joel Gomez! Though the popularity drop wasn’t because of that bastard, it wouldn’t be enough to blame everything on that bastard.
As everyone answered, time passed quickly. The teacher handed out scripts telling us to read them because we’d practice script reading next time, so I put the script in my bag and stood up.
“Ah!”
Then, as I was putting in other stuff, someone bumped my shoulder hard as they passed. I looked up with a frown.
“What!”
I made eye contact with Joel Gomez looking down at me with a sullen face. ……Childish bastard. That bastard is a dog, so I should ignore him. That’s all just barking. Woof woof. If he keeps frowning like that all the time, he’ll soon get wrinkles and age into a fierce-looking old man. Since he’s a dog, he’ll probably look like a bulldog then.
I neatly packed up even one pen, straightened my chair, and tried to leave the classroom. But for some reason, everyone was just lingering at the entrance and not leaving.
“What on earth is going…… Ah.”
“Fuck, why are you here?”
“I have business with July.”
Two big guys were blocking the door. One was Joel with his head tilted crookedly, and on the other side stood Dave. Dave’s gaze, which had indifferently passed by Joel, soon fixed on me.
“Ah, July!”
New!
Popularity increased by 1!
New!
Popularity increased by 1!
New!
Popularity increased by 1!
The dropped popularity went back up. The dignity of 97% popularity was different.
“Why did you come all the way here?”
“My class and training just ended, and I have ‘business’ with you.”
“Ah, ‘business’……”
That ‘business’ was obvious. It was kissing. Since 3% remained until the quest achievement figure of 15%, it would be good to do it. Though I didn’t particularly feel like it right now.
“Who are you to take him?”
But Joel blocked my way. Why is he like this? I wish they’d resolve the bad blood between them on their own. I don’t know why I keep catching the flak every time. Dave grabbed my wrist and pulled.
“Because we’re friends.”
“Friends my ass. If you’re friends, then you ki……!”
I quickly dodged the hand trying to snatch my other wrist and covered Joel’s mouth. Is this bastard crazy! What if he tries to say that! When I glared at him with wide eyes, Joel blinked once, as if he realized his mistake. It seemed to mean he wouldn’t say it.
“July, are you close with Joe—no, Joel Gomez?”
“Uh…… Am I close?”
Of course not! But I was a bit scared to nod while he was glaring so fiercely. Joel grabbed my hand covering his mouth tightly and lowered it. Why, why…… is he holding my hand? Just grab my wrist. No, just don’t grab anything!
“Hey, seventh. I warned you last time.”
“……”
It was closer to you throwing a tantrum unilaterally. Plus, you abandoned me and left, left all the food, and bit my cheek! As I thought about it one by one, I got angry. I shook off Joel’s hand.
“Dave has business with me. And Joel, you don’t really have any business with me……”
Dave smiled brightly, and Joel scrunched up his face hard.
“Ahhh, so that bastard is ‘Dave’ and I’m ‘Joel’?”
Joel muttered quietly while slightly twisting his jaw, then raised both hands and took two steps back.
“Fine, fuck. I won’t interfere. What do I care if you two do gay shit or not?”
