Game Gyaru

Chapter 78: Dirty Laundry

"Hey Shiuka." He greeted her back as if nothing was wrong. Hakuta held on with him a bag which contain this new swimsuit. "You want to check out my new trunks?"

"No, that's fine." She was certain he only picked out a plain one that fit him perfectly. "It'll probably be great when we head out to the beach. I already picked out a couple I think are cute."

"That's cool." He was about to head up to his room to put away his things and rest up for a bit, but she stopped him.

"Oh, um." She struggled to think of what to say. Shiuka couldn't say she was angry with him, so this wasn't a matter of blowing up in his face about this new information she gained. But it also made it a challenge to want to confront him right as he had gotten home. "Are there any girls you're interested in?" She immediately kicked herself mentally for bringing up a stupid question that only related to this.

"That's pretty direct." He replied, feeling the slight embarrassment in talking about his feelings to another girl. "If it's about Ninka, I already told you not to worry about her. I'm not into her, even though that doesn't seem to be enough to get her to give up." Personally, he was hoping she'd just meet another guy while they were at the beach and fall for him instead.

"I don't just mean with Ninka." She clarified, trying to find something in the house so she could talk without it seeming like she was mainly focused on the conversation. This needed to be natural so he wouldn't get suspicious. "I mean, you're a boy in high school. You've probably met tons of girls by now." She settled on a nearby broom to pretend she was sweeping up some nonexistent dust.

"It feels like you should know me a little better than that by now." He replied, walking up the stairs. She followed him up as the boy went and tossed his bag into his room. It wasn't lost on him that she was particularly interested in this aspect of his life, but it didn't tip him off as to why she was curious. "Is this about Ino? Because I know you weren't really fond of her."

There was a period of time where he noticed that Shiuka appeared to hold some disdain for their class representative. Mostly because she had complaints about how often it seemed he was asked to help that girl, but he also figured she might have a bit of a grudge on learning how much Ino disliked her for who she was. "It's probably a little weird that I wasn to go back to her, but that's just what I want to do."

The boy had decided he really did want to be friends with her, even considering the unfortunate part about the dislike between the girls. Sure, that would put him in the middle, but he wanted both, not one or the other. "I'm not interested in her, and I doubt she'd ever want to date me seeing as we're friends."

"Sure, you're not wrong there." She conceded. This attempt towards getting him to fess up was going much poorer than she anticipated. "But you really aren't interested in anyone?"

"Ah, I know what this is all about." She tensed up as he apparently came to his revelation. "You're projecting."

"How so?" Shiuka asked with concern.

"Look, we probably can't deny that you're a pretty popular girl in school." She was also very cute, pretty, and many other words that boys might describe her while infatuated with the girl. "And I know you talk to a lot of boys in class all the time." It was abundantly clear to him most of those guys were trying to test the waters and flirt with her. Perhaps maybe build things up so they could ask her out with a high success rate.

Given all these interactions, he was willing to bet she had grown more interested in those boys as well. After all, they got closer after spending a lot of time together. So it was possible there was one who caught her eye. While he might have some personal feelings on the matter where he wasn't certain if it should happen or not, Hakuta wasn't going to be the one to deny her. "So don't forget that I did say you shouldn't worry about me."