Life In The Reverse World

Ch. 135 - A Brief Date

During the remaining forty minutes in the karaoke room, Harutaki and Miyabi took turns singing a few more songs. When they got tired, they stepped out into the shared entertainment area, using free cups of soda as stakes while playing darts on the wall.“Ladies first,” Harutaki said, letting Miyabi-senpai throw first.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.

Five darts of the same color landed mostly between the six- and seven-point zones.

For her first time, that was already pretty good.

“Just as expected of you, Miyabi-senpai. That’s impressive~”

He swore he meant it sincerely—but right after that, he proceeded to throw all his darts into the nine- and ten-point zones.

Miyabi immediately turned her cold gaze toward him, her expression darkening.

“A slightly mischievous Hoshikawa-kun… is still somewhat cute.”

Hopefully not the kind of cute that makes people want to pin him to the ground and stomp on him.

If it were Nogami, she’d probably be grinding her teeth right now, threatening him to go easy on her. If it were Chouko, she might cling to his arm and act spoiled just to make him lose on purpose.

Between the two… the latter felt far more dangerous.

As he thought that, Miyabi-senpai’s earlier “advice” surfaced in his mind—

Heroes often fall to beauty.

The “honey trap” really was terrifying… but Hoshikawa Harutaki wasn’t afraid of that kind of test.

If anything, bring it on.

“Guh……”

As the loser, Miyabi had no choice but to lift the small plastic cup of soda and gulp it down in one go.

“Again… let’s go again.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

“Stop talking.”

She pulled out the darts and, imitating his earlier motions, aimed and threw them one by one.

This time, her score was slightly worse than before—a perfect demonstration of how much luck played a role. Meanwhile, Harutaki once again won with ease.

“Bullying you like this makes me feel a little guilty, senpai.”

Watching her silently down another cup of soda, he spoke half-jokingly, half-seriously.

Even though her expression didn’t change, he could still sense a faint trace of frustration and dissatisfaction beneath the surface.

And somehow… that made her even cuter.

Though he couldn’t quite explain why.

“Again.”

Miyabi refused to give up and returned to her position with the darts.

Thud, thud.

“Three sixes, two eights.”

Her arms crossed, she still showed no expression, but there was a hint of pride in her voice.

Thud, thud.

“Four tens, one nine.”

Harutaki smiled at her—only to see that she had already started drinking her soda again.

That should be about enough…

He figured three cups was already quite a lot. Next would be—

“Hic—mm…!”

Even though Miyabi reacted quickly, covering her mouth with both hands, she still couldn’t stop that first hiccup from slipping out.

“Pfft—”

Having finally gotten the moment he was waiting for, Harutaki burst out laughing.

“Hoshikawa. Kun?”

This time, the gritted-teeth tone in her voice was unmistakable.

Please don’t aim those darts at me!

After that, Miyabi-senpai looked like a 19th-century estate owner, her deep violet eyes locking onto him as she made him chug five cups of soda in a row—and hiccup five times—before finally nodding in satisfaction and forgiving him.

“You’re way too strict…”

“I didn’t say anything. You volunteered that performance yourself, Hoshikawa-kun.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

—

Since Miyabi had used “studying in the library” as her excuse to go out, their date came to an end as the sun set.

The distant horizon looked as though it had been submerged in water, the surroundings tinted with dim twilight. A slender crescent moon faintly appeared in the deep, ocean-like sky, veiled behind a thin layer of haze.

Perhaps because it was Friday—no work or school the next day—Shibuya’s streets were packed with all kinds of people.

Young people with trendy hairstyles dyed in vivid colors, office workers in suits with backpacks—clearly exhausted yet strangely excited—and even the occasional pair of students in uniform on what looked like dates, just like them.

“Did you have fun, Miyabi-senpai?”

Harutaki suddenly asked, curious about her thoughts on this short evening.

A gentle early-summer breeze brushed past, lifting the ends of her dark purple hair. The fading light filtered through it, casting a vivid, almost indescribable glow.

“Yeah……”

Miyabi-senpai responded softly.

Then she slowed her steps ever so slightly, stealing a glance at him from the corner of her eye—wanting to engrave the gentle, handsome face of the boy beside her into her memory beneath the fading dusk.

In the end… she still couldn’t smile.

She didn’t want him to notice her disappointment, nor did she want him to blame himself. So, for once, she tried to tease him.

“I thought you’d ask how the date felt.”

“Mm, so—how was your date with this handsome junior? If you’re satisfied, please be sure to give a full score on the customer satisfaction survey afterward.”

Harutaki put on an exaggerated act, mimicking the slick host club guys from Kabukicho, trying to make her laugh.

“You’re way too convincing. Are you planning to become a host in the future?”

