After deciding to give up, I became popular

But this wasn't the key point, so they didn't dwell on it.

"And then?"

"The rest is pretty simple." Tatenuma Tsubasa began to reminisce again.

"At first, I really was just the one leading the way, like they said, with the two of them following behind me. But as we walked, the three of us started walking side by side. And then, as we walked, they would occasionally get scared and jump into my arms or grab my arm and not let go..."

"..."

So this happened to you, kid? No wonder you were able to give your opinion so confidently earlier!

"But that's not enough, is it? It's impossible to tell who it is... Did anything else happen?" they asked again.

"Yes, a lot of things happened one after another, like people getting lost or disappearing... Oh, right, one thing that impressed me the most was when I saw a 'ghost' ahead and subconsciously turned around to pull them away, but I accidentally fell and ended up knocking them both to the ground..."

The others: "..."

You little... you sly dog!

"What happened then? What were their reactions?" They were completely engrossed, feeling like they were reading a manga, finding it quite interesting.

"Their reactions... it seemed like there wasn't any reaction? I thought I was going to get scolded, but in the end, neither of them said anything... Well, I myself didn't know what to say." Tatenuma Tsubasa sighed.

He was actually very helpless. He wanted to use this opportunity to test the waters and see who liked him or had feelings for him, but he tried for a long time and couldn't figure it out. Instead, he ended up doing a lot of bad things.

Alas, he just wasn't good at this sort of thing.

So Tatenuma Tsubasa looked at Natsukawa Kanade, the person he saw as a love saint, hoping he would generously give him some advice.

And Natsukawa Kanade didn't disappoint, actually saying something: "In my opinion... no reaction is the biggest reaction!"

"Eh? What's the reasoning behind that?" Tatenuma Tsubasa asked in surprise, and even Hikitani looked at him blankly.

"Based on my personal experience... cough, anyway—if they don't care or don't like you, they would definitely start attacking you, this silent pervert, with all sorts of tricky language. At least you definitely wouldn't escape being called a pervert."

After all, this was his own experience, so he looked very confident when explaining it.

"But if they like you or have feelings for you, they would most likely remain silent at this time! One reason is that they are too shy to speak first; the second is that they vaguely have expectations for the situation to continue developing!" Natsukawa Kanade paused, then continued.

"Because girls are generally very reserved. Even if they really want something, they will pretend not to care for various reasons, and finally 'reluctantly' accept it after being pushed around. What you need to do is learn to distinguish what they really don't care about and what they are pretending not to care about!"

"As for this matter, it's obvious that they are pretending not to care! That's why they acted like it was nothing and didn't need to discuss it. In reality, it's because they were too shy to speak!"

"Therefore, there are only two possibilities—one, both of these girls like you! But because of various reasons, they didn't show it in the group, so they could get along peacefully; two, only one of the girls likes you, and the other knows about it, which also shows that the girl who likes you's little secret is already known in the group, and the others are purely covering for her. Therefore, the measures you take later are very obvious—"

"Carefully, preferably secretly, observe the daily behavior of these two girls. Once someone behaves very differently from usual, such as being easily distracted, then she is very likely to have been affected by this incident, that is to say—she is the true culprit who likes you... I mean—the girl who really likes you." Natsukawa Kanade affirmed righteously.

Betting on his reputation as the student council president, this reasoning will never be wrong!

190. Misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding!

"Okay, I will do as you say, President!" Hope shone in Tatenuma Tsubasa's eyes.

He had always held the "senior" Natsukawa Kanade in great respect, because the other party was—a man who had dated all sorts of cute girls, broke up with them in the end, but still made them miss him!

Among them was even Shinomiya Kaguya, who was known as the "Ice Princess"! How strong was that love ability?! In his heart, he was like the—"God of Conquest"!

In short, he trusted Natsukawa Kanade very much, especially after adopting the other party's suggestion before, he found that his luck with girls seemed to have improved, and he had become much more confident.

"So what are the specific measures? Should I apply to the teacher to move to the back of the classroom? It seems easier to observe there... and, and, do I need to prepare binoculars specifically? With it, I can observe others from a super long distance without being discovered... or should I bribe the people around them? Let them provide me with information..." This guy became more and more excited, and all sorts of endless ideas popped up, making everyone dumbfounded.

"No! Don't do that!" Natsukawa Kanade quickly stopped him. "Don't do anything deliberately! Because like this... like this... right! Doing this might alert the enemy! So don't take any action casually, just be normal, keep a normal mind!"

He didn't expect the other party to be so active, and he had even thought of all sorts of ideas. The previous ones could still be implemented, but the latter ones were completely terrible ideas! If he wasn't careful, he might become a stalker, and even need to call the police!

He never thought of instigating his friend and classmate to become such a person!

"In short, don't take any action randomly, just pay a little attention at ordinary times..." Natsukawa Kanade instructed again.

