Love confession from a coward (GL)

Me, Hana and Rika were sitting at a table in the noisy school cafeteria filled with students, eating and chatting with each other...

At some point, when our conversation naturally died down, I looked at Hana.

Hana, sitting next to me, was about my height, with shoulder-length brown hair and light makeup adorning her calm face.

Looking at her carefully applied makeup, I remembered that between the two of us, I was the one who first became interested in cosmetics.

Back in middle school, I borrowed my mom's makeup to try it out for the first time. My mom scolded me at first, but then she bought me my own set and even taught me how to use it.

When I tried makeup for the first time, I was so excited that I immediately ran to Hana and suggested that she try it, too. When we looked in the mirror, we both thought we looked like grown-up girls.

It's so funny to think about it now. I don't know why I remembered it all of a sudden.

While these thoughts were running through my head, Hana felt my gaze and looked at me questioningly, as if to ask why I was looking at her like that, but I just smiled slightly and turned away from her.

My gaze then fell on Rika, who was sitting across from us, focused on her phone. She had medium-length black hair and was shorter than Hana and me.

Although Hana and I rarely let people become our friends, Rika managed to befriend us quite quickly. Not that she did anything special, it's just that for some reason she got along with me and Hana right away.

I decided to stop torturing her with my gaze and looked around the cafeteria.

And then my attention was accidentally caught by a quick, casual glance from one of the girls sitting at a nearby table. But as soon as I caught her gaze, she quickly looked away and returned her attention to her food.

As I looked at her, I immediately noticed an aura of shyness and restraint emanating from her. She was slouching slightly, and unlike her friend who was sitting across from her and talking excitedly about something, she was quietly eating her food with her eyes downcast…

Finally, I turned away from her and looked back at Hana.

"Hey," I said, breaking the silence between us. "Do you wanna hear about something really interesting that happened to me earlier? You're not gonna believe it."

Both Hana and Rika looked at me curiously.

"Yeah?"

"Tell us!"

I smiled. "...Anyway, remember before the cafeteria, I went to the bathroom?" I said. "Well, after I left the bathroom and was walking down the hallway to the cafeteria, a girl suddenly called out to me. I was kinda surprised, but stopped to listen to what she had to say. She seemed very shy though, acting very stiff, not even looking me in the eye, y'know? Her eyes were just darting around nervously. I wanted to tell her to hurry up, but noticing the obvious blush on her face and how strangely nervous she was, I decided not to stress her out. I waited a bit to let her gather her thoughts, but then she suddenly looked away in embarrassment and, shouting something like 'No, I can't do that!', ran away from me... Well, that's pretty much it! That's the whole story. Interesting, isn't it?"

"Wait... Really?? A girl?? Wait... How nervous was she?" Rika asked immediately, excitement in her voice.

She had already put her phone away and her whole attention was on me, probably already anticipating what the conversation would be about. Yes, she liked to talk about such things.

"She was like, really nervous! Blushing and all!" I said smiling.

"You know her?" Hana inquired.

I glanced at her, only to find her eyes on me. As always, she had a calm and unperturbed expression on her face.

"Well... Not really. It was the first time I'd seen her. And she didn't even introduce herself," I said, looking away. "But it doesn't matter who it was anyway, does it? I mean, neither of you probably know her. I'm more interested in something else, what do you think she wanted to tell me?"

"Well..." Rika hesitated for a moment, putting a finger to her chin.

"Uh... maybe to confess to you?" Hana suggested immediately.

"Yeah! I agree with her! I think so too!" Rika exclaimed, smiling, obviously happy that Hana thought the same.

"I know, right?! It's so obvious!" I agreed enthusiastically. "Her whole demeanor screamed that she wanted to confess to me, but then she must've suddenly gotten scared, which is why she ran away! She was all embarrassed and blushing! Hahaha, so cute," I grinned. "Don't you think so, Hana?" I asked, turning to her.

She still had the same calm expression on her face and a slightly pensive, detached look.