“Ahaha… Ten years from now, I’d be the number one host, and a successful Miyabi-senpai would request me by name… That reunion would probably be pretty funny.”

“That’s not a future I want.”

Though she couldn’t say it out loud, the “cool junior” she admired should become even more successful than her, even more remarkable.

“Then… what kind of future do you want, senpai?”

After hesitating, Harutaki couldn’t hold back the question.

Seriously… what kind of joke did I just make?

At this hour, under the fading twilight, people always became inexplicably sentimental. Bringing up topics like the future or the past—heavy things rather than happy ones—naturally cast a melancholic mood.

“As for me…”

Miyabi placed her slender hands behind her back, tilting her graceful neck upward like a swan, her gaze passing over the bustling crowd toward something far away.

The lively city, so vibrant on the surface, felt distant and lonely in her eyes.

People stood close together physically, yet their hearts remained far apart.

Like the couple walking ahead—holding hands, yet each stepping at their own pace, fast and slow, as if unaware of the other.

Beneath the crowd’s lively façade lay indifference and shallowness.

“…I both like Tokyo and dislike it. Maybe I’ll move to a nearby prefecture, find an easy, relaxed job, and live a quiet life in the countryside. Then marry someone I like… or someone I get along with… have one or two cute children, and try my best to become a better parent than my own.”

She quietly observed his expression, wanting to see what he thought—what was going through his mind.

“That’s… that’s… a very ordinary life. And the countryside isn’t necessarily that great.”

Harutaki spoke hesitantly, offering his opinion as gently as he could.

She wanted to say—

Seeing that disappointed look on your face earlier, I should be laughing right now.

But she couldn’t.

If there were a mirror in front of her, she was sure it would reflect a cold, emotionless face.

“Strange, isn’t it?”

“It’s not that strange… there have always been people who choose to live as recluses.”

“Recluses, huh… that’s a nice way to put it.”

She reached out and gently ruffled his hair, like petting a stray cat by the roadside. Seeing the relaxed, content expression on his handsome face, her heart began to race.

The “hero” who had slain the “dragon,” who had stood on the gymnasium stage to confront hostility head-on for the sake of ending malice spreading—

The softness he showed only when he was by her side… if only that could belong to her alone.

“Everyone wants to squeeze into Tokyo, yet some people want to leave. Isn’t that strange?”

She continued, trying to cover up her true thoughts—

And then, realizing that herself, she almost laughed.

Even her own parents couldn’t understand her. How could Hoshikawa-kun possibly see through her?

Like carrying a lantern under the moon—completely unnecessary.

“I thought you were the kind of girl who doesn’t care about others’ opinions, a unique beauty, senpai.”

“Even if you flatter me like that, I won’t give you any reward. You should go please your girlfriend instead.”

Thinking about how she had seen him laughing and chatting with those beautiful girls at the school gate earlier, she couldn’t help feeling annoyed.

She had waited there quietly like a proper, elegant onee-san—and he had been busy chatting happily with other girls.

“Huh? So if I please you, does that mean you’ll become my girlfriend?”

“The flaw in that logic makes me worried about your midterm results. I’m sure Asama-sensei would have a lot to say about it.”

Girlfriend… dating…

After hearing about the story between him and Shihou, how could she possibly interfere?

She, Shirasagi Miyabi, had her pride.

And besides…

Maybe—she thought—this relationship as senpai and junior was enough.

For her, and for him, it was probably the most appropriate distance.

They rode the train back from Shibuya to Minato, swaying gently with the motion of the carriage.

She had originally planned to walk home by herself, but no matter what she said, Hoshikawa refused to let her. In the end, she could only give in and let him escort her.

After a long silence—aside from their brief back-and-forth about whether he should walk her all the way—Harutaki, who had been unusually quiet the entire time, finally spoke. He suddenly quickened his pace to catch up with Miyabi, who was walking slightly ahead, and reached out his hand. It looked like he meant to stop her, but in truth, he was asking to hold her hand.

“In the end, how you live doesn’t really matter. What matters is whether that life makes you feel happy.”

But what exactly a “happy life” looked like… even now, he couldn’t clearly imagine it.

Back when he was in elementary school, happiness meant those moments after class—secretly sneaking onto his father’s computer for a while, or squatting by a manhole cover with his friends, checking in together.

In middle school, his expectations for happiness quietly rose. It became about escaping his parents’ control—being able to eat junk food whenever he wanted, play on the computer whenever he felt like it.

By high school, he had been completely buried under endless exam papers. At that point, his idea of happiness had shrunk to one thing—getting into university as soon as possible, just like teachers and parents always said:

“Life will be much easier once you get into college.”

And after that?

After that… there was no longer a “him” in that world.

Thinking about it now, perhaps not only in the past, but even in the present, the happiness he envisioned was simply the desire to preserve the good things right in front of him.

