After deciding to give up, I became popular

But her pride was actually very high, making it difficult for her to accept demeaning evaluations from others, especially from him as a friend.

Therefore, she became withdrawn when she heard him say, "Tsundere is outdated!"

But he was clearly teasing Hachiman! He never intended to say such a thing to Eriri!

"Although I don't know what happened, I believe you can handle it, right?" Hachiman walked up, patted him on the shoulder, and even showed a somewhat gloating expression.

"There's give and take, this is the price of being 'popular', hmph..."

Natsukawa Kanade rolled his eyes at him, thinking that he hadn't tormented him enough, and next time he had to intensify his efforts so that he could properly feel the care of his friends.

However, the top priority was to explain things to Eriri, he didn't say he hated her, let alone want to break up with her.

So he said goodbye to the others and chased after the direction Eriri ran, but he couldn't find her anywhere, so he had to call her best female friend—Katou-san.

It didn't ring for long before it was answered, and Megumi was as reliable as ever.

"It's urgent, please tell me, Katou..."

"Eriri should be by the small lake on the west side right now, you can still make it if you hurry."

"..." Natsukawa Kanade was stunned, wondering how Katou knew? He hadn't said anything yet.

"I passed by the cafeteria earlier and saw Eriri running with red eyes, she didn't respond when I called her, did something happen?"

"It's a long story... Anyway, thank you, I'll explain it to you later."

He originally thought that Eriri might have run to Katou, but he didn't expect such a pleasant surprise, so he hung up the phone and ran towards the small lake she mentioned.

123. She's been seen completely!

The area here was not large to begin with, and he arrived at the small lake Katou mentioned in a few steps.

At a glance, he saw a blonde girl squatting by the lake, blankly, not knowing if she was contemplating life or doing something else.

"..."

Fortunately, he found her, Natsukawa Kanade thought, so he sorted out his thoughts a little and slowly approached.

"He hates me, he doesn't hate me, he hates me..."

"Eriri..."

His voice couldn't be considered very soft, but it wasn't to the point where it would scare people, but Eriri was still startled, and the small flower in her hand was broken on the ground, accompanied by scattered petals.

Not only that, because she got up too quickly, she staggered and showed signs of falling towards the lake.

"Careful!" Because he had been watching her carefully, Natsukawa Kanade was able to react, so he quickly grabbed her and pulled her into his arms.

"!"

She was quite well-behaved at the beginning, but after a while, Eriri began to struggle, her little feet kicking like a poor rabbit caught by a hunter, trying to avoid becoming their dinner tonight.

"Don't move." Natsukawa Kanade said softly.

Eriri stopped moving as expected, but raised her head and looked at him weakly with a pitiful expression, her eyes sparkling as if filled with crystal tears.

"..."

He really didn't expect that a small, unintentional remark could cause so much harm to a non-involved person, was that reasonable?

"L-let me go..." Eriri sniffled and said softly.

The posture of the two was indeed a bit awkward, luckily it was still early, and there was no one around at all, otherwise tomorrow's school headline would break the news that he, "The reason why the student council president gets up so early is to date his girlfriend."

The authenticity is debatable, but at least his reputation is reduced by one.

"Then promise me you won't do anything stupid first..." Natsukawa Kanade said with a straight face.

Of course, he knew that Eriri wasn't doing anything suicidal, and even a glance at the flower petal corpses everywhere could tell that she was probably breaking the petals that people had worked so hard to grow while counting "whether he hates her" or not.

Although it was very silly, it seemed quite appropriate for Eriri, with a kind of silly and cute beauty.

"Huh? How could I do that kind of..." But the words suddenly stopped halfway, because when looking at the calm lake surface just now, she really had the idea of jumping in, hiding in the bottom of the lake and hugging her knees in self-isolation.

"Pfft, you really thought about it?" Natsukawa Kanade really laughed this time, causing Eriri to glare at him repeatedly.

"S-stop talking! Anyway, it has nothing to do with you..." But as she spoke, her voice became lower again.

