“H-hey, Haruto. Aren’t people staring at us?”

“Well yeah. It’s because boys are in the cafeteria. You ended up coming in your boys’ uniform and I’m the only one in a girls’ uniform…”

“My crossdressing would get exposed in seconds. What I mean is, why are you clinging to me like that?”

Right now we’re standing in line at the cafeteria ordering counter and Haruto has his arm wrapped around my arm.

It’s not like he has a big chest pressing against me or anything since Haruto is a guy.

He doesn’t.

But still…

He smells really good…

Th-this is because Haruto is wearing a girls’ uniform right now, so my brain is glitching.

That has to be it. It has to be!

“I’m set up as your bodyguard, remember? Look, if we do this, nobody will come up and talk to you.”

“True, it would be unnatural for a male student to come to the cafeteria alone…”

“Exactly.”

No, for a bodyguard Haruto is pretty small, so this feels kind of forced in a lot of ways.

But it’s just for today, so it’ll work out somehow.

After I forced myself to accept that, the line finally reached the ordering counter.

“Ma’am, what’s today’s daily set?”

“Hya?! A boy?!”

The cafeteria cook, a middle-aged woman wearing a hat and mask for hygiene, widened her eyes, the only part of her face showing.

Since I can only see her eyes, her shock is actually even easier to read.

“Uh, the daily set?”

“Y-yes! Um, today it’s rice, miso soup, salt-grilled Pacific saury, three assorted small side dishes and natto.”

The cook answered timidly as she arranged the daily set items on a tray.

“Oh! As expected of Honey Academy’s daily set. Proper Japanese food with perfectly balanced nutrition. You’re always thinking about the students, aren’t you. Thank you.”

With me basically being a barely-middle-aged guy on the inside, this is exactly the kind of Japanese meal I want.

Grilled fish plus a solid lineup of side dishes like dried shredded daikon and vinegar cucumber salad and it’s only 500 yen, that’s cheap!

“Ugh… sniff… I’ve worked in this academy cafeteria for twenty years… This is the first time I’ve ever had a boy eat my food and on top of that you praised it… I’m so glad I kept doing this job…”

W-wait, she’s crying!

All I did was give a casual comment.

Let’s see if her coworkers can help.

“I’m so happy for you, I’m so happy for you.”

“We’re finally being rewarded… all of us…”

No, her fellow cooks are hugging each other and crying too…

From the look of this, boys really haven’t used the cafeteria at all until now.

What a waste.

“You’re really popular, Tomoki-kun.”

After I paid for the daily set and we finally sat down, Haruto teased me from the seat next to mine.

Also, maybe because I’m here as a male student, the other students pulled back like the tide going out, leaving seats empty around us as they watched from a distance.

But their whispered conversations are surprisingly reaching us…

“So that’s the infamous outrageous first-year Class 2 boy, Tachibana-kun.”

“He even came to the cafeteria, bless him, he’s a treat for us older sisters’ eyes.”

“So it’s true he comes to school every day and it’s okay for him to be close to girls.”

“But still, that ‘bodyguard’ girl beside him is clinging way too hard, isn’t she?”

“I’m so damn jealous.”

Okay, at least it doesn’t seem like they’ve realized Haruto is a boy.

“Apparently, it’s the first time a male student has come. But when you think about it, since I ended up coming in my normal look anyway, you could’ve stayed in your normal look too, Haruto.”

Since we got this much attention anyway, disguising ourselves was pointless.

“I had fun though. It’s been a while since I got to wear a skirt.”

“I wore one earlier too and skirts make the crotch area all breezy and it’s hard to settle down… Wait, ‘it’s been a while’ Haruto, you have experience wearing skirts?”

“Eh?! N-no… Yeah! When I was a kid, for security reasons, I dressed like a girl!”

Haruto hurriedly explained.

Well, in this 1:99 male-to-female ratio world, that’s not a strange story.

Just being a rare boy makes you more likely to be targeted by creeps and if you have a cute face like Haruto then of course his parents would have worried even more.

“Got it.”

“R-right.”

But why is Haruto freaking out this much?

Does he really think crossdressing is that embarrassing?

“Could it be…”

“Ugh…”

Faced with my suspicious stare, Haruto stiffened and fell silent.

Yeah, I’m sure of it now.

“So you like dressing as a girl, Haruto. It suits you, so hold your head up.”

“…Huh?”

Haruto looked completely blank, so I kept going.

“In this world, guys are pressured to be ‘manly’ way more than necessary but sometimes you need a break too.”

In my previous life, it was a world of diversity after all.

Of course, wearing something obscene that makes people uncomfortable is no good, but if you’re dressed neatly like a pure and modest girl like Haruto is and it suits you so perfectly that nobody could possibly see you as anything but a girl then you’re not bothering anyone.

It’s fine for there to be guys who like crossdressing.

“R-really? Then… then maybe I’ll do it sometimes… I guess…”

“Yeah.”

Right, everyone needs time to let themselves breathe.

And for someone like Haruto who carries Class 1’s image and is always under attention, that’s even more true.

“But it’s still embarrassing, so only in front of you, Tomoki-kun… okay…”

“O-oh…”

Why are you blushing right there?!

And why did I feel my heart skip a beat when I saw Haruto looking shy?!

No no.

Even in this chastity-reversed, 1:99 world, who is BL even for?

“H-hey, hurry up and eat. If you don’t, the daily set you waited for is going to get cold.”

“Yeah.”

Even though it was the daily set I’d been longing to eat in the cafeteria, I was so flustered that I couldn’t taste a thing.

Sorry, cafeteria ma’am.

I’ll come eat again next time.