"Kotomi, little bro only went to work once—how could he have changed so drastically?"
"Rion, little bro must have met a weird person and fallen under their strange influence."
"Yep yep, Kotomi, we must find out who this weird person is."
"Yep yep, Rion, let's call our aunt; she'd definitely know~"
The twin sisters had figured out the truth just by talking to each other, and they had also determined the correct person to ask.
Their eyes contained the glimmer of having discovered interesting prey to play with as they clasped each other's hands and their smiles arced upwards.
Their chuckling echoed throughout the living room.
It was almost like the whispering of witches.
...
Seiji had a strange feeling.
It was a brand-new week, on Monday morning.
After waking up, Seiji kept feeling like something was about to happen, like he had forgotten something important... It was an indescribable subtle feeling.
He wondered if he had slept poorly last night?
He was slightly tired from the last two days of work, but he also received some nice bonuses, so he wasn't complaining. The newcomer was quite clumsy at first, but he was much better already on his second day, so everything ran smoothly.
If there was something that seemed off, it was the fact that his junior, Hoshi Amami, seemed way too friendly towards him. Perhaps it was over enthusiastic admiration?
At any rate, Hoshi Amami seemed to have an exaggerated opinion of him, and with his appearance looking like that of a trap, strange looks would always fly in their direction whenever they stood together.
Not only that, Hoshi Amami just happened to be a third-year student at Genhana Middle School.
'Haha, no matter what, he wouldn't come looking for me in the high school section, would he?' Seiji joked to himself.
But he couldn't bring himself to laugh at his own joke.
Darn it, it felt like this had a real possibility of happening!
Even if Hoshi Amami didn't have a favorability rating that he could view with his system, Seiji definitely noticed that Hoshi clearly saw him as far more than just normal friends... not only Seiji, everyone had noticed it, since Hoshi's actions were so obvious!
Seiji felt a sense of pressure as he imagined his school life with Hoshi stuck to his side at all times like he was in the store.
'Give me a break...'
Even though he had an ominous premonition, Seiji never expected that today would truly be filled with bothersome things for him...
The first event was at the shoe locker.
Seiji went together with Mika to school as usual, but when he opened his shoe locker, he discovered several letters inside.
Pink, pale blue, light purple... various letters of cute colors were inside, and all of them had heart marks on them.
'These... could these be...'
The legendary confession letters in a shoe locker!?
"Good morning, Mika, Seigo... Oh my?" Chiaki greeted her friends cheerily as she arrived at school until she discovered what Seiji was holding.
"Heh heh, as expected... I was wondering when they would appear. It was this Monday after all..."
Chiaki didn't look surprised at all as she patted Seiji on the shoulder.
"Having so many in just your second week after transferring... Congratulations~"
"What... oh, love letters." Mika pouted but didn't seem surprised at all, "Seigo received them as expected... hmph."
Wait a moment—why were those two so calm aobut it!?
'This was a love letter in a shoe locker event! And more than one, to boot!' Seiji felt a strong urge to say that, but after some consideration he realized that it had to do with his physical appearance and the things that had occurred after he transferred in.
He was a popular handsome guy!
His former way of thinking from his life as an otaku before was too deeply ingrained in him, so even though he realized that he was very handsome, he had never considered the consequences before.
That was why it was such a huge shock for him to receive love letters in his shoe locker like a popular main character of a manga would!
At this school, he was no longer an otaku with zero presence; he was someone with beauties by his side at all time, someone who was brightly sparkling, someone considered as high-tier!
Seiji confirmed all this through Mika's and Chiaki's unsurprised reactions to him receiving love letters. It seemed like a natural occurrence to them.
He was able to calm down as well.
"I... I've never received anything like this before." He looked at the letters in his hand while smiling wryly, "I was... only a fat otaku before..."
"Oh, that's right—you were that type before." Chiaki looked like she had just remembered.
Mika was also had a complex expression.
"So, what you're saying is that you're so surprised at this event that you feel confused on what to do or how to handle it, right?"
"Absolutely correct! Please give me some advice, Chiaki Wakaba-sama! I'm sure that you've received love letters as well before..."
"Of course, I'm not being narcissistic, but I really do have tons of experience in this field. By the way, Mika has experience as well, just a little less than me..." Chiaki grinned mischievously.
"A lot less, okay! I'm not like Chiaki... or Seigo." Mika twisted her head in the other direction.
Okay then, Chiaki and him were now the popular type that attracted the envy of others!
After coming to the realization that he was now the type of person that he envied in his past life and that he was now similar to a main character from the manga known as Boys Over Flowers, Seiji had an indescribable feeling in his chest.
Actually, he had realized it long ago, but such a classic event like love letters appearing in his shoe locker gave him a huge shock to the point where his realization was reconfirmed.
"Just take the love letters with you; I'll teach you how to deal with them~" Chiaki smiled.
Shoe locker love letters had approximately three main types.
One was purely to express admiration—this type was the easiest to deal with as all he had to do was acknowledge reading it.
The second type expressed that a girl fancied him and requested his contact information. The girl would usually include her own phone number or email address in this type of letter. If he was interested, then it was fine to approach and befriend her. If not, it was acceptable if he politely refused by responding to her contact information.
The final type directly gave a time and place for a confession. This kind was also known as a confession love letter, and it was both the rarest as well as the most difficult to deal with.
If there was only one confession, then it was simple; he just had to go the meeting place and either say yes or politely refuse her. However, if there were two or more, and if there was a time or place overlap, then it would get awkward.
If it was at the same time but different place, it could still be barely resolved by moving quickly.
If it was at the same place but different time, then it would mean time was of the essence; he would need to try his utmost to prevent the two girls from meeting each other.
As for the same place, same time... Unfortunately, there was no other way; he had no option but to bravely face the confessors! After all, the most awkward position wasn't his; it was the two girls that met each other accidentally.
"And that concludes Chiaki Wakaba's lecture! Thanks for listening~"
Chiaki pretended to push on nonexistent spectacles as she acted the part of a teacher.
Seiji thought to himself that he had learned the knowledge of the elites... He forced himself to stop thinking that as he recorded everything.
So even the most popular kids in school had their own difficulties!
In mangas, the handsome male leads were often the love rival to the main character, and their school lives weren't described in much detail, and beautiful female leads were only shown interacting with the male lead. There was very little content about their actual lives as well.
Shoujo mangas would have a little more content about the handsome boys, but very few otakus read shoujo mangas! Even if they did, it usually wasn't that popular! And if shoujo mangas worked on the same logic as shounen mangas, then there probably wasn't much detail about the main characters' lives other than their interactions.
Besides, the stories in mangas were typically filled with out-of-the-ordinary events, Seiji doubted the usefulness of referencing them anyway.
That was why Chiaki Wakaba's lecture was quite important to Seiji.
He felt like he owed her a favor in a strange way...
'I'll treat her to a meal sometime,' Seiji thought.
But he didn't know that this was only the beginning...