Why I Fell for Tiny You: Volume 1 Chapter 19

19 Even Though I'm Just Honest About My Feelings of Love

Before Cafe Chitto opened, they let me change out of my tracksuit and into my uniform, and I left the shop a little ahead of Koto-chan.

Apparently, Koto-chan still had to take care of Rou and Rin.

I offered to help, but Koto-chan turned me down, and Miss, who was awake by then, stopped me too, saying, "If you work in the shop, we'll have to pay you."

Both of those sisters could be pretty strict about some things.

I took the bus to a stop near school, then walked leisurely through the front gate.

There were only a few people on campus since classes wouldn't start for another thirty minutes or so.

"Maybe I'll go watch Runa's morning practice..."

There was no reason to feel intimidated about watching the girls' volleyball team, either.

The practice was open to spectators for free, and I went to the same school. There was no reason to hold back.

When I reached the gym, the girls' volleyball players were gathered in one corner, apparently taking a break.

At first I thought they were slacking off, but they were all drenched in sweat, so they'd probably just finished giving it everything they had.

"Ah, Sky!"

Runa quickly spotted me and stood up.

Then she trotted over, grabbed my arm, and pulled me behind the gym.

"Wh-What's going on? Runa, are you allowed to leave practice?"

"Morning practice is already over. More importantly, Sky, have you seen this?"

"I didn't get to see the volleyball club practice, but is there something else I need to see?"

I looked at the screen of the phone Runa held out to me.

A single photo was displayed on a social media app.

"What's this?"

A boy about high-school age was holding a tiny girl in his arms, and they were both smiling.

It looked like a heartwarming photo of a brother and sister.

In fact, someone had commented on the photo, 【Oniichan, you're so mean!】

"Huh, that's a lot of ♡s. Is it going viral?"

There were tens of thousands of ♡s, and the count kept climbing rapidly even as I watched.

"Sky, you still haven't noticed? Look closely."

"Come to think of it, I've seen that scenery somewhere... Wait, is that me?"

It was the observation deck of the high-rise building Koto-chan and I had visited yesterday, Sunday, on our date──no, our walk.

The boy in the pink shirt and the girl in the ultra-miniskirt were Koto-chan and me.

"Huh. I really didn't recognize myself at first glance. If it were a photo of you or Nonoa-san, I'd have known right away."

"D-Don't be an idiot. This photo──people are reposting it everywhere!"

"Huh? Reposting it? Why...?"

Sure, Koto-chan was cute, but it was only a photo of two high school students.

Besides, it had been taken from the side, and since both of us were in profile, our faces weren't clear.

"It's going viral because people think it's heartwarming and gives them all the feels. One of our club members found it and told me. The basketball club knows about it too."

"Everyone's addicted to social media. This is a school known for its athletics, so they should focus more on their clubs."

"I agree. You and I see eye to eye, Sky. But people just can't stop checking social media. Plenty of them grab their phones first thing when they wake up. This is going to spread even further."

"............"

I thought about it for a moment.

"To anyone who doesn't know us, it's just a wholesome, heartwarming photo of a brother and sister, right?"

"You and Naruse-chan have kind of the same vibe."

There was me, doted on by older women, and the tiny, adorable Koto-chan.

I could see how we were vaguely the same type.

"So you're talking about what happens if people at our school who know Koto-chan and me see this photo...?"

"Exactly. You could call it a 'firestorm close to home.' The whole school is already buzzing──asking if you and Koto-chan are dating, saying they always thought something was going on, and──"

"Whether I'm a lolicon, for example?"

Runa said nothing and lowered her head.

I took out my phone and checked our class LINE group.

"What are Toochika and Naruse doing?"

"Koto-chan's skirt is so short!"

"I knew there was something messed up about these two."

"Toochika, are you a lolicon?"

"Naruse, Toochika's gonna kidnap you."

"I've got a little sister, but I can't let her meet Toochika."

"Toochika Sora-kun, you're under ARREST."

They were talking as if it were all a joke, but a few of them sounded serious.

"They all know Koto-chan and I are the same age. Koto-chan isn't some child prodigy who skipped grades to get into high school."

"You know how this works, Sky. Facts don't matter with something like this. As long as it's entertaining, any lie will do."

"Spoken like someone with experience."

"This advice comes from experience. What happened to me wasn't a big deal. I can laugh about it now."

"I'm glad you got past it."

The nice thing about being childhood friends was that we immediately understood what the other was talking about, saving us the trouble of explaining.

During a middle-school volleyball practice match, someone had secretly filmed Runa playing as her breasts bounced, and the video was shared among some of the boys.

Those boys had joked around about Runa being a G cup, stealing her bra, and secretly filming her at the pool.

I noticed, went to the intimidating volleyball-club upperclasswomen for help, and had them teach those boys a lesson, which settled the matter.

Who the hell did those guys think they were, treating my childhood friend like that?

"But not this again..."

"H-Hey, Sky?"

This time, my classmates were getting worked up at Koto-chan's expense──

It was true that Koto-chan was small and looked nothing like a high school student.

But all she was doing was hanging out with a boy from her class, and everyone was getting carried away with easy jokes like "lolicon" and "arrest."

The way they carried on showed no awareness whatsoever that the words they'd casually posted might hurt the person they were talking about.

Every comment was a knife cutting into Koto-chan, deep enough to draw blood──

"Damn it! This isn't funny!"

"Wait! Don't lose it all of a sudden!"

Runa quickly grabbed my raised hand, phone and all.

As expected of my childhood friend, she'd read my sudden move perfectly.

"They're treating Koto-chan like a child and saying whatever they please!"

