I'm Popular (or at least i used to be) [LN Version] - audrey_xo_

Genres: Yuri, Romance, Comedy, Drama

Chapter 2

I must get to Grestle Keep. That’s where the witch said she would be with my one and only.

I crumpled the map I was looking at and put it in a pouch attached to my belt. I grabbed my sword resting in its scabbard from the rock I pretty much threw everything on and turned to face the exit of my cave.

…There is something I need to say but I forgot my lines…Wait lines? What are lines?

I shook my head and exited the cave. Outside I was almost blinded by sunlight that seemed like it was coming from multiple suns. One behind me, one above.

How peculiar.

A dessert spread out before me with sand blowing this way and that as me and my home seemed to be in the middle of a sandstorm. Despite this I could still see a stone structure in the distance.

Grestle Keep…

I pushed a few of my blonde curls out of my face and started walking.

A few steps in and an ogre emerged from a small hill in the distance that I hadn’t noticed. She had messy brown hair and light green skin. She was wearing this ugly barbaric leather armor with an assortment of necklaces. 

The ogre scratched her head and approached me slowly. I took my sword out of its scabbard and held it in front of me. A battle was coming. 

The green monster lumbered towards me. When she was a few feet away she stopped and took out a club that I assumed was attached to her back.

“I wah just getting hungry for lunch.” She bellowed as she patted her stomach.

“You shan't have it, for the deer you gobbled down for breakfast shall be your last meal.” I announced as I pointed my sword at the ogre.

I charged her after saying that hoping I could catch her off guard with my fast reflexes. This effort was to no avail as when I got close the monster swung her club and hit my head. I fell to my knees and blacked out momentarily.

A couple seconds later I regained consciousness. I heard a villager-like voice murmur. “Wonder if I hit her too hard.”

I opened my eyes and bolted up and stabbed the adversary in front of me. She…was a tall girl wearing a loose green and brown garb that seemed to resemble skin and armor and a mask in a lighter green with an ugly looking face.

This must be one of the witch’s illusions.

I pulled out my sword and held it in front of me like I had before. The ogre glanced down at her stab wound that looked like just a tear in cloth rather than a wound of flesh and blood. She then fell to the ground dramatically. 

I sighed in relief but kept my sword at the ready as I sensed danger was still amiss. As I looked around I noticed that the scenery had changed. The sandstorm had subsided, the sky was now a dark green that seemed to be wobbling along as if it were multiple streams of water. The sand I was stepping on also had this wobbly effect to it.

How…peculiar.

I also noticed that Grestle Keep seemed to be farther away as it looked smaller. I lifted my shoulders in a shrug and continued to look around.

A couple minutes passed and my sworn enemy, the Witch of Grestle Keep emerged from the same hill the ogre had come from. She slowly made her way to me until she was a couple of feet away. 

“Hitomi…What are you doing?” My sworn enemy asked nonchalantly.

“Who is this Hitomi you speak of? I am only to be known as the Shadow Knight.” I boomed.

She groaned. “I see someone’s really into this.”

The witch took a piece of parchment from her left sleeve. After reading it for a couple of seconds she returned the parchment to her sleeve.

She cleared her throat and hunched over. My sworn enemy then laughed, “Heheh, you buffoon! You came here alone and shall now be bested by my fireball!”

Now this is familiar.

She shook her right sleeve and emerged a wiffle ball that definitely wasn’t made of fire.

The witch then threw the ball at me. It was surprisingly fast so I wasn’t able to block it in time. It hit my head causing me to fall on my knees and blackout again.

“Uh you ok?” I heard a bratty voice quizzically say.

Just like before I opened my eyes and swiftly stabbed my enemy who had gotten close in the moments I had been without consciousness. I took out my sword and again it seemed like I just stabbed through cloth. It must’ve been another illusion as the witch fell slowly while yelling “Ahhhhh! I have been bested,”

She eventually laid down, stuck her tongue out and murmured. “Bleh,”

I put my sword in its scabbard and looked around at my surroundings.

Surely this is the end of the fi-WOAH! Where am I?!?

I could see my surroundings clearly now as the spell that caused the walls and floors to be wobbly seemed to have worn off. I was in a room with dark green walls and soft tan flooring. There were two big pieces of cheap looking material in front of me. One was white and rectangular and had a crude drawing of Grestle Keep in the middle of it. The other was a green object that seemed to be trying to replicate the looks of a hill just flat. 