Because she thought of what happened in the cafeteria before—"Tsundere is outdated!"

The deafening voice seemed to resound in her ears, and even more in her heart, so her mood couldn't help but become more depressed, and she didn't want to look at people with her face anymore.

"Anyway, I'm a troublesome person, don't bother with me, let me be alone..."

"That won't do." Natsukawa Kanade refused, after all, the purpose of chasing after her was to worry about her condition, and now it seemed that he did the right thing.

"I'll make a long story short, that sentence—was just teasing my friend, because the other party is a boy, but he pretends to be 'tsundere', which I found particularly funny, so I said that."

It wasn't a big deal to begin with, rather than explaining it in a roundabout way, it would be easier to just express his thoughts directly.

In fact, when he finished explaining, Eriri breathed a sigh of relief, but her small face still had a trace of small entanglement.

"So you don't hate me?"

"Why would I? I have no reason to hate Eriri, right?"

No matter how you look at it, Eriri is impossible to hate, and even her "tsundere" personality can be called one of her cute points.

In short, she is very cute, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he wants to cherish and love her.

"But I often act tsundere towards you, say those kinds of things..." It's not that she didn't realize it, and she often regretted it the second after she finished speaking.

But every time she was determined to change this awkward personality, she found that she couldn't do it at all, she just said it subconsciously.

With her like this, let alone defeat Kasumigaoka that woman, she would only make Kanade more and more unbearable.

"It's okay." Natsukawa Kanade shook his head, but he didn't expect Eriri to bring it up herself, he thought she was always ashamed to mention this point, "Because I know Eriri doesn't do it on purpose, just...uh, because of shyness or embarrassment, so you use those words to cover it up, right?"

"!"

Eriri's face turned red, and she suddenly felt that her little thoughts had been seen through? Thinking further, she felt that she hadn't concealed anything at all, so Kanade stuck to her from the beginning, not afraid of her getting angry at all.

Because he knew she wasn't really angry!

Then what about the others? For example, she she she... she later fell in love with... um um...

"Y-you, you, you, don't say any more!"

Shame filled her whole body, she really couldn't stay for a moment, and quickly reached out to cover Natsukawa Kanade's mouth, not letting him continue.

"Forget it, forget it!!! Forget it all for me!!!"

"No! Don't recall! Don't let me recall!"

She clearly wanted him to realize it, but when she really found that he might have realized this point, she couldn't bear it, because she was not ready to be dissected!

"..."

But how could Natsukawa Kanade know what she was thinking, he only felt the cold little hands slapping randomly on his face, and even after finding that she couldn't succeed, she changed to using the pigtail offensive that she hadn't used for a long time, slapping around as if she was using a handy weapon that she had practiced for many years.

So he couldn't stand it anymore, and quickly reached out to stop her, "Calm down, calm down!"

He thought he had already calmed her down, but who would have thought that Eriri's reaction would be so great, but after all, didn't she bring up this matter first?

It's hard to hold back.

After pulling each other for a while, Eriri's range of movements finally became smaller, and it seemed that she had no strength, after all, as a qualified otaku girl, she was very persevering to be able to struggle to this extent.

"D-don't recall..." Despite panting, Eriri still grabbed his clothes stubbornly, saying weakly.

"No, really, my head is completely empty." Natsukawa Kanade responded, and then tried to show her a wise look.

"Pfft, what, so silly..." Eriri rolled her eyes at him, but seeing his joking appearance, her mood did improve a lot.

Seeing this, Natsukawa Kanade breathed a sigh of relief.

This was not only for the other party, but also for himself...

He couldn't go back with a embarrassed face and tell everyone that this was scratched by an ignorant little kitten, right?

124. So I'm this kind of person

Although she is a bit tsundere, often says things against her heart, and even does some strange behaviors like running backwards because of confusion, she is actually a very simple and kind girl.

So she is very easy to fool... I mean—easy to coax.

As long as you praise her a few words, you can see her mood improve visibly.

