Is A Girlfriend Who Can't Say "I Love You" No Good? Houkage-san Reads Light Novels Too Much - Chapter 2.5 Idle Talk 2

“But, you know, it’s not hard to understand.”

The day after the incident at the coffee shop, I said that.

Today, there were only three girls in the literature club room: Houkage-senapi, Iisaka-senapi, and me, Aramaki Hayu. My brother was late because he had to do the class chores.

I was aware of my brother’s schedule, but I didn’t know about his daily rotation. I regretted coming to the club room, as I thought he would be here by now. It was quite intimidating to be stuck in a small room with two seniors that I was not yet familiar with.

It seemed to be a day where there were no activities going on in the manga research club, and so Iisaka-senpai came to see me straight away.

Houkage-senpai didn’t speak to me even once after she first greeted me. She was just reading a book with the same blank expression on her face as usual.

…What kind of attitude is that towards the sister of your boyfriend? I don’t think it’s possible but was she uncomfortable with the way I interrupted their date yesterday?

But as usual, her face was sleepy and expressionless, and so I had no idea what she was thinking.

I had no choice but to talk to Iisaka-senpai, but I knew that if I kept quiet in the conversation, I would be subjected to endless otaku-type talk, so I made the first move and told her about the incident at the coffee shop yesterday.

At first, when I told her that I followed my brother and Houkage-senpai to the coffee shop yesterday, she looked at me as if she were looking at a mother-in-law who was unusually jealous for some reason, but when I told her about the scene where the couple’s man was taken away by someone from that line of work, she started laughing heartily.

This brought us back to the pros and cons of harems in light novels.

It was surprising, but sympathetic words came out of my mouth today.

“If there is a protagonist who is popular, I feel sorry for the heroine who’s rejected by him. The heroine who was rejected by the hero would be pitiful.”

Whether it was real or fictional, handling a heartbreak was hard. Yesterday, the girl was stunned when she found out the identity of the guy who had cheated on her. Even with a guy like that, a character who loses someone they love in a work of fiction was also in a state where her identity was suddenly shaken.

When I think about it for a bit, I too have sad memories of such cases.

“In a shoujo manga that I liked, there was a development where the heroine’s childhood friend, a boy, was rejected by the heroine and went to study abroad…When I read that, my eyes lit up in sadness. I liked the character a lot, but…”

I remembered my frustration at that time, and a sullen voice came out of my mouth. Iisaka-senpai also sympathized with me with a sincere nod.

“Aah… It’s so sad when your favorite character drops out, isn’t it? But sometimes the solution to that problem is easier than you think.”

“Easier than I think?”

When I asked her back, Iisaka-senpai took out some kind of thin book from the bag at her feet.

“For example, this!”

When I looked at it, I saw that the cover was a character from a shoujo manga that I have read. But the design was different, it didn’t look like it was drawn by the same artist of the manga.

“…What is that?”

“This is a doujinshi. A kind of ‘derivative work’ that borrows characters and worldviews from existing works and recreates them in a way you see fit.
And this is the shoujo manga ‘Kyoko-san and Asuita-kun’, it’s a story about a senior character who was dumped by the heroine, Kyoko-san, who somehow managed to end up with her, something like an IF story.”

I see. So, if you like a character who was rejected in the original story, you can just write your own future where that character is rewarded instead. It’s a very simple solution.

However, it was a story that I was half-convinced about and half wondering if that was okay.

“But in the end, the original story was the true story, isn’t it? It’s a bit futile in that sense…”

“If not, you can just write your own original work. You can use the characters from your favorite works as models or refer to their original settings in the process.”

“Eh? But can you call that a purely original work then?”

I thought I’d gotten to the heart of the matter, but Iisaka waved her hand dismissively.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s because there’s no copyright on developments that were not depicted. You see, I told you the other day that there are many works based on Nobunaga, right? Works based on historical figures and events like that are based on historical facts, and one can express them by letting their imagination fly about.

It’s not called copying from the original. This is because the author is drawing their own ‘what if’ by interpreting and imagining the circumstances of individual people, which aren’t written in history. For example, ‘If Nobunaga were a modern man who traveled back in time, what would happen to history then?’ And so on.

Recently, games and light novels that interpret historical figures as modern heroes or beautiful men and women are also becoming popular.”

“In other words—”

I put my index finger under my lips and chewed on what Iisaka-senpai was trying to say.

“In a harem story, does that mean that readers who were fans of character ‘A’ who got dumped will be the next authors to write a ‘What if A was the main heroine’ story?”

Iisaka-senpai exaggeratedly turned her body and thrust her finger towards me.

“Yes! In reading a work, there are missed considerations, betrayed expectations, and unrequited love! If the reader can’t appreciate it, then just make your own story. It’s because books are made by readers becoming authors, authors becoming readers, and readers becoming authors again!

I, for one, couldn’t accept the ending couple of my favorite anime, so I started posting my own illustrations of my favorite couple on the Internet, and that’s when I started my creative activities.”

“…”

It was a thought that made me think about the reason I was in this room. I hadn’t really thought about Kaho’s motivation for writing an ‘another world’ light novel up to this point. I had heard from my brother that it was the current trend, so I thought she was just going along with the trends.

However, I wondered if Kaho, who seemed to be modest but stubborn, would decide on such a subject for a reason like that.

As I pondered in silence, Houkage-senpai, who had been listening in silence until then, clenched her fists in front of her unnecessarily large chest.

“The losing heroine in a harem work is transformed into a possibility for new creators… After all, harems weren’t pointless, even if they couldn’t be maintained in the end.”

“So why is Houkage-senpai a harem-positive person?”

As I tsked inwardly, my eyes met with Houkage-senpai who turned around at me.

Her gaze, which was unexpectedly sincere, wavered quietly in the air.

“Because I can believe that my existence is meaningful, even if someone doesn’t approve of me… I guess.”

…What was that? I don’t know what that meant, but it was something that I’m too afraid to pursue.

When I stared at her closely, her eyes seemed to be empty, but at the same time, they held something that made me feel as if my heart was being squeezed tightly.

…Is that what you like about her?

We stared at each other for a while before I looked away first.

I don’t know why, but that was very frustrating.

[TLN: Thanks to Spynine for editing!]