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Chapter 69 – Sakaki Sui is a Serious Person
I’m f**ked. Not only Yuudai-senpai but Arina was also here.
I didn’t want to imagine what kind of torture Arina had in store if she ever found out that I went out with someone right after I dumped Shirona. This wasn’t a serious relationship of course, but she would definitely grill me if she found out.
I could try to talk my way out of this but Yudai-senpai’s presence here cut me off that option. As I was looking for a way out, Yudai-senpai grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.
“You are the one who’s dating Kozue, right? Right?!”
He asked in a rather aggressive tone.
I sneaked a glance at Arina. Scary. What’s with her eyes? She was staring at me like a snake looking at its prey.
Despite the commotion we were making, that didn’t distract the warriors from their quest for the cafeteria food. The girls were still going for each other’s necks, fighting for glory and supremacy. I regretted not joining them earlier, now I’m stuck in this sticky situation.
“
Yes, I am
”
I whispered that answer, hoping that Arina wouldn’t hear it, but it seemed like my efforts were for naught as she sent me a surprised look.
“
I see
 So the rumors are true
 So, what did you do?”
“
Huh?”
“What did you do to get her OK? Tell me!”
“W-Wait, what do you–?”
“Look at me in the eyes!”
“Ugh
”
I wanted to make sure that I heard his question right. I mean, after getting rejected countless times and now his loved one found another man to settle with, one would expect for him to give up but, surprisingly, his willpower was something else.
“Who was the one who confessed? You or Kozue? 
No, wait, there’s no way that Kozue will confess to anyone, so it must be you, right?”
“U-Um
”
Neither of us had feelings for each other, so there was no way that either of us would confess. I admit that Kazawaguchi-senpai was a cutie but since I just met her and she always looked sleepy, she was nothing more than an ‘Unidentified Life Form’ for me.
Of course, I couldn’t just say that out loud to him. I felt sorry for him, but he really should just move on from her and respect her wishes.
“I-I don’t know, it just happened.”
“What’s with that answer? 
Whatever
 Then, how far have you gone with her? Speak up! What kind of things have you–”
Arina chided in at this point.
“Senpai, can you just stop? You look so pathetic right now.”
“
M-My bad
”
Arina sent him her trademark murderous gaze and he took his hands off my shoulders in response. That murderous gaze was scary, I felt him. Those lifeless eyes of hers, whenever I gazed at those eyes, it always felt like I was staring at the abyss. In my case, she only ever gave me that look whenever she got really angry at me and it always made me feel a milligram amount of remorse.
But in this case, it seemed like she was angry at senpai instead of me.
“Alright, let’s do this
 Are you free after school? Let’s talk this out properly.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“This place, after school.”
“Got it.”
“See you after school then. Also, don’t you dare run away.”
No way I would run away. This was the moment that Kazawaguchi-senpai was waiting for after all. I needed to notify her later
Yuudai-senpai then left me and Arina alone.
After a short silence, I followed suit and ran the hell away from there. Arina had been glancing at me and it was scary. I went back to my classroom, buying tomato juice along the way.
“Uegh!”
–Or that was the plan. Before I could even walk away, she grabbed me by the collar and suffocated me. Her grip was strong, probably as strong as a gorilla.
“Why are you running?”
She wore the face of a murderer.
Seeing her smile made me reminisce about a certain part of history.
The Soviets in all its glory, being among the pioneers of humanity’s race to space. They managed to send the first animal to space, the dog Laika. I remembered the tragic story of Laika, who was sent on a one-way trip to space with the certainty of death.
I remembered the faces of the scientists who were heartbroken to send her off. I remembered how they made her go through weeks of rigorous training and she obeyed all their instructions without even knowing why. I would find myself glancing at the night sky, thinking of her departure from her motherland.
The scientists, ridden with guilt and self-hatred, wished her goodbye before they sent her off to space. They prayed for her well-being but, deep inside, they knew that all their prayers were pointless, as the spaceship she was on wasn’t properly equipped for a two-way trip. Their faces bore resentment toward the unreasonable fate that the poor dog had.
And that face filled with resentment was exactly how Arina looked like right now.
Actually, no, I was just bull****ting.
“
Because
 reasons
”
“Elaborate.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m under a pact of secrecy–”
“Elaborate.”
“Um
 The pact–”
“Elaborate.”
“
It was fake, our relationship was a fake one
”
I could never win against her in an argument. Unless I hired a politician with a silver tongue, no way I was going to win against her.
With a great reluctance, I explained everything to her.
How Kazawaguchi-senpai was troubled because of Yudai-senpai’s persistence. This led her to think that if she were to go out with someone else, he would give up on her and she decided that I was the perfect man for the job.
I didn’t mention the deal I made with her in exchange for my service because I didn’t want Arina to find out about it, but the deal made me think
 How did Kazawaguchi-senpai know about Arina’s condition? Me, Akakusa-sensei and Arina’s mom were the one who knew about it and I failed to see that any of us would tell her about it. I haven’t asked her about this yet, but I will do it eventually since this whole affair seemed suspicious even to me.
