The Black-Haired Tanned Delinquent (1)
“You can’t judge people by their appearance like that!”
“But…”
“Hurry up, apologize, and show him to a seat.”
“Fiiine…”
The conversation carried so clearly that I knew she’d be out any second, so I quickly turned my head away.
But contrary to expectation, she didn’t come straight out or speak to me.
Instead, I felt an odd gaze land on me.
Staring—
Whoa, that scared me.
The girl who had run to her mom to badmouth me while looking right at me was now peeking out just her face, staring in my direction.
“Eek!”
It seemed I wasn’t the only one startled by our sudden eye contact.
She let out a little yelp, ducked back inside, then timidly shuffled over to me.
“Um…”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
“I was so surprised I didn’t know what I was doing… Ah! I’m not making excuses, but, um, I’m really sorry!!”
...
She must have realized she’d done something wrong, because the way she kept her head bowed felt genuinely sincere.
A quick glance—
Still, I already knew my looks tended to make people uncomfortable.
Another glance—
Come to think of it, I’d been smiling at the thought of earning praise from the teacher, so that might have startled her even more.
Of course, the fact that my smile apparently looked sinister was a little wounding.
Anyway, not only was I on the receiving end of an apology, I hadn’t even been angry to begin with…
Yet another glance—
After she bowed her head and I didn’t answer right away, she kept sneaking peeks, her head sinking lower and lower.
At this rate I was curious just how far down she planned to go.
It looked like she might end up on the floor doing a full dogeza.
Still, waiting until then would be cruel, so I was about to speak up when—
“Oh my… Kaede…?”
Her mother had witnessed the entire scene.
She’d told her daughter to apologize, but the girl was practically on the verge of prostrating herself.
And a blonde, tanned, pierced delinquent was sitting on the sofa looking down at her.
“Ah…”
I’m fucked.
——
“So… you hesitated to answer because you didn’t know what she was apologizing for…?”
“Yes… It might be hard to believe, but that’s exactly what happened.”
“No, I believe you. I was surprised for a second there… I’m sorry.”
Fortunately the misunderstanding cleared up quickly.
“You thought I was really angry, so you kept bowing lower and lower?”
“Yeah… When I thought about it, the walls aren’t soundproof, so you must have heard everything I said…”
“Whew… You really startled me~”
I was curious what kind of misunderstanding could have scared her so badly, but asking felt like a bad idea.
I could roughly imagine the vibe anyway.
“Um… Can I get my hair done now?”
“Ah, yes! Since my daughter messed up, I’ll make it twice—no, three times as stylish!”
“Thank you. I’d like to dye it black. Is that possible right away?”
“Yes~ To blond~”
“No, no. Black, please.”
...
“Pardon?”
She seemed to think she’d misheard.
My request was apparently that unbelievable.
“Mom, he asked for black.”
“Yes, that’s right. Black, please.”
“Mom, you said not to judge by appearance!”
“Ah, ah… That’s not what I meant! It just suits you so well! Blonde looks perfect on you, so I felt a little sad about it~”
“Liar.”
“Quiet…!”
The mother-daughter relationship seemed genuinely warm.
Their shared opinion of the blonde-tanned-pierced delinquent was perfectly in sync, too.
“Black it is, then~?”
“Yes.”
She kept confirming right up to the end. If not for what had happened earlier, I would have taken her for a true professional who always double-checked orders.
Still, thanks to that, I became certain I really did need to do something about this delinquent appearance.
To become a man worthy of Teacher Eri, I would do whatever it took.
“I’ll apply the dye now~?”
“Yes.”
Was she giving me one final chance to change my mind?
The way she kept offering made me briefly wonder if this really was the style that suited me, but I pushed the thought down.
“Applying…! Here we go!”
There was no turning back now.
Well, technically I could still stop her, but I had successfully taken one step down the road to becoming a model student.
Thinking of it that way made me feel like I was doing a damn good job, and my mind settled.
Once it did, details I hadn’t noticed before started to stand out.
The salon capes covered in a cute rabbit pattern.
The brightly decorated cosmetic display shelves.
And even the shop name written at the bottom of the mirror.
Autumn Woman Hair Salon
Ah.
Since they hadn’t turned me away, it clearly wasn’t a women-only salon.
Even so, the customer ratio was obviously overwhelmingly female.
Now that I’d realized it, I understood a little better why the mother and daughter had reacted the way they did.
“Hmm…”
Sure enough, having a male customer must have been novel; she’d been catching my eye in the mirror since earlier.
Even while fidgeting on the sofa and changing positions, her gaze never left me.
At first I thought I was imagining it.
“!!!”
“You can’t move~”
“Ah, right.”
When our eyes met she smiled and even waved.
In the end I had to close my eyes out of sheer embarrassment.
Of course I’d open them again out of curiosity, immediately make eye contact, and close them once more—repeating the cycle.
She was the one staring, so why was I the one getting flustered…
“All right, please wait about twenty minutes~”
It was my first time dyeing my hair, but it finished much faster than I’d expected.
Guess I did it right.
In twenty minutes I would be reborn as the black-haired sun.
For a wholesome academy life and to move forward with Teacher Eri…!
