I was Rejected 10,000 times by My Childhood Friend, but After I Gave Up, I Suddenly Started Getting Popular? - Ch. 0 - Prologue p3

After arriving at the high school and parting ways with Lala, I headed to my classroom.

Normally, I have such a hard time waking up that I wonder if I’m really a high school student. My dysania can be attributed to my childhood friend’s terrible lifestyle. I tend to get to school late because of it, but I am alone today, so I got to school earlier than usual.

But apparently, even though it was earlier than usual for me, the majority of the students had already arrived at school. The school is full of hustle and bustle early in the morning. Yeah, I’m energetic. Hooray for youth!

We enter the classroom.

“Good morning, Ritsu.”

The person who approached me as soon as I entered the classroom was Kamise Kakeru, who sat diagonally behind me. He’s been my friend since the first year of high school and he has a girlfriend.

That’s right. This guy is good-looking. He’s the best-looking guy in this school. He’s also very athletic and is the ace of the basketball team this year.

The only person who would ever be jealous of me would be me, the representative of the unskilled and the winner of the persistence category. This is terrible.

“Good morning, Kakeru. Otoha too.”

“Good morning, Ritsu-kun. You have a bad habit of oversleeping.”

The one who pointed it out with a laugh was Shiohama Otoha. She sits next to me, and like Kakeru, we’ve been friends since first grade. And…she is Kakeru’s girlfriend.

She’s beautiful if you look at her properly, but she doesn’t have any flowers for being Kakeru’s girlfriend. She has that feeling when she’s by Keru’s side.

[TLN: flowers probably refer to good points about her]

They don’t really flirt in public; plus, Otoha has a good personality, so Keru fans don’t envy them at all. They really make a great couple.

“Oh really? I made sure to change that today…”

“The bed hair on the back of your head gives it away. I’m pretty thorough when looking at people.”

“Shut up!”

When I touched the back of my head, I felt that I did have a bit of bed hair. Am I feeling okay?

I sat down, suppressing my slight embarrassment.

“Huh? Isn’t she here yet? I mean, what happened to Karen?”

“Aren’t you two supposed to die if you separate by more than two meters from each other? Well, I said you two, but only Ritsu will die.”

“No way I’d die! I meant something else.”

“What’s so rare about you confessing and getting rejected ten times yesterday? Maybe you got rejected in a very cruel way… I’m sorry to hear that.”

“That’s not even close! It’s…”

There has been too much speculation about my situation and too much jumping to conclusions that I have to tell them the sad truth. 

I, the King of Persistence, will step down from the throne.

“Actually… I gave up on Karen.”

As soon as I told them, they turned pale and froze, as if they were suddenly told of the death of a family member.

A moment ago, they both had pleasant expressions on their faces, but now they looked frightened.

I’ve already been through this with Lala.

But Lala had just met me in the spring of her second year of high school, which was just less than two months ago. Compared to that, we’ve known each other for more than a year, so it was inevitable that their reactions would be bigger.

It was so inevitable that our homeroom teacher, Kamoi-sensei, mutters, “I can’t wait to get married. Then quit this job,” she mutters on Fridays. It’s hard to understand this metaphor again.

“Well, it’s not like you forgot April Fool’s Day a couple of months ago so you’re pranking people today right?”

“How much do I have to love April Fool’s Day to do that? You’re totally wrong.”

When Keru said that with a surprisingly serious face, I wondered if he really thought that.

I’m just a normal guy without such a fleshed out character design that includes such quirks.

“Um, let’s see… maybe you’ve been hypnotized by Karen to say that?”

“If that were the case, I’d be heartbroken! Geez, before you say anything else about hypnosis, let me appeal against it, seriously!”

At some point, I would ask myself, “why did I say that?” However, it’s the grand finale of the held meeting.

When I started the conversation, I thought I was being very serious.

It would be a waste of time to keep going on like this forever, so I decided to give them the right answer myself.

“You know, yesterday I was rejected for the 10,000th time.”

“Eh, 10,000 times… I didn’t even know you confessed so many times.

“That’s right. So, I decided to take this opportunity to find a new love. I still have some lingering attachment to her though… I mean, come on.”

““I-I see…””

They probably still can’t believe that I gave up, but they seem convinced enough.

As I expected, even the two people closest to me couldn’t think that the number could come close to 10,000 times.

“I see. Well, it can’t be helped. Yeah, I’ll support it. Ritsu-kun’s new love.”

“Oh, thanks.”

Otoha gives me a motherly smile on par with Mother Teresa. By the way, I’ve never seen Mother Teresa’s smile. It’s all imagination. Imagination. 

I think this is what made Keru fall for her.

“Well, you know. I’m sure that failure is the real thrill of youth. Besides, there’s plenty of love to go around in high school.

“I don’t need someone who’s never made a mistake to tell me that. Well… thanks anyways.”

“You’re welcome.”

This is the kind of thing that warms my heart.

I knew that if I took a closer look at my surroundings again, I would see that it was flooding with warmth.

I guess I know this only because I’ve been rejected 10,000 times…

As my heart was being filled with this warmth, I saw a girl walk proudly into the classroom five minutes before homeroom.

Enter, the childhood friend.

TLN: I just realized I’m using Prologue parts, and that’s how it is on syosetu (raw), but honestly it’s confusing. Well, too far in already.