V2C32

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Chapter 3 – First Year High School\nVolume 2\n<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\n\n

“… Why are… you…”\n \n

He took a step or two backward. The book that Fujisaki and I picked out crumbled in his hands as well. I wonder what Fujisaki would think if she saw this. Fujisaki is a kind person. Maybe she would feel sorry for me.\n

I put the book down on Fujisaki’s desk.\n

In front of me, I saw a distorted face that was not typical of a young man. There was even sweat on his forehead.\n \n

“Hey, say something, oi!”\n \n

Ando shouted in disarray, but I only returned his glare.\n

Ando must be wondering why I’m here. I’m not supposed to be in this classroom. I’m from a different class. There was no way I could have suddenly walked into the classroom after school.\n \n

“….What is it?”\n \n

Ando’s voice trembled as if he sensed my unsettling atmosphere.\n

The sunset lingered outside the window. The reddish-orange light flickered in the corner of my eyes.\n

I tried to take a deep breath.\n

The beating of my heart. The bright red color spreads in my brain. My vision appears to be bent and jumbled.\n

I couldn’t stop the anger.\n

You shouldn’t show too much emotion. My heart advised me. The old me from when I was a delinquent was about to jump out at him. The me that used to follow my emotions and do whatever I wanted without knowing that it would cause trouble to others was about to resurface. That’s no good. That’s why I failed in the past. I thought I had decided to stay quiet after entering high school. Despite this thought, my other self spoke to me. I should never forgive this guy in front of me. He is the source of Fujisaki’s pain. If I don’t punish him, even if it means warping my resolve or resorting to violence, there is always the possibility that he will harm Fujisaki again. Once I surrender myself to this anger, I would forget everything about the past, and even if I had to throw everything away, I would harden my fists, and I would beat up this ugly man as if he was a different person than when he was playing tennis. And I would beat him up so one-sidedly that it couldn’t even be called a fight, and I would crush his heart so that he would never feel like doing anything again–\n

I thought about it for a while, and then it hit me.\n

The flicker in my vision subsided. The red color that had been dominating my brain receded.\n

I’m okay. I’m fine. My emotions subsided as if they had never happened before.\n \n

“…What was the purpose of this?”\n \n

I asked that question extremely calmly. Ando probably hasn’t noticed any change in me.\n \n

“……”\n

“You may think you’ve been hiding it, but I know all about it. I’ve seen you harassing her like this a few times.”\n \n

This was a lie. I knew better than to tell them what Fujisaki had told me.\n \n

“Naturally, I took pictures of some of them. You know, I can expose as much of this stuff as I want if I wanted to.”\n \n

It was all a lie, but in this state, he would have to believe it. Ando’s face became more and more distorted.\n \n

“…… Why ……?”\n \n

His voice was trembling.\n \n

“… Why was I exposed…. Don’t mess with me… Damn… Damn… Damn…!”\n \n

I took a step forward. That was all I did, and Ando overreacted.\n \n

“Stop, stop it, I’ll do anything, okay? Don’t say a word about this to anyone.”\n

“……”\n \n

Even without violence, I can deal with these small fries in any way I want.\n \n

I said,\n

“Answer the question. Why did you do this?”\n \n

Ando looked away awkwardly. He seemed to be wondering whether he should say it or not. Or maybe he was trying to make up a reason to lie about it.\n

I decided to tell him what I thought, as I felt that I was getting nowhere.\n \n

“You wanted her to keep quiet about the day you confessed… didn’t you?”\n \n

He got wide-eyed. I knew I had hit the nail on the head.\n

I continued.\n \n

“There was a guy who happened to be watching where Fujisaki was being confessed to, you see. Because he thought nobody would believe him, he didn’t tell anyone. But still, he told me. At first, it was a normal confession, only to be rejected. Up to that point, it was just as the rumors say.”\n\n

This is what Fujisaki told me. From the moment I heard the contents, I had some idea of the motive.\n \n

