After the headcount the bus departed. Next stop: Kiyomizu-dera. I’d never been, but I knew the name from history class.
“Plenty of time until we get there — what’re we doing?”
“School trip means crush talk — I want to chat with Ryouya.”
“We did that to death during the pre-summer sleepover.”
“Aww, did we?”
“I remember it vividly.”
That had been the night they discovered my hidden ero-mags and then crashed the bathroom; it was not forgettable.
“Then pick up from where we left off.”
“You do remember.”
“We left off on Ryouya-kun’s type — let’s continue with two-option questions.”
We’d done two hours that night and apparently it had not been enough. Each answer I’d given had triggered an interrogation, so we hadn’t covered much actual ground.
“Ryouya — tall girls or shorter girls?”
“Oh, we’re doing this.”
“Of course. False reporting is not allowed.”
“Hmm… shorter girls, I think.”
I’d thought about it before answering. The threshold for “tall” vs “short” was undefined, but given I’m 167cm — below average — pairing with someone smaller would seem better-balanced.
That had been my reasoning. The two faces in front of me went completely flat — wrong option triggered. The bus felt physically colder. Existential threat.
“Hm, so Ryouya-kun wants shorter girls.”
“I’d like the reasoning, in detail.”
The previous crush-talk session had also featured this exact interrogation mode. Honestly it had felt closer to brainwashing than interrogation.
For reasons I couldn’t quite name, after enough cross-examination I’d start believing the option I hadn’t picked was actually my preference.
The pressure to answer was suffocating. I answered.
“Look — I’m below the average male height. A shorter girl would just match better.”
“There are also benefits to a girl your own height — hugs are easier, you can share clothes. That’s not bad, is it?”
“Taller people look better-shaped overall.”
“Yeah, but tall girls usually want tall guys, don’t they?”
There are couples in the wild with similar heights or even gender-reversed heights, but those felt like exceptions. Below-average-height guy + tall girl is not a likely matchup.
Of course, given that I, Mob Character B, would probably hit age = no-girlfriend years permanently anyway, the discussion was moot.
“That’s not true. If I fell for someone, I wouldn’t care if our heights matched.”
“Riona and I wouldn’t pick someone based on height.”
“Sure, if I had access to that kind of girl…”
“Hypothetical — if a girl your own height confessed to you, could you date her?”
“Absolutely. In fact, please.”
If a goddess descended and asked me out, I would not refuse over a height differential.
“Oh — okay.”
“I’m going to remember that.”
I had passed, apparently — the ominous aura dropped. Saved.
“Right, let’s keep going.”
“We’re continuing?”
“Of course, until Kiyomizu-dera.”
The traffic was congested. We were going to be here a while.