I heard someone snicker from behind me but didn’t look since my princess emerged from behind the flat, green object. She was a short girl with pale skin, dark green hair in a bob and big grey eyes. She was wearing the same beautiful dress that she wore when we had last seen each other in the library.

She looked at me, grew angry and stomped her way towards me.

My one and only stopped right in front of me and pointed up at my face. “You forgot to mention the poison! It’s an important plo-”

I got on one knee and held my hand out to her causing her to abruptly stop talking in her confusing riddles.

“I...I have waited ages to gaze upon your beautifully short stature.”

My princess looked at me with a confused expression on her face and then sighed a couple of seconds later.

She then took a step towards me. She reached for my hair and gently ran her hand through the curls near my face. Her doing this caused me to freeze up.

“Oh, how I have yearned to do this again. Looking at the sun’s rays shining through my dungeon I was reminded of your golden hair. My mind’s image doesn’t seem to compare to the real thing and it's immense beauty though.” My one and only said, warmly.

“Um…Uhhh…Tha-Thank.” I stuttered while my face felt like it was put directly into the lava of Grater Volcano. 

My princess continued on in a warm murmur. “And the way you get embarrassed at the slightest touch. Oh, how I find this trait of yours so endearing. It makes me want to shrink you with a spell and put you in my pocket.” 

“Uhhhh…Um…That’s…”

This barbaric way of speaking is not befitting of the Shadow Knight! But, I-I can’t really think straight right now. (Insert joke about Shadow Knight’s sexuality.) Or talk straight for that matter.

My one and only leaned her face close to mine and whispered. “Oh Shadow Knight~, would you please expel this foul poison from my body with a gentle kiss?”

And just like that my mind exploded. It was fried. Kaput.

“...”

I blankly stared at her while our faces were inches away from each other. My beautiful princess seemed to get angry at my lack of movement. Embarrassed as well as her cheeks were dyed a subtle pink.

“Hitomi!” My princess whispered.

“...”

“The script said you are supposed to k-kiss me now…” She murmured looking away when she said kiss.

“Whose Hitomi?” I said, my head comprehending things at a snail’s pace.

My one and only sighed. “You're so…ugh.” 

She then kissed my forehead lightly and took a step back to look at me.

Wait! What! S-she kissed me? That wasn’t…that isn’t…Oh my…

My brain was in a deep fried state. My princess’s face seemed to get redder and redder as she looked at the floor I was now standing straight up on.

“Y-Y-you imbecile! Do something already!” My one and only complained as she pushed me away in a mix of embarrassment and anger.

Usually I would quickly catch myself but I was still frozen while my brain processed the events that just transpired so I toppled backwards.

I seemed to hit my head on something and blacked out.

This time I actually blacked out though.

I know you're probably confused right now. “What was that, Hitomi?!? Dungeons, a cool, brooding knight, a beautiful yet short princess, all in a crumbling desert filled fantasy world! Are you ok?”

No. No I’m not.

Basically, three things are the cause: My mother, a play written by Yuka, and mushrooms.

Now let me start from the beginning, which uncoincidentally begins in the evening not the morning where billions of people begin their days from the brief respite known as sleep.

*

The silence felt volatile from my usual backseat perspective. Maid 6 was driving me through the temporal darkness that fell at around 7pm around this time of year. Maid 4 was in the passenger seat providing as much support as one can in silence.

This is way too boring!

I pulled out my phone and connected it to the bluetooth in the car. It made a blipping noise that my mother’s maids stoically ignored. They were used to this. I opened my Spotify and scrolled through my moody playlist. I clicked on Sza’s Go Gina and turned down the volume so it didn’t destroy the maid’s eardrums as the speakers were right by their ears. 

I am not a tyrant.

It was October 31st. Halloween and the day I’ve been dreading since this cool month came into full swing. And no it wasn’t because of the cheap decor thrown around the dorm or the horror movies me and my friend group have watched the last couple of days, the cause of this fear was my mother. She called for me to meet her last month (through a maid of course…) and I couldn’t weasel my way out of this one with my usual work and sick excuses as my mother seemed to see through my lies easily. It’s like she learned or something.

The last time I saw her was early June when I had asked her to transfer schools. I remember her ice cold stare she gave after shooting down the idea of me going to a school in a city like Chicago or Edith. For some reason she was firm about me going to Coraline Miller’s Girl’s School despite my disapproval of the school. 

I know a lesbian against going to an all-girls school. Surprising. Astonishing even.