"...You're not angry about being called a lolicon. You're angry on Naruse-chan's behalf."

"Of course I am. Koto-chan is a high school student. The people posting this stuff for laughs know that too. It pisses me off that they know the truth and still twist it into lies just so they can make fun of her."

They knew Koto-chan was only petite, yet they treated her like an elementary schooler and mocked her.

And this was our class LINE group. Koto-chan was obviously going to see it.

"But Naruse-chan doesn't get mad when someone calls her small, does she?"

"They aren't just calling Koto-chan small. They're acting like she's some victim preyed on by a lolicon. That's completely different."

"...You're right."

Casting me as the offender wasn't good, but I could let that go.

What mattered more was how they'd decided on their own that something awful was happening to Koto-chan.

They'd made Naruse Koto into a victim without her say-so and were turning her small size into entertainment.

The whole class was piling on, using Koto-chan for laughs...

"I screenshotted the comments. Some of them might try to run once they realize this is a firestorm, but I'm not letting them get away."

"Wait, Sky! You're way too angry. Calm down, calm down."

"............"

Without warning, Runa grabbed my head, pulled me close, and pressed me against her chest.

It was soft and felt good──and it really did calm me down.

"I probably smell like sweat, but bear with it. I don't have time for a shower right now."

"If I said my childhood friend's kindness smelled sweaty, Koto-chan would scold me for being insensitive again."

"It's true, you are insensitive. I'm giving you this much of a special treat, and you're still talking about Naruse-chan?"

"You sound like you're accusing me of cheating."

This childhood friend of mine occasionally showed a possessive streak toward me.

At the very least, Runa recognized Koto-chan as a girl our age.

"Feels like it's been a while since your hapless streak showed itself, Sky."

"A lot's happened, but yeah, it's been a while since anything was bad enough to call truly hapless."

Being mistaken for a groper, or being pursued by a girl who was the exact opposite of my type.

That kind of thing hardly counted as hapless. And this time, I had a tall, beautiful childhood friend comforting me, so I couldn't exactly sit around feeling sorry for myself.

"All right, that's enough. Thanks, Runa."

"...You've had enough already? You're not thinking of asking Nonoa or someone to do the same thing, are you?"

"Apparently, my childhood friend suspects me."

I couldn't ask Nonoa-san, whom I'd only known for a short time, to hug me.

It would probably be difficult until we'd known each other for another month or so.

Anyway, Runa had helped me cool off──but nothing was over yet.

"For now, let's break Koto-chan's phone."

"Hey, Sky!"

"I'm kidding."

Even if her phone stopped working, word of the uproar on social media would inevitably reach Koto-chan.

Our classmates—the people closest to us—were making a fuss about it on LINE too.

Sooner or later, Koto-chan would learn about the commotion.

Someone was bound to go out of their way to tell Koto-chan that our photo was circulating on social media──

I pulled away from Runa and started walking.

"Oh, thanks for telling me. You're always there when I need help, Runa."

"Getting a sincere thank-you from my childhood friend is gross."

"You're not honest with yourself, Runa."

"If I were honest, I would've already──Never mind. I haven't done my cool-down yet, so I'm heading back to the gym. See you in class."

After saying that, Runa ran back into the gym.

Once I'd watched my childhood friend go, I looked at my phone screen again.

It showed a photo of me holding Koto-chan beside a window on the observation deck.

There had been so many people up there that I had no idea who'd taken it.

Some women who looked like college students had been taking pictures, but if they were the ones who posted it on social media, I might not be able to forgive them even though they were older women.

"It's actually a pretty good photo, though."

Wouldn't it win a prize if someone entered it in a contest?

Whoever posted it on social media probably hadn't meant any harm at all, but...

"Toochika-kun."

"Huh? Oh, good morning, Amamori-san."

A beautiful, intellectual-looking woman with glasses, braided pigtails, and a white coat stood there.

"I'm sorry. I heard the volleyball club has been training really hard lately, so I came to check whether it was taking a mental toll on any of the girls... and then I saw you taking another girl away, Toochika-kun."

"I was the one who got taken away. More importantly, were you listening to us?"

"I'm sorry. And I'm supposed to be a counselor."

"You listened because you're a counselor, right? It wasn't exactly illegal, and neither Runa nor I mind. But──"

Seeing Amamori-san's face suddenly reminded me of something.

"Can I ask you one thing?"

"What is it?"

"You told me about that high school boy who was caught secretly photographing a little girl the other day, right? Do you know what happened to him?"

"...I can't discuss information I learned through my work. But according to rumors online, he transferred schools, and no one knows where he went afterward. They say the house is completely empty now, and that one of his parents was a schoolteacher──but those are all just stories circulating online."

"The internet is full of lies, after all."

In other words, there probably wasn't much difference between what Amamori-san had learned through her work and the stories circulating online.

It seemed he'd paid a steep price for the stupid thing he'd done.

I hadn't done anything particularly stupid myself, but there was still a chance I'd end up the same way.

I'd rather not have my life end at such a young age.

But what troubled me even more was──

"Hm?"

Just then, a message arrived on my phone.

When I checked it──

【Ohachito! Naruse Koto, deploying!】

She'd also sent a selfie of herself in front of the school gate.

She flashed a peace sign and, for some reason, wore a smug little grin, full of energy.

Crap, I'd forgotten Koto-chan was coming to school.

At this rate, she'd find out about the firestorm right away.

Or maybe she already had──

Then that smug little grin would disappear.

Nothing would bother me more than seeing Koto-chan's cute face fall.

I wished she'd just stayed at Cafe Chitto and played peacefully with Rou and the others today.

Translator's Notes

Translator's Notes: None