Ever since the incident with the press-on nails, Otaku-kun had been talking with Yua more often.

That said, Yua was the type who actively talked to everyone in class, so it wasn’t as though she treated Otaku-kun as someone especially close to her.

One afternoon after school…

Only Otaku-kun and Yua remained in the classroom.

The other students had either gone to their club activities or headed straight home.

Having finished his duties as the class monitor for the day, Otaku-kun was getting ready to leave for his own club activity.

“Hey, hey, Otaku-kun, look at this!”

“Doesn’t this hairstyle in the magazine look amazing?”

Without warning, Yua dropped a fashion magazine onto his desk and spoke with her usual boundless enthusiasm.

“I don’t really know much about it, but… yeah, it looks amazing.”

When talking to girls, agreeing with them was more important than giving your own opinion.

That was the conclusion Otaku-kun had reached after spending hours searching the internet for “how to get along with girls.”

“Right!? I knew you’d get it!”

Whether that approach worked on other girls was anyone’s guess.

With Yua, however, it seemed incredibly effective.

Encouraged by the way Otaku-kun nodded along attentively, she launched straight into another round of machine-gun-speed conversation.

“So, I’ve got another favor to ask.”

“I want to try this hairstyle…”

“Otaku-kun, can you style hair?”

That was the real reason Yua had stayed behind after school.

She wanted to ask him, but she’d struggled to bring it up, waiting for the right moment.

Even though she often came across as carefree and bold, asking someone for a favor still took courage.

“It’s this one.”

Yua opened the magazine to a particular page and pointed at one of the hairstyles.

Otaku-kun had no real interest in gyaru hairstyles.

Even so, the style she pointed at looked strangely familiar.

It resembled the hairstyle of a heroine from a certain sword-and-fantasy anime.

It was a half-up hairstyle, with the hair above the ears gathered together at the back of the head.

Of course, there were differences from the anime character.

The model in the magazine had soft waves throughout her hair, giving it a much more gyaru-inspired appearance.

“So?”

“What do you think?”

“Well…”

Otaku-kun stared carefully at Yua’s hair.

It was long, silky, and perfectly straight.

“Narumi-san, have you ever gotten a perm or anything?”

“Nope.”

“My hair’s really fine, so it doesn’t hold curls very well.”

As she spoke, she wrapped a lock of hair around her finger.

The curl immediately fell apart.

‘In that case, using a curling iron might damage her hair… it could even cause it to break.’

“So… my hair just won’t work for it, huh?”

“Maybe.”

“Hang on a second.”

Otaku-kun took out his phone and started searching for something.

Curious, Yua leaned over from beside him to peek at the screen.

Her face was so close their cheeks were almost touching.

“What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing.”

With Yua’s hand resting on his shoulder and her face only inches away, Otaku-kun’s fingers froze for a brief moment.

Having almost no resistance to girls, he forced himself to focus on his phone, desperately trying to stay calm.

“I think this hairstyle should be possible if we use hair extensions.”

“If you’re okay with that, I can give it a try.”

“You can do it!?”

“Otaku-kun, you’re seriously the best!!”

What Otaku-kun had been searching for was hair extensions.

Instead of altering Yua’s real hair, he figured he could recreate the look by attaching wavy extensions.

When he was younger, he’d often styled his little sister’s hair.

These days, he also enjoyed styling dolls as a hobby.

As a result, he was fairly confident in his hairstyling skills.

Even so, he didn’t want to experiment on Yua’s actual hair.

If he made a mistake while cutting or styling it, there’d be no fixing it.

“Ah, but…”

“They’ll cost money.”

“Is that okay?”

Even inexpensive hair extensions cost around two thousand yen.

For a high school student, that wasn’t exactly cheap.

“That’s totally fine!”

“No problem at all.”

“Oh!”

“We should buy them together so we can match the color to my hair.”

“Want to come shopping with me?”

“Right now?”

“Yep.”

“Right now.”

“I suppose…”

Otaku-kun belonged to the Second Literature Club.

The regular Literature Club was for students who genuinely loved literature.

The Second Literature Club, on the other hand, was basically for otaku.

Most club meetings consisted of chatting about anime, manga, and games with fellow enthusiasts, so skipping one day wasn’t a big deal.

Besides, if Yua bought extensions that turned out to be unusable, the money would be wasted.

It was probably safer if he went with her.

“Sure.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Seriously!?”

“Otaku-kun, I seriously love you!!”

Yua was simply speaking with her usual excitement.

There was no romantic meaning behind her words.

To her, saying “I love you” was just another way of expressing gratitude or happiness.

She didn’t think anything of it.

Otaku-kun, however, was thrown into complete confusion.

‘When she says she loves me…’

‘She means “like,” not “love,” right?’

‘Basically… she just means we’re friends.’

Despite having a beautiful girl tell him she loved him to his face, Otaku-kun’s opinion of himself was so low that he never even considered another possibility.

Looking at it another way, though, that also meant he wouldn’t get the wrong idea and start pursuing her, which made him surprisingly level-headed.

“My friends are waiting, so I’ll go tell them to head home first.”

“You wait for me at the front gate, okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Got it.”

By the time Otaku-kun finished replying, Yua had already dashed out of the classroom.

Thinking she was as energetic and hectic as ever, Otaku-kun gathered his things and left the classroom as well.