"I don't know, maybe?" she replied nonchalantly.

Ugh... This apparent indifference of hers pisses me off sometimes...

"That's it? That's your whole reaction? You're so f*cking boring," I muttered, looking away disappointed. "What about you, Rika? What do you think? You agree with me, don't you? It's really cute, isn't it?"

Of course, already knowing she would agree with me, I wasn't surprised by her answer. "I mean, yeah, of course!" she replied. "That's super cute! But I wonder who it is? You remember what she looked like, right?" she asked, looking at me expectantly.

Looking at Rika, I could easily tell that as soon as she sensed that the topic of conversation would definitely be about romance, her gaze, tone, and facial expression changed and became excited.

She just couldn't contain her curiosity when Hana and I talked about such things, since we usually didn't open up to her about our love life and feelings. So when we did bring it up, she always went into interrogation mode, like a hungry beast.

She actually knew a lot of the school's love rumors and gossip thanks to what she called the "information network".

It consisted of the many friends she had made through her outgoing nature, who were happy to share these things with her.

I think the reason so many people trusted her with these secrets was that although she loved to gossip, she also knew how to keep a secret when necessary.

"Well... Yeah, I remember what she looked like, but Rika, you're wasting your time lol, I won't give you any hints who it was," I said.

"What? You don't trust me?" Rika asked immediately, a little offended.

"That's not it," I replied with a sly smile. "I just wasn't planning on telling you in the first place. But, well, I guess you're both free to speculate who it is, hahah..."

"Hmph! You're teasing us on purpose, aren't you? We won't tell anyone! We promise! Right, Hana?" she said, looking at Hana for support.

"Yeah," Hana agreed immediately. "We won't tell anyone..."

But it was clear from Hana's indifferent tone that she didn't really care who it was and just decided to go along with Rika.

"I'm sorry, girls, but no. I just don't think it would be nice of me to tell you about her. I mean, she was already extremely shy, I don't want to draw any extra or unnecessary attention to her, okay?" I said.

"But!" Rika protested. "I mean, I know what you mean... But it's not like we're going to tease her, right? We're not even going to talk to her! I'm just really curious! I mean, we are really curious, right, Hana?" she asked, leaning forward and looking at Hana expectantly.

"Yup, yup, we are," Hana agreed dryly, sipping juice from the box.

But as dry as her answer was, it seemed to be enough for Rika. "See Emi? Just tell us! We won't tell anyone…," she said, turning to me again.

"Nah Rika, it's useless, I won't tell you, hehe..." I replied.

Her expression changed immediately. She must have been very curious, considering how childishly disappointed she looked. 

However, a moment later, as if she realized something, her eyes sparkled with excitement again. "Still! Was she, like, pretty? Was she cute?" she asked.

"Hmmm," I wondered for a moment. "...Well, personally I think she was really quite pretty."

"Gosh! Then… Um… Do you think she's, like, here? Maybe she's in the cafeteria??" Rika whispered loudly, giving me a quick glance, as if checking to see if I'd fallen for her silly trick.

I only grinned, immediately seeing right through her game. "Hahaha, nice try Rika, but like I said, I'm not going to tell you, nope."

Rika pouted a little when she realized that her attempts had no effect on me. "You're no fun! This isn't even something serious, you know? Come on! Am I right, Hana?" she turned to Hana again, as if looking for support.

But Hana didn't respond, her eyes seemed to stare off into the distance, as if she was lost in her own thoughts.

Rika called out to her again, waving her hand in front of her face, "Hana? Hello? Can you hear me?"

Finally snapping out of her reverie, she turned to Rika. "Ah... Sorry... What did you say?"

"I was saying that Emi is no fun, right? It's no big deal to just tell us who it was, right?"

"Uh... yeah, I agree... it's no big deal..." Hana said, sounding rather distant.

Sensing that there was no energy or enthusiasm in her answer, Rika looked at her questioningly.

What was going on in Hana's head was my question as well, so I looked at her curiously, trying to find a clue in her expression.