Childhood Friend Heroine V2 Chapter 4
Chapter 4
The Front Lines of Childhood Friend Conquest
・Childish body types are a no-go.
・It’d be nice if she could play sports and games with me.
・Being a good cook is a major plus.
“♪♪”
At eleven o’clock at night, long after her family had gone to sleep, Machigane Lily was humming to herself as she compiled the day’s intelligence into a special notebook.
Its title: the Childhood Friend Conquest Notebook.
She had started it at the end of April, right after she became aware of her romantic feelings for her childhood friend, Minazuki Saito. In it, she documented her daily advances, any new information she gathered, and her strategies for the future.
She was fully aware that this was a bit creepy.
But it couldn’t be helped.
If she didn’t go this far, she felt she’d never find a way to make her hopelessly dense childhood friend see her as more than just a friend. Believing that this accumulated data would one day bear fruit, Lily put her pen to paper once again.
“Today’s haul was amazing~. Finding out that he doesn’t see childish girls as romantic prospects is huge. That takes Mizuki-chan out of the running. Hehe, and I meet all of Saito’s conditions. I’m so happy… Wait, but doesn’t that mean I have no chance since he’s not even conscious of me, even though I meet them? If someone else who fits the bill shows up, he might get snatched away. I can’t let that happen. I really need to hurry up and make himaware of me, somehow.”Thanks to a deeper-than-usual conversation, she had more to write tonight, and her emotions were fluctuating just as wildly. While she’d learned she was his type, the immediate problem remained: he wasn’t aware of her as a girl.
She knew her childhood friend treasured her and liked her. However, it was the affection one feels for family, not for a member of the opposite sex. The bond of trust they had built over so many years was, for now, something she resented.
Because of it, Lily and Saito had skipped over the crucial process that normally unfolds between a man and a woman—romance.
If Lily asked, Saito would surely stay by her side. Not as a lover, but as a childhood friend. She imagined he would keep her company until they grew old and died.
But Machigane Lily, the heroine of her own story, didn’t want that.
Until recently, it would have been enough. She’d thought that as long as he was with her in some capacity, she could be content.
But it had sprouted.
The seed of romance.
After living through the worst life imaginable, the seed she thought would never grow had budded, all because of him. Once that happened, the status quo was no longer enough to satisfy her.
“Ahh~, I want to hold hands like lovers, our fingers intertwined. I want to walk to school arm-in-arm. I want to kiss him whenever I feel like it. I want to be spoiled by him. I want to spoil him. I want to tease him. And I want him to tease me back, to dote on me, to hold me tight, to kiss me.”
She yearned for a deeper, more intimate relationship.
She wanted to captivate him.
She wanted to have all of him to herself.
She wanted to become his.
The feelings overflowed, unstoppable.
“I need to try even harder… though I have no idea what to do.”
This was, after all, only the second romance of her entire life. She had some know-how, but she was definitely a beginner. Her opponent, meanwhile, was an SSS-class monster, a boy who didn’t understand the first thing about love. She was constantly racking her brain, trying to find a strategy that would work on an opponent for whom most of the usual rules didn’t apply.
As a result, the strategies section of her notebook was pitifully sparse.
・Try making him a bento.
・Try increasing physical contact.
・Just confess and kiss him already? ※Impossible!
All she had were generic tactics and desperate measures born of pure emotion. She was already doing the first two, but it was hard to say they were having any effect. At this point, she was the only one getting flustered and happy, and it felt like she was just falling deeper into the swamp all by herself.
She urgently needed to think of a different approach. She understood that intellectually, but coming up with a good idea was proving to be incredibly difficult.
With a sigh, she closed the notebook. A glance at the clock showed it was past midnight; time for bed.
“Maybe I’ll read this.”
Still, she wasn’t sleepy yet. To kill time, Lily picked up a romantic comedy manga her father, Masanori, had left in her room.
The title was My Life with My Prince of a Childhood Friend Is Surprisingly Normal.
Influenced by her parents’ work, Lily read a wide variety of books, but she rarely touched light novels or rom-com manga. The reason was simple: popular works in those genres often featured harem plots or impure relationships. Reading them reminded her of her bastard ex-boyfriend and that cheating bitch. The irritation was just too much to bear.
However, Masanori had assured her this one was a pure, one-on-one love story. The word “childhood friend” had piqued her interest for the first time in a long while.