“But then came the problem. You were upset that you were rejected, and asked her sharply, ‘Why?’. When Fujisaki replied, ‘Because I don’t like you ’, you became even more upset, and this time you grabbed her arm and shouted something incomprehensible like ‘That’s strange ’. You tried to force yourself on her by telling her how good and attractive you are….”\n

“Stop it!”\n \n

Ando is breathing hard. This is where it all began. It makes sense that Fujisaki was not in good spirits after his confession.\n \n

“You regretted it, didn’t you?　Up until then, you’ve been passing yourself off as a fresh, good-looking guy, but you were so surprised to be rejected that you revealed your shitty nature. So you figured you had to somehow keep her from talking about it.”\n

“Shut up…”\n

“You knew that she would realize that you were the one harassing her. You were harassing Fujisaki to keep her in check. Maybe you even told Fujisaki the first time you harassed her something like  ‘You know what would happen if you speak to anyone about it’ “\n

“Shut your mouth!”\n \n

He didn’t like being called out on it. But it didn’t matter.\n \n

“Actually, you are a scumbag, right? I wonder what the other guys would think once they realize it. I don’t know what kind of lies you’ve been feeding them, but I’m sure even the tennis team would be shocked. “\n \n

He was aware of this, and that’s why he was trying so hard to hide it.\n \n

“You might get bullied, you know. The girls will hate you so much, you might not be able to get a girlfriend in high school. No one will take you seriously at the tennis club, and you might have to drop out. If you’re such a jerk, it’s no wonder either.”\n \n

I grabbed Ando by the collar and pulled him closer. Then I said,\n \n

“If you want me to keep quiet about this, don’t ever dare to harass Fujisaki again. If you continue to do so, I will not be responsible for what is gonna happen to you.”\n \n

Ando, cornered against the wall, nodded his head, his body trembling. Tears were welling up in his eyes.\n \n

“And I’ll never forgive you. Remember that.”\n \n

As I took my hand away from his collar, Ando wobbled back.\n \n

“…ha, haha”\n \n

Then there was laughter. He must be so delirious.\n

Ando walked out of the classroom, leaving his racket case behind.\n

The door slammed shut with a loud bang.\n \n

I let out a big breath.\n

–With this, it’s fine.\n

It might be lenient. But I couldn’t bring myself to do more than that.\n

But then again, a scum like him would probably run himself ragged shortly.\n \n

I looked back.\n

The classroom was silent as if it had never been quiet before. The air was so calm that it was hard to believe that some gruesome harassment had been going on. There was a broken book near Fujisaki’s desk, but other than that, it was just a normal classroom.\n

I returned to the vicinity of Fujisaki’s desk and picked up the scattered pieces of paper.\n

I wanted to hide that the book had been torn to pieces, though she might find out about it sooner or later. I just want to tell Fujisaki the result that it was solved.\n

I gathered up most of the pieces of paper and walked to the front of the classroom to throw them in the trash.\n \n

Clang!\n \n

I heard a sound.\n

–Eh?\n

I froze, holding the piece of paper in my hand.\n \n

At the door on the opposite side of the room from where Ando had left.\n

There was Fujisaki. She turned her body toward me with her head down.\n \n

“……”\n \n

Fujisaki was silent.\n

The light from the window cast long shadows on her feet, and Fujisaki’s expression was obscured by her hair. However, I could immediately tell that her mood was different from usual.\n

I was getting impatient.\n

Why is she here? Did she anticipate his actions and head for the classroom as soon as the club activities were over, just like me? Otherwise, there would be no reason to come here.\n

Besides, Fujisaki’s behavior was strange. Normally, she wouldn’t be so quiet.\n \n

–Don’t tell me, had she been listening to us the whole time?\n \n

Just as that thought crossed my mind, Fujisaki’s mouth opened.\n\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\nTN: Wow… That guy is deranged…\n\n

<figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><figcaption>IMPATIENT MTL READER</figcaption></figure>\n<hr class="wp-block-separator is-style-wide">\n\n

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