Even though Hachiman had deep connections with many girls in class, the only ones who could approach him and mess around so casually were those few gyaru girls.
Gabriel got along well with him, but she wouldn't engage in such horseplay. Ichinose Ayano was a little afraid he might embarrass her in public and tried to avoid him instead.
As for Rurikawa Tsubaki, it went without saying. Even though their relationship had gotten much closer than before, she didn't even dare to greet him in class, afraid that Kaede might misunderstand.
However, recently, Yuina and the others seemed busy with part-time jobs and hadn't come over to his house on the weekends. He was also quite busy and hadn't taken the initiative to invite them to hang out.
"Alright, stop messing around. Let's talk about that Mikari from the swimming club again. What's your relationship with her? Do you know her well?"
Hachiman saw the two had finished horsing around and separated them to give them a way out, conveniently asking about the proactive blonde gyaru girl Tachibana Mikari from the girls' swimming club.
Although the stress-relief request from the girls' swimming club had gone smoothly, at first Uenohara Ayano had been under Ursula's control, but later it quickly turned into automation.
Still, he couldn't rely on Ursula to cause trouble every time, especially now that she was restrained by the Servant Collar. It was even less likely for him to order her to stir things up.
Mikari seemed pretty forward, but he was a bit suspicious of her motives, she had just met him and was already so enthusiastic.
"Mikari? That girl's a second-year. We only met by accident while shopping outside of school, and we don't interact much inside school," Minami rubbed her reddened, aching cheek, flipped her middle finger at Rin, and explained to Hachiman.
"Not very familiar? Then how did Mikari know about me? She acted like she knew you all well," Hachiman found it a bit strange.
"It's not that we're unfamiliar… it's just that we're not particularly close…", Rin also rubbed her reddened cheek from being pinched by Minami, awkwardly murmuring.
"Actually, because Sobu High has strict school rules, we have a cross-grade gyaru group. If there's a big inspection, someone will notify everyone in advance, so we stop secretly wearing makeup or altering uniforms," Seeing her two little friends were unreliable and speaking hesitantly about something that wasn't even bad, Yuina took over the conversation and explained.
"But that doesn't happen often. We chat in the group a lot, and we've talked about little Hiki too."
"Also, this idiot Minami once accidentally sent a photo of you to the big group instead of our three-girl group. Although she retracted it quickly, someone probably saw it. Mikari was likely one of the few who did."
"...I have a question. What were you originally going to do with that photo in your three-girl group?", Hachiman fell silent after hearing that. After a while, he looked at Yuina, Minami, and Rin and slowly asked.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The three of them looked at each other in silence.
Seeing the atmosphere suddenly become awkward, and Hachiman's meaningful gaze lingering on them, Yuina's cheeks flushed as she quickly explained, "It was just a normal side profile that could be used as a phone wallpaper. Not one of those inappropriate photos."
"Mm-hmm-hmm, I get it, I get it," Hachiman nodded repeatedly, looking enlightened.
"No, no, no, you definitely don't get it!", Yuina felt like her reputation was being ruined. It was Minami who tried to send the photo to Rin and messed up, how did she get dragged into it too?
"So basically, Mikari only knew me beforehand and got so proactive because she thought I was handsome?", Hachiman stopped dwelling on the photo incident and continued questioning.
Honestly, her being attracted to his looks wasn't a problem. As the first three who noticed his potential and encouraged him with rewards to become more handsome, he definitely owed them something.
Previously, he thought they were just busy with work to earn money for makeup or shopping. Now that he knew they'd rather look at his photos than come to him directly, he began to suspect they were trying not to interfere with his relationship development with Gabriel.
If that were the case, he could just tell them, it didn't interfere at all. He and Iris had already tried stuff in front of Gabriel. Adding Yuina and the others probably wouldn't be a problem either.
"She's definitely not that simple. Mikari has a strange personality. Very motivated when interested, but loses interest quickly when she gets bored," Minami immediately denied.
Mikari was a bit like her, both were doers who acted first and thought later. But they also had short attention spans. If they lost interest, they immediately stopped.
"Maybe it's just because of us, because of Minami, that she became curious about you," Yuina wasn't sure. They didn't interact much with second-year Mikari, mostly just chatted in the gyaru group. Minami and Rin occasionally bickered with her.
"I see... then it's fine. I'll go talk to her again at the swimming club today," After learning about Mikari's general situation, Hachiman had an idea of how to deal with her.
Very motivated for things she's interested in, no motivation for boring things… Since Mikari was currently interested in him, he just needed to make sure she couldn't stop.
With her abilities, he wasn't worried about her harming him. He just wanted to understand her enthusiastic and proactive motive, not be left clueless.
"Little Hiki, are you going to the girls' swimming club every day from now on?", Rin couldn't help but ask upon hearing Hachiman mention the girls' swimming club.
"Wouldn't that mean training until late every day?"
"I'm just a temporary manager helping out. There are other female managers doing the actual work. I can leave whenever I want," Hachiman smiled as he looked at the hesitant Rin and Yuina.
"What? You girls want to come over to my place today?", He hadn't spent much time with them recently, so naturally, he had to find time to deepen the bond with these bold and passionate gyaru girls.
They'd been so nice to him before, he couldn't just walk away without feelings.
"Uh… if little Hiki has time…"
Yuina quickly glanced at Gabriel, who was surrounded by Ijichi Nijika, Kitagawa Marin, and Ichinose Honami. She looked a bit shy but still answered softly.
