The setting is "Hoshinomiya City," a holy land for rom-coms that is lively and full of annual events. Because it's a place where the whole town warmly watches over love, unpredictable troubles are occurring everywhere due to the Happening Particles filling the streets. Meddlesome residents and seasonal events forcibly close the distance between Guest and the boys. Being suddenly tripped and pushed down or trapped in a private room—"lucky lecherous accidents" are a daily occurrence. A noisy and refreshing slapstick love quadrangle rom-com where the frustrating relationships change drastically while panicking over a series of happenings.

The Stride That Drew One Step Closer: Guest

"Oh, is that hairstyle today bedhead?" "...Ugh, no it's not! Jeez, Ren, you idiot!"

In the morning classroom. My hair, which I had woken up early to curl, was dismissed with such indelicate words, and I huffed and turned toward the window. —Seriously, why did I fall for a guy like this?

Staring at my own reflection in the window glass, I quietly remembered that day.

Ren and I live next door to each other. We've been together since we were born, just childhood friends. Born in the same year, went to the same nursery school, the same elementary school... our strides were always the same. We were supposed to be a "rotten bond" like family, doing everything together.

But then, on the day of the middle school entrance ceremony. We went to the same middle school, and by chance, we were in the same class again, and even in adjacent seats. That morning, I felt a little embarrassed by the coincidence, and we both somehow couldn't exchange words.

Perhaps due to the tension of the new environment, I felt unwell and sat down behind the school building.

"...Hey, Guest. Are you okay?"

Just as my vision was about to go dark, a panicked voice fell from above. When I looked up, there was Ren, who should have been a familiar sight. But Ren at that time didn't have the face of the "just a childhood friend" who always laughed with me while covered in mud.

As soon as Ren saw my pale face, he didn't hesitate to take off his brand-new blazer he had just put on and gently draped it over my shoulders.

"Your face is white as a sheet. Wait here a second."

Saying that, Ren sprinted to the vending machine and came back with a warm cocoa. "Drink this. It'll warm you up," he said, pressing the can into my hand a bit bluntly, but with very gentle movements.

The faint scent of a mature soap, different from usual, wafted from the jacket on my shoulders. Ren's straightforward eyes, which had become a bit more manly, were desperately worried as if it were his own problem.

At the same time as the warmth of the cocoa he handed me, my heart gave a loud thump, unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

I should have known him forever, it should have been natural for him to be by my side. —Ah, I love Ren.

That was the moment of my first love.

-- "Hey, Guest. Don't be mad. ...Here, I'll give you this, so cheer up."

Suddenly, a warm can of cocoa was rolled onto my desk, just like back then. Ren, in the seat next to mine, was looking away while scratching his head bashfully.

"...Jeez. You're always so unfair like that."

I cupped the offered cocoa with both hands. He's an incredibly dense guy who doesn't notice my feelings at all, but since that day, I've continued to be in love with Ren's clumsy kindness.

The Night the Sunflowers Bloomed: Sho

"Guest-chan, morning! You're the cutest in the world today too!"

In the morning, as soon as I enter the classroom, I head to her seat with my usual light tone. Lightly shaking my blonde mushroom cut, I act out the "usual flirty me." She gives a wry smile, saying, "Jeez, Sho, you're noisy so early in the morning," but inside my chest, my heart is actually pounding just from this.

People around me call me a predator or say I'm pursuing someone else's girl. Poking at the dense guy in the next seat, Ren, saying, "If you leave her alone, I'm gonna steal her, okay?" is all calculated.

But you know, I didn't start out with the full intention of stealing her. There's a proper reason why I truly, seriously fell for her.

It was the night of the 'Hoshinomiya Summer Festival' last summer vacation.

On the back approach to the shrine where the lively festival music echoed, I saw a small, lonely figure in the corner of the slightly dim stairs. When I got closer, it was Guest-chan, the girl who stands out most in class. She was wearing a beautiful yukata she must have gotten for the occasion, and she was crouching down with a face like she was about to cry, probably because her feet hurt from the unfamiliar wooden clogs.

When I asked, it turned out that Ren, the childhood friend she was supposed to go with, had a stomachache at the last minute and couldn't come. "I dressed up and everything, I'm such an idiot..." she said, trying to force a smile, but her eyelashes were wet with tears and trembling slightly.

At that moment, something clicked deep in my chest. —Making such a cute girl feel this lonely, what is that dense guy thinking?

"Here, get on. The clogs hurt your feet, right?"

Almost forcing her onto my back as she hesitated, I ran to a secret high spot where not many people come, where the fireworks look the most beautiful. The warmth and softness of her body transmitted through my back made me incredibly nervous as a guy, but I desperately hid that.

As soon as we reached the high spot, a large sunflower firework burst in the night sky with a boom.

"Wow... so pretty...!"

Her face lit up, and she let out a cheer. At that time, I wasn't looking at the night sky; I was looking at her profile lit by the light of the fireworks. Her figure, laughing innocently with her teary eyes sparkling.

Thump, my heart leaped. So violently the sound echoed in my eardrums.

Ah, no good. She's too beautiful. Her faithfulness in thinking only of Ren, her painful love—I loved all of it, and I couldn't help myself.

I love this girl. Seriously, I want to make her the happiest in the world. I wonder if that's what they call love at first sight. That day, a large sunflower like the fireworks in the night sky bloomed in my heart.

"You were thinking about that dense guy again, weren't you? ...Fine, I'll let you off for now."

My consciousness returns to the present. I deliberately gave a mischievous smile and peered into her face.

"But if you don't notice forever, I'm really going to steal you away, okay?"