“The art is so beautiful. And the rich-boy childhood friend accidentally breaking through the apartment wall is a pretty funny opening, isn’t it?”
It was a book she’d never gotten around to reading in her first life. Going in with no expectations, she found it was incredibly interesting.
‘Why should we leave at different times when we live in the same place? We should just go together.’
‘That’s… well… because people might get the wrong idea that we’re close.’
‘But everyone knows we’re close. We’re childhood friends, right?’
‘That’s true, but still!’
‘…Delicious.’
‘Ahaha, I’m glad you like such simple cooking.’
‘To think I can eat this every day. I’m a lucky man.’
‘Ngh~~!?’
The characters’ psychology was depicted with care, and the fresh twists on typical rom-com tropes were captivating. Best of all, the wealthy young master was a bit clueless and dense about romance, just like Saito, which was perfect. She found herself nodding along, understanding the heroine’s feelings all too well.
That was probably why she had the thought.
“I’ll use this as a reference.”
If she imitated the events in the manga, she might just be able to make Saito see her in a new light.
She reopened the notebook she had just closed and began jotting down notes on the usable scenarios.
“Alright, I feel like I can do this.”
With her list of strategies doubling from three to six, Lily was extremely satisfied. After stashing the notebook in her desk drawer, she flopped onto her bed with a soft poof and closed her eyes.
The next day, early in the morning, she made a bento as usual and waited for her childhood friend on the station platform. While she waited, Lily checked her reflection in her smartphone’s front camera.
The face staring back was slightly different from her usual self.
Her hair, which she normally wore down, was tied in twin tails, and she was wearing a pair of fake glasses. She didn’t want any misunderstandings—this wasn’t a disguise to ward off unwanted attention.
This was New Strategy Number One.
‘Try a different style than usual.’
The objective was simple: by changing her appearance, she hoped to change the way Saito looked at her. A half-hearted attempt might go unnoticed, so she had gone for the most dramatic image change she could manage within school regulations. She had successfully transformed herself from a prim and proper blonde beauty into a more literary type, the kind of girl you might see standing by a window with a book in hand.
It was quite a gap, wasn’t it?
“Um? Can I talk to you for a second?”
“…”
Just as Lily was internally fidgeting, wondering if Saito’s perception of her might change, an unfamiliar guy spoke to her. The corners of her mouth, which had been slightly upturned, instantly tightened. She turned her cold, indigo eyes toward him.
From what she could tell, he was a quiet-looking high school student from a private school two stations away.
“I-if you’d like, would you want to grab some tea at the rotary? I’ve read that book you’re reading, and I wanted to discuss it. Not many people read that one.”
The reason he’d approached her was apparently the book she was reading to kill time. Glancing at the novel in her bag, she saw it was Kagerou’s Lord and the Cicada Me, her father’s big hit from several years ago.
Ugh, the usual, huh.
It was true that not many high school students read pure literature. But this particular book had sold out its initial print run within two weeks and had even been featured on the news—it was a phenomenon. There had to be plenty of people besides her who had read it. For him to single her out like this… it was definitely a pickup attempt.
Apparently, before she could change how her childhood friend saw her, she had changed how the guys around her did. He probably thought she’d be an easy target because she looked meek.
If that was his assumption, Lily was extremely displeased.
“I’ll have to decline. I’m waiting for someone,” she said, her voice sharp. “If you want to discuss the book, you can do it online. It’s a work from several years ago, but it has many fans. You should be able to find plenty of people to talk to there.”
“Ugh!”
Her clear rejection, delivered with a glare, made the male student flinch.
“No, look, online is just text, it’s so bland. Plus, you can’t see their faces, so it’s kinda scary, y’know? So, um… Ahh~! This is a pain in the ass! Just shut up and come with me!”
He’d tried his best to make excuses, but apparently gave up halfway through and let his true colors show. His timid demeanor vanished, replaced by the crude aggression of a thug. He reached out to grab Lily’s arm.
As she sighed, preparing to deal with him, an arm shot out from the side and caught the guy’s wrist.
“Aaand, stop right there.”
Appearing with a relaxed voice was her childhood friend, Saito.
Why?
The train he was supposed to be on hadn’t arrived yet. His unexpected appearance made Lily’s eyes widen.
“Don’t get in my way, random guy! Trying to act cool in front of a girl… your intentions are so obvious, it’s gross.”
