After deciding to give up, I became popular

But he could only attribute it to Kaguya being annoyed by Chika in some way. After all, she's ditzy, clumsy, acts impulsively, and doesn't consider the consequences, so this situation is normal. But Kaguya is essentially very fond of her childhood friend.

So, the question is—what about him? Would a proud girl like Kaguya really compromise to the point of accepting such intimate contact with him just because 'the rules require holding hands'?

Moreover, they weren't just maintaining that level of closeness; they were even more intimate.

Yes, he could attribute it to the emergence of her other, more affectionate 'child Kaguya' personality, but that's just a different personality. The fundamental emotions towards people shouldn't change drastically because of that, right?

Furthermore, he could glimpse hints of it in their everyday interactions.

At first, it was fine. He often felt Kaguya giving him that business-like fake smile, and even those malicious glares. He could feel the naked chill even without her saying anything. But he wasn't bothered; in fact, he thought that was how Kaguya Shinomiya should be.

Then, with his persistent efforts, she gradually started showing him genuine smiles during their interactions, and her tone wasn't as sharp as it initially was.

At the time, he felt that his efforts had paid off. Kaguya had elevated him from the level of 'someone who can be used' to 'someone who can be around,' and even treated him like a friend, like Chika.

But now that he thinks about it, is that really how it was?

Would someone with Kaguya's personality show such kind, gentle smiles just because she considered him a friend? Would she accept holding hands with him, a guy, or even more intimate actions? Not to mention, she's been showing him a spoiled, willful, and charming side lately.

Although it was indeed because her other personality emerged a few times, he clearly saw that adorable side of her even at other times. It can't all be because of the other personality, right?

He doesn't believe that.

So, he felt that maybe… it's because she actually has feelings for him?

Because her affection is strong enough, she's willing to be close to him and accept some slightly more intimate little interactions, just like him and Mahiru. Even though their relationship hasn't reached the point where they can date, interactions below that level are perfectly fine.

Of course, it could also be because of Chika. As Kaguya's only friend, and having spent many years together, Chika's behavior patterns must have influenced Kaguya to some extent. That's why she sometimes unconsciously shows him Chika-like behavior, like being spoiled and playful.

Both scenarios are possible. It's something he can't determine through deduction alone. Only by asking Kaguya in person can he know if she really has feelings for him that are 'more than friends, but not quite lovers,' or if it's something else.

But can he go and ask her directly? Obviously, that's impossible.

Because if he did that, he would seem like a narcissistic egomaniac who even runs to girls to ask, 'Do you like me?'

What decent guy would dare to do that? His skin would have to be thicker than a city wall.

And although the two seem a little different, they are essentially the same. Not only Kaguya, but even if he asked Mahiru, who he's closest to, he would only get this answer from her—

"Kanade is too narcissistic! Although you're a good person, you're not nearly good enough to be a boyfriend."

Because she had rejected him before, rejected his confession, and even looked very angry because of it, so he later chose to let go instead of clinging to her.

It was because he was worried that his presence might continue to bother her.

He just didn't expect that Mahiru would be willing to continue interacting with him, even if not as a lover, but would still be very considerate of his feelings as a friend, and even be willing to take the trouble to take care of him… Does it feel like she feels guilty towards him again?

Natsukawa Kanade quickly shook his head, feeling that he shouldn't overthink things.

He shouldn't doubt Mahiru's sincerity, or rather, no matter what the truth is, they are still good friends, and he shouldn't let other unnecessary things affect their relationship again.

As for Kaguya…

Forget it, thinking so much is useless, it will only continue to make him worry.

Natsukawa Kanade sighed, feeling that he shouldn't dwell on these things too much.

After all, the current way of getting along is very good. He still has so many familiar good friends around him, so he won't feel lonely anymore, and he also believes that as long as he calls out to them, he will definitely get a response, and these can also become the motivation for him to continue working hard.

166. It seems he doesn't need to explain…

When he found Eriri, the little blonde was sitting alone on a stone stool, propping her chin with her hands, seemingly in a daze.

Natsukawa Kanade approached her and said apologetically, "Sorry, Eriri, did you wait long?"

He estimated the time based on past experience, but he didn't expect that this time, the game content would change so much due to the intervention of Fujiwara Chika and the others, plus Kaguya's foot injury delayed a lot of time.

