I Got Cheated On, so I Thought I’d Cheat Back and Went to a Group Date, I Ran Into a Classmate Who Used to Boss Me Around and Now We’re Living Together - Chapter 37

Summer vacation had just begun.

Ever since Rogiku-san told us that Iijima had gotten into an accident and was now in the hospital. Nene-san had been able to relax again these past few days.

“Hm-hmm~♪”

That morning, too, she looked to be in a good mood. Maybe it was also because her university had gone on summer break.

“Hey, today we’re going to meet Mishiro-san, right?”

“Yeah. I managed to get in touch with her.”

That’s right. We had succeeded in contacting Mishiro, a rookie manga artist who might have been suffering from Iijima’s abuse.

On a whim, I sent her a DM [If you’re being harassed by Iijima Ikuo, would you like to speak up? I’ll support you.] And she actually replied.

If the harassment was real, I wanted to help her.

If the harassment was real, I wanted Iijima to be punished.

With those thoughts on my shoulders, I headed out to the family restaurant in Tokyo where we had arranged to meet.

“Nene-san could’ve stayed home and relaxed.”

“No way I could do that.”

She answered as we sat side by side on the train.

“I want to meet her as a fellow victim of Iijima… And besides.”

“…Besides?”

“B-Besides, I can’t just let you go meet another girl all by yourself…”

Her cheeks turned red as she said it.

I was beginning to understand what that feeling of hers really was.

…Of course, I couldn’t be sure. But really, no girl would ever do that kind of thing for a guy she didn’t like at all.

Then again, what about Umi? Could it be the same with her too…?

She had the excuse of manga research…

So her true feelings were unclear.

But back in high school, I did help her out once.

So maybe… it wouldn’t be strange if she felt that way too.

Thinking about all that, I soon found myself at our stop.

We walked to the nearby family restaurant, and there we finally met up with Mishiro-san.

“N-nice to meet you. Thank you for today.”

Mishiro-san was a half-Japanese girl with blonde hair, and she looked a little nervous. Her pen name, Mishiro, was actually her real name (though in kana).

She was our age too, so it felt easier to talk.

“So, it’s true that you were harassed by Iijima?”

“Yes…”

As the conversation went on, Mishiro-san nodded at that question.

“He kept saying things that he could put my manuscript into the serialization meeting… but only if I sleep with him over and over.”

“Gross… that’s both harassment and sexual harassment rolled together…”

Nene-san’s face twisted with disgust.

“…Of course, I told him no every single time. But then he said things like… Then I’ll probably just end up forgotten forever…”

What a bastard…

“…It was so unfair that I thought about going to talk with someone else in the editorial department. But then he threatened me and said that if I do that, he’ll make sure I can never be a manga artist again…”

“That’s awful…”

Iijima probably didn’t even have that kind of authority. But if her own editor says something like that, it’s only natural to lose her courage to fight back.

In fact, that was exactly why Mishiro-san had been unable to keep working.

“…In that case, we should just crush him without holding back.”

Nene-san said firmly.

Of course, I agreed with her.

“Mishiro-san, do you have any proof of Iijima’s harassment? If you do, then we might be able to do something about this.”

“…Yes. I still have our LINE messages, the ones with all the sexual harassment and power harassment he sent me…”

“Then let’s take screenshots of those and send them to the editorial department.”

If we passed them along to Rogiku-san, she would make sure they reached the chief editor and even higher up.

“..But if I resist like this, won’t they blacklist me from the department?”

“You’ll be fine. At the very least, Rogiku-san is an editor who cares about you.”

Besides, I’d heard that because of an incident the other day, Iijima had already angered the editor-in-chief, and his reputation inside the company was terrible. I doubted the department would protect a man like him and throw away someone talented like Mishiro-san.

“Alright… I’ll do it. Please, lend me your strength.”

Mishiro-san said this with all the courage she could gather.

Once that was decided, we acted right away. She took screenshots of her LINE conversations then and there, and I immediately sent them to Rogiku-san.

[This is terrible… I’ll report it to the editor-in-chief right away.]

That was the strong reply Rogiku-san sent back.

Now, all we could do was wait and watch.

All we could do was pray that the adults in charge would make the right decision.

◇

~side: Iijima~

“What… Me, guilty of harassment?”

Ikuo had failed to bring back his wife and child and had been threatened by Machida Nene, saying, “Come near me again and I’ll kill you,” and then, in the middle of that mess, he got into an accident that left him with a broken left collarbone, two fractured ribs, and a shattered right leg bone.

Now, he was in his hospital bed and was on the phone with the editor-in-chief.

[I heard from Mishiro-san, the artist you’re in charge of. She’s filed a complaint against you. Is it true?]

“N-No… of course not! I’d never do something like that…”

It was true, but admitting it would ruin him.

So he tried to dodge.

He believed there was no proof.

The questionable LINE messages he had sent.

He’d already deleted them.

But then—

[I see, Iijima… so you’re a liar after all.]

“Huh? Eh? H-Hold on… what do you mean, a liar… I didn’t…”

[We’ve already received screenshots of those filthy LINE messages. And they were sent from your company phone. Can you care to explain that?]

“!?”

Iijima’s heart skipped a beat, and cold sweat spread across his body.

(H-How? I deleted those messages…!)

―But he had misunderstood.

Deleting a message only erased it from his own chat screen. It never disappeared from the recipient’s side.

If he’d wanted to erase them on her end, too, he would have needed to use the “unsend” function. It was available only within 24 hours of sending.

Because he didn’t know that, he thought deleting them was enough. That single mistake was now tightening the noose around his neck.

Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief’s voice pressed on.

[I’m reporting this to the higher-ups. Personally, I cannot allow someone who says such things to female creators to remain in our editorial department.]

“W-Wait, please!”

[Wait for what? You’ve already been in trouble with the police, took sudden leave without approval, missed work, got into an accident, and now sexual harassment on top of power harassment… Frankly, you’re a mess.]

The editor-in-chief’s tone was filled with anger and a complete lack of trust.

Iijima panicked.

At this rate, he really might lose his job.

If things went on like this, he could very well lose his job. He had already lost his wife and child, and there was the chance she would demand child support. If he lost his job on top of that, it would truly be the end. The mortgage on the house was still waiting to be paid.

“P-please, Chief Editor… I beg you to show me mercy…”

[That’s not up to me to decide. And no matter how you look at it, mercy is the last thing you’ll be getting… Anyway, you’ll hear from us soon.]

With those words, the call ended.

From that moment, Ikuo felt like he was only half alive.

A few days later, the decision on his punishment was delivered.

The result was forced resignation.

In simple terms, he was told to leave within a set period of time. If he handed in his resignation within that window, it would be counted as a normal retirement. If not, he would be fired for misconduct. It was the company’s last bit of kindness.

(…It’s over…)

Either way, he had no choice but to quit.

Just like that, Ikuo’s once-bright career as an editor was officially finished.

Later, he chose to hand in his resignation, taking the option of a normal retirement and receiving a modest severance pay. He tried to find work at other publishing houses, but the industry was small, and his bad reputation had already spread. No one would hire him.

In the end, he started his own editing management company. But nothing came of it. The business soon closed, and with his mortgage payments weighing him down, he was forced to sell his house.

From then on, he lived a meager life, working in a factory and sending child support whenever he could. But that is another story.