Chapter 10

"Hey, let's hang out during the summer vacation!"

Haruto stands in front of my desk and says.

Haruto suddenly invited me for a reason. It's because summer vacation starts tomorrow.

"Sounds good, but what about your club activities?"

"Yeah, I have those, don't I?"

"That's impossible, then."

He's a regular, so he can't easily skip practice.

"Okay, how about going to the summer festival together? That's a guaranteed day off."

"Sorry, but I can't."

Two weeks from now, the annual summer festival is held around here. I'm glad I was invited, but I have an absolutely unavoidable commitment that day.

"Are you, by any chance, meeting a girl?"

Haruto sports a sly grin.

His eyes are saying, "Just deny it."

"It's not what you're thinking, but there's someone else."

I can't just get a girlfriend that quickly.

Maybe it's possible for a handsome protagonist like you or Haruto. But I'm just an average guy.

"Damn, I guess I don't have choice. I'll go with my clubmates then."

Haruto sighs in frustration.

Why don't you invite some girls? With your charm, it should be easy for you.

"Well, whatever."

The summer festival.

Pass through the stalls, and as the lights become scarcer and the area quieter, I reach the shrine grounds.

There, surrounded by trees and without tall buildings blocking the sky, the fireworks look beautiful.

In both reality and the game, this is the first place where Mia and I had a date.

We ended up here purely by chance. It was set up that way in the game.

In reality, I pretended it was a coincidence.

And this summer vacation, this is where Mia's event will take place.

It has a fairly simple success condition: watching the fireworks together.

If it succeed, Mia's favorability will skyrocket.

In the game, Mia will completely forget about me at this point, as our memories together will be overwritten.

For the protagonist who is trying to capture all the heroines, this event is undoubtedly crucial.

But I won't let it happen.

I, the side character, will hijack this event.

I'll steal Mia's favorability and get back together with her.

This time, I won't run away.

But there's one problem.

How can I invite Mia? She'd probably want to go with the protagonist, and she likely will. In fact, she'll definitely go.

Oh, well, I'm sure the other two heroines had rather important events too.

I mean, the protagonist would go with the three heroines, right? No, he will definitely go with them.

If that's the case, can I go too?

Well, it should be okay, right?