I Got Dumped by My Childhood Friend Fiancée Who I Didn’t Even Like, I Thought I Could Finally Have a Peaceful School Life… But Then I Got Targeted by SS-Class Beautiful Young Ladies

Chapter 16: [Life] Yoga and the Things I Can’t Say Out Loud

Shiramine’s expression darkened just a tiny bit. She pressed her lips together slightly, then gave a hesitant little nod.

“…Yeah. I know.”

“Wow, the network of the top conglomerate really is something, huh? I thought Tendo siding with the Kaga family was pretty recent info…?”

“…Yeah, it is. Not that many people know yet, right?”

She played along like it was the most normal thing in the world, but honestly, her information-gathering skills were kinda insane.

Still, if she already knew, that made things easier. Actually… if she knew, then why was she so hung up on this topic?

“So yeah, that’s the deal. Akari wants to break off our engagement. And I want to break off our engagement too. That’s exactly why… she hooked up with the Kaga family’s eldest son, Ryuki. Well… if they’re already sleeping together, then it’s probably not just some family politics thing anymore…”

I paused for a beat, then kept going with a casual “Anyway.”

“I’m really not feeling regret or hurt or anything like that. If I made you worry, then I’m sorry, but…”

“W-Well… if you’re saying it’s fine, Yoichi-kun, then it’s fine, I guess. But… even so, she’s still just from a branch family, right? Even if you don’t care at all, wouldn’t someone from the main family try to get revenge or something…? It feels like that could happen, y’know?”

“Revenge…? …If you flip the question and put yourself in their shoes, the answer kinda comes naturally, don’t you think…?”

“Put myself… in their shoes…?”

Shiramine quietly repeated my words, almost swallowing them.

After a few seconds of silence, she awkwardly tilted her gaze away and murmured,

“…Yeah, you’re right.”

She let the words slip out softly, like she was placing them gently into the air.

“A branch-family son has his fiancée stolen by a main-family son, so he gets mad and takes revenge… No prestigious family could ever let their pride and reputation allow something that pathetic…”

Shiramine arrived at the answer she’d been looking for, her face twisting like she’d just bitten into something horribly bitter.

The faint twitch in her cheek told me she’d pictured the whole thing in vivid detail. For anyone in a position of power, imagining themselves in such an impossible, humiliating situation would probably make them feel physically sick.

I gave one single nod at her words, then spoke up.

“…Actually, if anyone’s gonna get revenge from the family, I think it’s gonna be me. As the absolute worst failure of the Kirishima family who completely trashed their reputation… y’know.”

Of course, I’d prepared my final countermeasures years ago in case they ever actually moved against me. That’s the only reason I could break things off with Akari without a second thought.

That said, so far I hadn’t needed to use any of those measures—I’d managed to keep them on ice. Maybe it was the current head of the Kirishima family—my dad’s—whim, or maybe my one and only ally in that house, my older sister, had been pulling strings behind the scenes. Either way, things were going better than I’d expected.

Shiramine listened to me, head bowed, staying completely quiet.

While I was watching her and thinking about all that, she suddenly lifted her head. With a face like she was carefully studying my expression, she spoke.

“…────not scared?”

Her voice was so tiny I couldn’t catch it at all.

“Uh… what’d you just say?”

I asked without thinking. She bit her lip for a second, then said it clearly this time.

“—Aren’t you scared? Of what the family might do… or what kind of stuff might happen to you…?”

Her eyes were pure and childlike, staring straight at me like she was pleading for an answer.

For a split second I thought I saw her shoulders tremble, but the next moment the movement stopped completely.

I pretended to think it over for a bit before answering.

“I’m not… really scared.”

“…! W-Why…?”

She sucked in a breath. Her face screamed that she genuinely couldn’t understand.

Even if she asked “why,” the only honest answer was “because I have ways to fight back,” but of course I couldn’t tell her that.

Instead, I let a small, natural smile slip out—the same kind I’d show someone who felt real and unguarded—and shared the real reason I’d started thinking about countermeasures in the first place. The basic belief that drove me to want a peaceful life.

“Because if I let myself get scared of that… then it wouldn’t really be my life anymore, would it?”

“…Um, what do you mean by that…?”

I’d thought I explained it pretty clearly, but Shiramine just tilted her head, looking totally lost.

I chewed over my own words in my head, then rephrased it in the simplest, most straightforward way possible.

“I mean… if you’ve only got one life, you might as well live it the way you want, right? Isn’t that something everyone in this club can relate to? That’s exactly why we’re here polishing ourselves and trying to get stronger—so we can live like that.”

“…!”

The second I said it with some enthusiasm, her face went blank and her big eyes snapped wide open. The intensity in that stare felt like the three-second countdown before someone gets murdered…

—Crap! Did I piss her off!?

Spouting something that sounded like a lecture was probably way out of line. A conglomerate heiress like her had to deal with family obligations and pressure from the house that I couldn’t even imagine. Of course she’d get mad if some guy acted like he understood her situation.

I hurried to apologize, but before I could get the words out, Shiramine’s eyes softened. She let out a little burst of laughter.

“Hehe, I’ve been thinking it since yesterday, but now I’m sure. Yoichi-kun… you’re really not normal, are you?”

“Not normal…?”

“I mean, you’re seriously weird!”

She flashed a carefree grin while basically calling me an idiot.

I let out a relieved breath that I hadn’t actually made her mad, then couldn’t help laughing along.

“You’re pretty weird yourself, y’know.”

The tense, suffocating air flipped in an instant. A gentle quiet settled over us, broken only by the soft sound of our laughter filling the room.

Like sunshine spilling into the stillness, Shiramine spoke up quietly.

“Yoichi-kun… I’m kinda jealous. Me, on the other hand—”

But right as she started to say something, the clubroom door opened.

I glanced over and saw Minase-senpai and Tachibana arriving a little late.

The moment I spotted them, I was about to complain about what happened this morning—but then I realized something. In my field of vision, they were upside down.

No, more accurately… I suddenly remembered the ridiculous position I was currently in.

This is bad. If those two—who had no idea how we ended up like this—saw us right now, it’d turn into such a hassle. Actually, I didn’t really want them knowing the backstory either…?

Either way, I was screwed. I let out a heavy sigh. Shiramine, the other half of this human wheel, gave a resigned “Ahaha…” and a bitter smile.

The first one to march straight over to us was Senpai, who—for some reason—looked furious. Like, the light had completely vanished from her eyes…!

“Hey, Yoichi. What exactly… are you doing in the clubroom? And why are you doing that… with Azucchi?”

“Uh, well~… um, there’s actually a lot to explain here…”

“I don’t care about the reason. You know that impure opposite-sex relations on school grounds… can get you expelled at worst, right? Just you, Yoichi.”

“Just me!? Shiramine’s right here with—”

“—Ehh!? Yoichi-kun, you’re throwing me under the bus!? That’s so mean!!”

For some reason Senpai was only glaring daggers at me, while Shiramine dramatically fake-cried and played along.

Tachibana, watching from a little farther back, turned bright red, took a huge breath, and shouted,

“A-Anyway, both of you get apart right now!! This is indecent!!!”

First day of the Polishing Research Society. Things were already looking like a total disaster before we even started any activities…