So, it caused the current situation—the time for the test of courage has passed halfway, but he has just fulfilled his promise with Kaguya.

Fortunately, he has now found Eriri, and it should be no problem to accompany her through the whole process, but in this way, Mahiru will be in trouble, and maybe there won't be enough time…

After hearing Natsukawa Kanade's voice, Eriri immediately came back to her senses, and a smile appeared on her face involuntarily.

No, I didn't wait long—she originally wanted to say that, but when the words came to her mouth, they turned into a complaining tone: "Really, Kanade, you're too slow!"

"Sorry, sorry, I really couldn't get away…" Natsukawa Kanade lowered his head and apologized again.

"No, it's okay, I understand, after all, Kanade is the student council president, so you must be very busy at this time… And! Actually, I didn't wait long haha…" Eriri quickly waved her hand to explain.

She accidentally reverted to her old self again. She had made up her mind to correct her awkward personality, but fortunately, Kanade didn't care about it. What if he got angry and left?

Eriri thought secretly in her heart.

If it were in the past, she would never have been so easy to talk to, not to mention waiting until now, but she would have been impatient and wanted to go back to her room and not come out if the other party was even a little late.

But as her mood gradually became clear, after understanding that she couldn't help but fall in love with this guy, this situation completely changed. Even she, who likes to stay at home, can muster the courage to take the initiative to invite the other party to participate in this kind of activity that only popular people would participate in…

I can only like that this kind of feeling is really amazing, she didn't even think she could do this.

"Uh…" Natsukawa Kanade hesitated.

Actually, he wasn't busy with work, it was completely a private matter, this statement made him feel ashamed…

For a moment, he wanted to tell Eriri the truth and explain, but after thinking about it, it's not right to explain to a girl that "Actually, I was with another girl just now, not busy with student council work," right?

It feels like… he doesn't understand the atmosphere and seems like a scumbag.

In short, let's just default to it first…

So, Natsukawa Kanade opened his mouth and said, "Let's not talk about these, let's go to the test of courage quickly? The content of this event is still good, even if Eriri, you are more afraid of these, it is still worth it to experience."

"I, I'm not afraid, okay! I, the last time was just scared by Kasumigaoka that guy!" Eriri became a ball of anger.

She didn't want to be called a coward by the other party, obviously Kasumigaoka that stinky woman was the really scared one. When that guy came out of the haunted house, her face was pale, and she just had a slightly louder voice in the middle!

Isn't it obvious who is the coward?!

"Eh? That's not right, why does Kanade know the content of the game?" Eriri suddenly realized something.

"…" Natsukawa Kanade thought it was bad. His casual words actually aroused the suspicion of this blonde, obviously she used to be stupid… so simple that she would never consider such things.

"Actually…"

"Oh, I know!" Eriri suddenly raised her head, with a look of sudden realization on her face.

"I'm so stupid! I almost forgot, Kanade, you're the student council president! For such large-scale activities, your student council will definitely be involved, right?"

"…"

"Even if you think about it carefully, maybe the whole test of courage was completed by your student council…" Eriri nodded frequently, and then commented.

"I also know that, not only this test of courage, but also other large-scale activities such as cultural festivals, seem to be the responsibility of the student council… Thinking about it this way, our school's student council has really great power…" Eriri said with emotion.

Don't look at her as if she understands, but in reality, whether in the past or now, she is not the kind of person who would care about these things. The reason why she can say things is entirely because someone is working in the student council, and even the student council president.

And in order to create some topics when getting along with the other party, she deliberately learned about it, but she didn't expect to find out about the rumors between the other party and a certain girl…

The key is that this is all true! Because at that time, he really became the kind of state of "pursuing someone," so he was so unresponsive that even the line replies were particularly perfunctory.

She was particularly scared at the time, scared that his pursuit would succeed that time. If that was the case, with his personality, she was afraid that she would really have no chance at all…

But fortunately, everything is not too late now. As long as she works hard enough, even she… such a stupid guy can be liked again!

After explaining her thoughts in one breath, the little blonde raised her little nose, with a cute expression like asking for praise.

Of course, Eriri would definitely not admit it, even if Natsukawa Kanade really reached out and touched her head and praised her directly, "As expected of Eriri, you know a lot," she would push his hand away with disgust, and then say to him with a shy and angry expression, "Y, y, you, what are you doing, who allowed you to touch my head!!!"