This is the case at the moment, her unique cute canine teeth sparkle under the bright sun like precious diamonds, and her two pigtails sway leisurely, showing her good mood.

"Eriri, have you had breakfast? Do you want to go together?" Feeling that her mental state had recovered a bit, Natsukawa Kanade invited her in a timely manner.

He didn't forget the business, he was originally going to eat with his friends, and it happened that there was a misunderstanding, although it was coaxed now, but leaving her behind and going back seemed very perfunctory, so he simply invited her to go together, and Hachiman and the others would not say anything.

What's more important is that this is still during the forest school period, and dating by this small river in the early morning is indeed quite romantic, but it would not be romantic if others saw it, but rather troublesome.

"Yeah, okay." The girl nodded lightly.

Mostly because of the trouble just now, as an otaku pear, her originally limited stamina bar was instantly bottomed out because she didn't eat, but the benefit was that Eriri looked even more petite and lovable.

Even Natsukawa Kanade, who knew her otaku nature very well, had to admit that the quiet Eriri was really a super super cute beautiful girl!

Of course, the tsundere style also has a special flavor, he likes both.

"Then let's go back, Hachiman and the others should have been waiting for a long time." After getting the answer, Natsukawa Kanade let go of Eriri's hand, which made the girl feel a little lost.

But she was not discouraged, after all, in her opinion, Kanade chased out to explain to her, which means he cares about her thoughts, rounding up, that is, he has her in his heart... the dream is just around the corner!

No words along the way.

As an elite school, Shuchiin Academy students are mostly very disciplined, although it was still early, many students had already gotten up early, and many people greeted them on the way back to the cafeteria.

It's just that some of them looked at them in a very subtle way... Anyway, I hope they don't get misunderstood.

Arriving at the cafeteria, after searching for a while, he found Hachiman and the others, and Natsukawa Kanade took Eriri over.

"You're so slow..." Hearing the movement behind him, Hachiman Hikigaya turned around, thinking of complaining to Natsukawa Kanade, but stopped when he found the cute blonde girl following him.

Huh? You just coaxed her and brought her to show affection?! This is still in the cafeteria, you are really not afraid of seeing people!

Hikigaya couldn't help but start to worry, after all, he seemed to vaguely see Yukinoshita Yukino just now, not to mention those rumored girlfriends that he had never seen before that only existed in legends...

Well, it's none of his business anyway, why is he worrying.

"Sorry for the wait." Natsukawa Kanade naturally didn't know what Hikigaya was thinking, and even if he knew, he wouldn't care too much—isn't it normal for friends to eat together?

"This is Sawamura Spencer Eriri, a member and friend of the club I used to be in..." Then he introduced his friends to Eriri.

"Anyway, that's it, can we share a table?"

"Of course, welcome, Sawamura-san." Taking over the conversation in a timely manner was Tanauma Tsubasa, as the most normal high school boy in this trio, he was still able to handle this kind of scene with ease.

"As expected of the president, you have so many friends, and they are all famous beautiful girls in the school."

"F-famous... there's no such thing..." Eriri's face flushed slightly, and then she quietly glanced at Natsukawa Kanade, and was slightly disappointed when she saw that the other party didn't react.

"Very happy to meet you all, please take care of me."

Eriri in public is still very dignified and beautiful, and there is no problem with dealing with people, and she is more than capable of dealing with this kind of occasion.

As for Natsukawa Kanade on the side, he was lost in his thoughts, to be honest, he really forgot, it turns out that Eriri still has the setting of "school-recognized beautiful girl"...

But the most important thing is, so everyone's impression of him is like this?

—Student council president with a wide circle of friends and good luck with the opposite sex?

Although in a sense it can't be considered wrong...

Case closed, no wonder the gazes of many people I encountered earlier were so strange; they probably misunderstood something.

However, he didn't dwell on it too much, as getting caught up in these things now would seem overly sentimental.

After inviting Eriri to take a seat and exchanging a few pleasantries with the others, he noticed Hachiman Hikigaya standing up.