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Published at 19th of July 2023 07:11:50 AM


Chapter 70

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Episode 70 – The girl next door knows you are, even though you don’t know yourself.

I showed Miyano-san and the others the voice recorder I had taken out of my pocket.
I had bought it when I went out with senpai.

I had recorded all of our conversations up until now until the time I was brought here.

I had it in my pocket, so some parts might be a little hard to hear, but I had already confirmed beforehand that everything would be fine.

“What?!”
“Tsk.”
“Hey, isn’t this bad?”

All three of them were upset.
It was just as we had planned. It was a little painful and scary, but it was a small price to pay to get rid of this pain.

“Stay out of my life. Then I won’t use this.”
“Hey, what do we do now?”
” …I understand.”

Perhaps convinced, Miyano-san readily accepted my proposal.
I exhaled deeply, relieved.

Thank goodness.
Finally. At last, I could return to my peaceful days.
It was just as Senpai had said.
Holding back was not going to solve anything. I’ll thank him again next time.

“!??”

I was relieved for a moment.

Miyano-san grabbed me, looking for an opening when I took my eyes off of her.
I panicked and desperately resisted.

“Stop it!”
“Shut up! Hey, hold this person back!”

Miyano-san signaled to the other two.
I’m not sure if they looked at each other or not, but they nodded their heads and came toward me.

“Ahhhh ……!!!!”

And in the blink of an eye, the voice recorder in my hand was snatched away.

“Ahahaha! You’re on a roll.”
“Aaah……”

My voice recorder was taken away from me and my mind went blank.
Miyano-san laughed happily with it in her hand.

I hate my own stupidity.
There was no way these girls would have listened to me.

“Really, what should I do with this person?”
“yeah”.
“What are you going to do, Masashi?”
“Hmmm………Ah”
“Oh, you got something in mind?”
“Hey, I’m gonna take her to the gym storage over there.”
“Gymnasium warehouse? What are you doing there?”
“I’m going to give her a little punishment so she won’t be able to do this kind of cheeky stuff again. For example, I’m going to make her look like an embarrassment.”
“I see.”

The three of them looked at me again and smiled wickedly.

I wonder how Mitani-san is doing.
I wondered if she was doing well now. That was all I could think about during class. I hope she is not doing anything reckless.

All I could think of was to use the voice recorder to get the evidence of their harassment. That was all.

In doing so, I also informed Mitani-san of the possibility that she herself would suffer temporarily.
In order to gain something, something must be sacrificed.

Unfortunately, I was painfully aware that this world does not revolve around pretty things.

The bottom line is that she has to accomplish this on her own.
In order to change her lack of self-confidence due to past trauma, she must overcome the person who is currently acting as a barrier.

Of course, if she had refused when I made this proposal, I would have thought of another plan, but she made her own choice.

So, as much as possible, I would like to watch her choice. ……

I wonder if such impatience showed too much on her face.

From the morning, Asagiri, who had been acting strangely since the morning, finally regained her composure and looked at me with concern.

“Even so, you look even duller than you did this morning,”
“Better than this morning’s asagiri, I guess.”
“No, it’s not!”

As soon as I said it back, Asagiri got flustered.
I think she’s getting a bit soft these days. Is it my imagination? In the past, there was more of this kind of …… rebound.

“Asagiri, what’s wrong?”
“……. It’s nothing. ……”

Making a loud noise and attracting attention, Asagiri was warned by Kirihara-sensei and became small in embarrassment.
“I-it’s your fault!! You didn’t explain to me that she was the girl from before!”

Then Asagiri spoke to me, this time in a quiet voice.

“You’re the one who misunderstood, aren’t you?”
“Of course I did, if she’s not your girlfriend and she’s crossing her arms like that!”
“That’s right.”

Kurase told me that too.
In my opinion, I thought it was just my sister playing around with me, but that’s how it is from …… around there.

“So why was Asagiri like that?”
“I-It’s nothing! It’s not because I’m disappointed that you have a girlfriend or anything like that!”
“Heihei.”

