Chapter 373: Super Proactive Future Wife (Patreon)

Time rewinds to shortly before school let out. Kita Ikuyo stumbled backward in a panic until her rear end bumped into a desk and stopped her retreat. She bit her lip and lowered her head in shame — she and Jhin weren't officially boyfriend and girlfriend, but there was no denying she had feelings for him. What she never expected was that Hitori Gotoh had found out.

I'm done for. She... she's not going to cut ties with me, is she? What happens to Kessoku Band? And what will become of her and Jhin?

"Kita, I'm not blaming you."

"Huh?"

Hitori Gotoh propped herself up and said earnestly to the trembling, frightened Kita Ikuyo, "I don't mind if you become his girlfriend."

"There's no way that could happen! It's obviously not normal!"

"As long as you agree, Jhin will handle everything!"

"But... why would you..." Kita Ikuyo didn't understand. Wasn't wanting to keep the person you liked all to yourself the most natural thing in the world? Why could Hitori be so generous about it — it was almost exactly like the "winner's theory" Kazami Kazuki always talked about.

Hitori Gotoh glanced at her, then at herself, and her confidence deflated at once. "I'm gloomy, I've got social anxiety, and I don't know how to dress myself up. Next to the three of you, I don't stand out at all."

"That's not true at all! If you just dressed yourself up properly, you'd be every bit our equal!"

"But I can't do it! Dressing up — I just can't!"

"Bocchi-chan..."

Kita Ikuyo was about to comfort her, but Hitori's whole demeanor shifted — her blue eyes lit up with a confidence she'd never shown before. "Even so, Jhin still chose to marry me, and he told me everything honestly. Since you all like him too, then... the things I can't do, I'll let you make up for!"

"Really... is that okay?"

"All you have to do is confess to him right in front of me!"

"Wha—!!!"

Remembering what they'd agreed on, Kita Ikuyo stood nervously outside the door of the Problem Child Countermeasures Club, writing the character for "person" on her palm over and over and swallowing it down. Hitori Gotoh had already texted Jhin to get him to come. The moment the door opened, she'd have to confess right away — otherwise she might never work up the courage to try a second time.

Footsteps sounded from the hallway, growing louder. Her heartbeat quickened along with the approaching steps. Whoever it was finally stopped at the door, and she held her breath from sheer nerves.

Click. The doorknob turned, and the clubroom door slowly swung open. The moment Jhin's black hair came into view, Kita Ikuyo squeezed her eyes shut, gripped the hem of her clothes, and blurted out loudly, "Jhin! I like you — please... please go out with me!"

"Huh?"

"Whew~ Didn't expect things to kick off with such a bang." The future Hitori Gotoh promptly switched on her personal terminal's recording function. Before she'd even walked onto campus, she'd already cranked her cognitive interference up to maximum — right now, no one besides Jhin was even aware she existed.

Seeing that if he didn't answer soon Kita Ikuyo was going to suffocate herself holding her breath, Jhin hurried forward and pulled her into his arms. "I accept — now hurry up and breathe."

"C-congratulations, Kita." Facing her boyfriend's puzzled look, Hitori Gotoh stared down at her own toes and clapped her small hands. It wasn't that she was jealous — she just had no idea how to explain the situation to him.

"You can stop clapping — she's already passed out."

"Huh? Then... then we should hurry and take her to the infirmary!"

"No need for that — just let her lie down for a bit." Jhin laid Kita Ikuyo flat on the sofa, then caught hold of Hitori Gotoh, who'd been trying to slip away like a guilty fugitive, and blew softly against her ear, which turned bright red. "Tell me — what exactly are you two up to?"

"Uu... I... I just told Kita to... to become your girlfriend."

"So she confessed the moment I got back?"

"Mm... ah, d-don't bite my ear... it tickles..."

"Can't help it — you're just too cute, Bocchi-chan. I can't resist teasing you."

"Uuu~"

Hitori Gotoh whimpered a couple of times, her small mouth pouting in aggrieved silence as she let Jhin have his way with her. Watching this, her future self clicked her tongue in amazement. "I used to be like that too, huh? Come on, don't just sit there — hug him back and kiss him!"

Watching her younger self get intimate with her younger boyfriend felt a little strange, but that younger self was still her, so she decided to treat it like watching a nostalgic youth romance film.

With that thought, the future Hitori Gotoh pulled out a cola and a bag of chips, plopped down nearby, and happily settled in to watch the show, her eyes practically sparkling as she silently wished they'd get even more heated.

Her practiced snack-and-gossip routine made Jhin's eyebrow twitch — she'd clearly picked up this bad habit from him.

He gave his girlfriend's soft, marshmallow-like cheek a firm squeeze, planted a few more kisses on her, and only then stopped teasing her. He pulled an oval pink gemstone pendant out of his storage space and handed it to her. "I picked this up specially for you on my business trip. Do you like it?"

Still light-headed, Hitori Gotoh accepted the pendant. "I love it."

When the future Hitori Gotoh noticed his gaze land on her, she used a finger dusted with chip crumbs to pull down the zipper of her tracksuit, revealing the very same pendant resting on her black Kessoku Band uniform — nestled in a cleavage so deep it nearly swallowed the gem whole.

Bocchi-chan just kept getting more powerful in the future — if Megumin ever found out, she'd probably drop dead from sheer rage.

[Enraged Unconscious by a Big-Boobed Alien.jpg]

Halfway through a mouthful of chips she was savoring, the future Hitori Gotoh watched her past self just dumbly put the pendant on herself, and smacked her own forehead in frustration. "Get your husband to put it on for you! How is your social IQ this low? ...ah, right, that's exactly the kind of dumb thing I used to do."

The snack in her mouth suddenly lost all its flavor. All she wanted now was to crack open her past self's skull and see just how little social sense was rattling around in there.

I really was too naive back then...

"I'd better cut this part out — if Kita and the others ever saw it, they'd never let me live it down..."

Before long, the fainted Kita Ikuyo came to. The instant she laid eyes on Jhin, she covered her face and fled the Problem Child Countermeasures Club — he didn't even get the chance to give her the pendant.

"Never mind, I'll just give it to her next time we meet."

"Jhin, do you have anything else planned for today?"

"Hm... nothing for now. I just got back, so I was planning to meet up with you and everyone else."

At that, Hitori Gotoh said in a voice barely louder than a mosquito's whine, "T-today... let's stay somewhere outside."

The mood instantly turned charged. Looking at his bashful girlfriend, Jhin took a deep breath, tamping down the fire building in his chest. "No problem. But it'll have to wait until school lets out — let me go say hi to everyone else first."

"Okay, I'll wait for you in the classroom."

He walked out of the clubroom with his future wife, who immediately clung to him, grinning. "I'm pretty capable, huh — I've even learned to take the initiative and invite you myself."

"Then I guess I'll spend tonight with her."

"What are you talking about, you silly?" the future Hitori Gotoh said as though it were obvious. "Tonight it's me — I'm the one keeping you company."

Uh-oh, future Bocchi-chan is so forward — I love it!