In short, this guy is such an awkward tsundere, but because she is very cute, even the way she dislikes people can be called a lovable moe point.

But at this moment, Natsukawa Kanade has more important things to care about—now, he can't completely say that he was with another girl before…

He originally thought that Eriri had found out that he had already participated in the game, and then she would question him who he went with before, and of course he would not lie to her, but he didn't expect her to help him explain…

The key is that her explanation is indeed correct. This event was indeed planned by their student council, but he outsourced the game content to Fujiwara Chika and her game club, but Eriri definitely doesn't know this, so her understanding is not wrong at all…

167. Even a fool can be brave

"You… you're right," Natsukawa Kanade nodded stiffly.

He always felt a sense of guilt for deceiving a fool.

"But these are not important, let's go to the test of courage quickly, I'm afraid it may be too late if we delay any longer…"

Putting his hand on his heart, Natsukawa Kanade frantically comforted himself in his heart—he didn't deceive Eriri, just changed the way of saying it…

"Yeah, then let's go quickly," the little blonde nodded, then took the initiative to lean over, approaching Natsukawa Kanade's side, and walking side by side with him.

So, the latter naturally took her hand.

"?……!!!"

Wh… what's going on!!!

The little blonde's heart began to vibrate wildly.

How could Kanade… how could he suddenly hold her hand!?

Ah, of course, it's not that she can't! It's just that she hasn't made any preparations… Speaking of which, her hands are not dirty, right? Will it be too cold… Wait! What if she sweats later? She will definitely be disliked!

Eriri's heart was shaking wildly.

But she doesn't want to let go for a reason, because maybe she won't have the courage to bring it up again later, but more importantly—what if Kanade misunderstands that she rejects contact with him like this? She really doesn't hate it!

…In, in short, let's take it one step at a time!

Eriri simply gave up thinking, her face was red and she lowered her head slightly, her eyes still glanced at the place where the two were connected from time to time, and then slowly raised them, until she clearly saw the side face of the person next to her, and then her eyes couldn't move away, and she was almost fascinated.

Kanade is so handsome (*^▽^*).

"…"

Xia Chuanzou, who was beside him, didn't know that the little blondie beside him had so many wild thoughts. He just wanted to abide by the "rules of the game" - the people at the courage test meeting had to hold hands throughout the entire process.

This was told to him personally by Vice President Si Gong, so how could it be wrong?

Anyway, he definitely believed it. However, from personal experience, this rule actually has loopholes, that is, "'breaking up' that is not witnessed by staff does not count as a violation of the rules."

It's like separating from Huiye to act before, with one person going to lure monsters and the other looking for props.

It would be fine once, but they have repeated the same trick so many times. The staff must have noticed that they were going their separate ways, right? But since they, and even the person in charge who came out later, didn't mention this, it naturally shows that there is nothing wrong with this method—

Their "stealth" gameplay is considered within the rules of the game.

And this has to praise Fujiwara Chika again. Although this guy has always given him the image of being unreliable and a pure happy star, whether it was the previous election campaign or the game segment of this courage test meeting, she completed it very well and gave him a high score answer far beyond his imagination.

Of course, the "game" design that tested human nature at the beginning did scare him a bit, but the content of some other segments was still very solid and good, novel and interesting, and much more interesting than the simple haunted house walking experience of previous years. He could even predict how explosive the reputation of this year's courage test meeting would be, and for him, this could also become a good achievement in his student council president career.

Of course, what he cares more about is—because he has to participate three times in a row, if the content of the game itself is very boring and uninteresting, it would really be a torture for him.

Because he is not participating alone, he can't choose to slack off.

Originally, he had planned that even if the content of the game was boring and uninteresting, in order to take care of the feelings of his partners, he would definitely try his best to show that he was involved and strive to give them a perfect "haunted house tour experience."

As a result, he found that reality was completely different from what he thought. This courage test meeting was not only not boring, but it really made him interested and involved.

The only drawback is that his first experience seems to be the extremely difficult mode - completing most of the challenges while carrying Huiye...

It can only be said that fortunately, he consciously started exercising a long time ago, and his physical fitness has been cultivated well, otherwise he would have been exhausted long ago, let alone come over to fulfill his promise with Yinglili and the others.

"…"

"…"

Holding Yinglili's hand, Xia Chuanzou led her all the way to the entrance square on the "special passage" side.