Genjitsu de Rabukome Dekinai to Dare ga Kimeta? Vol. 1 Ch. 5 Pt. 2

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Translation: learning2tl

Editing/Proofreading: chelly

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Chapter 5: Who Decided That I Can’t Do Romantic Comedy in Reality?

Part 2

“Morning, everyone!”

The following week.

As soon as I arrived at school, I called out to the whole class.

For a moment, everyone’s eyes were drawn to me. Then I received a few responses, one by one.

The time was just before the first bell of the day. I had set out to complete the finishing touches in earnest, and before I knew it, it was early morning. Since I had come straight to school after staying up all night, I could still feel some of that mysterious late-night energy.

By now, almost everyone in the class had come to school and was chatting amongst themselves.

“Speaking of Nagasaka… wasn’t there a girl dropping by to ask questions recently?”

“Ah, there was. She asked me what I thought of the class rep.”

“Isn’t that the girl rumored to be messing around with guys?”

“Huh? But I’m a girl and she came to me too, you know?”

“Now that you mention it, me too…”

And so, the topics for foreshadowing were mixed in here and there amongst the chatter.

I had guessed that things were going well from the speedy investigation data uploads, but it seems that she was able to completely meet her quota. It should have been a rather absurd demand, but that’s Uenohara for you.

I walked to my seat, put my backpack on the desk, and called out to Kiyosato-san.

“Morning, Kiyosato-san.”

“Yup. Good morning, Nagasaka-kun.”

Kiyosato-san, who was preparing for class, smiled back at me with her usual smile.

“You sure took your time today. Did you oversleep?”

As I was adjusting the position of my backpack while thinking about what would be a good angle, Kiyosato-san asked me a question.

“Ah, you see, I was kind of busy. I haven’t slept.”

“Huh, really? Were you studying?”

“Well, something like that.”

Studying in the broader sense of the word, that is. Like how to operate an image processing application.

“Oh? You sure work hard. It’s not even before a test.”

Kiyosato-san murmured curiously and tilted her head. Her mole peeked out from the gap between her smoothly swaying bangs.

“Mornin’, Tokiwa. Sorry about the other day.”

“Ah, mornin’, class rep…”

The reply Tokiwa gave was somewhat awkward.

Just maybe, but I guess something happened involving Uenohara…

“Class rep, um…”

“Hey, class rep.”

A figure quickly moved between us, cutting Tokiwa off.

I looked up and indifferently called out to the person I had expected to see.

“Hey, Katsunuma. How are you?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. Seriously, what are you scheming here?”

She tapped her fingers on her tightly crossed arms while glaring at me in the usual way. Seems like her grumpiness level this morning was maxed out.

“What are you talking about?”

“Your buddy, obviously. Suddenly talking to people… she’s seriously annoying.”

What, Uenohara even took on Katsunuma? That girl sure has guts…

“You’re in on it, ain’t you? What the hell are you planning, huh?”

─ Still, Katsunuma got involved at just the right time.

Most of the class’s attention was focused on us, so I decided to go with the flow.

I tapped the shortcut on my preprepared phone and confirmed that the tablet I had put in my backpack was working as intended.

Then, I abruptly stood up and headed straight for the teacher’s platform.

“Everyone, listen up!”

I called out in a voice loud enough to gain the entire class’s attention.

The classroom fell silent, and the eyes of my classmates simultaneously were directed at me.

Questioning, curious, and disgusted gazes. Feeling all sorts of gazes land on me, I gulped.

─ Don’t be scared.

Information has been gathered. Based on Uenohara’s investigation into the impressions people have of me, the probability of success is estimated to be over 60%.

Besides… this is something I was going to have to do at some point.

If anything, the sheer fact that I’ve kept it hidden up to this point was definitely not a good thing.

Focus, Nagasaka Kouhei.

I tightly clenched my fists behind the desk.

Then, I took a deep breath.

“This might take a little of your morning homeroom time, but…”

Besides.

This is the right time to do it.

It’s an opportunity to most effectivelydramatically create a “Recollection Event.”

“I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you guys something about myself.”

─ And so came the battle with my past.

I confessed it. The shame which I had kept hidden until now.

The May wind was slightly warm.

Step by step, I purposefully made my way up the school building’s outdoor stairs.

After passing by the umpteenth landing, what appeared before me was a metal, fence-like door close to two meters in height. Its doorknob had a keyhole.

I gulped, then inserted a key into the doorknob and opened the door.

Spreading out before my eyes was a deserted rooftop.

There was also a blazing red sunset, which took up half of my field of vision.

