The Fourth Class Is Modern Chinese (Continued)

"No, no, no. Being hated still hurts, you know? Hearing negative rumors or bad things about yourself is really depressing, you know?"

Iroha waved her hands in front of her chest, rejecting everything Komachi had said. Komachi lightly placed a hand over her chest, closed her eyes in rapture, pretended not to notice, and continued.

"Komachi has always thought that Iroha-senpai is so cool for staying true to herself even when people dislike her..."

"Wait? Could you not shape me into that kind of person? Could you not make it sound like it's fine if people hate me specifically?"

"Komachi really respects that side of Iroha-senpai."

"Mimi, listen to people when they talk. I want people to like me. I really, really want to be loved. What about you, Mimi? Do you hate me?"

Iroha asked gloomily, and Komachi tilted her head in thought.

But she immediately answered without much concern.

"In a way, that side of Iroha-senpai is surprisingly pretty likable."

Perhaps because of that roundabout answer, Iroha blinked twice, then three times. Before long, though, she seemed to grasp what Komachi meant.

She tightly shut her open mouth, made an indistinct little noise, and kept smoothing her bangs.

"O-oh... Is that so..."

Komachi watched her with a grin.

Meanwhile, I watched over the two of them with the cold, mature smile of a gentleman.

Inside, however, I wept at the precious sight. Ahh, how nice~ Honestly~ Iroha, who was usually so good at teasing people, had been completely outdone today by Komachi, who was also good at teasing people.

Komachi was probably teasing her partly because she wanted to play a prank, but it was probably not entirely a joke. What she said was not wrong. Iroha really did possess that cool quality of staying true to herself