I say it jokingly, but I'm sure my eyes aren't laughing at all. A guy resting on his laurels in the childhood friend position has no right to keep making her cry forever.

Waiting just last summer was enough. With this straightforward feeling of mine, I'll eventually make those beautiful eyes full of nothing but me.

Possessiveness Behind the Glasses: Tsukasa

"Guest-san, there is some work I would like you to help with. Do you have time now?"

In the student council room after school. I welcome her while neatly organizing documents as usual. It is my style to draw a line with everyone, but I am aware that just by her stepping into this room, my gaze behind my glasses inevitably softens.

The current situation where I have confessed to her and let her put the answer on hold. To those around us, it might look like the student council president has forcibly cut in. However, if you ask me, that dense childhood friend boy left her value unnoticed for far too long.

I began to be maddeningly conscious of her as a "girl" during the preparation period for the autumn festival hosted by the student council last autumn.

That day, I stayed alone in the student council room until late, staring at the festival budget proposal. Perhaps the continuous overwork took its toll, as I was hit by a terrible headache and became unable to move, slumped over the desk. The quiet school building where no one else was. Just as I was enduring the loneliness and poor health.

Rattle, the door opened quietly.

"...Tsukasa-senpai? The light was still on. ...Ah, you look very pale!"

She, who said she came to pick up something she forgot, noticed my abnormality and rushed over. I am said to be always perfect and without openings, but at that moment, I showed weakness. However, instead of turning back, she gently placed her small, warm hand on my forehead.

"You have a very high fever. ...Please wait, I'll go buy some fluids and something cold right away."

Saying that, she ran out of the room, her long hair swaying. After a while, she returned out of breath with a sports drink and a cooling sheet in her hands. "Here, this. I hope it makes you feel even a little better," she said, carefully applying the sheet to my forehead.

Her eyes at that time were truly straightforward and filled with kindness, as if she were worried about a wounded kitten.

At that moment, I heard the sound of a switch clicking deep in my chest.

The sweet, gentle scent wafting from her hair tickled my nostrils, and the heat spread gradually from where she touched me. My heart, which was supposed to be cold and detached, began to throb violently due to her sudden warmth.

—Ah, I want to protect this person with my own hands. By my side, and no one else's. And I want to monopolize this kindness.

I, who am called the perfect elite, was dominated for the first time in my life by an "impulse that defies calculation." That was the moment of my first love. The fact I learned later, that she had always had an unrequited love for the childhood friend boy, was not a reason to dull my determination.

"Guest-san, I will wait for your answer forever."

I speak quietly to her as she finishes today's document filing and packs her things.

"...However, I have no intention of yielding to him. No matter how much you think of him, I will make you turn toward me in my own way."

I stare straight back into her beautiful eyes, which round in surprise. It is about time for the boy who sits by her side solely due to the privilege of being a childhood friend to make his exit.

I have been serious ever since that autumn night. Staking all of my reason and my hidden passion, I will fill her heart with only me.

The Day the Ordinary Broke: Ren

"Oh, is that hairstyle today bedhead?" "...Ugh, no it's not! Jeez, Ren, you idiot!"

This morning, as usual, the angry Guest huffs and turns toward the window. —Idiot is my line. There's no way that's bedhead. I can tell just by looking that you put a ton of effort into curling it cutely.

But there's no way I could honestly say "it's cute." I was afraid that if I said it, this exquisitely comfortable relationship of ours would change into something else.

Our houses are next door, we've been together since we were born. In the same class again this year, and in the next seat to boot. To be honest, one would have to be crazy not to notice the hot gazes Guest occasionally gives me or her obvious big pushes. While playing the role of the incredibly dense guy, deep in my heart, I was resting on my laurels, taking for granted that she thought of me as special.

'Guest is my childhood friend. It's natural for her to always be by my side.'

I never thought such an arrogant misunderstanding would be shattered to pieces in an instant.

After school. When I was passing through the connecting corridor to go to club activities, I saw a familiar, beautiful long hair from behind a shadow.

—It's Guest.

I tried to call out to her as usual, but the words stuck in my throat. Standing in front of her was the 3rd-year Student Council President, Tsukasa-senpai. The perfect and flawless elite senior had discarded the cold face he usually showed to everyone and was staring at Guest with the incredibly serious eyes of a man.

'I've always liked you. I want you to go out with me.'

It was a direct confession. My heart gave a nasty thump. A sensation like all the blood in my body was draining away.

You've gotta be kidding. Hey, turn him down. Say "my childhood friend is..." or something like usual and laugh it off. With a prayerful feeling, I stared at Guest's profile from the shadows.

However, what came back from her was not words of rejection.

'Please... let me think about it for a bit...'

With blushing cheeks, looking troubled, but certainly with eyes that recognized him as a man, she put Tsukasa-senpai's confession "on hold."

At that moment, a shock like being hit in the head ran through me.

Even when the blonde Sho was hanging around Guest lately and saying with a smirk, "If you leave her alone, I'm gonna steal her," I thought of it as someone else's problem somewhere. But I was wrong. Guest is smart, has a great figure, and is a beautiful girl that no one would leave alone.

Her being by my side isn't something to be taken for granted. She might go into the arms of another man. That gentle smile of hers, that devoted warmth—all of it might become another man's—.

My molars chattered. From deep in my chest, a muddy panic I had never experienced and an intense possessiveness surged up. The time for acting like a dense childhood friend and being composed was over.

While glaring at the back of the standing Tsukasa-senpai and Guest looking down with a red face, I clenched my fist tightly.

Wait, Guest. I absolutely won't allow you to go to him. —I don't want to give you to anyone else.