“…Yeah. Still a wonderful ‘youth spot,’ as always.”

Fifteen minutes left until the scheduled time.

Starting to feel a little restless, I toyed with the key in my hand while walking around aimlessly.

“Still, that might have been an expensive purchase… but there’s the advantage of free use in the future… then again, thinking about what happens from now makes my head hurt, but…”

As I was mumbling to myself and having my fill of romcom protagonist, I heard the sound of a door opening behind me.

…She’s as upright as ever. There are still over 10 minutes to go, you know?

I smiled wryly, then took a deep breath.

“So you came. Uenohara.”

Okay, we’re all set and ready to go.

This is where I’ll recover all the foreshadowing.

Let’s begin our “Prologue,” shall we?

“Hey, how have you been?”

“…Good.”

Uenohara’s face was a little grim.

Well, I guess that’s to be expected from annoying so many people… Katsunuma, for example, must have given her a tough time.

Uenohara sighed and then crossed her arms.

“So? You said you’d explain the results after we met up, but… you did get everything settled properly, right?”

I cleared my throat, then opened my mouth with a composed expression on my face.

“…Before that. There’s something I need to apologize to you for.”

“Apologize?”

Uenohara tilted her head curiously.

“Yeah. I’ve been hiding something from you this whole time. Let me tell you all about it now.”

I turned back to face Uenohara… and repeated the confession I had made to everyone in my class.

“Actually… I’m a ronin^[1].”

“…”

Uenohara’s eyes somewhat widened.

That reaction was softer than I had expected, and I was secretly relieved.

“In my third year of middle school. Just like now, I tried to realize a romantic comedy… and failed once. Because of that failure, I failed my high school entrance exam.”

While remembering the events of that time, I looked up at the sky.

“…I think I briefly mentioned this at some point. But long ago, there was a trigger which made me realize that I could have a romantic comedy even in real life.”

That had happened right after the summer holiday of my third year of middle school.

“We had been planning a school trip. It all started when I shared some information I had been researching about a destination with my group, and one of the girls reacted to that.”

She was a girl I had barely spoken to before, but she was impressed that I had put together data on the level of a guidebook, and had the urge to find out more.

I had seldom been complimented on my hobbies before. Overjoyed, I went on and on after school, showing off the knowledge that I had researched.

Then, when I had finished introducing the last spot, she whispered, “Want to go together?” into my ear.

“I was able to produce a romcom-like development because of my trivial hobby. Nothing like that had ever happened before, but I was able to create an ‘event’ just by being myself.”

Maybe I can do a romantic comedy too…

When I became aware of that possibility, I was ecstatic, and from there I became very active.

“From there, I asked everyone in the group about their preferences, suggested recommended restaurants and group activities, located secret spots and shared them, and so on. I even combined all my knowledge of romantic comedies to come up with an ‘Event’ plan and pass it on to them.”

For example, an event where you sneak out of the hotel at night for a late-night snack.

It’s a common trope in romantic comedies, but I acquired a floor plan of the hotel from the Internet and, after predicting the teachers’ patrol routes and potential escape routes, even picked out a nearby noodle shop. This development process fell within the scope of the event, so I put together the plans with the guys in the same room, sitting around the tablet and having a good time.

For example, a “Date Event” at our destination.

One of my male friends had a crush on a girl in the same group, so I searched for hidden spots with a good atmosphere and provided him with a dramatic production plan. Naturally, I also prepared a plan of action for us to suddenly disappear in the middle and leave the two of them alone.

Everyone was happy and agreed that it would definitely be an interesting school trip.

I had been pretty convinced of that too.

“Then, on that day… the day of the school trip. I carried out the “Plan.”

The group activity on the first day was a perfect fit. All the spots we checked out were great. We had more excitement and irreplaceable memories than expected.

As for nighttime, the “Dinner Event” was a great success. The thrill I felt at the time and the taste of ramen we all ate together left a great impression on me.

I was very happy with it, and so were all of the “Characters” at the time.

The “PlanProject” had succeeded.

─ At least until the halfway mark.

“But you know what? Due to attacks from the outside which I had been completely unaware of, it all came crashing down.”

Certainly, I had meticulously investigated all the information about the destination and put together the perfect plan. I had thought of a romcom-like, dramatic event.

But I had neglected to investigate the relationships between the “Characters.”

Grinding my teeth, I spoke normally, trying as much as possible to not put in any emotion.

“The male friend I provided the date event with had another girl who was after him. That girl was a strong-willed, leader type in the class, and she was so upset about it that she started bullying the girl he had a crush on.”