I read online that it used to be a strict, catholic school with ugly looking uniforms and rigorous classes. With my love of fashion and hate of anything academic you could guess why I’d be against me attending this male-free haven.

Look at me now! Frolicking in the creation of my own contradiction as I enjoy my time at the school I thought I would hate.

Yes, the jig is up. The mask is off. I am…having an ok time at Coraline Miller’s. It doesn’t make it less embarrassing to admit (it honestly might make it more embarrassing…) but it’s mostly because of my friends. The last month we had gotten closer through hanging out and many conversations. My haters will say, “But, Hitomi can’t make friends. She was a loner for so long.” (Literally just a month and a summer.) 

To prove them wrong I will tell you all one thing about each of the girls that I learned in this month to show our closeness.

Shanice owns every copy of Kirby ever released. Just glancing at the Wiki you can tell that’s no small feat.

Yuka may have a girlfriend. This is mostly me and Aliya’s intuition but we gathered from Yuka being even more mischievous than usual (yes it’s possible) and how she is busier on the weekends that she might be seeing someone. Emma suggested she’s probably just studying but come on it’s Yuka we’re talking about. Second member of the Smooth Slacker Duo? There’s no way.

Yuka did mention something about studying last month but I really doubt it’s correlated. She’s dating someone for sure!

Aliya has family in South Korea, Jamaica, and Indonesia. Whenever I feel like trying a beautiful new style of makeup or going on a vacation somewhere warm and nice. I will definitely let Aliya know so I know the good spots.

Manami…Haha Manami. When it comes to Manami I learned the most incriminating knowledge one could know. Whenever she gets bored of the beautifully written Romantic era books or the beautifully boring physiological texts she reads she slips in a tiny smut book and reads that in hiding. Now I have nothing against smut. Everyone gets horny. It’s a common human feeling. But sullying classical literature like Wuthering Heights and Random Old White Man Tries to Convince me to think with his World View While talking in Circles because he Wrote it while on that potent Devious Shadow Wizard Weed with this lustful text?!? It hurts me! It irks me!

…

I really don’t care. It’s just so funny to me that the mostly serious and studious green-haired  tsundere reads smut.

So with the haters proven wrong and in turn reduced to the mere ants I will be moving on.

No, I will not be stepping on these hater turned ants. Like I mentioned earlier I am not a tyrant…and plus I bet some people are into that.

The jolt of the car stopping pulled me out of my thoughts.

I forgot to mention that Maid 6 isn’t the best driver.

Maid 4 turned to face me with her usual deadpan expression.

Wonder if Manami is related…

“We are here, Ms. M,” She said.

I looked out the window for a moment.

Yep this is the familiar car park.

It was a clean jet black driveway with three different colored sports cars on display.

Who needs a family vehicle when you have three different  Matsurbatties? (I don’t know cars) Who needs a family vehicle when you, you know…don’t raise your one kid?

“Alright. I’ll see you two soon.” I said to my mother’s maids as I opened my door.

They both nodded at me.

Maybe Manami isn’t related…With Manami at least I get a downcast “See you.”

I stepped out of my mother’s sedan and shut the door. I instantly was hit with a gust of wind. I tugged my Sherpa denim jacket closer and looked around. Black walls with silver lining surrounded me and the car park. Beyond the walls to my left would be the unimpressive  (at least in my eyes) rock garden and the maid’s quarters. Behind the walls to my right was the pool and pool house. I looked up.

In front me was a tall black almost skyscraper-like building that filled me with dread. It had huge tinted windows and had the same cold and bleak black and silver color scheme as the walls around me. This building was unfortunately my home and could potentially be my prison. 

Author's Note: heyhey (๑･ ̫ ･๑)/ thanks for reading this snippet of “I’m Popular (or at least i used to be)” ! hope it gave u a surreal, flowery feeling since that's what i was kinda going for with it. also hope u laughed at a moment or two as well :D im not sure if i want to continue this story as a light novel or a webcomic but i for sure know i want to continue hitomi's story O ̫ o i do want to finish the "A Singer & A Fan" webcomic first since its a much shorter story so expect "I’m Popular (or at least i used to be)" to continue in 2026 or early 2027 (sorry 😭) check out antes story if u haven't alr to see how hitomi and manami meet :D

read more of audrey_xo_'s light novels on tapas, scribblehub, and wattpad ! if u like audrey’s art or want to stay up to date, follow audrey_xo_ on bluesky @audreyxo77, twitter @audrey_xo_, and tiktok @audrey_xo_ :)