“Um…”
I had been in the middle of an important ritual for the future when someone spoke to me.
“Yes?”
“You’re Taiyo Amuro-senpai… right?”
“That’s me.”
“Ah! Please speak casually! I’m Kaede Tachibana, a new freshman this year!!”
“…Sure.”
After answering briefly I turned my head again and closed my eyes.
It was rude, but since I was already the infamous blonde delinquent with the worst possible first impression, what did it matter?
Besides, there was a reason I had to act this way.
Kaede Tachibana.
Exactly.
She was one of the four main heroines of this world, Four Seasons of Youth.
Truthfully, I had known who she was even before she introduced herself.
The moment I stepped into the salon and saw her, I recognized her immediately.
I’d forgotten until then, but if I had remembered sooner I would have gone to a different salon even if it was farther away.
I had zero intention of getting involved with the main heroines or interfering with the protagonist Nagao Takuya’s love story.
It was a rom-com manga, so there wouldn’t be any truly dangerous events, but I still didn’t want the hassle of getting tangled up in the main plot.
My goal was to live a quiet, happy life with just me and Teacher Eri.
Exactly like the teacher in the original work—offstage, without any screen time.
“Helloooo~?”
...
“Senpaaaai???”
So while I didn’t know why she was talking to me, I was certain nothing good would come from responding.
“Ahem. Miss, I’m not speaking to you for personal reasons!”
“Ah…”
I hadn’t realized that.
Since it was her mother’s salon, it made sense that she helped out with customers.
“Sorry. Please, go ahead.”
“Ehem! Okay! Then I’ll ask!”
“Why are you dyeing your hair black??”
...
“Why do you want to know?”
Was there some kind of event?
Or did she want me to leave a review?
If so, I would refuse without hesitation.
I’m the kind of guy who silently comes back if satisfied instead of leaving reviews.
Not that I planned on returning here anyway.
“No, no! I asked first, so answer me first, senpai!”
...
The honorific had switched back to “senpai,” but she wasn’t wrong.
Still, there was no reason to answer honestly, so I’d give a vague reply.
“Just felt like a change of pace.”
“Ooh… A change of pace…!”
Her eyes sparkled as she looked me up and down.
It wasn’t unpleasant, but the embarrassment made me ask again why she was so curious.
“I’m just curious!”
“…That’s it?”
“Yup! If I had to give a reason, it’s to understand the customer’s needs?! Hehe…”
“Sigh…”
I resolved not to fall for it again, but I wasn’t actually angry at being tricked.
Even though she was a heroine with a hyper-social trait, it seemed upperclassmen weren’t exempt.
“Senpai!”
More importantly, where had the girl who got scared and ran to her mom gone?
“Are you mad?”
“No.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
...
I was radiating annoyance and giving curt answers, so maybe she had finally given up.
I wondered if she might be hurt now, but making eye contact to check would only restart the whole thing.
So, sorry, but…
“Senpai, you’re different from the rumors, aren’t you?”
“Rumors?”
“Yes! The rumors!”
When I turned to look at her, she wore an expression full of eager anticipation.
She even nodded, as if urging me to ask.
“…”
This was exactly what I shouldn’t do, but I had no choice.
For the sake of the future, I needed to learn about the Taiyo Amuro I had possessed, and to do that I needed to know what rumors Tachibana Kaede was referring to.
“What rumors?”
“Hehe… Curious?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then promise you won’t ignore me anymore!”
It was obviously a trap, yet I couldn’t refuse.
I considered asking a friend tomorrow instead,
but after only thirty minutes of casual conversation, who else but Tachibana would tell me the rumors without holding anything back?
“I didn’t ignore you.”
“Yay~! So it’s a promise?!”
“Just tell me the rumors already.”
Besides, no matter how sociable she was, to have that kind of notoriety reach even the freshmen…
I’d thought since he was an F-rank villain who appeared early in the story and exited in an instant without giving readers any sense of danger, there wouldn’t be much to it, but…
The tension made me swallow hard without realizing.
“Hmmm… Where should I start~”
It seemed there was more than one or two.
“First, that he fought seventeen delinquents from other academies all by himself and sent every one of them to the ICU…”
Even if this was a manga, was that for real?
If it were true, he wouldn’t have been able to attend the academy normally.
Please, no.
“And that he only targets girls who already have boyfriends, and even married teachers aren’t off-limits!!”
I was becoming curious whether these rumors were true, and regardless of truth, how far they had spread.
If the teacher knew about them too… things were really not going to be easy.
“That just exchanging a few words makes a girl lose her virginity and devote both body and soul…! Eek!! What do I do!”
...
“Okay. I get the idea, so stop.”
“Tsk.”
Just as she had said I seemed different from the rumors, she didn’t actually believe them.
But honestly, even from my perspective, claiming every single rumor was purely a misunderstanding seemed like a stretch.
“Sigh… But.”
“Yes?”
“You still talked to a guy like that so easily?”
I stopped myself from adding especially after you ran away the first time we met.
“Hehe… You looked so cute sitting there quietly wearing the rabbit cape!”
“Ugh, I feel dizzy.”
The road ahead looked bleak. Truly.