How to raise a random guy's wife

If Eriri hadn't given it to Aki Tomoya, Aki Tomoya might not have used "Little Love Rhapsody: A Trip to Lapo Island" to enter his home, and he might not have drawn the doujinshi that made Aki Tomoya's heart flutter. Eriri would still be that special person.

Everything was made possible by Eriri.

Chapter 188 Thank You

It is believed that special relationships are replicated;

His proud drawing skills have been surpassed;

The recognition I craved was denied.

To be honest, Kobayashi Sora has seen quite a few people who have broken down.

Many of them were brought to their knees by him.

But this was the first time he had ever seen someone like Eriri, who could break through his defenses from every angle.

Index, as if she had been touched by Touma Kamijou, completely collapsed in her luxurious white silk monastic robes embroidered with gold thread.

The key point is that Eriri herself initiated this whole thing.

I can handle breaking down my defenses.

To put it more tactfully, Eriri is currently the busiest person in the circus, the wildest person in Gotham City, a guard in front of McDonald's, and the king and queen of a deck of cards.

Kato Megumi held Eriri's hand, looking at her dejected expression, wanting to comfort her, but not knowing where to begin.

Ultimately, none of Kato Megumi's previous friends were close enough for her to discuss emotional topics with them.

There is a real lack of experience in dealing with this situation.

Then she looked at Kobayashi Sora.

Kobayashi Sora blinked; he didn't have many friends either.

He could come up with two thousand different sarcastic remarks.

Kato Megumi wrinkled her nose. She couldn't just stand by and watch, could she?

Right.

"Um..." Kobayashi Sora coughed twice, carefully choosing her words, "Please accept my condolences?"

Eriri: "...Thank you?"

Kato Megumi: "..." What's wrong with these two? How can they say nice things in such a way?

The moment he was choked by the fire, Kobayashi Sora's inspiration struck.

I didn't know what to say at first, but now I have a lot to say.

The laning phase begins.

“To be honest,” Kobayashi Sora tilted her head, “you were bullied because you’re an otaku. But instead of quitting being an otaku because of the bullying, you achieved great success in that area—so why did you two act like you were sworn enemies in middle school? Wouldn’t it have been better to treat each other as ordinary classmates at school and get together as otaku on weekends, enjoying your time to the fullest?”

Kato Megumi looked at Kobayashi Sora, "Shall we talk about this now?"

Kobayashi Sora blinked. "Since we've come this far, let's talk about it more clearly."

“He didn’t want to,” Eriri whispered, recounting the past.

After entering the third grade, Eriri changed classes for the first time in elementary school.

Fortunately, there was Aki Tomoya, who had always been in the same class.

Aki Tomoya was just as happy as Eriri about being in the same class, and their conversations about manga, anime, and video games became even more enthusiastic than before.

However, the two-person clique, which did not allow outsiders to join and included an exceptionally cute mixed-race girl, caused serious friction between them and their new classmates... especially the boys.

Starting from the second semester, Aki Tomoya and Eriri became the prime targets for bullying.

Race, gender, otaku, incompatibility—all the negative factors were used by classmates to mock and write articles about it, which were then widely circulated.

For Aki Tomoya, who is a boy, some people even resort to physical violence every day.

After all, they were just elementary school students, and their minds weren't as tempered as they are now, so they could secretly create alternate accounts to confront haters and such.

Eriri was powerless to resist at that time. She gradually lost her smile, slowly stopped mentioning manga and anime, and began to keep her distance from Aki Tomoya.

As Kobayashi Sora said, if Aki Tomoya also kept his distance, the two of them could continue to enjoy their otaku life discreetly without being targeted by others.

but......

“If I’m not mistaken,” Kobayashi Sora rolled her eyes, recalling her experience of being in the same class as Aki Tomoya in junior high, “starting from the third semester, he would volunteer to be the head of the radio station, broadcasting anime songs during lunch breaks; he would bring comics to school and promote them to everyone he met; even when the teachers confiscated his materials and his parents were called to the school, he wouldn’t stop; even in class meetings, he would talk about otaku topics until the teachers were completely shut up… until he built a haven for otaku in the class.”

“That sounds like something Aki would do,” Kato paused, “No, that’s exactly what Aki has done.”

“He took half a year in junior high, he probably wasn’t this proficient in elementary school.” Kobayashi Sora looked at Eriri. “A year?”

"Mm." Eriri nodded gently.

“It sounds impressive…” Kato Megumi looked puzzled, “but it feels like… something’s not quite right.”

Eriri looked at Kato Megumi with confusion, "Something doesn't seem right?"

"To be precise, it's a misalignment." When it comes to rational issues, Kobayashi Sora's thinking becomes clearer. "Let's analyze it step by step. The bullying you received from your elementary school classmates lasted for quite some time, right?"

