I hate that the Childhood friend revenge genre is so popular

It's a lunch break, which means it's the perfect time for a web novelist like me. I bought a Yakisoba sandwich and headed back to my class, 2-2. I take a seat at my desk and pull out my phone. I head to Syosetu and anxiously check the rating boards for sweet love stories.

"Fuah...!?"

My eyes are glued to the screen as I'm seeing the display.

"I should have known better..."

My hands are trembling as I'm holding my phone. I don't think my eyes are deceiving me. To check my eyes, I look at the hand holding my sandwich and I see my bite mark on it. Definitely tastes great. Alright, I've calmed down and I look at my phone again.

"..."

It's not a mistake, the rankings for the Top 3 Modern Love stories are:

"My childhood friend bullied me but got caught by the Board of Education. She got suspended and now when I go to school, I'm a whole new person."

"I sued my violent childhood friend for abusing me. With the settlement money, I can now go to the moon!"

"The Chief Cabinet Secretary's daughter was my childhood friend that I knew for 10 years, but now that my dad is Prime Minister, now she has to pay 500% in Sales tax!"

The hell? Why are they all Childhood friend revenge stories?

My work is to help people soothe their souls, like for times when their pet goldfish died or they don't have enough funds for the train ride home. Where is my sweet love story on the rankings? Childhood friend revenge, huh...?

In general terms, the undesirable heroine is represented by the childhood friend, and the protagonist is treated badly. He's the least popular guy at school and that's when the revenge plot begins.

I then recall that lately, there's a certain writer who concluded his really popular Childhood friend revenge story and it reached the top of the rankings. Then, other authors started imitating that work in order to get up in the rankings. It's all for the views nowadays.

Yeah, I can see where they are coming from. Wait, do I really? I know why this genre is popular lately, but...

I'm in love with my childhood friend! I love her so damn much! I imagine in my head shaking Rin and declaring that she has to pay 500% in Sales tax. That's "revenge" alright.

I then imagine the despair on Rin's face as she starts bawling. She's begging for a reduced tax rate. That's when I stop my imagination. That's all my brain can handle before I reject it completely. I begin to feel queasy.

Bang

Before I know it, I hear a banging on my desk. It must be my imagination.

"Hey, Yonekura-kun, what's wrong?"

I lift up my head and see the class president, Yuumi Hashimoto, looking at me with a funny expression.

"Childhood friend... revenge... 500% Sales Tax..."

"Alright, alright, calm down buddy."

She has short wavy hair and gives off a mysterious vibe. I can't really read her. At the very least, she's kind enough to make an effort to talk to me. Well, she is class president, so she is sort of obliged to, but that's beside the point. Besides Rin, she's the person I talk to the most.

"What's troubling you, let me help out."

She gives me a genuine smile as she continues to look down on me. Considering my head is in a mess, I do want to talk to someone, but explaining my issue would be difficult...

"Childhood friend revenge stories are popular on syosetu and I am thinking about those and Rin at the same time, which is making me feel sick", I wonder what kind of reaction I would get if I say that.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

"Are you an esper?"

"I don't need to be an esper to understand that."

Hashimoto-san starts chuckling away, seeming all relaxed as usual.

"If you want to shout your problems into the void out, I'm only a holler away!"

Hashimoto-san tightly squeezed her hands in front of her chest. It's like she's a small animal holding sunflower seeds.

"Hey, Yuumin!"

With that, Hashimoto-san turns to her voice calling her.

"Hiyorin is calling, see you."

"Y-yeah, thanks..."

Hashimoto-san goes to Arimura-san, smile still in tow.

"Into the void, huh..."

I whisper to myself. Wait...

"That's it!"

The best way to talk about my innermost worries is through Twitter. The best part is that I use my account exclusively for my writing identity, so I don't have to worry about my classmates seeing it.

My real account? Who the hell needs one of those.

I tap on the bluebird icon and immediately start typing my thoughts as soon as the app opens. And with that, my stream of thoughts shall be unleashed into the void, also known as the online world.

"The childhood friend revenge genre is so popular right now, don't really like it ngl."

With that, my tweet has been sent. A few seconds later, I hear the notification sound.

Nira-san liked your tweet

"It's Nira-san!"

Nira-san is such a god, he even followed me on Twitter when I made my account a while back. He liked my tweet the instant I put it out. But I never really exchanged any messages with him, I wonder what he's like. Honestly, I am pretty interested in knowing him better. He always reacts to so quickly what I post, I'm kind of worried about his lifestyle. Does he even have time to eat and sleep?

I hear another ping

Nira-san responded to your tweet

No way!?

"He commented!?"

I check the comments and see a single line.

"Yeah, I agree."

"Nira-san, you understand my feelings!!!"

Having Nira-san sympathizes with my thoughts, it feels so good. But seeing his first reply makes me kind of tense. All of a sudden, an image of Rin pops into my head. Even though the image is foggy, she still stares at me with mean eyes. Before I know it, I start typing up a message.

"Nira-san, thanks for your sympathy! Actually, in real life, I have a childhood friend who I have always loved since elementary school. These revenge stories give a bad mental image in my head and it makes my heart hurt. Instead of being mean to childhood friends why not shower them with love! What I'm saying is that we should make childhood friends as happy as possible!"

Hah...

I probably shouldn't send that, especially to someone I don't even know. But before I could do anything...

Your tweet has been sent

"Ahh..."

......

What the fuck!?! I can start to feel myself go pale. I have to delete it immediately. But Nira-san might still see my tweet and notice that I deleted it. As I'm debating in my head about what to do, I realize something. It's been 10 seconds and I haven't got a notification for any likes. That's weird, usually, they come pretty instantly.

Ping

Nira-san replied to your tweet

"I see"

This is it, it's all over. There's no getting out of this hole. Once again, I find myself falling on my desk.

____________________

Class 2-1, at the same time.

I, Yuumi Hashimoto, follow my friend, Hiyori Arimura, to the next-door class. We always have someone else we talk to as well, Rin Asakura.

"You know, Isao-kun was sleeping on my shoulder earlier. His face was so cute."

"Ehh, is that so? You've been spoiling him a lot lately."

Hiyorin has been talking about her boyfriend a lot lately. Hearing all this sweet talk kind of dampens my mood, but seeing Hiyorin so happy makes me happy too.

Thud

Our talk is interrupted by a loud banging. Rin was on her phone, but she suddenly banged her head on her desk.

"R-rin-chan?"

"Rin-chan, what's wrong?"

Both Hiyorin and I ask her at the same time. After not moving for a bit, Rin slowly gets up and starts talking.

"I-it's nothing."

"Nothing? It doesn't seem lik-"

Before I know it, I'm speaking my mind. That's because Rin doesn't usually act like this. Her ears, lips, and body are softly shaking. I can see a red spot on her head where she bumped her head, but her entire face is bright red.