All Beautiful Girls Want to Stick with Me

After giving the cheeky little devil a good scolding, Kotomi Izumi let out a proud hmph, her strange sense of competitiveness once again satisfied.

But to say she ”gave her a good scolding” was an exaggeration. In reality, all Kotomi did was pinch Iroha Isshiki’s little ear. Her tone sounded fierce, but she didn’t actually have the heart to use any real force.

To call it ”real force” would be too much. Even that pinch of hers was more for show than anything else—though Kotomi would never admit she was only pretending.

Iroha, who barely felt any pain, quickly noticed that Kotomi’s harsh words didn’t match her soft actions. Seeing through her, Iroha’s lips curved into a faint smile. Then, to match Kotomi’s fierce-sounding words, she deliberately acted like her ear hurt a lot, even squeezing out a few tears from the corners of her eyes.

Except… Kotomi Izumi actually believed those tears were real.

A few seconds after releasing Iroha’s ear, she asked worriedly, ”Was I too rough? I thought I was being careful with my strength.”

As she spoke, Kotomi gently rubbed Iroha’s small ear with her palm, her earlier anger from being teased already long gone.

If someone were to ask her later whether she’d been angry, Kotomi would probably look genuinely puzzled and say, ”Huh? Angry? Was I?”

”Hehe, it hurt a little just now, but now that Senpai’s rubbing it, it doesn’t hurt at all anymore~,” Iroha said with a smile. In truth, it hadn’t hurt at all—but she said it did, just to feed Kotomi’s strange sense of victory. After all, Kotomi now thought her stern scolding had been effective, that the pain in Iroha’s ear was proof she’d disciplined her properly.

If Iroha said it didn’t hurt, wouldn’t that mean Kotomi’s ”punishment” had been totally useless?

Long ago, Iroha had already noticed that Kotomi Izumi had a strong sense of competitiveness—but it always appeared in the most unexpected places.

”If you behave next time and stop pranking people, I won’t bully you anymore,” Kotomi said quietly but seriously, still gently rubbing Iroha’s ear.

Hearing that, Iroha smiled sweetly and nodded like an obedient child. ”Senpai’s scary when you’re mad… To keep you from getting angry again, I’ll definitely be good and never tease you anymore.”

Her tone was pitiful enough to melt anyone’s heart.

Kotomi felt both pity and satisfaction at the same time, cheering inwardly: I finally managed to tame this little devil!

Just imagining having a cute, obedient Iroha by her side from now on made Kotomi’s whole body feel flushed with excitement!

She was fired up!

Just moments ago, Kotomi had looked fierce while scolding Iroha. But now, not even three minutes later, she was rubbing Iroha’s ear with tender care.

The change was so drastic that Megumi Kato, who had been watching from the start, couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth. Inside her heart, emotions began bubbling up—like water in a kettle slowly coming to a boil.

Even though she knew Iroha was Aimi’s friend, and that her relationship with Kotomi was probably just that—a friend’s little sister—Megumi couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of irritation as she watched the two of them stand so close together. Even knowing it was likely unintentional didn’t stop that faint sting of jealousy.

Just as Megumi was about to speak, Aimi Izumi returned, holding Yuka’s hand.

One hand held Yuka, the other several bags of takoyaki.

”Onee-chan, you’re finally back! I thought you got lost somewhere!”

Seeing Kotomi again after she’d been gone for a while, Aimi let out a small sigh of relief and handed her one of the bags. ”This one’s yours, Onee-chan. The girl at the takoyaki stall found out I’m your little sister, and she almost stuffed an entire octopus into the batter! You’re really popular at school, huh?”

After hearing Aimi’s words, Megumi suddenly chuckled and said lightly, ”Kotomi’s popularity at school isn’t ordinary at all. Not only boys—lots of girls have written her love letters, too. If we count from the first day of school until now, the number of people who’ve confessed to Kotomi could already line up from the north gate all the way to the south gate. Maybe even beyond it.”

When Aimi Izumi heard this, she froze for a moment, then grew visibly anxious.

It hadn’t even been one semester since the start of school, and there were already that many people who liked Kotomi and had actually confessed to her? Were high school students nowadays really that bold when it came to love?!