I see. I’m sure she’s frustrated that I have a girlfriend.
Well, we weren’t close to begin with.
I’m not sure if it’s jealousy or something else.

“If that’s the case, why don’t you get yourself a boyfriend or something as soon as possible?”
“……”
“Asagiri?”
“………… idiot. Hmph.”
“Haa, ……?”

What is this? After the eyes were glaring at me, she cursed at me one-sidedly.
After that, I tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen to me.

***
“Stop—!!!”
***

And class is about to end. I could see the future again.
The view was clear, and I knew who was where.

“Behind the gym ……?”

Mitani-san was surrounded by those three girls, and they had taken her voice recorder away from her.
And they were about to take her somewhere as it was.

…… Apparently, in the future as I see it, her act of courage did not bear fruit.

The time was already 12
It was easy to predict that it was during the lunch break.

I began to sweat.
If she was in danger because of my instigation, it was my responsibility to clean up her mess.

It would be easy to go ahead and help her.

I’m not sure if this is really the right thing to do. ……

I can’t stop thinking about that.

She chose to go down a difficult path on her own. She stood alone against her adversary.
I wonder if her courage will be wasted by my intruding.

It was better than putting her in danger. Of course I knew that.

I don’t want to pretend to be something I’m not anymore.

How can I really save her after she spewed those words?
Maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t stirred things up so badly.

The more I think about it, the more various things are going through my mind.
It was the most irresponsible thing I could have done after proposing the idea myself.
I may have known it, but I didn’t know anything about myself.

I don’t know if the path I’ve taken is really the right one. That’s why I question the choice I gave her.

─ ─ Brother ……!

“!!”

I remembered something bad again.
My head hurts.
Is what I’m doing meddling? Or is it just self-satisfaction? What if it made her unhappy?
I fell into intense self-loathing. I don’t have time to be depressed like that.

I was the same as her, bound by the events of the past.

“Hey, you don’t look so good. Are you okay?”

Asagiri was worried about me again.

“Cause I look so dull.”
“That’s not what I’m saying! You look pale! You need to go to the infirmary immediately”
“Don’t worry. Class will be over soon.”
“……”

Asagiri looked a little like she was about to cry.
I don’t know why she looked like that.

I felt bad and asked Asagiri a question.

“Hey, do you think I’m meddlesome?”
“What’s that ……?”

Asagiri replied angrily, as if the question was out of place.

“That’s okay. I want you to tell me.”
“You meddle…….”
” I guess you’re right.”

Somehow, I feel like I wanted Asagiri to deny it. I changed Asagiri’s future, but I can’t help but feel that it was just another form of self-satisfaction.

“But…”
“……?”
“I think the meddling of Arase is umm…… that …….”

Asagiri, who continued to speak, was somewhat fidgety, as if she was having difficulty saying it.

“I like.”
“……!”
“I don’t know what’s bothering you, but why don’t you just be Arase? Because that’s what saved me. I think I’ve told you before, but I think it’s very ……Arase to be so half-hearted.”

I felt my vision clear up with the words of Asagiri

“Hey, you’re in class there. If you’re going to be an adolescent, do it after class.”

……This is ruined by Kirihara-sensei.

Seeing the sad look on Arase’s face made my heart ache.
That had happened before. Perhaps he was remembering the past.

The manager told me about Arase’s past.

Unlike mine, it was not something I could touch lightly.
But when I saw his face like that, I couldn’t leave it alone.

More than anything, I fell in love with him.
Someday, I want to save Arase.

Just like I was saved.

When Arase heard what I had to say, his face turned from the gloomy look he had earlier to a somewhat cheerful one.

In the end, I don’t even know what was bothering him, and the teacher’s strange words made it go unnoticed, but he is probably fine now.

When the chime rang and class ended, he left the classroom at once.

“Hey, Yuuri-chan. Where’s Ito-kun?”
“Well? Isn’t he meddling in someone else’s business again?”
“Hee……?”

I hope I was able to help Arase a little.
When he comes back, I’ll have to ask him to do me a favor or two. Good luck Arase





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