As is often the case with girls around middle school, when it comes to love-related problems, attacks are more easily directed at the same sex rather than the opposite sex. And since the girl was the plain type, perhaps it was even easier for her to be the one taking the brunt of it.

“As for the girl who had whispered into my ear, she had a boyfriend in another class she was secretly dating. That boyfriend found out about our plans and accused her of cheating on him.”

I hadn’t known that she had a boyfriend in the first place. As for her, she also hadn’t had any ulterior motives for the things she was doing with me and had simply thought of it as hanging out with a kindred spirit.

The “Plan” that had been going so well until the halfway mark and that I had thought would work perfectly until the end. It was at that point that it ran aground.

“In the end… it all became my fault for setting things up, and I was ganged up on by those on the outside.”

Even now, I can’t forget how I felt at that moment when I was suddenly condemned from all sides.

My mind went blank and I couldn’t think of anything, so I just stood there in a daze.

“Fortunately, I wasn’t blamed by the others in my group, but… there’s no way we could have had fun in that situation. We spent the rest of the school trip in an awkward atmosphere, and that was the end of it.”

I let out a breath. The palms of my hands were soaked with sweat.

“I had never had anyone attack me like that before, and spoiling a school trip that was supposed to be fun was unexpectedly hard on me…”

Because of me, everything was ruined.

Because of the half-hearted attempt to realize a romantic comedy, in the end, things fell into a state worse than the original.

It was a romantic comedy that was meant to have a happy ending for everyone. But I had sullied even that idealromantic comedy.

After that, I started to miss school a lot.

There were no blatant attacks like being bullied or ignored… but I couldn’t stand the constant, awkward atmosphere or feelings of remorse, so I ran away from there.

Once the “free attendance” period^[2] began, I confined myself to the house.

I stopped using social networking services, deleted my contacts, and spent each day in a state completely cut off from human relationships.

Of course, I couldn’t concentrate enough to study and just spent my time doing nothing, all the while pretending to my worried family that I was fine.

“So I ended up failing the school of my choice. The results were disastrous.”

It wasn’t like my grades were that great, so there was no way I could have passed the exam without doing anything during such an important period.

“Reality isn’t so easy after all. That’s what I thought… and for a while, I gave up everything.”

There, my plan came to a halt.

In reality, there’s no way you can have a romantic comedy.

In this reality of mine, it’s impossible to have a happy ending.

“However.”

─ At the very end.

On the day of the graduation ceremony that I had missed.

“That girl who whispered into my ear came to visit me at my house. I didn’t know what face to show her, so I hid…”

However, there was nothing to block out the sounds coming from outside.

“At that time, the words I heard were, ‘No one minds, so Nagasaka, do your best too.’”

─ The words she said at that time.

For some reason, they strongly resonated with me.

“After that, I received a letter from her. In it, she told me about what was going on with everyone in the group.”

According to what was written in it, everyone except me was moving forward unfazed.

The male friend I provided the date plan to was able to protect his loved one from a lot of ill will, and they safely ended up together.

The girl who had whispered into my ear, despite the implication that the relationship was about to break down, had persevered, talked it through with her boyfriend, and gained his understanding.

None of the other members succumbed to the awkward atmosphere and the thoughtless slander either and fought their way through.

“They never gave up. They stayed true to themselves… and they got their happy ending.”

And in the end, they all graduated with a smile on their faces.

In this reality, they reached a happy ending.

“At the end of the letter, there was a message which said, ‘The plans for the trip were fun. Thank you.’”

And so, at last…

I realized.

─ Romantic comedies end with a happy ending.

As for the reason why my plan didn’t have a perfect happy ending…

It was because I gave up halfway through and ran away.

It was because I didn’t finish doing the things I could do to completion.

In other words…

“I didn’t stay true to myself. That’s why I couldn’t do a romantic comedy in reality.”

That should have been the only requirement to be a “Protagonist,” and yet I neglected it.

That’s why I was the only one who didn’t get a happy ending.

Such was the story of Nagasaka Kouhei when he was “Middle School Student A.”

The “Episode Zero” of my romantic comedy.

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[1] In modern Japan, a ronin (浪人) is a student who has graduated from middle school or high school but has failed to enter a school at the next level, and consequently is studying outside of the school system for entrance in a future year. The term derives from their having no school to attend, as a ronin, a masterless samurai, had no leader to serve.

[2] Originally written as jiyuu toukou (自由登校) which literally means “free (school) attendance.” It’s the time until graduation where seniors don’t have to attend school.

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