Isekai dump

Harem plot pt. 2

She could hear familiar footsteps as the door swung open she hurriedly hid the notebook under her pillow. Her movement shifted one side of her skirt up just enough to look uneven but nothing else.

"Hey, Et-" the door slammed closed.

Etsuko was confused for a moment until she noticed her skirt, she calmly fixed it and resumed laying down on her back. She didn't really care if Tatsuya came back into the room. She stared at the ceiling, even though Tatsuya and her were raised like siblings it seemed he didn't share the same views. Maybe in another world, she would've been the same as him.

"Hey Etsuko," she could hear his high-pitched voice from the other side. She huffed and sat up.

"You can come in," she rolled her eyes, her arms crossed.

"Ah, great," he opened the door a notebook in hand.

"I was wondering if you could help me with my math homework," his voice back to its normal volume if only a little skittish.

"Yea, sure, was it the homework from today?" she felt herself relaxing, especially since the topic was something nicer to her. She had found that she was better at math than she should've been but it didn't matter how she obtained it because in any life she loved being good at math.

From her question, Tatsuya steadily gained familiarity. Showing her his homework sheet with a swing of his arm.

"Yea," his smile lop-sided, he flopped into the chair by her desk and put the sheet down, as well as his notebook. Tatsuya was someone you could easily mistake for a stereotypical mastermind, a leader with his auburn hair and eyes. If she didn't know he was the protagonist of a cheesy rom-com or world-hopping harem, she would've easily mistaken him for that. If she didn't know him at all she would've assumed he was in a position of authority within the class but no, he was just a rando. Occasionally a girl maybe even a boy, she wasn't so sure about that though, would look his way but never do anything about it. So even with his beauty or charismatic tendencies that shined through in moments, he was still overlooked, typical for a harem protagonist. She almost scoffed, it was one of the things she always kept coming back to when she had gained such knowledge. That she would hope that this wasn't the only thing that defined them, each and every character she would interact with from now on. But sometimes one little thing would happen and she did feel it was hopeless, that all her efforts and her friend's efforts even their friendships were all by design. That Tatsuya would only be a babe magnet and only be defined by that.

"Is that right?" Tatsuya had smiled, his eyes seemed closed and the light hit just right. She felt as if the breath was hit out of her too, she quickly took action and looked at the problem.

"Yea," she smiled softly but her eyes had regained their usual look just after," except for that one," she pointed out to one of the problems on the page. She wanted more for herself but if Tatsuya was happy, that was a plus, because, to her, Tatsuya was like a younger sibling.

She didn't know if she was projecting but feeling something that was fondness was better than hate. Yes, Tatsuya was her younger sibling.