"...So that's how it is..."
Lying on her bed and looking at the novel beside her, Asagi could not help muttering to herself. The book in her hands was one she had bought after passing by a bookstore following school. Wanting to investigate romance and friendship between girls, Asagi had looked it up online and eventually been recommended this series of novels called Maria Sama ga Miteru.
She had assumed it would merely be lovey-dovey stuff like a romance novel, but the contents were far more interesting than Asagi had expected. When her phone rang, she did not even react. It was not until it rang a second time that Asagi reluctantly put down her book and picked up the phone.
"Hello, Kiki? What is it?"
The caller was Asagi's childhood sweetheart and classmate, a boy named Kiki. Although childhood sweethearts like this usually had a romance setup in romance novels, perhaps because they had spent too much time together since childhood, Asagi felt absolutely no romantic attraction toward him. Their relationship was simply that of very close childhood friends.
At the same time, her childhood sweetheart's somewhat flippant voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Nothing much. I just wanted to ask how you were doing."
"How I'm doing?"
"Yeah. You've seemed a little off these past few days. Did you have a fight with Airi?"
"Ah..."
Hearing that, Asagi finally pulled herself out of the world of her novel and returned to reality.
Right, she was not reading here just to pass the time.
"Don't tell me you really did fight?"
"No, no, no, we didn't fight. I just..."
"I know. Airi is really close with that transfer student, right? Don't tell me you're jealous."
"Do you think I'd be jealous? They're both girls. It's not