Chapter 182: I Don't Think That Kind of Thing with a Boyfriend Is Strange at All!
This conveyor-belt sushi restaurant was indeed very good.
The interior was clean and tidy, and the variety of sushi was comprehensive. The veteran chefs at the central preparation station not only served food quickly but would also skillfully knead the sushi while explaining the origins and characteristics of specific pieces to the guests. Even after standing for over half an hour, they wouldn't sit down to rest for a moment, let alone take a sip of water. One had to admit that the "craftsman spirit" of these veteran Japanese masters was truly admirable.
However, for a shop with such good taste, attentive service, and attention to detail, the price was usually not cheap. For the two of them, the meal cost a total of over 8,000 points. As previously agreed, Shimizu Akira treated for the entire meal and paid for both of them directly.
"Shimizu-kun, your personal points..." Ichinose Honami started to speak but hesitated, her tone carrying a hint of concern.
Shimizu naturally understood what she wanted to say and explained, "I joined the Boxing Club, and the captain provides a subsidy. Plus, because I'm participating in the exhibition match next weekend, the captain has already sent me a 50,000-point appearance fee in advance."
As he spoke, he took out his phone and scrolled to the chat records to show her. Seeing the record of the 50,000-point deposit, Ichinose suddenly felt a strange sense of guilt.
These were points he had earned through the hard work of boxing; how could they be spent on a date with her? Or perhaps, he felt these points were being spent exactly where they mattered.
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Pushing open the glass doors of the bowling alley, the deafening sound of pins crashing mingled with light music. They first went to the front desk to reserve a lane. Since the scoring screen required names to be registered, they each gave theirs. Then they changed into the designated shoes—the floors were polished and very slippery, after all.
Walking to their assigned lane, Ichinose first chose a pink lightweight ball, spinning it halfway in her hand. She tested her footing with two steps in the approach area, then turned and winked at Shimizu: "Watch me!"
Before the words had even faded, she slid forward with small steps and swung her arm gracefully. The pink ball traced an arc through the air and slammed steadily into the pins—Crash! All ten pins fell. A large "STRIKE" icon appeared on the screen.
"A strike!" she turned around excitedly, but just as she was about to cheer, she remembered herself and shyly covered her mouth.
"Was I too loud?"
Shimizu picked up a dark, heavy ball and smiled.
"It's fine. This is the kind of place where you're supposed to be loud."
His pace was steady as he approached, resulting in a crisp strike of his own.
"Wow, Shimizu-kun is amazing too!" Ichinose clapped her hands.
After several rounds, they were actually neck-and-neck. Although Ichinose didn't have much power, she relied on precise angles to consistently pick up spares. Shimizu, using his advantage in strength and technique, hit strikes repeatedly, though he occasionally left one or two pins on purpose—sometimes, not winning is its own way of winning.
After ten casual games, Shimizu's score was slightly higher. He didn't find it taxing despite choosing the heaviest ball every time. Ichinose, however, was clearly tired; bowling looks easy, but it's actually quite physically demanding.
Shimizu suggested a break, and Ichinose Honami agreed. They sat down on the sofas located behind the automatic ball return. Ichinose specifically went to the front desk to get two cups of mango juice—drinks were included in the package they had selected.
She seemed to remember something.
"Shimizu-kun, I've heard some rumors that the first-years might be going to a southern island for vacation this summer."
"Going to a southern island for vacation?" Shimizu became quite focused upon hearing this. Why would the school suddenly be so generous to the students? Given the school's style of fostering students, would they really let them enjoy a vacation so easily?
'Wait, could it be a special exam?'
"It seems Shimizu-kun thought of it too?" Ichinose smiled and nodded at his pensive expression.
"The school is likely using the name of a vacation to hold some kind of special exam. This might be the first true battle between all four classes."
"Ichinose-san, is it alright to tell me this kind of information?"
After all, they belonged to different classes. Strictly speaking, this news was extremely important. If they were really going to a "vacation" on a southern island, the school would likely set up assessments around survival—in that case, it would be necessary to study wilderness survival knowledge in advance, and those with good physical fitness would
naturally have an advantage. Shimizu felt that if such an exam were held, it would be quite beneficial for him in many ways.
"Of course it's fine," Ichinose shook her head without a second thought.
"You're so good to me, why would I hide this from you? It's not exactly critical intelligence anyway.
Class B is still over a hundred points behind Class A! And I need to get as many class points as possible," she added with emphasis after a moment.
Shimizu could see that Ichinose was very committed to this.
He looked forward to her performance in the next exam—in his eyes, her abilities were quite outstanding. She might not have the top-tier IQ of Sakayanagi Arisu or the ruthless drive of Ryuen Kakeru, but she was always surrounded by friends and possessed an incredible network. Her organizational and strategic thinking was not inferior to the leaders of the other classes.
Just like last month, even members of the Boxing Club proactively helped her—this was the tangible advantage of high popularity and charisma.
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On the other side, Ichinose suddenly glanced at him with a bit of embarrassment and hesitated before speaking: "Shimizu-kun, can I spend 10,000 points to consult you on a question?"
"If there's something you want to ask, just say it. No points needed; the info you just gave me is very useful," Shimizu noticed she seemed to have other concerns.
Ichinose paused, a complex emotion welling up inside her—she felt that throughout this entire date, Shimizu had been accommodating her.
"Um... I heard from Hoshinomiya-sensei that someone confessed to Shimizu-kun before? But you rejected them in the end." She finally asked.
"That did happen," Shimizu nodded. This was something Hoshinomiya Chie had asked him personally during the first month.
"Then, can I ask for your advice on what to say when rejecting someone?"
