Chapter 19: Shoujo Manga – Part 1
After school as always. In the clubroom as always.
Sitting on his seat at the round table as always, Kyouya read a manga.
Mao sat at his side like she always did, Megumi was at the mini stove in the interior of the room, Kirara was chowing down on her meat and Shion was busying herself with one-man chess.
The usual day to day.
However, the manga that Kyouya was reading was not a manga aimed for boys as always, it was one aimed for girls, a so called “shoujo manga”. He successively flipped the pages of the freakishly thick monthly magazine in his hands.
He’d found it left on top of the table.
Kyouya had taken it wondering whom it belonged to. He thought that a girl oriented manga wouldn’t be any fun for a boy, but just to be sure he flipped over some pages.
It was quite readable.
There were some stories he didn’t get very well, but there were also a lot of interesting stories.
There were also a lot of romantic stories but, well, that was to be expected.
“Hu hu hu. Shinomiya-kun looks like a little rabbit caught in a trap. It seems like he’s already completely immersed in it.”
Megumi said. Her tone of voice didn’t reveal if she was joking or being serious.
Kyouya gave her a bitter smile.
First of all, he had to confirm who the person was who’d brought the manga there.
“This is pretty fun.”
Kyouya said.
Megumi nodded once and closed her eyes, bringing her hand to her chest she spoke in a bright voice.
“I think you shouldn’t say you dislike things before knowing them. Boys are certainly missing out on half of the good things in life.”
Kyouya nodded.
So that was why she’d brought it with her, another question answered. It was an awareness campaign. Kyouya would join in too.
“It doesn’t stop with this magazine’s series, I have lots of comics. If you’d like, I can bring them from volume one. If I ask the girls from my cla.s.s to collaborate, we might even get some complete series.”
“Sure, I’d like that, but…”
While answering a joyful Megumi, Kyouya turned his eyes to Mao’s direction.
“Hey, president. Come on, look over here…”
Mao was facing the wall. He shook her back.
She was the person to whom he most wanted to report the new discovery he’d made.
“Hey, president. This was pretty fun, even I can read it. Have you read it, president?”
When Mao finally turned around, he opened the magazine in front of her and tried showing her the story he’d liked the most.
She turned her face away at mach speed.
“Mao can’t read shoujo manga.”
“Why?”
Kyouya didn’t understand what she meant.
“Why…? Why doesn’t she read them?”
“No, it’s not that she doesn’t, she can’t. Not don’t, but can’t.”
“She can’t?”
Though he’d received an explanation, he could only understand her less and less.
Why? How?
“As if I could read tha-that… Dangerous thing! The characters there kiss as if it was nothing!”
Mao shook her tiny clenched fists in the air.
“Just kissing is normal, isn’t it?”
Indeed, there were several kiss scenes in the magazine he was reading today.
“That’s why I read manga and light novels for boys! Those are safe and sound! They don’t ever do things like kiss there!”
The president swung her fists even more for emphasis.
For putting a little too much vigor into it, Mao’s hand ended up hitting the corner of the table. “Kuh~” She let out a groan and crouched in pain.
“Err…”
Mao only calmed down after Megumi stroked her hand and sang her “Pain, pain, fly away~”(1).
It was great that she’d calmed down, but now she turned her face away with an awfully sour expression.
“Er…”
“I, uh…”
Kyouya directed his voice to Mao. What was he supposed to say?
Was she just irritated? Was she sad? Was she angry at him? On top of that, did her hand still hurt?
Regardless of that, the earlobe that peeked out from her fluffy hair was deep red.
“I’ll bring a shounen manga with me next time.”
“One without kissing?”
“You said it yourself, they rarely have any.”
“Just rarely is not good enough. Definitely, definitely, definitely no kisses.”
She repeated “definitely” who knows how many times like an enchantment. Kyouya nodded and made that promise to her.
“Kissing, I said! Kissing!“
Sign: “Continuation“
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES
(1) “Itai no itai no tondeke” (痛いの痛いの飛んでけ) is a charm to cast away the pain of children. You sing it to a kid while rubbing the spot that hurts with your hand and swinging it away like this.