Arina listened to me quietly without moving a muscle. Just as I thought that everything would end peacefully, she punched me right in my chest. I could feel a few of my broken ribs penetrating through my lungs because of the impact.
“Make sure that Shirona never finds out about this. Think of her feelings a little, will you? All her efforts were defeated by a dumb lie, can you imagine how hurt will she feel?”
“
I’ll do my best
”
“And you should. They might not show their weakness but girls are more fragile than you think.”
“Wait, are you implying that you’re fragile?”
“I am fragile. Fragile and cute to be exact.”
“You might as well tell me that the Yellowstone National Park is in flames and humanity is going to go extinct soon (Yes, yes, you’re cute and fragile).”
“Your soliloquy is leaking out from your mouth.”
She sighed deeply, causing her large chest to shake a little before continuing her words.
“So, you’re going to confront the senpai just now?”
“Yeah. Well, this is all according to Kazawaguchi-senpai’s plan. She’s a sleepyhead but her brain works really well, surprisingly enough.”
“Hmm
”
“Kazawaguchi-senpai will confront him personally, I’m just a middleman between them. My duty as her fake boyfriend will end after that.”
“Hmm
”
“What? You got something to say?”
“Not really.”
“I don’t get you
”
Lately, her murderous smile was starting to mix in with her normal one, so it was getting harder for me to tell what she was thinking.
After that, we parted and I went to buy tomato juice. I took a glance at the deserted bread corner and bit my lip. I ended up as a loser again today, a total failure. I lamented that fact and returned to my classroom.
Sui-kun was a serious person so he didn’t doze off even when class was in session. Obviously he was able to notice and act accordingly when he received a small piece of paper from the person who sat behind him. The small piece of paper had a message written on it, it was one of those things that non-serious students did for pastime during class. Those people were the ones who would sneak around under the teacher’s nose during the class, doing the act of treason and finding pleasure in the act of immorality.
And the serious Sui-kun could relate to that sentiment. The teacher, basked in their nobility and glory, was teaching the class classic literature, something that Sui-kun despised. He always wished for this subject to go away, to disappear, to be reduced to atoms. This irrelevant subject taught the student nothing but the romantic comedy of aristocrats that lived more than a thousand years ago.
‘Romantic comedy’ was a loose term to describe it, everything ranging from slice of life to rather passionate adult love stories were included in it.
[Are you dating Kazawaguchi-senpai? -Ruka]
The sender’s name surprised me. I thought it was Makoto trying to mess with me while killing time but it turned out his girlfriend was the one who sent it. My bad, Makoto, sorry for doubting you.
To be fair, Makoto looked really surprised when Kazawaguchi-senpai appeared before, so I assumed that he had some questions to ask me. But of course, the one who was the most surprised by her action was me. We were supposed to keep this fake relationship a secret and she went ahead and blew it up like that without a care in the world.
Anyway, I couldn’t ignore Ruka’s question, so I messaged her back, ‘I’ll tell you everything later, for now, I have to keep this matter a secret.’
I glared at the blackboard and passed the note over to Ruka.
[Understand. I wish you good luck. -Ruka]
Writing her name in every one of her messages was such a Ruka-like behavior. Anyway, the story wouldn’t be a pleasant one for her to hear. It wasn’t about rewarding Yudai-senpai for all his hard work, rather, I was trying to deny it. It wasn’t a story filled with vigor and motivations, rather, a sad, tragic one. I felt sorry for Kazawaguchi-senpai that she had to go through this, but at the same time, I also felt sorry for Yudai-senpai. His passionate feelings were returned with hostility from his loved one.
Anyway, about Makoto and Ruka’s relationship, I wasn’t sure about how far they had progressed. I knew that they went home together, so I could assume that it went along well, but who knows. After all, I knew nothing about relationships, I wasn’t qualified to judge whether a relationship was going well or not.
After that, I texted Kazawaguchi-senpai that Yudai-senpai would be meeting me in the cafeteria after school. Our final battle was about to begin.
I drank my tomato juice, while tracing the movements of the clock’s hand with my eyes.
Honestly, I didn’t feel good about all this. Sure, it was annoying to be confessed continuously to by someone who I didn’t have feelings for. If it was me, I would feel annoyed too, so I understood where Kazawaguchi-senpai was coming from. But at the same time, trampling over Yudai-senpai’s honest feelings left a bad taste in my mouth. I knew that it couldn’t be helped, but still

I was deceiving him. I was trampling over his feelings with lies and deceit, no way I could feel good about all this.
After school, I went to the cafeteria five minutes before the promised time. Yudai-senpai was already there, and with him, Kazawaguchi-senpai too.
When he saw me, he immediately approached me.
“Why the hell is Kozue here?! I don’t remember telling you to bring her here!”
“My bad.”
“Yudai, don’t blame Sui-kun for this.”
She had her usual sleepy look on her face.
“I was the one who asked him to do this. Anyway, let’s have a little talk.”