Everyday Romance With Matsuda

[When I started writing this, the feel of it just wasn't right, so I kept putting it aside... Today, I suddenly seem to have some ideas. Once I finish my current novel, "High School Detective, Me?", I'll revise this and resume updating it. Note added on 2025.2.4] At our high school graduation reunion, I drew a dare. I looked pleadingly at Hagiwara, who had drawn the King card, hoping my sociable classmate, who was always so gentle with girls, would go easy on me. "Well, look at that, it's our school belle! Guess we can't use those mischievous tricks from before." Hagiwara said seriously. Then someone set a huge, icy-cold glass of beer in front of me. Wait, what?! How could you do this to me!! Amid the commotion, Matsuda, sitting across from me, bravely stood up. In that moment, he looked like he was shining in my eyes. "Seriously, Hagi, that joke went too far." He said it, then coolly downed all the beer in one go, telling everyone to leave me alone. I was so touched I nearly cried. So three minutes later, I was assigned to take Matsuda to wash his face because he was drunk. Matsuda's tall frame leaned heavily against my shoulder. His face was flushed, and he kept breathing out hot air. He looked like he was really uncomfortable. But his face was way too close! His warm breath brushed against me, and my face turned red too. "Are you okay, Matsuda?" I noticed him staring straight at me, and, thinking he felt sick, I got really worried. "...You're so cute." Matsuda gazed at my face with bleary eyes for a long moment before saying it. Wait, what?!?! And then I got a boyfriend QWQ Matsuda had been interested in a classmate named Usuba Aiki for a long time. She liked drawing, got along with everyone, and was incredibly cute. Everyone liked her. "If you like her, go after her," his childhood friend Hagiwara said. "If I didn't know you were already falling for her, and that you met her first, I might try to win over a cute, pretty girl like her myself." Matsuda answered with a hard elbow to the ribs. Confess? If he did, they might not even be friends anymore. But in the end, he confessed anyway. At their graduation reunion, after Hagi had "picked on" her, when she stared at him with wide eyes, her gaze full of him. He couldn't help it. There was no way to hold back his feelings for her. Even if he didn't say it, they would show in the way he couldn't help standing up to defend her, and in his eyes. Would she turn him down? She probably would. During the three seconds she stood there stunned, Matsuda, who could only say what he really felt with the help of alcohol, thought so. Then she gave him a gentle kiss. A sweet, tempting kiss that made it impossible not to get swept away. [Blurb is tentative, saved on 22.1.7. It may change before the novel starts!] A few random thoughts: I didn't write the later part of "Childhood Friends" well. I wanted to add some cases, but unfortunately, that's not my strong suit. That period was close to graduation, and I also fell seriously ill and had to go to the hospital several times. I was in a terrible state, and I regret not making the romance clear in the end. So I'm writing a separate what-if story. You don't need to have read "Childhood Friends" to enjoy this. *Aiki only meets the bomb squad in high school, so she doesn't share a childhood history with them and doesn't join the police academy. *The story starts in high school, but the romance begins when they're adults. *Pure, sweet romance, one-on-one with Matsuda. I'll write a separate story about Hagiwara. There is no romance with Hagiwara in this one! *The police academy group will come back to life, but that plot point will only be briefly mentioned. The main focus is the sweet romance. Theme: Be brave and confess your feelings.