It had been several days since they last hung out with little Hiki, they were really looking forward to visiting his house again.
But lately, whenever they messaged him, he replied after a long time. He seemed very busy, so they didn't want to bother him.
Now that he took the initiative to invite them, of course they wouldn't refuse.
Their request with little Hiki had long since ended. They didn't need other members of the Service Club to supervise or help anymore. But little Hiki could still keep training to become more handsome, they were willing to keep helping him, helping him completely win over Gabriel.
"Yuina, are you girls still doing that…", Just then, Miura Yumiko, who was near the window, suddenly turned to Yuina and hesitantly asked.
"What do you mean, that?", Yuina was momentarily stunned by Miura Yumiko's sudden question.
"That… that thing with him," Miura Yumiko glanced at Hachiman and stammered softly.
"Oh! You mean bullying? We're good friends with little Hiki, how could we do something like that?", Yuina understood, thinking they'd spoken too loudly and been overheard. But it turned out Yumiko was just embarrassed to bring up the past bullying.
"Good friends?", Miura Yumiko had a complicated expression. Was bullying something you could talk about so casually in school?
Hachiman got stepped on that hard by them, and they called that friendship?
She suspected that Hachiman skipping class yesterday, despite being a normally well-behaved student, might be because students from another class bullied him. She had wanted to ask Yuina and the others if they had noticed anything, but Yuina now claimed to be his good friend.
Though she felt the girls didn't physically hurt him, it still counted as psychological abuse. And if three or four people took turns stepping on him… that could be physical bullying too...
"Yumiko, do you want to come to my house after school today too?", Hachiman looked at Miura Yumiko. Was it time to try another in-world bullying experiment?
But Miura Yumiko was a bit dense in that area. He'd rather play with Yuina and the others.
"Who said you could call me by name?", Seeing Hachiman foolishly inviting his own bully home as if it were a game, Miura Yumiko raised her eyebrows and scolded him without hesitation.
"Aren't we friends now?"
"No, we're not! You still won't be my underling," Miura Yumiko rolled her eyes, scoffing at the idea of someone who was bullied by her being considered a friend.
She still remembered trying to make Hachiman her underling to save him from Minami and the others' bullying.
She was so kind, but he mercilessly rejected her.
"Uh…", Seeing Miura Yumiko's textbook example of tsundere behavior, Hachiman was a bit speechless.
Could it be, just now, Yumiko wasn't watching Gabriel, Nijika, and the others, she was watching him?
"But if you agree to be my underling, I wouldn't mind going to your house today. I could even bring Marin and Nijika to help you," Miura Yumiko pouted, coldly snorting at how Hachiman looked handsome but was actually a clueless dork.
"Huh? You want to take us to Hachiman's house?"
"Yumiko… since when were you and Hachiman so close?"
Just then, the class bell rang. Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin returned from Gabriel's side and, hearing Yumiko's words, were surprised as they looked between her and Hachiman.
What was going on? Yumiko, who usually looked down on childish boys, wanted to go to Hachiman's house?
Did she fall for Hachiman?
Ijichi Nijika and Kitagawa Marin had recently noticed that their friend Miura Yumiko seemed to be paying attention to Hachiman. During class, they sat in front and couldn't see clearly, but during breaks they noticed Yumiko often glancing at his seat.
However, since Yumiko never went up to chat with him, they didn't think much, maybe she just found him noisy.
But now it seemed they had misjudged.
Yumiko suddenly wanted to take them to Hachiman's house. Her relationship with him...
Could it be a secret romance?
Was she revealing it to them now?
"What kind of look is that? I don't have any special relationship with this guy, alright?", Seeing Nijika and Marin with such "oooh?" expressions and eyes practically burning with curiosity, Miura Yumiko quickly denied it.
"Didn't I say before I wanted to make him our underling, to buy water and run errands for us?"
"Yuina and the others are going to his house. Let's just follow them and check it out."
She just wanted to stop Minami and Rin from bullying Hachiman, not be misunderstood for something impure.
"Huh? Really?", Kitagawa Marin blinked and looked over at Yuina.
Recently, Hachiman had changed a lot. She had noticed how close Yuina and the others had gotten to him.
Originally, the gyaru group led by Yuina had little to do with Hachiman. They'd sometimes borrow his desk to eat lunch, but at some point, Yuina, Minami, and Rin became very close to him. When Hachiman didn't skip class, they'd gather around and chat at his desk.
Now they were going to his house together?
Their relationship was already that good?
"Uh… we were planning to go to little Hiki's house to hang out… are you two coming too?", Yuina saw Marin and Nijika looking at her, sighed internally, but kept a calm smile on the surface.
This was troublesome. It was supposed to be a private little gathering. If Marin and Nijika joined in, it'd become a big deal.
Not that she thought Hachiman belonged solely to them and couldn't be shared with Marin and Nijika.
But Marin was clearly different, even though she was also a gyaru, she was the type who could appear in magazines, the popular kind at school.
That alone was fine, there were many popular girls. But the problem was, they'd once played the bullying game with Yumiko.
If Yumiko brought Marin and Nijika this time, could they still play?
Yumiko alone could be excused for not paying attention in class and lacking common sense. But she didn't dare hope Marin and Nijika were just as easy to fool.
[📍If you're enjoying this story, be sure to check out my new fanfic— "Naruto: The Uchiha Rules the World". It's a fresh take on the Naruto universe, with power, plot, and the Uchiha clan at the center of it all. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Also, I can't publish any new novel in this account because I have reached the limit(20 novels), so search by the name of the novel.]
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