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Chapter 71: A Inch of Light
🕑 Added 2025-10-26 13:06:08 +0000 UTC[You are a little anxious and uncertain.]
[Just because you were placed in a different class, most opportunities to interact with him have been taken away.]
[Think pessimistically for a moment.]
[Even if you dated him, what then?]
[You might go through the same three stages as other couples.]
[Falling in love, graduating, breaking up.]
[You know very well that you cannot stay together forever, what separates you is the boundless reality, and you are powerless.]
[Maybe, giving up on this romance that has not even begun yet would be better?]
In November, at the junior high cultural festival, Toru and that girl shared the grand stage, their class performing a play this year.
The prince and the princess took their bows one after another, and you could only sit in the audience and watch their splendid performance.
You were like a lowly sewer rat, able only to peep at the beautiful lights through the cracks of a manhole cover, your rat eyes seeing no more than an inch.
…What to do.
Hitori stared blankly at the text on the simulator screen.
Could she really win this time?
She almost got one-shotted by a suddenly appearing passerby character.
[The performance ended, and the cultural festival closed smoothly.]
[On the way home, Toru asked you whether you felt jealous seeing him perform onstage with other girls.]
[You answered: ]
Options?
[1. You fool, I was jealous back at the sports festival when you suddenly left me and got all lovey-dovey with other girls. Do you know how miserable that made me?]
[2. I- I was not jealous. I do not like you. Hmph! Do not flatter yourself,] (tsundere face)
[3. Remain silent.]
Which to choose?
None of them felt quite right.
Hitori thought it over.
In the end she chose 1.
[You admitted you were jealous, then acted a little coquettish, watching Toru's reaction.]
[Toru looked at your slightly lonely, cute face, and for some reason turned his head away…]
[He was captivated by your answer, or rather, Toru's heart was struck by your sudden, direct pitch, his heart racing.]
Huh?
Could it be that Kitahara already liked me?
If you confessed right now, would that mean…
[You saw him shy, and you immediately smiled and pressed him, asking if he had just felt his heart stir.]
Ah, what kind of move is that?
Can you even do that, or should I take over?
Hitori was frantic.
Watching herself and Toru fall in love on the simulator felt like reading a shojo manga.
The kind where the male and female leads keep tugging and pushing at each other, dithering, not getting together...
Holding hands by chapter 100, kissing by chapter 200, officially dating around chapter 300, and the series might get canceled halfway by the editorial department, so you never even see the ending.
Specific criticism - Kimi ni Todoke.
Urgent, urgent.
I'm dying here.
[If Toru admitted to feeling his heart stir, you would dare to confess to him.]
[Because only by winning this "I love you" game will you have the confidence to date him.]
All right.
Take it slow.
[Toru let out a soft laugh, saying that his earlier shyness was also an act.]
Oh my, what a stiff mouth.
If the simulator had not told me he was moved, I might have believed him.
[You immediately replied that someday you would make him fall for you.]
[The evening sun stretched your shadows, gradually drawing them together.]
[And so, your second year of junior high came to an end.]
Wait, it ended?
Does that mean…
the timeline is about to return to the normal simulation?
Hitori glanced at Yamada Ryo and Kita Ikuyo sitting across from her, and at Ijichi Nijika beside her still doing problems, and felt uneasy.
Referee.
I request overtime!
Her advantage was not large enough, Hitori would have liked to see herself dating Toru right now.
But the two in the simulation.
One had too much pride, was stubborn.
The other was too insecure, not daring to confess.
If they kept pulling like this, reaching a proper result would take forever.
[Third year, spring.]
[You both ended up in the same class again, only this time you were not desk partners like in first year.]
[Compared with last year, this year will certainly be more favorable to your strategy.]
[After school began.]
[You used the social skills you developed over the past two years and quickly got close to several girls in the class.]
[At the same time, Toru formed his own small circle of friends.]
And then?
[You both made an effort to restrain your close relationship within the class, not wanting to interfere with each other's social circles.]
[Toru liked seeing your change, and did not want to disturb you.]
[You, not being good at getting along with boys, only eavesdropped when you saw Toru chatting with friends, and did not intervene.]
[One month after school started.]
[You realized this could not continue, at the current pace you feared that by the time junior high ended, your romance would still have no result.]
[A few days later, your offensive began.]
[As the saying goes, win a man's heart through his stomach.]
[You began learning to cook. Sympathy attribute +5.]
Do I even have to learn to cook?
Hitori wondered if she could enter the simulation herself and use the love-cooking she had acquired last time to capture Toru's heart.
But thinking it through, she gave up.
Even if she cooked once, after returning to reality the simulated version of herself would still not know how to cook.
It would be a waste.
[After half a month of practice, your cooking skill improved a little.]
[Once, Toru happened upon it and tasted a few bites, saying your progress had a lot of room to grow.]
Such a high-emotional-intelligence comment.
[Some time passed.]
[When you gained confidence in your cooking, one day on the way to school you suggested you bring Toru a bento.]
[Previously, Toru had been eating at the school kiosk or ordering at the cafeteria.]
[He did not refuse.]
[In fact, Toru would rather have your mother cook for him.]
Hitori: "?"
You are acting strange.
[Compared to the somewhat immature food a girl would prepare, a mature woman's cooking obviously tastes better.]
[But because Toru could feel the effort you put into cooking, he could not refuse.]
Why was he so reluctant?
Hitori thought the simulated version of herself was even worse than the real one.
At least in reality, her cooking could earn Toru a compliment.
[After the plan to win a man's stomach succeeded, you began arranging the location and schedule for your first date, preparing to invite Toru out.]
A date?
Hitori could not help doubting whether the girl in the simulation was really her.
Damn it, being beaten by the simulated me, how embarrassing.
Bocchi-chan felt seriously wounded.
When she thought it over.
The Hitori in the previous simulations had been much stronger than the real her.
First time, the rock queen.
Second time, a girl who loves and hates boldly.
Third time, a loser who sincerely wished her friend's romance well.
Wait.
In the third, she did not seem to lose?
The fourth also did not seem to lose?
See, the simulated version had played the loser three times, while the real one had never done so, does that not make her stronger than the other self?
Hitori's strange train of thought arrived at a strange conclusion...
Heh heh.
I am so strong.
