Love in the Shadow of Roboko ~ My Feelings, Left Here ~
I'm Roboko. A clumsy, slightly useless side character, madly in love with the protagonist, Takeru.
At school, Takeru is always next to his childhood friend Akane. She's energetic, cheerful, and most of all, they're perfect together. Seeing them talk makes my chest ache. But it's okay. Because I'm just a side character.
Then one day, Haruto, the super-popular and ridiculously hot guy in class, confesses his feelings to me out of nowhere! 'I've been watching you for a while, Roboko. Being with y
Love in the Shadow of Roboko ~ My Feelings, Left Here ~ - Sparkling Boy Appears. Tuesday.
It was an ordinary morning.
From the classroom window, the sea of Minakaze was visible in the distance. From this school building perched on the slopes of the Kageyama Hills, you could even make out the small boats moored in the harbor.
Roboko sat at the second seat from the back by the window, gazing across the classroom that no one had entered yet.
She was always the first to arrive.
She liked coming early. In the quiet classroom, undisturbed by anyone, she could exist in her own world.
She spread open her star-patterned notebook on the desk.
Feelings she hadn't finished writing down the night before.
*(I saw Takeru-kun and Akane-chan in the shopping district.)*
Akane-chan, laughing happily with a ramune candy in hand.
The moment her arm naturally wrapped itself around Takeru-kun's.
As morning homeroom drew near, the classroom began to stir with noise.
Roboko closed her notebook and tucked it away inside her desk.
"Morning, Roboko."
It was Takeru-kun.
His eyes looked sleepy again today, one hand raised in a casual wave. Same as always.
"G-good morning, Takeru-kun."
She replied quietly, her head slightly bowed.
This was fine. This was the usual her.
Takeru-kun sat down at his own desk and pulled his textbook out. His face showed no sign that anything had happened after school yesterday in the shopping district.
*(That's fine.)*
Because I'm a side character.
A supporting role in someone else's love story. She had told herself over and over that this was fine.
And yet, last night, curled up in bed, she couldn't stop the tears.
No matter who Takeru-kun liked, she would just watch.
Every time she told herself that, why did her chest ache so sharply?
It was just as the homeroom bell rang.
The classroom door slid open with a clatter.
The classmates who looked up to see who it was erupted in a collective stir.
"Whoa, it's Himura."
"Why's a guy from Class A here…"
"He's in his basketball uniform, so cool…"
Roboko found herself looking up too.
Standing at the classroom entrance was the popular guy from the next class, Himura Haruto.
His silky, nearly blond light-brown hair was swept to the side. His sharply defined double-lidded eyes scanned the room. A basketball team uniform was draped over his shoulder.
He must have just come from morning practice.
In an instant, the classroom felt completely dominated by his presence.
Roboko knew it was an everyday occurrence for Himura-kun — people turning their heads whenever he walked down the hallway.
But it had nothing to do with her.
She would just look out the window, like always.
That was what she thought.
But Himura-kun's footsteps headed straight toward her.
No way, she thought, lifting her head.
Without any hesitation, he stood in front of Roboko's desk.
The entire class fell silent.
He smiled, just a little.
And then—
"Roboko, I want you to go out with me."
Placing both hands on her desk, he looked straight into Roboko's eyes.
It wasn't his usual expression brimming with confidence.
His eyes were serious, burning with intensity.
The classroom erupted into chaos, as if it had hit a boiling point.
"Eeeeeeh!?"
"R-Roboko!?"
"Why Himura!?"
The sound of someone slamming a desk.
A guy shouting, "You've gotta be kidding me!"
But all those sounds felt like distant noise.
Her mind went completely blank.
What did he just say?
He wants me to go out with him?
Why.
How come—?
"U-um…"
Her voice wouldn't come out.
Her throat was bone-dry, her fingertips trembling.
"Roboko, I'm serious."
He took a step closer.
Her body moved on its own.
There was a clatter as she kicked her chair back, and before she knew it, she had opened the back door of the classroom and was running down the hallway.
"Roboko! Wait!"
She could hear his voice behind her, but her legs wouldn't stop.
Why me?
I'm a side character. A mob character who just watches someone else's romance from the corner of the classroom.
Why would someone like me be approached by Himura-kun?
She rounded a corner in the hallway and raced down the stairs.
She was out of breath. Her heart pounded painfully.
She burst out of the main building and made it to the covered walkway in the courtyard.
Because she thought no one would be here.
But.
The footsteps behind her stopped.
She gasped and spun around.
Himura-kun stood there, breathing heavily, his shoulders heaving.
"Why are you running?"
He approached slowly. Roboko unconsciously stepped backward. But her back immediately hit the wall.
There was nowhere to run.
He placed his hands on either side of her, standing as if he had cornered her against the wall.
"Roboko."
His voice was close.
It wasn't his usual sparkling smile.
His face was serious, and just a little sad.
"…I had a really close friend a long time ago."
At the sudden words, Roboko blinked.
His eyes took on a distant look, as if gazing at something far away.
"It was back in elementary school. That guy was my one and only best friend."
The wind rustled the trees in the courtyard.
In the empty walkway, only his voice echoed.
"But we ended up falling for the same girl."
Roboko's heart thumped loudly.
"I… decided to value our friendship. So I stepped aside. I told him, 'You go for it.'"