"Hmm? Has Ichinose-san never had the experience of rejecting someone?"
"Well... it's a classmate, and the situation might be a bit unique. So I have to carefully consider the wording. That's why I wanted to ask you!" she explained softly.
'Wait, could it be Shiranami Chihiro?'
The intelligence from last month immediately flashed through Shimizu's mind—the person was a girl, which fit the "unique situation" description. He didn't believe that with Ichinose's personality, she had never been confessed to by a boy; she was likely at a loss because it was her first time receiving a confession from another girl.
"Since you know in advance they want to confess, did they leave an envelope, or ask to meet you some afternoon, or send a text?" Shimizu asked, following the topic. For high school confessions, it was usually one of those three.
"...Yes, it was an envelope," Ichinose answered quietly.
"In that case, why don't you write a letter in return?" he suggested after some thought.
"That way you can respect their feelings while delivering a polite rejection. Compared to saying it to their face, this leaves more room; the other person can process it slowly after receiving the letter. Plus, I don't think you're very good at the whole 'rejecting people to their face' thing."
A face-to-face rejection, no matter how polite, wouldn't change the nature of the rejection. If it were a girl, she might burst into tears on the spot.
Knowing Ichinose, forcing her to reject someone in person would be too difficult for her. It was better to respond to those feelings in the same format; it would be good for both of them.
"...Ah! Using an envelope to decline?" Ichinose's eyes lit up instantly, as if she had found the answer to a difficult problem.
Asking Shimizu for help was definitely the right choice.
Since the other person was a girl, responding with an envelope would protect her dignity while sparing Ichinose the agony of a face-to-face rejection.
She suddenly realized that Shimizu was truly considering things from her perspective—even though she was the one rejecting someone, he was meticulously protecting her feelings.
"Shimizu-kun... um... why did you reject that person's confession back then?" The thought flashed through Ichinose's mind, and the words escaped her before she could think.
The moment she said it, she regretted it. Why ask such a private thing! With her nature, she shouldn't be prying into such impolite questions.
"...Because that student confessed to me essentially because she wanted me to protect her, and she even said I wasn't allowed to touch her after we started dating," Shimizu explained plainly, recalling Karuizawa Kei's confession. "I'm a healthy high school boy, after all. She wasn't sincere, I didn't have any feelings for her at the time, and I didn't want to be used as a tool, so I refused."
Of course, that was in the past. The current Karuizawa Kei was actually quite alright.
Ichinose's hand holding the mango juice paused, a look of surprise in her eyes.
She hadn't expected Shimizu to answer her question so straightforwardly, and she could clearly tell that every word he spoke was the truth. She had assumed the rejection was due to "no feelings," but she hadn't expected such a reason.
'Seeking protection, yet unwilling to have any physical contact?'
Though she had never dated, she had heard plenty of gossip from her senpais—it was said that when couples first start dating, they do "that kind of thing" almost every day for the first week. It was quite common for a boyfriend to have those thoughts.
She recalled a senpai mentioning that physical compatibility was a very important indicator for couples.
As a girl, she felt that the student who confessed to Shimizu wasn't looking for a boyfriend, but a protector.
However, she was also a bit surprised.
Hearing Shimizu's words, he didn't seem as "perfect" as she had imagined; he also possessed curiosity about a girl's body. But strangely, she didn't hate this "imperfection" at all. Instead, it made him feel more real.
Ichinose even suddenly felt a bit worried—would Shimizu Akira completely lose confidence in dating girls because of that one person, thinking all girls were like that? She was afraid this experience would leave a shadow on his heart, making him not want to find a girlfriend in the future.
"I think that regardless of the reason, it was wrong of that student to do that. That mindset itself is problematic," she looked at Shimizu earnestly.
"And I believe the vast majority of girls wouldn't require their boyfriend to avoid physical contact. Shimizu-kun, I hope that incident hasn't left you with a bad impression."
Ichinose felt her words might be a bit hollow without concrete support. If it were her, once she truly started dating someone she liked, she might be even more clingy than usual—though it was embarrassing to say, she might even proactively seek a deeper level of closeness.
She wasn't a traditional girl who believed "deep interaction" must wait until after marriage.
To her, once she truly loved someone, she would be willing to give herself without reservation—because the love surging in that moment was incredibly precious. In a sense, she had always longed for someone who understood her and was reliable enough to stay by her side.
"Um... this might be sudden," she took a deep breath and added, her tone more serious than before. "But for me, I don't think it's strange at all for a boyfriend to want physical contact with his girlfriend. I think it's very normal. Physical contact is an important way of expressing
affection. Besides, I've had many senpais complain to me that their boyfriends haven't touched them lately, making them worry if they aren't liked as much anymore. So, appropriate touching is actually a way to deepen a relationship."
Shimizu blinked, just staring at Ichinose Honami in front of him. Her expression was exceptionally serious, yet she was discussing the topic of physical intimacy with a boy she had only met a few times.
Even though she was talking about near-adult concepts, his mind was completely free of stray thoughts—mostly because the girl's words, from beginning to end, were filled with pure sincerity.
She truly cared about him and was even willing to speak candidly about her views on boyfriends and intimate relationships.
Actually, Shimizu had stopped caring about that incident long ago, but looking at her now, he couldn't help but smile.
"Mmh... I understand. Thank you, Ichinose-san. I'll remember your words. You've really helped me untie a knot that's been bothering me for a long time."
Ichinose became shy again, lowering her lashes and gently stirring the mango juice in her cup. Remember them forever? Then wouldn't those words, which felt so embarrassing in hindsight, be firmly etched in his heart?
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