Prologue

Isn’t “I wanna be popular” a desire that every boy has had at least once? Unsurprisingly, I’ve thought about it a fair few times myself. I’ve even had the shameless thought that I’d like girls to be the ones to make a move on me.

But still. Still.

“You have such a cute face, you know. Why don’t you come have some tea with your big sis?”

I can honestly say I’ve never wanted to be hit on by a self-proclaimed “big sister” type with makeup caked on so thick that a sheen of greasy sweat was seeping through her forehead.

“Ah~, umm…”

I agonized over how to respond. Someone used to this sort of thing would probably have a plan. For example, they might just ignore her and keep walking toward their destination, the university. Or maybe they’d shoot her a glare cold enough to freeze away this summer heat. I might have been able to take countermeasures like that, but unfortunately, my lonely hand of cards didn’t contain anything with that kind of high attack power.

“I’m kind of in a hurry… so, I’m sorry.”

All I could do was pick the most harmless words possible and try to slip past her to escape the situation.

“Then just give me your contact info! We can get tea some other time, okay?”

But with a hand as weak as mine, it was only natural that she had a countermeasure of her own. My attempt to slip by her failed, and she easily blocked my path. She already had her smartphone out, fully intending to exchange social media contacts.

Well, honestly, if just exchanging contact info will get me out of this, I guess it’s fine, I thought, on the verge of giving up. Just as I was about to pull out my own phone—

“Ma-sa-to-!”

I didn’t even have time to let out a grunt. A cute voice I’d been hearing a lot lately spoke at the exact same moment I felt an impact on my back.

“Come on, let’s go! Class is gonna start!”

“Eh? Hey, wait a sec!”

A girl with an ash-blonde bob cut and a black cap—Igarashi Koumi—had charged into me from behind with unbelievable force, and now she was dragging me away by the arm. No matter how pushy that woman was, I felt a little bad about leaving like this, so I glanced back over my shoulder.

“Tch…”

Eh, she just clicked her tongue at me. Scary as hell.

We ran for a while. It wasn’t until we’d passed through the university gate and gone a little further that Koumi and I finally stopped.

“Hah… hah… I told you already! It’s totally fine to just ignore people like that.”

“Hahaha… for whatever reason, ignoring people is harder than it looks to me.”

I placed my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. I glanced beside me and saw Koumi doing the same. My eyes fell on the healthy legs extending from her shorts, and I instinctively looked away.

“Masato, you’re just too nice! It’s dangerous, you know…”

Hearing those words from Koumi, my university classmate… I had a vague feeling that, at least in this world, my way of thinking was probably wrong.

You see, the thing is, I was transported to this world last month.

It was so similar that I didn’t even realize I’d been transported at first, but there was one clear difference from my old world. Here, the male-to-female ratio is skewed. The ratio is one man for every five women. 1:5. I have no idea why it ended up like this, but because of it, I run into situations like the one just now pretty often. In other words, a woman hitting on a man is no longer a ‘gyaku-nan’; it’s just a normal ‘pick-up’.

(T/N: Gyaku-nan is a Japanese slang that means woman hitting on the man)

Lately, the voices calling for the introduction of polygamy have been growing louder, and it seems that the values surrounding romance between men and women have changed drastically.

I was bewildered at first, even scared. But I can say that most of those worries were unfounded. Sure, the gender ratio is skewed, but it’s not like my actions are restricted or I get attacked out of nowhere. In fact—

“? Is something wrong, Masato?”

I looked beside me, and there was a beautiful girl, tilting her head. Her skin was fine-grained and lovely. Her crimson eyes were full of a vitality that seemed to reflect her cheerful disposition. Just having a beautiful girl like this worry about me was more than enough of a plus.

Thank you, a world with a broken gender ratio… I gently placed my hand on Koumi’s head, who was still looking at me with a puzzled expression.

“Hm, it’s nothing. Thanks for saving me, Koumi.”