She thought she heard his voice tremble, just a little.
"But, you know."
He laughed, as if mocking himself.
"In the end, that guy moved away. And the girl we liked went to a different town too. No one… no one ended up happy."
His hand clenched tightly against the wall.
"If you just wait, you lose everything. That's why I— I'll take what I want with my own hands."
Roboko simply looked up at his face.
His eyes were intensely serious, yet somehow, he also looked like a wounded child.
"Roboko. I've been watching you this whole time."
His voice softened.
"In the corner of the classroom, always writing something in your notebook. Smiling quietly, as if hoping no one would notice. You, like that — to me, you looked incredibly beautiful."
Her breath caught.
There was someone who had been watching me?
The dazzling Himura-kun, watching a shadowy person like me?
"…B-but…"
Her voice came out hoarse.
Her throat trembled, and the words wouldn't form properly.
But.
She had to say it.
Lying to this person would surely be the cruelest thing she could do.
"There's… someone I like."
For the first time, she spoke aloud the feelings for Takeru-kun that she had never told anyone.
Her voice was small, barely a whisper, but Himura-kun seemed to hear it clearly.
His movement stopped.
A hurt expression, Roboko thought.
For just an instant, his eyebrow twitched, and the corner of his mouth twisted faintly.
*(I'm sorry.)*
She apologized in her heart.
But this was the one thing she couldn't give up.
Her love had belonged only to Takeru-kun for a long, long time.
"…I see."
He said it quietly and took a step back.
And then, immediately — he smiled.
But it wasn't his usual sparkling smile.
It was a challenging grin, like a predator that had found its prey.
"Then I'll just have to take you from that person you like."
Huh? The moment she looked up, his hand touched her hair.
He gently took a single lock of her shoulder-length black hair.
"Starting today, I'll be by your side before that guy you like ever is."
Saying that, he let go.
"See you, Roboko."
He turned his back and walked away down the covered walkway.
His basketball uniform swayed in the wind, and he vanished into the shadow of the school building in no time.
Left alone, Roboko sank into a crouch.
There was no strength in her legs.
*(Take me, he said…)*
What if Takeru-kun was taken by someone?
Just thinking that made the depths of her chest turn cold, as if frozen solid.
It was a sensation she had never felt before.
Having someone say "I like you."
Having someone declare "I'll take you."
Both were firsts, and she couldn't process them.
When she returned to the classroom, her classmates all turned to look at her at once.
"Roboko, what's your relationship with him!?"
"Are you going out with Himura!?"
"No way, seriously!?"
Under the barrage of questions, Roboko could only hang her head.
"U-um…"
She couldn't say anything.
She didn't even know how to explain it.
"Hey, you guys, quiet down a bit."
Suddenly, Takeru-kun cut in.
Unusually, he was frowning, standing as if shielding the troubled Roboko.
Roboko looked up at Takeru-kun with a start.
He was also staring at Roboko with a complicated expression.
A look of slight surprise, but also as if he was deep in thought about something.
*(Takeru-kun…)*
What was he thinking?
Did he care that I was confessed to?
But she couldn't ask any more than that.
The chime rang, and their homeroom teacher, Mr. Gamou, entered the classroom.
Roboko sat down at her desk and opened her notebook.
But the lesson content didn't enter her head at all.
Only Takeru-kun's face and Himura-kun's word — "take" — kept spinning around and around.
That night.
In her apartment room, Roboko sat on her bed.
Still in her uniform, she hugged her knees and looked out the window.
She could see a single, solitary streetlamp in the small park atop the hill.
Her chest was restless.
The day of her middle school graduation, when she first fell in love with Takeru-kun.
In the gym storage shed, bathed in the setting sun, he had reached out his hand to her.
Ever since then, she had thought only of Takeru-kun.
She had never imagined someone would say they liked her.
Because she believed it was impossible for a side character like her to become the center of someone's romance.
But.
Today, Himura-kun said it.
*"Then I'll just have to take you from that person you like."*
Roboko took the star-patterned notebook from beside her pillow and clutched it to her chest.
Scattered across its pages were her feelings for Takeru-kun.
*"I like Takeru-kun."*
*"But he and Akane-chan suit each other."*
*"I'm fine just watching."*
Over and over, she had written the same things, telling herself, convincing herself.
However.
If Takeru-kun really was taken by someone—
The moment she thought that, an intense impatience she had never felt before surged up inside her.
*(No.)*
*(Just that, no.)*
She gripped the notebook tightly.
Deep in her heart, something was screaming.
The feelings she had kept locked away for so long were struggling to break the lid.
*(Maybe… just waiting isn't enough.)*
She thought that for the first time.
But then, what should she do? She had no idea.
Outside the window, night fell over the town of Minakaze, and somewhere, the sound of waves echoed faintly.
Maybe from around the old lighthouse.
That lighthouse with the jinx — that if you confess there, you'll be rejected.
Would my love turn out that way too?
No — it hadn't even started yet.
*(What will happen to my love from now on?)*
Still clutching her notebook, Roboko was quietly enveloped by the long night.
Himura-kun's challenging smile.
Takeru-kun's complicated expression.
And tomorrow — something else might happen.
Only that premonition hung faintly, yet unmistakably, in her small room.
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