“? I don’t have any intentions like that. When you’re all worked up, you can’t properly invite someone out, y’know? I just came to help you cool down. First, let’s take some deep breaths. Come on, ready? Breathe in~, breathe out~.”
“Like hell I’d do that, you idiot! Ha! You totally killed the mood. I’m outta here.”
Furious at having his pickup attempt thwarted and being treated like a child, the student roughly shook off Saito’s hand and ran up the stairs as if to escape.
“Hey! …Ah mann, I made him sulk.”
Watching the retreating figure, Saito scratched his head, looking a bit awkward. He seemed to regret his slightly clumsy handling of the situation. But that lasted only a moment. He stopped scratching his head with a dismissive “Well, whatever,” and turned around.
“You had it rough today, huh. Be more careful next time, alright? Anyway, I’m looking for someone, so I’m off. See ya.”
With a friendly smile, Saito coolly departed. He looked just like a prince on a white horse…
“…Wait! Huh!? Hold on—”
Her heart had been pounding from his cool entrance, but now she remembered—had that brat not even realized it was her?
No, that couldn’t be right.
She and Saito had known each other for nearly ten years. On top of that, Lily had a very distinctive hair color that made her stand out. There was no way he could mistake her just because of glasses and a different hairstyle. Or rather, he shouldn’t. Absolutely not. Not as childhood friends.
“Wait!” Lily cried, hurriedly chasing after him.
“Kukuku.”
“…Ah!?”
Saito stopped, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
I’ve been had.
The moment she saw him, she knew. He hadn’t mistaken her at all. He had recognized her perfectly and was just messing with her.
The boy turned around, a mischievous, prankster-like grin on his face.
“Ahaha~, my bad, my bad. You just looked so different from usual, I couldn’t resist.”
“Jeez! I seriously thought you didn’t recognize me!”
“Ow! Don’t actually kick me that hard!”
She landed a swift kick on the shin of the completely unapologetic Saito. He yelped, but it was his own fault for making her so anxious. A little kick was the least he deserved.
No, wait. She wasn’t satisfied yet.
“Shut up. It’s your fault, Saito. Pretending not to recognize me, even as a joke, is unforgivable for a childhood friend.”
“Got it, got it. If you’re gonna be that mad, I won’t do it again. Forgive me.”
“Buy me a juice.”
“Yeah, yeah. Understood.”
After making him promise to treat her to a drink, her mood finally lifted, and she decided to call it even.
“So, why the different look?” Saito asked, glancing at her as they walked toward the vending machine.
I changed my image because I wanted you to notice me, Saito.
There was no way she could say that honestly.
“No reason, just felt like it. I thought a style like this might be nice for a change.”
“Huh. Well, it looks good on you,” he said, easily accepting her off-the-cuff excuse.
“I-is that so? Well, it’s me, so obviously.”
Yes! Saito complimented me.
Just from that, her heart raced, and she had to fight to keep a grin from spreading across her face.
“Though, still,” Saito began, pausing in front of her as she struggled to maintain her composure. Then, he casually reached out, took her glasses, and put them on himself.
“I like the usual Lily without glasses better. This feels more like you.”
“~~!?”
Close proximity + Saito in glasses + the word “like” = a complete knockout.
The sudden influx of stimuli far exceeded her capacity, and her brain overheated. Lily’s face turned bright red as she froze on the spot.
“—Oi. Hey, heeey. What’s wrong?”
“Huh!? N-nyothing at nall.”
Fortunately, she snapped back to her senses almost immediately. A handsome boy in glasses was waving a hand in front of her face, peering at her curiously. The destructive power of that image, right before her eyes, was tremendous. Having seen it once already gave her a sliver of resistance, and she managed to get away with just being flustered.
“Kukuku, you totally bit your tongue.”
“Aaahhhh!!”
Of course, Saito laughed at her, which was a fatal blow in itself. Lily let out a wordless cry.
Strategy Number One: failure.
Far from making him notice her, it had only ended with her being made hyper-aware of him.
But it couldn’t be helped. That was just how amazing Saito looked in glasses. The usual childishness was suppressed, making him seem more mature and cool than usual. So much so that she ended up taking countless photos, coaxing a reluctant Saito with “just one more.”
For a while, her computer wallpaper at home would probably be her childhood friend in glasses.
“We ended up on the usual train after all, huh.”
“I sincerely apologize.”