“With a family that never has to worry about food, clothing, or shelter, with outstanding parents, with looks and a figure that stand out among thousands, with exceptional intelligence… and yet I still can’t feel happy. I guess I’m just too greedy.”

“Yeah.”

Harutaki nodded and picked up her words.

“If you think of people as wooden buckets, some have short planks, so they fill up easily. Others have much taller planks—so even pouring in two or three times as much water as the first kind still won’t fill them…”

“…Heh.”

For some reason, he thought he saw a trace of loneliness on Miyabi-senpai’s face.

Taking a deep breath, he spoke with what he believed was the utmost sincerity.

“…But the world is big—and gentle. There’s more than enough happiness to go around. Maybe it’s as vast as the Pacific Ocean… no, even bigger than that. An ocean that can easily fill lakes would have no trouble filling a small bucket. No matter how big that bucket is, can it really be larger than a lake? I think your bucket is just a little bigger than most people’s—not the kind with a hole in it that can never be filled.”

“That really does sound like something you’d say.”

Miyabi stopped walking and looked at him, her violet eyes meeting his.

Are you the water that the world pours into my bucket?

The thought surfaced quietly in her heart. Perhaps Hoshikawa himself was the piece of kindness the world had given her.

“What if…” She pressed her lips together before continuing, “…what if I’m the kind of bucket with a hole in it?”

Thunk.

“Mm…!”

What was that?

Miyabi stared at him in disbelief.

Since when did this guy just go around flicking girls on the forehead?

“‘Exceptional intelligence,’ huh? Pfft. Miyabi-senpai, you’re actually kind of an idiot, aren’t you?”

Harutaki curled his lips into a teasing grin, mercilessly throwing her own words back at her.

What an annoying guy…

“I’m going to get mad, you know.”

“Hmph, even if you get mad—”

Thunk.

“…Ow…”

Harutaki clutched his head, only to realize that at some point, a small paperback book had appeared in Miyabi’s hand.

Wait—does she not only have mind-reading abilities, but also the power to summon weapons out of nowhere like some blond idiot?

Sensing his confusion, she lightly tapped the book in her hand and explained as she tucked it away.

“I keep a paperback in the side pocket of my bag for convenience.”

The pocket wasn’t large, but it was just enough to fit an A6-sized book.

“Care to explain what you meant by ‘idiot’?”

She looked ready to pull the book out again at any moment.

Even though Harutaki knew she was joking, he had no desire to get hit again. It reminded him of his middle school days—his language teacher used to smack students on the head with textbooks, regardless of whether they were top of the class or dead last. Nearly all fifty students had experienced it.

“If there’s a hole in the bucket, you just plug it with a stopper, right? Something that simple and you didn’t think of it, senpai? Definitely an id—”

Seeing her pale hand resting on her bag, he wisely shut his mouth.

“Making dirty jokes when we’re having a serious conversation… you’re really the worst, Hoshikawa-kun.”

“A stopper,” huh…

Miyabi suddenly had the urge to look into a mirror and check whether her face had turned red.

Most of the time, he was mature and reliable—but every now and then, he would say things like a mischievous child.

Comparing her to a bucket, talking about plugging a hole with a stopper… didn’t that sound like—

“I didn’t expect you to be so perverted, senpai…”

“Watch your words if you don’t want to get hit again.”

Seriously…

“I meant ‘stopper’ as a metaphor. If there’s a hole, you fill it with something that can act as a plug. For example…”

He looked at her with a helpless expression, paused briefly, then said the word.

“…dreams.”

“I-I knew that…”

“Ehhhh—?”

He deliberately dragged out the sound, cupping a hand to his ear like an old man who couldn’t hear properly.

“I thought I just heard something about a ‘dirty joke’… could you remind me what that was, senpai?”

Thunk.

What a jerk!

“Sorry, I got a bit carried away.”

That one really hurt.

Rubbing his head, Harutaki bowed slightly in mock apology.

“Since I’m the older one, I’m always generous with my juniors. So I’ll let you off this time, Hoshikawa-kun.”

Generous… with a triple hit from a paperback.

He grumbled inwardly, not daring to say it out loud.

What Harutaki didn’t notice was that Miyabi had already turned her face away, hiding her expression from him.

“…Phew.”

She let out a long breath.

In rare moments like this, her inability to express emotions might actually serve as a kind of shield.

If she were a normal girl, she was certain that just now, her feelings would have been completely exposed in front of him.

Even now, she felt her cheeks growing slightly warm.

How strange.

But… no, this was definitely Hoshikawa-kun’s fault.

His vague way of speaking, combined with his usual tendency to make inappropriate jokes, had led her thoughts astray—

Or perhaps…

It was because she now harbored certain special feelings toward him… that even her usual calm judgment had been led astray.

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