"Reina Fujimoto… you're Reina Fujimoto, right? Why are you here?"
The question slipped out of Haruto's mouth before his brain caught up, and the moment he said it, he realized how stupid it sounded.
Why would she be here? Wasn't the answer obvious?
Yukino had already said that tonight's meeting would only involve three people. Him, Yukino, and "Airi." Since there were exactly three people in the apartment, Airi's identity was painfully clear.
"Nice to meet you, Haruto. This is our first proper meeting. I'm Reina Fujimoto."
Her voice was clear and soft, her tone calm and gentle. Her eyes, quiet as still water, met Haruto's directly.
As for how she felt inside, even she could not fully explain it. For more than a month now, she had been watching Haruto from afar. Ever since the first installment of Blue Spring Ride launched and completely crushed Yesterday's Starlight, her own work. Then came the second installment, and then the third, each one continuing to overwhelm her.
This was the first time in her life she had ever tasted a sense of true defeat.
Objectively speaking, Yesterday's Starlight was not doing badly. Its results were improving almost every issue. Based on the current trend, the third installment that had just been released would very likely surpass two thousand three hundred votes by nine o'clock the next morning.
Its rating had also climbed to 8.3.
And yet, even those numbers failed to match the data Blue Spring Ride had achieved in its very first chapter.
"Huh? You know me?" Haruto froze for a moment when he heard her words.
As one of the most well-known girls at his High School, it was normal for him to know Reina Fujimoto. She was practically a fixture on stage during opening ceremonies, often invited up by the principal to give long speeches as an exemplary student.
'But she knows me?'
Haruto's mind immediately jumped to a piece of gossip Kaito had once spread around class.
"People say Reina Fujimoto from Class Seven has been secretly paying attention to Haruto and asking around about him."
'No way.'
The next second, Haruto glanced at Yukino standing nearby, and the doubt in his heart instantly vanished.
'So this is why you shouldn't overthink things,' he reasoned to himself. 'Obviously Yukino told her about me.'
Having settled on that explanation, he smiled and spoke naturally.
"Nice to meet you too. I'm Haruto, second-year Class Three. I honestly never imagined you'd be the author of Yesterday's Starlight."
"I didn't expect it either," Reina replied quickly. "I never thought there would be someone my age at our school who's also serializing a novel with Crimson Maple Literature."
The moment Haruto asked how she knew him, she realized she had misspoken and was still scrambling for a way to recover. Since Haruto smoothly let the topic drop on his own, she immediately followed his lead.
'The atmosphere between these two feels… strange.'
Yukino watched their polite but slightly awkward exchange and decided not to bother thinking too deeply about it.
"Enough chatting. Both of you, hand over the manuscripts you're submitting on Friday."
At her words, Haruto and Reina hurriedly passed their drafts to her.
Yukino did not waste a single second. After all, doing this at night was unpaid overtime. If it were not for interest and responsibility, she would never put herself through this much trouble.
She sat down alone and began reading Chapters Seven and Eight of Yesterday's Starlight.
Meanwhile, Haruto and Reina sat on opposite ends of the sofa, with an awkward silence hanging between them.
Haruto glanced at Reina, puzzled.
'Why would someone like her choose to write light novels?'
In Japan, light novel authors enjoyed decent social recognition, but considering Reina's family background, her academic excellence, and her rumored artistic talent at school, choosing this path felt strange.
It was like someone standing at the crossroads of a thousand bright futures and deliberately choosing to go raise pigs in the countryside.
There was nothing wrong with raising pigs. You could even get rich doing it. But when so many better options were clearly available, the choice felt inexplicable.
While Haruto was observing her, Reina's attention was fixed on the shelves of anime and game merchandise surrounding Yukino.
Earlier, Yukino had said something incorrect. It was not that Reina Fujimoto felt no interest at all in these things. It was that she had no idea what they represented.
Time was limited. Just squeezing out hours to read light novels was already difficult for her.
She simply had no space left to learn about all the merchandise and culture surrounding them.
"Are you interested in that console?"
Haruto's voice reached her ears. She turned her head to look at him. If asked to chat about daily life, Haruto would run out of things to say almost immediately. But if the topic was otaku culture, games, or anime, he could talk nonstop until dawn.
"Look," he said, pointing toward a bulky handheld console inside one of the glass cases.
"That's the second-generation handheld developed by the overseas game company.. It came out about twenty-five years ago. Those cartridges next to it are all classic pixel-era games."
"Every one of them was legendary back in the day. And look at the boxes, they're all limited editions. These are all discontinued now, with insane collector value. I have no idea how Yukino even managed to get her hands on them."
At first, Haruto was just trying to make casual conversation, but as he spoke, his eyes began to shine.
"Is it… really that impressive?" Reina asked softly after a brief pause.
"Of course it is," Haruto replied, giving her a look.
Reina's breathing faltered for a moment.
From Haruto's tone, she could clearly hear his surprise at her ignorance.
It felt eerily familiar.
Just like when classmates brought her math problems that could be solved at a glance, and she wondered how they could possibly struggle with something so simple.
The situations were different, but the feeling was exactly the same.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly, a hint of frustration slipping into her voice. "I've never really played games, so I don't know much about them."
"You've never played any of them?" Haruto blinked.
Now he was genuinely intrigued.
"Then what games have you played?"
"I… I haven't played games."
Her gaze drifted back to the array of consoles and cartridges from various domestic and international manufacturers.
Haruto froze, then slowly processed her words before asking in disbelief.
"You mean… you've never played any video games. Ever?"
"When I was in kindergarten, I played hide and seek and tag with my classmates," Reina said calmly.
"In first grade, I once played a puzzle game on my mother's phone. My father scolded her for not being careful with my education and said it would ruin children. I felt very guilty that day, so after that, I never touched electronic games again."
She said it lightly, as if it were nothing.
But Haruto caught an overwhelming amount of information hidden in those few sentences.
Because of a single moment of guilt, she restrained herself from gaming for more than ten years.
'What kind of self-control is that? No wonder she dominated High School's rankings from the moment she enrolled. With discipline like that, who can possibly compete?'
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