Weren’t You Only Using Me As A Stand-in? [54]

“Excuse me, is everything served to your table?”

Once Katō Kei nodded, the waiter flipped the bill face-up, slid it to the corner of the table, and left.

“Itadakimasu.”

Katō Megumi pressed her hands together lightly before picking up her ogura red bean toast and taking a small bite.

Under Kitahara Takeru’s gaze, a look of contentment spread across her petite face.

“Still staring? Haven’t had enough yet?”

Kei had noticed it from the moment his cousin arrived—Takeru had been spacing out, eyes drifting toward Megumi again and again.

Kei found it funny, so he elbowed Takeru playfully and lowered his voice to tease, “What’s the deal?”

“Uh…”

Takeru looked a little awkward.

It wasn’t that he was ogling Katō Megumi. It was more like… observation.

In psychology, there’s a well-known phenomenon called the primacy effect.

That is: the first impression formed during an interaction heavily influences the development of the relationship thereafter. In other words, first impressions stick.

Even if those impressions aren’t always accurate, they tend to be the most vivid and long-lasting, often shaping the course of future interactions.

If someone leaves a good first impression, others are more likely to approach and engage with them. But if the impression is negative—even if future contact is unavoidable—there’s often emotional resistance, or even outright rejection.

In other words, if he wanted to continue dating Katō Megumi, then this first meeting was crucial.

But this wasn’t a game.

There were no save points. No chance to reload if he said something wrong.

No time to carefully deliberate over which line would earn favor and which would offend.

Every single sentence had to be weighed and measured in his head before it left his mouth.

And with girls who had distinct personalities, this made it all the more important for Takeru to rely on subtle observation, judgment, and real-time instinct.

So yeah—he was being careful.

“All right, all right. You can keep staring later. Don’t worry, I’ll give you the chance,” Kei whispered, winking at him.

Here comes your wingman assist, kouhai.

Takeru knew Kei had the wrong idea, but he didn’t bother to explain. Instead, he shifted sideways with a look of mock wariness. “Senpai, no matter how nice you are to me, I’m not reversing my underwear for you.”

Kei blinked in confusion at first.

But when he saw Takeru stop eating and tuck his hands protectively under his backside, he immediately got the message. Without a word, Kei reached out and began feeling around Takeru’s back and shoulders.

Takeru’s eyes went wide in alarm.

Bro—are you for real? You’re not just joking?

The commotion drew the attention of both Katō Megumi and her younger cousin. They looked up from their meals to see what was going on.

After groping for a while—while Takeru sat frozen in barely contained horror—Kei finally grinned.

To anyone else, it would’ve looked like an ordinary, charming smile.

But in Takeru’s eyes, it morphed into something sinister—predatory.

As the saying goes: When “Jie-ge” smiles, your fate is sealed.

Takeru braced himself, fearing Kei’s next line would be something like “Let me take a look.”

Thankfully, Kei’s orientation was normal—but what he actually did say still gave Takeru chills.

“You’ve got a really ideal bone structure. Straight out of an anatomy textbook. You should consider donating your body to science after you die.”

Takeru: ⊙﹏⊙

Bro. I’m sixteen. Isn’t it a little early to be planning out my corpse’s retirement?

Katō Megumi overheard their conversation and couldn’t help but smile, lips curving as she suppressed a laugh.

Takeru caught the subtle shift in her expression, and immediately seized the moment, putting on a pitiful face. “Megumi-san, if anything ever happens to me, the culprit is definitely this med student here.”

“Please… call the police for me.”

Being suddenly addressed, Katō Megumi blinked in surprise.

Then she saw Takeru throwing her a dramatic wink, and her cheeks flushed slightly as she shyly looked down.

She wasn’t used to being noticed.

Most of the time, she was a background character—transparent, easily forgotten.

Now someone was actually seeing her. It felt… awkward, a little embarrassing.

Takeru blinked too.

Wait, she’s shy?

Just from that?

So she’s really just a normal girl, huh?

He suddenly realized that all his detailed analysis earlier had basically been him shadowboxing with thin air.

“You brat—what are you doing paying so much attention to my cousin?” Kei suddenly threw an arm around Takeru’s neck in a mock chokehold, raising his voice so Megumi could hear. “Be honest—do you like her?”

Before Takeru could even reply, a small voice piped up.

A little girl, maybe in elementary school, her hair tied in two cute pigtails, looked up from her plate. She’d been quietly munching away this whole time.

“Big brother, do you like my cousin?”

“Kei-nii, Yuuko!”

Flushed red all the way to her ears, Katō Megumi shot her cousin and her little cousin a rare glare.

Katō Yuuko tilted her head innocently, eyes wide. “Cousin, you’re blushing.”

“I am not.”

With three sets of eyes staring at her, the usual calm on Megumi’s face vanished. She turned her head away with a slight pout.

But the deepening pink on her cheeks betrayed her.

“Cousin, you’re so cute~” Yuuko said with glee. She’d never seen Megumi blush like that before—it was fascinating.

“See?” Kei leaned in and waggled his eyebrows at Takeru. “My cousin’s pretty cute, huh?”

Takeru nodded seriously. “Very cute.”

His previous date targets had always been beautiful, yes—but their personalities? Either bratty or razor-tongued.

Suddenly facing someone this... normal, he found himself unsure how to react.

Man, I really lived through some tough times back then.

But now, things were getting better.

These days, his dates were way more pleasant.

Whether it was Shijō Maki or Katō Megumi, they were both very easy to get along with.

---

In a warmly lit restaurant filled with elegant classical music, Kasumigaoka Utaha was gracefully cutting her steak with a knife and fork.

Aki Tomoya sipped a spoonful of rich, creamy soup and let out a small sigh of satisfaction.

“Senpai, how’d you find this place?” he asked, setting down his bowl.

Utaha replied smoothly, “Stumbled upon it by chance.”

In truth, this was one of the many restaurants Kitahara Takeru had taken her to.

But she’d never admit that out loud.

If she did, this whole dinner would probably spiral into chaos.

Not wanting Tomoya to press further, she turned and smiled politely at Eriri. “Sawamura-san, is it to your liking?”

Eriri instantly saw through her act and pouted. “It’s fine, I guess.”

The restaurant was excellent—both in atmosphere and food. Even Eriri couldn’t find fault with it.

Still, in her heart, she felt that the places Watanabe Takeru had taken her to were the best.

Utaha chalked up Eriri’s reaction to pure tsundere behavior and turned her gaze back to her meal.

But then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something downstairs—two familiar figures.

Her knife and fork paused.

She glanced sideways at Tomoya, a knowing smile playing on her lips.

Eriri noticed the shift in her expression and looked down too—then followed Utaha’s line of sight to a pair of figures seated beside the central plaza’s fountain.

It was Katō Megumi and a silver-haired boy.

The two of them were laughing and chatting as they sat together on a bench.

So much for “my uncle’s visiting.” Clearly, this was just an excuse to go on a date.

The two girls looked at each other and, in perfect sync, shared a glance of mutual understanding—

No words needed.

---

This is a fan translation of 不是说只拿我当替身的吗？by 雪碧加冰. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!