Chapter 097 Love Topics, Let's Hurt Each Other!
The second day of camping, and the weather was exceptionally hot.
Even though it was summer break, this damn school just had to organize some special exam—it was pure torture.
The daytime sweltering heat had everyone feeling numb.
The plan to send people to scout other bases in the afternoon was forced to be canceled. After all, as the leader, Horikita Suzune couldn't move for long periods due to her illness, and she wasn't the type to force others to do what she couldn't do herself. For a girl, that kind of character was truly rare and commendable.
Hikigaya actually quite liked that about her...
He finally endured until sunset, thinking it would get cooler. Unfortunately, there was no breeze tonight, and the temperature remained stifling. Several boys, unable to stand the oven-like tent, planned to go out for some fresh air. They returned less than five minutes later, covered in welts and cursing as they scrambled back inside.
The greatest enemy of wilderness life is the mosquito!
"Hikigaya-kun, don't you feel hot?" Hirata Yousuke asked, vigorously fanning himself with a fan made of folded paper.
'Isn't that a redundant question?'
However, seeing as Hirata was fanning in his direction as well, Hikigaya refrained from making a snarky comment.
"This level of heat is nothing. After all, this is how I've spent every summer."
There were three air conditioners in the Hikigaya household: one in his parents' room, one in the living room, and one in Komachi's room. Only Hikigaya's room lacked one.
They called it "tempering a man's willpower."
Thanks to this training since childhood, Hikigaya's heat resistance stat was maxed out!
"Haha! Hikigaya's family is actually poor, they don't even have air conditioning!
My house has central air!" Yamauchi Haruki, thinking he had found a weakness, launched a mocking attack.
"Oh? Then may I ask how large your house is?" Hikigaya could smell the lie instantly.
"It's... over sixty square meters! My house is in Tokyo, after all. Land prices are expensive!" Yamauchi's eyes darted around, his voice full of insecurity.
Installing central air in a sixty-square-meter apartment? You need at least some common sense to lie! Everyone's gaze toward Yamauchi immediately became strange.
Yamauchi realized he had made a fool of himself, and his face flushed red. But his first thought wasn't to save face, but to drag someone else down with him!
"What about Ayanokouji's house? I bet your place is old, small, and broken."
Ayanokouji Kiyotaka grew up in the "White Room," a massive experimental facility equipped with central air.
'By the way, how big is a normal person's house again?'
"Um, my house is okay. About the same size as Yamauchi-kun's." Lacking the relevant common sense, Ayanokouji simply copied Yamauchi's setting.
"Your house has central air too?" Hikigaya's gaze was weird.
"Uh, is there something strange about that?" Ayanokouji replied, speaking his "truth."
"Pffft—" The crowd couldn't help but chuckle. Ike Kanji patted Ayanokouji's shoulder with a look of pity.
"Ayanokouji-kun, being poor isn't a crime. We won't look down on you or Yamauchi."
"Who... who is on the same level as Ayanokouji?" Yamauchi said with disdain. In his eyes, the usually silent Ayanokouji was likely a poor person from the countryside, at the very bottom of the social hierarchy.
Ayanokouji kept his deadpan face throughout. Hikigaya looked at him with a bit of admiration. To be maliciously characterized to this extent and still remain unfazed—in a sense, his heart was far stronger than a normal person's!
"Alright, regardless of family background, the fact that we're in the same class is fate." Hirata Yousuke stepped in to harmonize the atmosphere, then skillfully changed the topic.
"Say, how about we chat about love topics?"
'Tch, who's interested in a boring thing like love?' Hikigaya thought, speechless.
"Great!"
"I agree!"
"Sounds interesting." The atmosphere in the tent suddenly became lively.
"Why don't we start with Hirata? You must have had a lot of relationships in middle school, right?" The boys looked at Hirata's handsome face with sour expressions.
Hirata froze, then shook his head with a slightly stiff expression.
"No... in middle school, I focused on my studies... yeah."
"Focused on studies? It seems we're the same type of person." Yukimura Teruhiko adjusted his glasses, feeling a sense of mutual sympathy.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Hikigaya faintly felt that in the depths of Hirata's eyes, there was a gloom he was trying desperately to hide.
"For real? At least teach us a few moves for picking up girls!" The group refused to believe him. Even if Hirata didn't pursue girls, with that face, girls would pursue him.
Did he do something terrible that ruined his reputation with girls? Like Sudo or Ryuen, fighting every day? No, if it were just regular fighting, it might deter the "good girls," but it would attract rebellious ones.
Unless he had taken down the entire school... Hikigaya shook his head; that was too exaggerated. It was hard to imagine such a sunny guy doing something so terrifying.
"If the handsome guy won't share, then listen to my three romance stories!"
Yamauchi began bragging about his three middle school girlfriends. Ike Kanji wasn't to be outdone, claiming he received a love letter from his English teacher.
Their lies got more ridiculous by the second. Everyone just treated it as a joke; no one believed a word from these two "gods."
"By the way, Hikigaya, how many relationships did you have in middle school?"
Huh?! What kind of genius asks such a logic-defying question?
How many relationships?! Hikigaya scanned the group and found that the questioner was actually Ayanokouji Kiyotaka! This fake human looked serious, as if he were genuinely interested.
"Zero!" Hikigaya replied succinctly, giving Ayanokouji a dirty look.
"That can't be right. Hikigaya obviously has such good luck with women," Ayanokouji said matter-of-factly.
Infuriatingly, several boys nodded in agreement, their eyes full of intense jealousy! Hikigaya intended to respond with silence, but this group of idiots wouldn't let it go, pestering him to name a list of girlfriends...
'Idiots!!'
"I'm telling you, even if there were methods to chase girls, it still depends on the person. The same method used by different people will yield different results."
As the saying goes: lies don't hurt, the truth is the sharp blade! Hikigaya's cold words instantly cast a "Great Silence" spell on the room.
Then he shifted the target: "Take Ayanokouji, for example. He's low-profile enough, right? He clearly hasn't done anything... but I heard that Manabe, Yamashita, and Yabu from Class C—all three of those girls absolutely love him! Why don't you go ask him?"
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