CH 28

As the days went by, it cornered him more and more. 

It was a feeling of unease that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, an indescribable discomfort, and an overwhelming sense of anxiety that drained him emotionally.

(…Shirayuki)

For Yosuke, Shirayuki was everything.

He had been watching her for a long time and he was certainly closer to her than anyone else, to the point that he would dream of spending sweet, honey-like times with her over and over again… Yosuke held a faint affection for Shirayuki.

“It’ll be fine. After all, I’m the only boy she’s close to.”

He couldn’t help but think of it as an advantage, even though he knew it was nothing but his own vain boasting. That’s why Yosuke always remained calm. 

But recently, a threat appeared before him.

Arashi Gundo, a high school student whose appearance was too ugly for his age due to his extreme obesity… a man who couldn’t match Shirayuki in any way. Recently, he had been getting close to Shirayuki.

“… damn it.”

Yosuke held his head, wondering what was happening.

He knew about Arashi, but he had never heard anything good about him. On the contrary, all he had heard were things that belittled or ridiculed him.

If that were all, he might have felt sorry for him, but Yosuke knew that Arashi had caused trouble for Shirayuki in the past, so he felt disgusted by him… However, he didn’t care much about him, as he knew that Shirayuki didn’t have the slightest bit of interest in him.

“Why… why did they suddenly become so close…?”

Yosuke saw it —the sight of the two of them jogging together happily. 

Arashi was jiggling his unsightly belly fat as he ran, clearly in the midst of a diet, and he couldn’t even understand why Shirayuki was hanging out with him. 

Instead, he kept repeating insults about Arashi in his head, wondering why Shirayuki would associate herself with someone like that.

“Recently, Shirayuki hasn’t been hanging out with me much… could it be that she’s been meeting up with that guy on the weekends? No, that couldn’t be it… but…”

As the summer term had started, Shirayuki, a beauty, blended in among the girls who were wearing a slightly more revealing school uniform. 

Although everyone longed for her, Yosuke knew he should have been the closest to her. So why was that fat guy there, he cursed.

“He doesn’t belong in this class. He doesn’t have any friends… He’s not good looking either. Everything is wrong with him, so why is someone like that garbage hanging out with Shirayuki?”

He didn’t know it. 

He kept spewing the lowest of insults, driven by jealousy, relying only on his previous position… he didn’t notice any of it. And so, Yosuke continued to spit out ugly words again today.

“…He doesn’t have to say that much though?”

He didn’t even realize that he was being watched.

▼▽

“He’s scared…”

It’s already the weekend, and it’s Friday afternoon. 

Since Shirayuki had something to do today and couldn’t spend time with me after school, I was thinking of just going to the rooftop and spacing out. 

As I headed there, I heard murmurs from Yosuke, who was muttering curses that sounded directed towards me.

“But…huh…huhuhu!”

I slapped both of my cheeks, realizing that the creepy laugh just now was due to the sense of superiority I felt when I saw Yosuke jealous. 

Yosuke didn’t know anything, only me, Shirayuki, and Hisui knew everything…and I felt an immense sense of superiority that he couldn’t stand next to Shirayuki as the protagonist anymore.

“…But it’s better to feel like this than to think it was my fault, right?”

Probably, this feeling will never disappear. 

I feel good and excited about the current situation, but I have no intention of insulting Yosuke face to face or spouting abuses behind his back.

“Well, I guess I’d better go home.”

I decided to leave because there was nothing more I could do now that there was someone ahead of me on the rooftop.

After packing my things and leaving school, I went straight to the apartment without any detours, changed into my workout clothes, and left home again

“Haah… Haah!”

The temperature was getting higher and higher as summer approached.

(I feel like… I have to build up my stamina for some reason.)

“Build up your stamina.” Those words rained down on me like a revelation. While feeling lonely and unsatisfied without Shirayuki next to me, I continued running, sweating a considerable amount.

Then, I had an unexpected encounter.

“Geh…!”

Walking in front of me were my brother and Kana.

They looked so happy together and it was heartwarming to see them. I was going to pass by without saying anything, but I was stopped.

“Wait a minute, Arashi.”

“Yoshi-nii? Why are you stopping this guy?”

“Yeah, why are you stopping me?”

Regardless of whether I had Arashi’s memories, he was still a stranger to me, so it was easy to stay calm and go along with Kana’s words like this.

“Hey, weren’t you with a girl before? What’s your relationship with her?”

“…”

As expected, when he asked me about that time, I clicked my tongue.

I thought about ignoring it because there was nothing to say about Shirayuki in particular, but if I ignored it, it would only make things more difficult, considering Arashi’s memories of them.

“She’s a friend. We’re pretty close.”

“Fatso with a girl? Hey, Yoshi-nii, you sure you’re not mistaken about something?”

Kana, who knew nothing, said various things, but my brother just nodded briefly.

I was a little confused about his reaction, which was different from what I had expected, but I didn’t say anything more.

Just as Kana was about to say something else, my brother rebuked her.

“That’s enough, Kana. It’s none of our business.”

“But I don’t like how he’s having fun! He’s just garbage who’s been abandoned by his family, so we don’t need to hold back, right?”

This kid… I couldn’t help but think she was an irredeemable brat.

Well, I didn’t really care about being told various things like this, but as for me, I was curious about how the older brother was really feeling.

(What is it? Sure I can feel disgust in my brother’s eyes towards me… but more than that I feel like he’s warning me about something)

In the end, my brother took Kana away while she kept complaining about this and that.

As I was thinking that it didn’t really matter, I ran down a different path from them.

And so, having met the older brother and Kana that way, the next day came safely.

“…. gulp.”

I gulped hard enough to make a sound.

Right in front of me was a huge house… no, it was almost a mansion, it was such a splendid house.

I pressed the doorbell and Shirayuki appeared on the other side of the gate when the door opened.

“Good morning, Touma-kun. Please come inside.”

“… Good morning Shirayuki.”

And so, I finally arrived at their house, which was always referred to as the “House of Captivity” in every game, anime, and manga.

“Come,” Shirayuki said, leading me inside.

Although it wasn’t my first time seeing the house where they lived, everything except for the living room and bedroom felt new.

The place Shirayuki brought me was the living room where Hisui was waiting… To be honest, I couldn’t forget the words Shirayuki had told me until I arrived here.

“I hope you’re prepared. As Mom seems to be impatient for a while.”

As I opened the door with a click, and stepped into the living room, a sweet smell that made my brain go numb tickled my nostrils, and even if I wasn’t aware of it, I couldn’t help feeling the scent of a woman that filled this room.

“Good morning and —welcome home, Touma-kun.”

“Uh…”

I hadn’t seen her for about a week.

But she was so bewitching and terrifying that I wondered if this woman was the Hisui I had met before.