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Right after arriving at school, Mika and I opened our shoe cubbies. Five or more letters fell from Mika’s. Just tearing them up and throwing them away right here at school would be too cruel, so she put them in her bag. I also stored the four or so letters I found in my cubby away.

This had been a daily occurrence ever since we reached middle-school age. Incidentally, most of the letters Mika got were from boys (though about one third came from girls). The ones I got were 80% from people of my gender. As for what they were? Love letters, obviously.

After dealing with what had been routine for years, we walked down the hallway past several classrooms, until we reached the one marked as 2-C. Incidentally, excessive flirting wouldn’t fly at school, so we stopped holding hands when we entered the school grounds.

“Really, Sanada, are you serious!?”
“They themselves told me just earlier. They’ve become normies.”
“The Archangel and the Little Devil… finally…”

There seemed to be light commotion in our classroom. Even though we were here earlier than usual and there should be fewer people at this time. No matter how you looked at it, they were talking about Mika and me. Or rather, a certain Archangel and a Little Devil.

For now, we opened the sliding door and entered the classroom.

“”Good morning!””

When we greeted them in unison, the conversation stopped, and everyone turned their attention on us. It looked like Shuu wasn’t here yet.

“…There’s nothing out of the ordinary, right?” Yamagami¹, the tallest boy in the class at 185 cm commented.

By “nothing out of the ordinary”, he probably meant that we always walked to school side by side.

“No, there is! They themselves told me that they’re dating!”
“Hey, Joujou, is that true?”

In reaction to Yamagami’s question, Mika and I looked at each other and nodded.

“Yep… Mika and I are… well…”
“Eh-heh-heh… we’re now in a relationship.”

We replied bashfully, while holding each other’s hands. The atmosphere in the classroom immediately grew more heated.

“I-It’s true!?”
“Gi-hi-hi… how wonderful.”
“I told you so, didn’t I?”

Including the two of us, only six of the 30 students in our class were present, but that was enough to cause a commotion.

“Yuri…! We got our yuri couple!”
“No, we don’t, I’m a man!”
“Speaking those words while cutely puffing out your cheeks only serves to disprove your point.

These people think of us as two girls…
While my looks had helped me out on more than one occasion, they caused a weird mood just as often.

“Grr…”
“And then you go on grumbling adorably. On that note, what are your thoughts, Lady Magarigi? For us, this truly appears merely like pure love between two girls.”

This question came from Hunkydorky, our class’s worst otaku, whose mental degradation even showed in the way he talked. And for whatever reason, he also had the looks of a male idol. His nickname came from a combination of (handsome) hunk and (otaku) dork².

“I like everything about him, including his cute parts, so I don’t mind,” Mika replied.
“Woah… Joujou, you dog. For the most beautiful girl in the whole region to say that about you.”
“Hmph! Jealous, are we? This is Lady Ali we are talking about, there should be no reason for envy.”

Some people here called me Ali or Little Ali³. They wouldn’t stop, no matter how often I told them to. It started when Hunkydorky learned of my usual username and began to call me “Lady Ali”, and from that point on, quite a few people jumped on the bandwagon.

“Well, in the first place, Joujou… or rather, Little Ali looks like a beautiful girl, too.”
“It’s true.”

All the people in the classroom nodded in agreement. I decided to no longer care whether they treated me like a girl today. This would only get exhausting.

Afterwards, Sanada relentlessly pestered us about what led to us dating and how far we had gone. For the time being, we told them hastily made-up story.

First, we explained that we had gotten into a fight while we were at home yesterday, which led to various things, including Mika telling me her true feelings, and once we both realized that our affection was mutual, we decided to start dating. As for the state of progress of our relationship, we decided to go with “we just kissed”. Well, as a matter of fact, we hadn’t had any adult experiences in this world, so it technically wasn’t a lie.

During our explanation, the other classmates arrived at school one after the other, and immediately after we finished our tale, Sanada went to tell the girls, Yamagami the boys, and Hunkydorky his otaku compatriots, of whom there were both boys and girls.

“Yo, mornin’!”

Shuu entered our classroom later than he normally did. He shot a glance at Mika and me, who were holding hands while being mobbed and pestered with questions by both boys and girls (ratio-wise, there were more girls), and then had the audacity to flash a grin.

“Oh, Hino. Did you know about…” Yamagami, who was friends with Shuu (though it wasn’t on the level as between Shuu and me) asked him as he rushed towards him.
“I knew. That’s if you’re talkin’ bout Ayumu and Mika,” Shuu replied with a big grin before Yamagami had a chance to finish his question.
“Oh, well, you guys are friends.”
“I mean, I’ll be the best man at their wedding.”

Gaaaaah! Shuu went back to use his annoying stock phrase! Even though he mostly stopped using it since he came to Anazumu. And that damn grin of his is back, too!

“That’s probably going to happen for real.”
“Yup.”

In no time at all, Shuu joined the conversation and made the teasing we received even worse. It even continued when our morning homeroom teacher arrived. Or rather, the teacher joined in, too. He told us how he and his wife fell in love and gave us his encouragement.

Either way, after constantly being teased for some time, class finally started. From then on, things calmed down. Nope, that was a lie, each of our teachers pressed us about what happened. It continued the whole day.

…And thanks to a group of loose-lipped girls centering around Sanada, the news about us dating spread at ridiculous speed throughout the whole school… no, the whole region. But that was another story.

TL notes:
And with this single chapter, whatever remained of the whole “Everyone saw Alim as a girl, but he never realized it” backstory the author built up comes crashing down. Yes, I get that it likely wasn’t fleshed out much when they started writing, but it’s still super grating in retrospect.

1. The original is 山上. Here, our luck runs out. The name has multiple readings, so I went with the (according to https://japanese-names.info/) most common. The word also has the literal meaning “mountaintop”. Very subtle for the biggest boy in class.
2. The original is イケザン (Ikezan), a combination of イケメン (“good looking guy”, “handsome hunk”) and ザンネン (“unfortunate”). He also talks politely (even though no one else does) and uses the 殿 (dono) suffix when talking to his classmates. If you (rightfully) think my localization is horrible, I’m open for better suggestions.
3. The original is アリちゃん (Ali-chan). It bears mention that chan is normally not used for boys (aside from stuff like onii-chan).

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