Anime: I Want Harem-Chapter 44

"If Tomoya abandons those two women and chooses me, this time..."

"I will definitely not choose to abandon Tomoya. No matter what happens, I will stay by his side."

Before leaving her house, Eriri suddenly remembered the promise they had made when they were children.

Aki Tomoya's dream was to start a game company. He would be the president and make the games he liked. Eriri had hoped to work at that company as his ace key animator.

Kawa no nagare, tsubu wa yuku.

Mizu mochi, kaze ni yume o yudan.

This was the romance that only girls who grew up together could have. It was something that the heretical way of the "sky-fallen" types could never achieve.

However, reality was not always as beautiful as imagined. In reality, the example of childhood sweethearts finally getting together was less than one in ten. Eriri and Aki Tomoya's situation was also completely different from the childhood sweethearts in galgames who always silently accompanied the male protagonist without any complaints.

"Eriri, I..."

Aki Tomoya completely understood the meaning in the girl's words before him. Should he agree to her? Should he give this girl a response?

Working together to move toward the dreams of their childhood was also something he had always hoped for deep down. If it had been the him of the past, he would probably have agreed without hesitation.

Some things, after all, had become completely different from when they were in elementary school.

Aki Tomoya couldn't trust Eriri wholeheartedly again, like he did back then. He also didn't know the determination she had made in her heart at this moment, nor what she was planning to face together with him. The two of them selfishly wanted to protect each other in their own ways but couldn't understand the person right in front of them.

He wanted to believe, but he couldn't completely trust Eriri, who had betrayed him once in elementary school.

"Tomoya, how is it...? Or are you saying that you like that gloomy woman and someone else's girlfriend so much more than me?"

Thinking of the woman she had only met a few times, who made Aki Tomoya disregard everything and want to create a game with her as the heroine, Eriri subconsciously hugged her small body tightly with her arms, her tone trembling, afraid of being rejected.

Although she completely misunderstood the relationship between Kato Megumi and Sosuke, the two were just friends with a pretty good relationship at this stage.

"It's not like that, Eriri. It's just... just..."

Even though he vaguely understood that Kato Megumi was the goddess who had once saved him, Megumi's position in Aki Tomoya's heart was actually far less important than that of his childhood friend Eriri.

That was an emotion accumulated over time, not something that love at first sight could easily surpass.

Aki Tomoya liked Eriri the most. The beautiful girl with gorgeous blonde hair in front of him was the heroine with the highest favorability in his heart at this moment. Without exception.

However, the incident when the girl in front of him unilaterally broke off their friendship when they were children had left a grudge in his heart. Therefore, Aki Tomoya hoped that things would remain as they were now, without changing.

He very much wanted to give this girl a direct promise, but he inevitably worried that he would be betrayed again.

"Just what, Tomoya?"

The girl didn't know what the boy was thinking. She unilaterally thought that she and Tomoya could have normal conversations at school and that she had even been invited to his club. Their current state was already considered reconciled. But she didn't understand that some hurts were deeply buried in the heart along with memories and would accompany a person throughout their life.

"Tell me your answer, Tomoya. I... don't want to experience what happened in elementary school again."

Eriri looked at Aki Tomoya with her beautiful blue eyes, almost abandoning her dignity to plead. She was yearning to receive a positive response from this boy.

In the previous few years, she had hardly spoken a word to Aki Tomoya at school. Now that they had finally become able to communicate normally, she absolutely didn't want to go through that kind of thing again.

"When we were in elementary school..."

Aki Tomoya muttered softly. Just now, he had originally wanted to give up his unrealistic fantasies about Kato Megumi and agree to this girl's request, even if there was a possibility of being betrayed again.

Eriri was the most special existence for him, and he couldn't refuse this girl. But hearing Eriri mention what happened in elementary school at this moment caused resentment to ignite in Aki Tomoya's heart, which had been wavering so much that he was almost about to agree.

"But... back then, you were the one who unilaterally severed all ties with me."

While thinking about what had happened back then, Tomoya's tone also became subtle. The two of them were always together, being ridiculed by the people around them. When he chose to stand against all the boys, Eriri drew a line between them and drew a line between herself and the otaku. This was definitely not a beautiful memory.

"Things weren't as simple as you think! Do you even know what kind of determination I had to make?"

Eriri said loudly, as if she wanted to vent all the grievances she had suffered in the past few years. But although she felt pain for breaking off with her childhood sweetheart, she didn't think her choice back then was wrong at all. She wanted Aki Tomoya to understand her.

But Aki Tomoya couldn't understand. Tomoya felt that he had already given enough back then, but he had suffered that kind of betrayal, which was something he couldn't forgive.

"I don't know! Why care about other people's opinions?! I can't understand it at all!"

Aki Tomoya shouted at Eriri without any gentleness. Eriri's unilateral act of betrayal was not something to be praised. But Aki Tomoya also overlooked one thing. Japan was, after all, a place with a great prejudice against otaku. And its school bullying was also among the top in the world. Aki Tomoya wanting Eriri, this originally glamorous young lady, to live with him without caring about the discriminatory gazes of others also had its inappropriate aspects.

The biggest disagreement between the two lay here. Some people could live without caring about others, while others couldn't.

"Tomoya... are you still holding a grudge against me?"

Eriri opened her mouth in great surprise. Only now did she suddenly realize that she seemed to have misunderstood something.

"..."

Aki Tomoya indeed hadn't forgiven her.

"My choice back then was absolutely not wrong!"

Having discovered this fact, Eriri, who hadn't been mentally prepared and had only acted on impulse, immediately began to feel somewhat broken down.

"No, if you like something, you should just say it out loud!"

An ordinary male might choose not to provoke the girl further and hurt her. But Aki Tomoya didn't hesitate and immediately denied her statement. This person was neither a simp nor gentle.

"So do you even know how much grievance I suffered back then?"

"I don't know! Why should our own likes and dislikes be subjected to other people's pointing fingers?"

The two people with differing viewpoints simply began to argue loudly.

"Ah... that's Aki and Sawamura-san. It seems like they're arguing."

A light, airy girl's voice said this. Not far from the two, across the road, Aki Tomoya's goddess-cosplaying Kato Megumi, and Kitahara Sosuke, wearing loose clothes to hide his injuries while accompanying the girl home, happened to see this scene along with the sparse passersby occasionally walking by. It was late, and Miss Kato's cousin had a sudden matter and left, so Kitahara Sosuke was pulled in halfway to take over. Girls had to be careful walking alone at night, and there were many perverts in Japan.

"Should we go and advise them, Kitahara-kun?"

"Don't mind them."

Sosuke, with a pair of dead fish eyes, looked at the two across the street and answered without hesitation.

"Let them continue to struggle with their youth love story themselves."

Although Eriri could almost win just by confessing, Kitahara Sosuke had plenty of confidence in Eriri's ability to screw things up. Clearly having the highest favorability, even the senpai who was not as good as her had a chance to win in the manga, while her success rate was zero. The blonde loser wasn't called that for nothing.

Miss Kato also felt that it would be a bit awkward for her to get involved between the two of them, given her position.

Then... As if they were unrelated passersby, the two of them walked away without looking back.

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