CH 9

After that, because it was late at night, Yō dropped Marin off near her house.

He knew that Marin would not like it if he went to her house, so he waited nearby and turned back to his own house after he received a message from her that she had arrived home.

When he got out of the cab near his house, the night was already deepening and a silent space enveloped Yō.

In the midst of this, he passed a familiar face when he was really close to home.

“―Hey.”

As Yō put his hand on the doorknob of the front door, the woman he had just passed called out to him.

Yō was going to ignore her, but she didn’t seem to be going to ignore him.

“What is it?”

Without looking back at the woman, Yō replied with his hand on the doorknob.

“What on earth are you doing?”

“What are you talking about?”

“So, you’re playing dumb.”

Hearing Yō’s answer, the woman scowled unhappily.

“I don’t know what you want to know, if you don’t mind me asking.”

There was no subject in the woman’s words.

He had an idea of what she wanted to know, but as long as it was not definite, Yō would not speak carelessly.

“You know what I mean… Really, you’re a sarcastic man.”

The woman who said this in a dumbfounded manner approached Yō herself.

The full moon was just coming out of the clouds and illuminated her face.

The woman, illuminated by the moonlight, gazed at Yō while lightly brushing her long, beautiful black hair with her right hand.

“That’s why you don’t have any friends―No, you don’t have any friends in the first place, do you, Hazakura-kun?”

“When did you become such a bad girl, going out at this time of night, Nemoto?”

Yō and Kasumi Nemoto sarcasm each other as if to say hello.

If you ask anyone who knows them, “What is the worst combination to have with them?” They’ll be the first two names that come to mind.

Don’t mix them up― that’s how all of their classmates from last year would describe Yō and Kasumi.

That’s how close they are to each other.

“I don’t want you to tell me that I’m out late at night.”

“I don’t mind, it’s not that unusual. The problem is you. If you’re out there alone at this hour, it’s like you’re asking to be attacked.”

Like Marin, Kasumi is considered to be one of the two most beautiful girls in the school.

It is extremely dangerous for such a beautiful girl to be in a place surrounded by darkness at the end of the night.

Yō pointed this out, but Kasumi didn’t seem to pay any attention to it.

“I’ve taken all necessary precautions. But you need to answer my question. What the h*ll are you sticking your neck out like that for?”

When she said that, Kasumi stared at Yō’s face as if she was staring at him.

No, actually, she’s almost glaring.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb, of course it’s about Akimi-san. What, you think you can comfort her right after she’s been dumped and fit into the boyfriend position?”

It seems that Kasumi knows that Yō and Marin have been in contact with each other.

It seemed to create a strange misunderstanding.

“If you know that I was talking to Akimi, then you were following us, right?”

“I don’t need to follow you to know that. Kinoshita… When I was talking to them, I saw you show your face. You immediately hid your face, but you didn’t come out even after Akimi-san turned around in your direction. So I knew right away that you were aiming for her.”

Like Marin, Kasumi is smart and perceptive.

The circumstantial evidence must have been enough for her to imagine Yō’s actions afterwards.

“Sure, I talked to Akimi. But does that mean you can just blame me for it?”

As if to say that it is useless to cover it up, Yō immediately admitted it, and instead asked her back, “Then what about it?”.

In response, Kasumi looked reluctant for a moment, but soon opened her mouth with a calm expression as if nothing had happened.

“I’ve come to give you some advice so that you don’t have to hurt Akimi any more. You will definitely make her unhappy, so please stay out of this.”

She said this in a voice so cold that one could think that she was trying to kill the other party.

In response, Yō snickered.

“Fuuun, you think you could say that, winner-takes-all?”

“I don’t mean that. It’s just that… I’ve unwillingly hurt her. So I don’t want to see her hurt any more than she already is.”

Kasumi and Marin fought over a man, and Kasumi won.

This had hurt the defeated Marin, so Kasumi’s statement that she had hurt him was probably not wrong.

But Yō knew.

As far as other things were concerned, Kasumi was not the kind of person who would be hurt by something like a romantic relationship, where people had no choice but to get hurt.

Kasumi is a person who is able to separate such things.

This is why it was easy for Yō to read the words as having a different meaning.

“You’re on a new path now, aren’t you? Don’t be tied down by the past forever.”

“―!”

Immediately after Yō said that, Kasumi’s expression changed completely.

The expression on her face, which had been pretending to be cool, quickly changed to one of anger.

“You’re…saying…that…?”

The voice he heard was not the cold voice he had heard earlier, but a very low voice with a lot of anger in it.

Looking at her, he can see that Kasumi’s eyes were glaring at Yō with a murderous intent.

“I knew it…”

Seeing Kasumi’s demeanor and eyes, Yō is convinced that the speculation that came to mind when she was talking to Marin was correct.

“Go inside the house now. If someone sees you like this, your new boyfriend will misunderstand you.”

“…”

Even when Yō warned her, Kasumi refused to budge.

She stared at Yō’s face in silence.

“Hey, Kasumi…”

Yō called her by her old name.

And then, Kasumi’s eyes wavered greatly.

“You can hate me all you want. But― are you happy with that? If you’re jealous or if you’ve dragged others into this because you want to take revenge on me, stop it. You can still take it back now.”

After saying that much, Yō turned away from Kasumi and walked into the house.

And then Kasumi, who was staring at Yō spoke up―

“Don’t be stupid…”

―The hatred for Yō increased, and she bit her teeth hard.