After Distancing Myself From the Childhood Friend Couple Who Looked Down on Me, I Started Interacting With a Small Animal-Like Beautiful Girl - Chapter 45

[Daiki’s Side]

I couldn’t forgive it.

The thought of dragging myself to school every day while feeling this miserable was unbearable. That wasn’t the kind of life I wanted to live.

The frustration, the anxiety, the fear of what would happen to me. It all pounded at my head like nails being driven in. Even after coming home, the pain wouldn’t leave me.

I had to deal with the root of it all. I had to fix it.

I forgot what Serika warned me about.

Luckily, Yukito still hadn’t blocked my LINE account completely. The first message I sent actually showed as read. But nothing after that got opened. Then I knew he’d blocked me again.

At that point, the only choice left was to confront him directly. Yukito always passed by my house on his way home, so I decided to wait for him there. I was still in my uniform without even changing clothes as I waited more than an hour until that timid face finally appeared.

I had planned to scare him a little. Just enough to make sure he’d behave.

Lately, he’d started to push back against me. The way he carried himself was like he thought he was above me. I had to break that down.

Yukito wasn’t the type to really change. If I spoke harshly enough, he’d back down. That’s how it always worked.

Then everything would return to normal. He’d go back to being that pathetic, helpless kid who only listened to my words. And standing next to him, I’d once again be the one people admired, the one everyone envied.

–––That was how it was supposed to be.

“W–Wait, wait, Yukito. Hey, come on…!”

But his back just kept moving farther away.

My legs felt glued to the ground, and the arm I reached out cut through empty air.

In moments, his figure melted into the darkness.

The arm I’d held out fell limp at my side.

No. No, no, no. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

As we argued, everything I’d bottled up toward him exploded.

I hated it. The blank look on his face when people praised him at karaoke. His defiance when he dared to talk back to me.

But more than anything, I hated his coldness. The flat tone in his voice, the emotionless look in his eyes. It was colder than anything I’d endured yesterday and colder than today.

–––I should’ve done this a long time ago.

It felt like a knife had been driven deep into my chest.

The pain was so sharp I couldn’t even speak properly. I dropped to my knees, the impact barely registering because of the agony tearing through my chest.

No matter how much I obsessed over what others thought, Yukito never cared about that.

No matter how hard I tried to look good, Yukito simply accepted everything as it was. The only one who ever overthought it all was me.

And now, he walked away without even looking back.

“…Why?”

The broken word fell onto the cold ground.

After all the years we’d been together as childhood friends, he had never carried the same insecurities I did. In the end, people always drifted toward him.

Why was it always Yukito who left me behind?

“–––Ah.”

I covered my mouth with one hand and felt my trembling fingers press into my skin.

…It hit me. No–––I have known it for a while but couldn’t put a name to it until now.

Maybe ever since middle school, or even earlier.

I’d always been afraid of being left behind by Yukito.

We were supposed to be side by side, but bit by bit, he drifted away. That repeating pattern terrified me. I’d been secretly panicking that one day Yukito would get close to someone else, that our irreplaceable childhood-friend bond would be surpassed.

At the same time, the dark feelings I had toward him kept growing. I told myself I was better than him. I have a better face, better grades, and am better at sports, so how could I end up inferior to someone who didn’t stand out at all?

–––If you hated me that much, you should’ve just said so.

Yukito’s words looped in my head again.

I hated him. I resented him.

I was furious and sick with jealousy, but I’d never once said “I hate you” to his face.

I convinced myself I was protecting my place, using him to feel superior.

If I kept Yukito beside me as someone clumsy and useless, my own presence would shine brighter.

If I could erase his confidence so that he thought he had no friends and no worth, he’d never leave me. After all, who knew Yukito better than his childhood friend?

Looking back now, I see I used that method because keeping him close was everything to me. I learned to put on faces for everyone, always testing the room. Even toward Serika, I only showed the good parts. So very few people ever truly accepted me. With Yukito, who’d known me since we were kids. I could finally be natural.

The one person I could almost call a true friend had turned his back and walked away.

“…Ah.”

I pulled myself up slowly and staggered back into the house. Mom had gone shopping, and Dad was still at work. The house was empty. The quiet felt painfully intense as I headed for my room. I didn’t care that my uniform wrinkled. I dove under the covers and was hit by a freezing chill as if I’d been thrown into a blizzard.

I huddled under the blanket as I hugged my shaking body. The loneliness of being utterly alone squeezed my chest until I could barely breathe. The pounding headache returned like nails driven into my skull. I clutched at my hair as though I could rip the pain out.

Memories of everything I’d done flashed vividly through my mind. I’d never bothered to look back at my actions before. That was the abnormal part. Now fear took over me completely.

“Hah… hah… hah…”

Tears spilled from the corners of my wide-open eyes, streaking down my cheeks before soaking into the blanket and sheets wrapped around me.

–––You don’t have the right to hurt Yuki, nor do you have the qualifications to become friends with him again.

Serika’s words came rushing back, knocking the breath out of me.

And then it finally hit me.

Everything was all too late.

“…A, ahh. Ugh, aaaaaahhh….!!”

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Author’s Note

This is the author.

Thank you so much for all your thoughts and support.

I’ve hardly ever written this kind of light novel–style story before, so it still surprises me that I’ve managed to keep it going this far.

There were times when things didn’t progress as I’d hoped, and I made some bold changes along the way.

Even so, I’m truly grateful to everyone who stuck with me.

As for “After Distancing Myself From the Childhood Friend Couple Who Looked Down on Me, I Started Interacting With a Small Animal-Like Beautiful Girl,” there are only two chapters left.

I’d be happy if you could stay with Yukito, Ino, and the others until the very end of their story.