“…That’s playing dirty…”

“Eh?”

“N-Nope! It’s nothing! Let’s go!”

Koumi looked down and mumbled something, but I couldn’t catch it. She spun around, and together, we headed for the classroom.

—Back then, I still didn’t understand.

Just how difficult it was to simply ‘live a normal life’ in this twisted world.

■

My university life lately hasn’t been bad. Right after I enrolled, the path to campus felt dreary, my feet heavy. Now, I can walk it with a spring in my step. To think that a single person could change things this much… I guess I’m a surprisingly simple woman.

But it can’t be helped. The prince who suddenly appeared before me just a week ago was just too charming. Ever since he showed up, my university life has begun to sparkle.

He’s tall and slender. His black hair has a light perm. If someone said he was the man who suited the word “refreshing” most in the entire world, no one would argue. Or rather, I wouldn’t let them argue.

Right, right, he’s about as tall and built as that guy over there on the hill… wait.

“Hey, isn’t that Masato?”

Katasato Masato. That’s my prince’s name.

And that very same Masato was standing in the middle of the road. I wondered why he’d stopped, and when I looked, I saw a woman standing in front of him. I-I have a bad feeling about this…

“Then just give me your contact info! We can get tea some other time, okay?”

H-He’s being hit on—!?

The moment I grasped the situation, I started running without a second thought.

That person, and that person alone, is someone I can absolutely never hand over to anyone.

I wasn’t that far from where he was, so I reached his back in no time.

“Ma-sa-to-!”

“Eh, uwaah!”

When they say your body moves before you can think, this must be what they mean. I immediately grabbed Masato’s arm and started running down the path to the university.

“Hah… hah… I told you already! It’s totally fine to just ignore people like that.”

“Hahaha… for whatever reason, ignoring people is harder than it looks to me.”

We finally made it through the university gate.

After confirming that the woman who’d been hitting on him hadn’t followed us, Masato and I let out a breath. Masato’s charm lies in this kindness. Normally, if some middle-aged woman tried to hit on you, you’d show some disgust, but Masato doesn’t have any of that.

 That’s exactly why he’s so reckless, and it makes my heart pound sometimes.

“Masato, you’re just too kind! It could be pretty dangerous, you know…”

I’ve warned him about this several times, but it doesn’t seem like his personality is going to change that easily. Of course, that’s also part of what makes him so great, so it’s a difficult problem.

I caught my breath, which had grown ragged from running, and looked up at the heavens. Yep, a beautiful sky. It was only early spring, so it was fine, but if we’d run like this in this weather once summer started, we would’ve been sweating a lot more than this.

Just then, I glanced over at Masato and saw him looking at me, seemingly lost in thought.

“? What’s wrong, Masato?”

I want to be as cute as possible in front of Masato, so I took a half-step back to hide my sweat and tilted my head.

Pat, I felt something on my head.

“Hm, it’s nothing. Thanks for saving me, Koumi.”

The palm of his hand on my head is so warm. His carefree smile pierces my heart.

…He does things like this, so casually. Masato does.

The sudden rise in my body temperature surely wasn’t just from running all this way.

I didn’t want him to see my face, so I pulled my cap down low over my eyes.

“…That’s playing dirty.”

“Eh?”

“N-Nope! It’s nothing! Let’s go!”

I managed to pull myself together and started walking toward the school building.

He’s truly a sly one. He does everything I wish he would do. And then, at times like this, he does something wonderful that catches me completely by surprise.

My ideal prince.

My heart feels all warm and fuzzy. This feeling, spreading slowly through my chest, is something I’ve been aware of since the day we met.

I stretched lightly and looked up at the pleasantly blue sky.

It’s still difficult right now, but…

Someday, I’ll definitely be his girlfriend.

(T/N: Incase you don’t know, I’m the same translator who worked on it previously on my website ‘Touya Translation’. And I’ve re-translated it to make it more better than before. Hope you enjoy reading it 😊)