Chapter 1: No girls are kind to creepy nerds. — Part 1

Reading Settings

Translated and Edited by: luccayn.

Common Honorifics:
-san: A polite suffix, but not excessively formal.
-kun: A common suffix among friends and younger people.
-chan: A common suffix among people you're close with, mostly used for feminine nicknames and girls, since it's cutesy and childlike.
-senpai: A common suffix and noun used to address or refer to one's older or more senior colleagues in a school, workplace, dojo, or sports club.

TL Note: I'm translating names as if they were western, meaning the first one you'll see is the first name, and the other one is the last. I'm doing that for intuitive reading, but forgive me for any mistakes. I'm just another humble MTL translator.

Enjoy~!

---

It's spring according to the calendar, but it's still cold at night. I just can't understand it.

Today, as always, I walked home while hunched over. The faint puffs of white parting my lips made me feel the true power of winter.

Cool Biz will be around for a while longer inside my high school, which I was enrolled to very recently. I don't know why but they banned winter clothes for the time being, even though the wind kept biting adrift. My indignation at being forced to survive the cold with these skimpy clothes is still fresh in my mind.

“The cold is damn cold.”

As I rubbed my shivering body on my way home under the streetlights, I recalled what someone had said to me a while back. Well, I always do.

When I was just a kid, I was made to drink tons of milk because “it would make me grow taller,” and if you ask me now if that did anything, I'd be happy to report that it did. I currently boast a healthy average.

Although a bit different from the placebo effect, assumptions are not as foolproof as one might think. This time, too, the assumption that it's “cold” is self-suggestive and it only serves to make me feel the cold even more. Oh, but I know what you want to say. Again, I really understand it, I do, but it's still damn cold out there.

There are things we understand, but don't agree with. Why oh why does a fool like me think like a fool? Why?

Here's another fool's ramble: why, in these recent days, has it not warmed up at all even though the world has been repeating the words “global warming! global warming!” like some sorta songbird?

I'm sure that if I asked a wise person, he or she would give me a nice and satisfactory answer, but, yikes, what a pain in the buttocks. I'm just too lazy to ask anyone. My frozen heart just won't budge.

It's April already, but the weather just makes it seem like a lie. I spewed vitriol everywhere, wondering who on earth was all this propaganda for. The season was so chilly you couldn't let go of your coat. —Yeah, I know the trigger to my annoyance was trivial, to say the least.

No, actually, if the weather had not been so biting, this “trigger” wouldn't have been pulled in the first place, and today would've ended more slowly and peacefully. That way, tomorrow would have come without a hitch.

Does my rambling make sense or not? I don't know if anything I said means anything at all, but—

It happened without so much as a sign.

It must've been around 7 PM. On my way home a little late due to some wild business, I ran into a classmate in a convenience store. As for me, I just stopped by to get a comic magazine that happened to be on sale. I also thought I'd grab some lead for my mechanical pencil, but then—

“—Heya, creep,” she said as I reached out for something I wanted at my favorite convenience store, which I knew very well. —In hindsight, those were the first words she gave me.

…Hmm, should I ask my thin-a*s wallet to buy some snacks to go with my manga? It'll be a big waste if I already have some at home, I'm not sure about that, but it'd be a disaster if I didn't. Huh, should I buy it now rather than regret it later?

My brain, which had been wondering how it could act like less of a dimwit, suddenly stopped in its tracks. The voice spun at me was so unadorned and strangely familiar.

“I have a little favor to ask you.”

Attracted by her call, I turned around and saw the display shelf of the ice cream corner. How long had she been there? Inside a cramped convenience store you could find anywhere, just a few steps away from me, there she was.

I tried to answer immediately, but my voice just wouldn't leave my mouth.

“He~ya?”

It's ‘cause I know this girl. Well, actually, I don't know a single thing about her other than her name, her voice, and what she looks like, so yeah she's a stranger. Still, this girl is a rather prominent figure in my class. If you were to divide it according to a “caste” of some sort, or a “yin and yang” sorta thing, she was the shining star always in the center.

On the other hand, this guy over here spends his days at the edge of the classroom holding his breath. He's in line with something like an “inferior race,” always ridiculed as a creep or a nerd, or both.

See? There's no point in keeping up this comparison, so I'll just stop.

…If the girl on the other side is something like a modern goddess, I'm just a pebble on the road.

Well, but now for real, how did such a deity come to be? When did she appear like a puff of smoke spawning and standing next to me? Of course, we had no connection with each other, and I was surprised ‘cause I didn't think she'd even recognize my face.

Even though she's so noisy in the classroom, why is it quiet as a barren cemetery here?

She has bright, knife-cutting eyes that seem to pierce, and a straight nose. Her fluffy milk-tea hair—well groomed—is something else too. Despite all that, I still hadn't noticed that star who always shined so brightly blink into existence right next to me.

“Hello~? Anyone there~?”

Unlike in the classroom, she shook her loosely gathered pigtails, looked into my eyes, and waved listlessly with a “Yo.”

Hmm, maybe she lives around here? I mean, we both go to the same school and, more importantly, live in the same small town. It is possible that the two of us would someday go to the same store at the same time. No surprises there.

But her rough outfit, just a warm and fuzzy loungewear paired with a large jacket, was a bit different from her mature appearance in class. I don't know why, but my heart jumped at this sense of vulnerability and break of routine.

“You should say something, at least.”

Yup, you're right. This dimwit over here wouldn't say yes or no, so she let slip some exasperation in her words. From her perspective, I must be making things awkward since she started talking to a classmate only for the guy to not show any care.

It was our first conversation, and while conflicts big and small aren't a plus to have, I still understand her moodiness.

—I don't even remember what I answered back then, but I must've replied in a stilted tone.

I'm not sure what she sensed in my behavior, but she snorted and said, “well, doesn't matter,” and then…

—It's probably 7:30 PM right about now.

“Can I borrow some money?”

Not a shred of hesitation in that outstretched hand of hers.

“…Huh?”

At my favorite convenience store, she asked me for money unapologetically.

---

Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment your opinions below!

Also, if you enjoyed my translation and would like to feed my caffeine addiction, click on the button below and graciously give me my fix—I mean, a cup of coffee.