ALL NOVEL chapter 20
Episode 20: Cloudy
Today, as usual, I spent my lunch break on the rooftop, sitting on a bench and eating lunch with Luna…
“……”
“……”
What is this silence… It’s awkward…
For about 10 minutes now, neither of us has spoken, and the silence continues. Honestly, this silence is as uncomfortable as hell.
But what saved me was that Luna seemed less energetic than usual, somewhat lacking in spirit, almost as if she was in despair.
Ah… that’s nice…
As I was enjoying this for a while, Luna spoke up.
“Hey… do you think I’m a bad person…?”
“…Why the sudden question?”
As expected… it’s finally starting.
With a sense of foreboding, I calmly listened.
“Recently, I’ve been thinking… I’m cold towards others…”
“That might be true.”
“I knew it…”
—
—
Her expression darkened further.
“Did something happen…?”
“Not really… nothing…”
“There’s no way it’s nothing with that face. If you talk to someone, you’ll feel a bit better. Right?”
“…That’s true…”
Alright! Now I can hear the details of what’s bothering her!
I made a fist pump in my mind.
“Actually, I feel like my friends have been avoiding me lately… Even when I talk to them, they quickly go somewhere else…”
No doubt about it.
This is definitely that major gloomy event!
“I see. It’s not like you did something, right, Rena?”
“Yeah… I have no idea why they’re avoiding me…”
Luna, the magical girl known as the “Ice Princess,” Rena, may seem like a perfect, cold-hearted beauty with both brains and looks, but that’s not true.
The aura that keeps people at a distance and her sharp tongue are weapons to protect herself. In reality, she has a delicate and fragile heart like sugar art. Among the magical girls, she seems the strongest mentally, but in fact, she’s the most fragile and unstable.
What happens when such a girl is avoided by the friends she cares about the most… It’s evident from Luna’s current state.
“I see, that’s tough.”
“You wouldn’t understand anything anyway…”
She glared at me and muttered as if taking out her frustration, but her expression immediately turned to regret.
“I’m sorry…! I…! Please… don’t abandon me… If you leave too, I…”
“I don’t mind, it’s the usual, right?”
Maybe relieved by my usual demeanor, her frightened expression softened a bit.
“That’s right… Hmph, even though I’m feeling down, you don’t even have a word of comfort for me?”
Ah, it’s the usual Luna…
“Do you want me to comfort you?”
“No, I don’t need your comfort.”
“Hey… Isn’t that different from what you said earlier?”
“Sigh… Talking to you makes me feel like I was stupid for being down…”
“Then that’s good. …But, well… if you ever reach your limit, call me. I might not be good at comforting, but I can stay by your side.”
Yes, yes, I definitely want to witness her gloominess up close!
“…Thanks, I’ll do that.”
—
—
She blushed slightly and murmured.
◇
After school.
The sky had already begun to darken, and students with club activities were gradually starting to head home.
“Maybe it’s time to go home.”
I put down my pen and stood up from the chair in the student council room.
When I’m focused on something, I tend to forget my worries, so I ended up staying late.
“Souta… sometimes you say cool things…”
I murmured, recalling the lunchtime.
He seemed more reliable than usual at that moment. Almost like Omega…
“No, that’s not right at all.”
Souta and Omega are like complete opposites. There’s no way someone as sloppy as him could resemble Omega.
…Yet, somehow, I’m drawn to Souta.
Even though Omega, who has saved my life countless times, should be overwhelmingly cooler… I found myself liking Souta just as much as Omega.
What is this feeling… But thanks to Souta, I gained a bit of courage.
“Tomorrow… I’ll try talking to everyone again.”
Just as I made up my mind, my phone notified me of a message.
Who could it be…
When I picked up my phone and checked the notification, there was a message from Christina.
“Can we meet now?”