"Yes, I understand." As if understanding the seriousness of the matter, Tatenuma Tsubasa nodded with a serious expression. Since the president said so, he would do so. Anyway, the president would never be wrong.

Confirming that he had completely listened, Natsukawa Kanade breathed a sigh of relief, and the matter was considered over.

"Then, does anyone have anything else to add? After all, it's still early..." Natsukawa Kanade said, only to find that everyone was staring at him intently.

"..."

A bad feeling welled up in his heart.

"President, what about your own situation? Although we probably don't need to help you with advice, on the other hand—to be honest, we are all very curious. President, who do you... like the most? How long did you date her? And what caused you to break up in the end?" Tatenuma Tsubasa was still the first to speak, and the other two were too shy, but they also stared at him closely, as if expressing their agreement.

"..."

So Natsukawa Kanade fell silent.

Who did he like the most? How long did they date? What caused them to break up?

...

When did this happen? Why didn't he have any impression? Didn't every pursuit of his end in failure? But this... could it be... in the rumors about him, he was actually a scumbag who dated many girls and then abandoned them? What a huge misunderstanding!

Even until just now, he had always thought that among the rumors about him, the most was the rumor that he had ambiguous relationships with many girls, suspected of dating.

Originally, he thought that since so many rumors had been spread, it was better to prove his innocence with actions than to clarify each one, because he couldn't possibly be dating every girl, right? No one could openly be on two or even multiple boats! But now he understood that in the eyes of others, his indifference was like admitting it, clearly fueling the flames of the rumors!

So it had evolved into the current situation—he was considered a great love saint who had dated many girlfriends and still made each one miss him after the breakup!

Damn it! No wonder he always felt that Tatenuma Tsubasa had a subtle respect for him, which he previously thought was awe of his student council president status, but now he thought about it... it was clearly because he admired his "love ability"!

"No, that's not it! I think there's a huge misunderstanding here!" Natsukawa Kanade quickly waved his hand to explain, "Actually, I don't have..."

However, it seemed that even God was preparing to stop him from telling the truth—the door of their dormitory was pushed open.

"I can hear you guys arguing in the hallway! Are you going to sleep or not?!"

The teacher checking the dorms had arrived, and it was even Natsukawa Kanade's acquaintance—Hiratsuka Shizuka.

"Oh? So the student council president is in this room? In that case... then the crime is doubled! If I come back later and find that you haven't gone to sleep, all of you will run 20 laps on the playground downstairs! Did you all hear that?!"

"Yes, teacher!" Except for Natsukawa Kanade, the others were obviously unwilling, after all, they had finished talking about their own affairs, but the most worthy gossip in their eyes had not been revealed, so how could they be satisfied? However, their thick thighs couldn't twist the superwoman known as the "Iron Fist Leftover Woman", so they could only give up.

"Keep your voices down! Don't disturb others!"

"Yes, teacher..." Everyone was helpless, thinking that the loudest voice was clearly yours, teacher, right? But they all nodded obediently and crawled back into their beds.

"That's more like it." Hiratsuka Shizuka nodded in satisfaction, then said something like "I really don't understand, why do boys of this age have so much energy to vent? Even the girls are like that..." and then went out.

After that, the room suddenly became quiet, without a sound.

But less than a few minutes later, the door of the room was opened again. Suddenly, the light from the hallway shone on the person who came, projecting a grinning devil at the entrance of the room.

"Tch, they're really all asleep, what a pity. I wanted to find some fun..."

The devil looked around and found that everyone was indeed lying peacefully on their beds, and then nodded in satisfaction and left.

"..."

So the whole room fell into a long silence again, until at one moment someone's not very heavy snoring sounded.

Then it became one after another.

191. He grew up, but he also changed (Must read to understand the main story!)

Natsukawa Kanade couldn't remember when he fell asleep, or perhaps—he didn't sleep at all?

In his memory, he seemed to be troubled by what his friends had said in the end all night. He also understood for the first time what his true image was in front of everyone.

Honestly, his thoughts were very complicated. On the one hand, he somewhat hated the him that everyone imagined. This stemmed from the value viewpoints cultivated in the last century, but in reality, in Japan, it seemed that such a person would never become an object of exclusion by everyone. On the contrary, he would be quite popular—precisely because he was so excellent, he could be favored by so many, and also very excellent, girls.

As for those "good (weird) students" who never communicate with people and always go alone... such people who seem to be indifferent to the world will become objects of exclusion or even bullying.

They even have their own indecent title—gloomy man.

But for Natsukawa Kanade, he had never felt it... no, perhaps he had such moments before, but at that time he was muddleheaded and didn't care about anything. Until he met the "heroine" for the first time, his eyes could only accommodate them, and everything else seemed to be irrelevant to him. Then slowly, because of his own actions, he successfully broke away from such a role, until now.