Because she’d gotten absorbed in her impromptu photo shoot and lost track of time, they had missed their train, leaving Saito in a slightly foul mood. Lily felt genuinely sorry and bowed her head.
When they boarded their usual train, however, they found some unusual passengers.
“Oh, Minazuki-kun and Machigane-san, good morning. Minazuki-kun, is your eyesight bad?”
“Good morning, Minazuki-kun, Li—…Machigane-san.”
“Morning. Minazuki, Machigane.”
It was Haruki, Koyuki, and Mizuki—the harem brigade. Usually, their train times didn’t overlap, but it seemed Koyuki, who normally commuted separately, had joined them, shifting their schedule.
“Oh, morning, Haruki, Aizono, Shirayuri-senpai. The glasses are fake. Do they suit me?”
“Good morning, Senpai, Mizuki-chan.”
While Saito happily approached his friends, Lily’s mood soured, and she kept a slight distance. She desperately wanted to stay by his side, but with her ex-boyfriend there and Koyuki radiating a possessive pressure with her smile, she couldn’t bring herself to get any closer. Lily averted her gaze, deciding to wait it out.
A few moments later, the doors closed, and Saito, having finished his chat, returned to her side.
“…Shirayuri-senpai takes the train, huh. I never knew that,” he muttered, surprised.
“Well, it is surprising. She’s usually chauffeured .”
“Even though she’s raised as a proper young lady, she’s surprisingly down-to-earth, huh.”
“Right?”
On the surface, Lily agreed, but having witnessed a similar scene in her first life, she wasn’t surprised at all. Plus, having been fairly close with her before the time leap, she knew that Koyuki was lonely. Her parents came home late, and when she got home, only the housekeeper was there—and even she left after five P.M. Growing up with that as her normal, she craved human warmth more than anyone.
Even if it meant some inconvenience, Shirayuri Koyuki would always prioritize being with the person she loved or her friends. So, there was nothing strange about her deciding to take the train.
Huh? But didn’t Koyuki-senpai start taking the train much later?
A sense of dissonance pricked at her. Her memories were from over ten years ago, so she couldn’t be certain, but if she recalled correctly, Koyuki had started taking the train after summer vacation ended. The trigger was supposed to have been a sleepover at Haruki’s house during the break. Yet here she was, commuting with him before the sports festival was even over. That was strange.
Well, it’s probably because that bastard Haruki said something unnecessary, something different from last time.
For some reason, just like Lily, Haruki had also time-leaped. An extreme people-pleaser who couldn’t abandon anyone in trouble, he was once again helping girls and making them fall for him. However, no human could perfectly recreate events from years ago. There were bound to be slight differences in their conversations. That was probably why things were happening earlier this time.
Doing unnecessary things… really, what is he even trying to do?
While acting like he still had feelings for her, he was helping other girls again. Lily understood Haruki’s personality to some extent, but she really couldn’t fathom what the current Haruki was thinking.
As she watched Haruki with half-lidded eyes, her gaze met Mizuki’s. In terms of their relationship, they were on good terms. Mizuki was a lot like Saito—for better or worse, she had no hidden agenda, which made talking to her relaxing. Most importantly, they could now bond over their shared “childhood friend” status, making them closer than they had been in the first timeline.
(This is the worst. What is with this woman?)
(Ahaha, hang in there, Mizuki-chan.)
Mizuki, whose one-on-one commute with her own childhood friend had been interrupted, looked extremely displeased. Lily offered a look of encouragement to the irritably sighing girl. This situation was bound to happen sooner or later. Besides, unlike the first time, a certain blonde, half-Japanese beauty wasn’t in the picture, so things were still better than they could have been. She’d just have to tough it out and get used to it.
“…Hehe, Haruki-kun’s hands are so warm, aren’t they?”
“…Wait! What are you doing all of a sudden, Koyuki-senpai?”
(That thieving cat, I’ll ○ her.)
(Calm down, Mizuki-chan!)
Or so she had thought, but seeing Mizuki radiate enough bloodlust to actually follow through, it seemed impossible. Mizuki was doomed to be toyed with by the aggressively affectionate Koyuki.
“…Ahaha.”
A dry laugh escaped her lips. It seemed being a childhood friend was going to be a tough road for both of them.
“…Why’d you suddenly start laughing?”
“…I was just thinking about my friend’s rocky road ahead.”
“…What’s that supposed to mean?”
Not understanding the situation in the slightest, Saito just tilted his head, question marks floating above it.
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