Fallen from the Top Group Due to Cheating and False Accusations. The Only One Who Stood by Me Was My Little Sister’s Best Friend, Who Had Always Adored Me.

Chapter 3: NTR.

The sight felt like a blade twisting deep into my gut. My eyes burned with raw pain.

There was no mistaking it. The girl walking hand-in-hand with my best friend Kayama was none other than my girlfriend, Karen.

The two of them didn’t even notice me. Laughing happily together, they shared a single umbrella and continued deeper into the district. Even though their route home should have been in the direction I was standing, they walked the opposite way.

Karen’s slender, graceful figure. Her beautiful light-brown hair, long enough to reach her waist and silky enough to run fingers through, was now being casually stroked by Kayama’s familiar hand as he draped his arm around her shoulder.

Far from showing any sign of discomfort, Karen accepted his touch with the same gentle, affectionate smile she had once shown only to me.

I told myself it was a dream. I prayed it was a dream. But the merciless cold of the rain hammering against my body brutally denied that hope. This was undeniably reality.

Eventually, their footsteps stopped in front of a single building. My own feet began to move on their own. It was a love hotel with no night staff on duty.

Without the slightest hesitation, the two of them drew close and prepared to enter. That was when I finally let out a raw shout.

“Hey…!”

“Eh—”

Karen turned around immediately upon noticing the disturbance, her mouth falling open in shock. In contrast, Kayama turned more slowly, his expression clearly saying don’t get in our way.

“Arata… this isn’t what it looks like—”

I hurled my umbrella aside and closed the distance in an instant. I lunged at them with enough force to throw a punch, reaching for Karen’s slender arm before either could speak.

“Explain yourselves! What the hell is this—?!”

Before I could finish shouting, a heavy impact slammed into my nose. The next thing I knew, my body was floating through the air. By the time I realized Kayama had punched me, I was already crashing brutally onto the concrete.

I couldn’t breathe. The pain was suffocating.

“Hey. Don’t you dare touch Karen without my permission, Arata. I won’t allow it—even if you are my best friend.”

Kayama looked down at me with cold eyes, then mercilessly swung his leg and kicked me with full force. A pain I had never experienced before shot through my thigh.

The eyes of passersby all turned toward us at once. At the same time, Kayama roughly yanked the frozen Karen toward himself.

I still couldn’t draw a proper breath, but I forced the words out from the pit of my stomach.

“Don’t give me that crap, Kayama… Why the hell should I have to take orders from my girlfriend’s cheating partner…? Give me a proper explanation, Karen…!”

“Huh? Cheating partner? Are you stupid? That’s exactly why this reality right in front of you is the truth. And you’re supposed to be the next ace of the soccer club?”

What the hell was he saying?

He was the one who had supported my relationship with Karen more than anyone else.

That was why I had trusted him more than anyone.

As I glared at him desperately, Kayama let out an exasperated sigh.

“You still don’t get it, you violent bastard? Sure, at first I genuinely cheered for my best friend and his childhood friend’s romance. But then I heard you’ve been relentlessly pressuring Karen for sex and resorting to DV whenever she refused. I couldn’t believe my ears.”

Huh? Sex? DV? Those words should have been mine to say in disbelief. Karen and I had been dating for a full year, yet we had never once gone that far. This was complete nonsense.

“That’s a ridiculous false accusation. Who would believe such made-up bullshit—”

“Of course they’ll believe it. Karen herself is the one saying it. Honestly, even I didn’t want to believe it until now. But it’s only natural to respect the victim’s voice. And when you grabbed her arm so violently just now, it became conviction. That’s clearly how you always act.”

“Hey, Karen… I don’t know what kind of joke this is, but I have no idea what’s going on. If I unconsciously hurt you without realizing it, I’ll apologize. So please, just tell me the truth. Otherwise, I’m going to get seriously angry, and tomorrow I’ll tell everyone at school what happened today.”

It might have sounded like a threat, but there was no reasoning with Kayama right now. Besides, since everyone at school had always praised us as the perfect couple, once this became public, the outcome would be obvious. Anyone close to us knew I would never commit DV.

“Aren’t you still misunderstanding something?”

“What…?”

“I’ve been slowly spreading the current situation to people around us since a little before we entered second year. Teachers too. I couldn’t move until I had decisive evidence, but look—”

Kayama thrust his smartphone forward triumphantly. On the screen was a video of the exact moment I had grabbed Karen’s arm in anger, followed by Kayama stepping in and punching me.

If anyone else saw this, I would undoubtedly be seen as the villain. It was obvious this was a perfectly timed clip that could never have been captured without prior preparation.

“You… set me up…”

“Yeah, yeah. No one’s going to believe anything a violent bastard like you says.”

“Um, Kayama-kun… I didn’t hear you were going this far. Was today’s date for this…?”

Karen, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke up.

“Huh? Karen, are you seriously taking this guy’s side now? You were the one who said a pure, middle-school-minded guy like him wasn’t enough and offered your virginity to me. That’s why I helped you—because I was already sick of his leader-like attitude and the way he bossed the group around.”

“I don’t need half-hearted women,” Kayama spat, shoving Karen aside so she stood exactly between him and me, forcing her to make a choice.

“So choose. I won’t be troubled even if you’re not around. But if you’re going to trample on my goodwill after I cooperated out of kindness, then from now on your school life will end up as cold as this DV guy’s (provisional). Be prepared for that.”

Tears welled in Karen’s eyes as she desperately grabbed Kayama’s arm with both hands.

“No! I choose Kayama-kun… I want Kayama-kun. My body… can’t be satisfied by any man other than Kayama-kun anymore…!”

My vision blurred.

Something inside me snapped with a clear crack.

“Whatever. Here, I’ll record it properly as evidence. I need to send it to this guy later anyway, and upload it to SNS too.”

As Kayama restarted the phone’s camera, his face no longer bore any trace of the best friend I once knew.

When had it started? Just how long had he hated me? Even as I repeated those pointless questions over and over in my mind, I swallowed the large amount of blood filling my mouth and forced out a faint voice.

“Please… stop…”

“Rindou Arata-kun. I can no longer endure your violence. If you don’t want me to report this to the school and the police, never approach me again.”

And so, on the very day of our one-year anniversary, I lost both my beloved childhood friend and the best friend I had trusted more than anyone else—at the same time.