CH 17

Monday. I went to school, and for some reason, the class, or rather the whole school, was noisy.

When I walked down the hallway, everyone turned to me at least once.

And their looks didn’t seem to be very friendly.

When I entered the classroom, the first thing they did was to ask me questions.

“Hey, Yuuki ! Are you dating Nakano senpai?”

“Huh?”

“I can’t say it out loud, but a picture of you and Nakano senpai walking hand in hand was uploaded on the school’s SNS.”

“Huh….., but we’re not even dating, okay?”

“Then why were you holding hands?”

“Well, to take her home?”

[[[To take her home?]]]

“You’re so noisy… Can I go now? I need to get ready soon.”

“…..Okay. But be prepared for recess.”

What should I be prepared for? I didn’t want to think about it too much.

Then, among the crowd, I caught one person’s gaze. It was Kagurazaka san. When our eyes met, Kagurazaka san was muttering something.

I had no idea what she was trying to say, so I slipped out of the crowd, and headed for my seat.

☆ ☆ ☆ 

In the morning, I was mentally exhausted from being questioned during breaks.

Once an upperclassman (a second year student by the looks of his uniform) almost beat me up, but I didn’t want to get hurt, so I explained to him about the event on Saturday, just in case.

I was annoyed that Ishizaki and Segawa, who were just grinning at me without saying anything. If they had said something right away, it wouldn’t have been such a hassle.

If I got hurt again, my sister would be a pain in the ass.

It was lunchtime and I had come to the rooftop. However, Natsuki wasn’t there today, just my sister.

I wondered if something had happened. Was it about that picture?

I thought so and went to look for Natsuki with my sister.

☆☆☆

But Natsuki was nowhere to be found in the school building. Natsuki seemed to have come to school today, but no one knew where she had gone.

The only place we hadn’t looked for her yet was behind the school building and in the schoolyard, so we decided to go there to look for her.

When we went to the back of the school building, we heard someone talking.

That person was Natsuki, and the other sounded like a man.

“Hey, Natsuki.”

“Don’t call me by my first name.”

I was startled by that cold voice.

“Who’s the man in the picture?”

“Whoever he is, it doesn’t matter. It’s none of your business.”

When I looked at the man, I noticed that he was the second year senior who had come to my classroom this morning.

He seemed to be talking about me. I might’ve caused trouble for Natsuki. But, hm, it’s because of Natsuki, isn’t it?

By the way, my sister didn’t seem to know what was going on.

“Of it is. You’re going to be my woman.”

“There’s no way I’m going to become yours !”

“Whoa, so scary. So you’re okay with this? No matter what happens to that kid?”

“Hey, what are you going to do to Yuuki kun? I won’t forgive you if you do something to him.”

“Hm, all you have to do is to listen to me.”

She seems to be involved with a terrible person.  I didn’t want her to be troubled because of me. …..So I sent a message to Natsuki.

“…? From who?”

“Hey, that’s not important right now.”

“…!”

Oh, she seems to have seen the message. She’s looking around relentlessly.

“…Okay.”

“All right, then be mi-“

“I won’t listen to you.”

“So you’re okay with whatever happens to the kid? Hey.”

“….Tsk, yeah.”

“Hahaha ! Poor kid ! ….Well, whatever. Remember this, okay?”

Saying that, goes off somewhere.

By the way, I told Natsuki.

[Don’t worry about me. Just let him go away.]

I sent the message. I’m glad she understood what I meant right away.

I stopped hiding when I saw that the guy had gone.

“Are you alright? Who’s that guy?

“Um, I’m sorry. I got you into a lot of trouble.”

“Oh, no, no, it’s fine.”

“Um, can you explain to me what’s going on?”

Since my sister didn’t seem to know anything about it, I explained it to her from scratch.

“Lovers’ connection with Yuuki. lovers’ connection with Yuuki? …….Lovers’ connection.”

“Ugh… Um, Shiori senpai?”

She seemed to be concerned about something else, anyway, I brought my sister back to her senses and resumed our conversation.

“Um, that guy is called Sakamoto Hayato and he’s a member of the soccer team and a second year senior. He has a nice face, but there are no good rumors about him at all, and some first-year students are already in trouble because of him.”

“Hmm. Does that senior have something to do with you, Natsuki?”

“I’ve been rejecting him for a while now, because he keeps asking me to go out with him…… I hate people like him.”

“So that’s what it’s about. And then, he saw that picture and decided to eliminate me as an obstacle to his relationship.”

“Um, I’m sorry, it’s my fault.”

“Like I said, it’s fine. I don’t really feel anything about it right now. No matter what that senior does to me, I won’t feel anything.”

“Damn…”

I think my sister just said something, but it was probably my imagination.

……I don’t know the name of the thing I can’t feel. So I don’t really think about it.

“Well, I don’t like getting hurt, and I don’t want to trouble Natsuki, Nee chan, and my friends. Let’s think of some way to deal with it.

“….Yeah. You’re right…”

“Then, let’s go to the family restaurant where I work after school today. I don’t think many students from our school go there.”

“I guess so. Until then, be careful, Yuuki.”

“Yeah. I know, Nee chan.”

“See you after school.”

“Yeah. You shouldn’t worry too much about it, Natsuki. We’re friends, right? It’s okay to bother each other.”

“Yeah… Okay, got it.”

“See you after school.”

With that we parted and went back to class.

I missed my lunch and my stomach was rumbling throughout the rest of the class, because of that, I was embarrassed.