“…Mmm,” Eriri replied softly.

"During this period, did Lun also take any of the above actions?"

"......No."

"Because you didn't give up back then. Even though you were being bullied, you still didn't want to stop communicating with him." Kobayashi Sora chuckled. "Rinya didn't take any action either, because he had fellow otaku. He didn't care about being bullied by others. As long as he had fellow otaku to communicate with, that was enough."

Eriri recalls that when she was little, no matter how obviously bad the attitude of her classmates was, Aki Tomoya would turn a blind eye.

Whenever the topic of otaku comes up, a carefree smile spreads across his face.

It was as if...nothing had happened.

“And after you distanced yourself from him, he quickly devised a plan and began to act.” Kobayashi Sora dissected the dusty past like a scalpel, “with a passion that is hard for ordinary people to imagine.”

Eriri nodded.

A clear picture emerged in Kobayashi Sora's mind: "Because his only like-minded friend left, he had no one to talk to about otaku topics. This hunger stemming from loneliness forced him to take action."

"Hmm..." Kato Megumi noticed the problem, "Where's Eriri?"

"And so it begins. If I'm not mistaken, you noticed it as soon as the bullying started," Kobayashi Sora whispered. "Riri, right?"

Arrogance is always accompanied by sensitivity.

Eriri did not answer.

"Your choice was to continue communicating, because that would make Renya happy. You couldn't change the situation of being bullied, but at least you could make him happy. But this action led to another result: the classmates who didn't see the desired outcome escalated the bullying." Kobayashi Sora's eyes narrowed slightly, as if she had traveled through time to see a group of little brats. "Verbal bullying turned into physical conflict—and you saw that, and then decided to keep your distance from Renya."

Chapter 189 A Dignified Resurrection

Eriri bit her lower lip, and after a long while, she finally spoke, "Otherwise what?"

Does she, still a primary school student, have to fight with those boys?

He thought he could just ignore the bullying, but... just because he continued to talk about otaku topics with Aki Tomoya, he was bullied by his classmates.

Eriri can ignore verbal bullying, but she cannot ignore physical violence.

"That's the crux of the problem," Kobayashi Sora pointed out. "People always tend to think from their own perspective, assuming their own thoughts are the other person's thoughts."

The projection effect refers to the tendency to attribute one's own characteristics to others.

When people perceive and form impressions of others, they assume that others also have similar characteristics to themselves, projecting their own feelings, will, and characteristics onto others and imposing them on them.

Simply put, it's a cognitive barrier of putting oneself in others' shoes.

Projection makes people tend to perceive others according to who they are, rather than according to the true nature of the observed.

Just like before, Kobayashi Sora believed that Aki Tomoya would also change because she herself had changed.

but it is not the truth.

“For Tomoya, as long as he can discuss otaku topics with others, he doesn’t care about bullying at all. So when he found out he was being bullied, he didn’t do anything because he thought you didn’t care as much as he did.” Kobayashi Sora explained further, “For you, you hope that Tomoya can get along well with his classmates, so you stay away from him and hope to become a recluse with him, thinking that he has the same idea as you.”

Aki Tomoya also wants to communicate with like-minded people, and the focus is on communication.

Eriri wants companions to communicate with, and she values ​​companions.

"In other words, neither Eriri nor Aki-san is wrong." Kato Megumi quickly followed Kobayashi Sora's line of thought. "It's just that their different goals led to different actions, which resulted in the final outcome."

Kobayashi Sora nodded, agreeing with Kato Megumi's opinion.

The only mistake in this whole thing was the child's jealousy.

Whether it's Eriri or Tomoya Aki, their thoughts and actions are simply different, not wrong.

If we have to point out a mistake, it's only that both of them had flawed expectations of each other, stemming from their own perspectives.

Eriri values ​​Aki Tomoya for who he is and doesn't want him to continue being bullied, so she keeps her distance from him.

In her mind, Aki Tomoya would keep his distance from her at school, and then the two of them would have secret otaku time on weekends.

Aki Tomoya values ​​his interactions with Eriri, and he doesn't mind being bullied, so he doesn't want to keep his distance from her.

In his mind, Eriri, just like her, would return after he completed the transformation of the environment and built an otaku kingdom in the class.

As a result, they both disappointed each other's wishful thinking.

"What the heck..." Eriri hugged her knees. "This is all so messed up..."

What's the point of saying all this now?

It has ended.

Eriri thought she was the princess waiting for Serbis on the balcony.

But she discovered that Serbis had mistaken her for a girl he had just met on the street.

A one-sided hope led to a complete defeat.

"Let's talk about something simpler then." Kobayashi Sora changed the subject. "At the doujinshi convention, I met Hashima Iori."

“Oh…” Eriri replied indifferently.

"His plan is to use you as a figurehead, wait for Po Island to grow and mature, and then make a glorious debut."