He hadn't noticed it before, just doing it, but now that he recalled it, his every pursuit wasn't all bad. At least—it was as if he had obtained "by-products" that were actually rewards in the process of pursuing the "heroines". He made himself better and better, and more and more able to adapt to society—

He learned to cook, and even cooked very well; he improved his academic ability, and even got the first place in the grade; he also exercised his body and strengthened his physique, etc., not to mention other things, such as cultivating patience and tolerant personality, which are latent things that are not easy to show...

He did become better and more excellent because he met these "heroines". This alone can show that effort is rewarded, but the direction of the reward may not be what he expected... Of course, from the current point of view, the point of "becoming good friends" is also a good result, that is, it did reward—but not completely.

In short, he was still very satisfied with his current situation, so he also had a second thing that required him to put in a lot of thought—his friends—specifically female friends like Mahiru and Eriri, did they know that he had so many strange rumors about him?

If it were ordinary people, he would believe they understood, but in the case of people like Mahiru and Eriri, who were clearly "involved parties," surely others wouldn't be able to ask her so openly, "Were you dumped by Kakeru?" right?

Of course, the specific wording wouldn't be exactly as he imagined it, since the truth was that they dumped him. If they had said it themselves, there wouldn't be such rumors now. So, since that's the case, it means they haven't received this kind of information from others. But being in this academy, news will inevitably be heard to some extent, and what he cares about is just how far that "extent" has gone?

Is it the kind of "extent" that they would just laugh off, or the kind that has clearly reached the point of shaking their trust and making them suspect he has ulterior motives? And most importantly—did they know about this "extent" of information before he confessed to them, and did this "extent" influence their answers to his confession?!

This is the ultimate reason why he thought about it for almost an entire night, causing him to be unable to sleep!

For Mahiru, this situation shouldn't exist, but for the upperclassman and Eriri later on, it's very likely to occur! Especially starting with Eriri! Because she is someone who is very easily influenced by the outside world. If she rejected his confession back then because of this reason, he would be truly speechless!

After all... he seems to be acting like he doesn't have that much desire now, acting like being friends is good enough, but that's because he has been trying his best to play the role of a friend when he's with them. But if possible, how could he not hope to go further and become that "boyfriend"?

Indeed, his so-called "like" in the past did have other things mixed in due to changes in the environment, but that doesn't mean those "likes" from earlier were fake! Especially after spending some time with them, those "like" emotions slowly solidified, turning into love for the person in front of him, and the emotions in his heart were no longer ethereal.

So, the choice comes—should he ask Eriri and the others if they rejected his confession because of the rumors, or... pretend that nothing happened and continue to get along with them?

The former naturally has a very low probability of getting the answer he once hoped for, but if not, wouldn't the relationship that the two of them had repaired be potentially messed up again? —"So you still have such thoughts about me... I'm sorry, we really aren't suitable to be friends anymore."

Wouldn't everything be over if he was answered like that? This is the second time?! It's the kind with absolutely no way back!

He certainly doesn't want to take the risk again, after all, the previous example is right there.

Of course, the most important part of the reason why he is leaning towards the second option is that he has found himself somewhat accustomed to having their figures around him during this period of time.

If he suddenly starts dating someone at this time, then in order to ensure his devotion, he would naturally have to maintain a distant attitude towards everyone else like he used to, but can he really do that now?

He would never have doubted himself before, but now he is clearly starting to hesitate—since he is hesitating, it means that there is a possibility that he cannot be devoted, even if that possibility is small, it is an undeniable gap!

If external forces cause that gap to continue to widen... something might happen one day! At that time, it would be a heavy blow to the person he is dating and to everyone else!

Therefore, he must, and has no choice but to—be more certain of his heart...

192. A New Storm is About to Appear

Just one night of settling down is not enough for a group of energetic high school students to escape from the afterglow of the test of courage. Even the next morning, they are looking for various opportunities to share what happened to them last night with their friends.

"Listen to me, actually yesterday I..."

"Eh? Really? Are you really together?"

"Hey, don't be so loud, I'll be embarrassed..."

"..."

Taking advantage of the test of courage, many people did achieve their wishes, but more students were not so lucky to get together with the people they liked, so they mostly just played the role of ordinary participants, or rather—onlookers.

"Listen to me, listen to me, actually yesterday in the venue, I saw the president and Singuuji..."

"Eh? Are you kidding me? Is it behind someone's back?"

"Yes, and even so, they held hands the whole time, like a pair of idiot lovers..."

"But, I clearly saw the president with a blonde girl last night? Could I have seen wrong?"

"Eh? You saw the president too? But I clearly saw the president carrying a girl with long black hair on his back? Of course, I initially thought it was Singuuji, but then I thought that Singuuji always ties her hair up, so I thought that might just be a girl who got lost in the venue..."

"Ah? But, I did see the president and Singuuji..."

"Could it be that you saw wrong? After all, Singuuji also has black hair, maybe she let her hair down last night for some reason?"

"This... is there really such a possibility?"