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 39: [Tail] So, Who’s Really the Prey Here?

The day the connection between me and the mega-wealthy heiresses became public knowledge, right after school.

Whether they knew about it or not, a jack-in-the-box had somehow been slipped into my bag, so today once again I was being summoned to the Polishing Research Society.

I did think they could at least let me rest today, but as long as there was even a small chance this whole thing might affect them, I couldn’t just casually skip.

Half reluctantly, I headed toward the clubroom the usual way, walking to the elevator hall deep inside the school building.

Well… when I thought back on today’s school life, “usual” was definitely not the right word for any of it.

“…Sigh.”

A deep, tired-sounding sigh slipped out naturally.

I guess it was no wonder a heavy sigh or two would escape. Though honestly… it felt like I sighed every single day anyway, but that’s beside the point. This sigh was different. Totally different story.

All day long I’d been exposed to someone’s stare nonstop.

Before it had mostly been kids from the same year, but today even students from clearly different years kept giving me weird looks.

No matter where I was inside the school, hushed whispers stabbed into my back.

“Is that the rumored dropout…?”
“The one who’s friends with the conglomerate heiresses…?”
“Hey, you’re an upperclassman, go ask him about it directly.”

Little voices like that kept coming from everywhere without a break.

And the really annoying part was, some people weren’t just watching from a distance with curious eyes—they actually came up and talked to me.

Just talking to strangers was already a pain, but every single question they threw at me was strangely hard to answer.

“Kirishima, are you… close with Tachibana?”
“Hey you. What’s your relationship with the conglomerate heiresses?”
“So you’re the underclassman that Minase-senpai is doting on…?”

It was seriously all stuff like that. There was no way I would know the answers. If they were that curious, they should just ask the girls themselves.

Of course I couldn’t give proper answers, so I kept dodging with vague replies every time—but honestly, the mental exhaustion was no joke. It tired me out way more than dealing with those eccentric girls’ whims.

At my core, I’d always tried to blend into the background of this school. An existence that didn’t stand out, for better or worse, so no one’s eyes would land on me.

It had become a kind of personal mission, but that mission got messed up because of my too-beautiful childhood friend, and I’d actually been happy when Akari got stolen by Ryuki.

—…And yet, what the hell is this. The current me. My axis is way too off-balance.

I took the risk and went to the neighboring town with the heiresses, and on top of that I came to school looking like someone who’d easily draw attention.

You could say it was the result of getting tangled up in all kinds of ties, not just the Polishing Research Society, but even so, I kept doing things with my own feet that moved me farther away from the “peace” I’d set as my guiding principle in life.

This wasn’t just putting the cart before the horse. At this point I was actively hiding my own life compass.

And that’s exactly why it felt so strange.

I never liked people whose axis was off-balance. I never liked people who did things I couldn’t understand.

And yet… the current me—

—I don’t hate it.

I knew it was a huge contradiction, but it wasn’t my head—it was the ruler inside my heart that was measuring me this way.

“What’s wrong with me…”

I muttered that quietly at the strange new feeling, and before I knew it I’d reached the elevator hall.

I was about to press the button to go up—when it happened.

Suddenly, a weak but clear gaze stabbed into my back.

If that was all, I wouldn’t have cared much—but this was different.

It wasn’t the curiosity-mixed stares that had followed me all day. This one felt more… aimed, sticky, like it had a target locked on.

“…………”

I didn’t move my feet, just casually checked behind me, but I couldn’t spot anyone who looked suspicious.

It was after school and enough time had passed that there wasn’t even a shadow of another student in sight.

Normally I would’ve brushed off the weird feeling as my imagination—but—

—Sorry, but this particular sense has been drilled into me since I was a kid. To me it’s way too obvious to just ignore.

I declared that in my mind to the faceless someone and immediately spun on my heel, walking quickly toward the stairs.

Right on cue, a small set of footsteps followed a beat behind me.

—Just as I thought.

Footsteps keeping a steady distance, matching my pace and echoing faintly.

It was a pretty obvious tail. They probably thought I hadn’t noticed.

Well, sure, if someone was just living their normal daily life without thinking, recognizing this as a tail would be pretty hard.

But for me, who was consciously listening for it, noticing—and then deliberately letting them follow—wasn’t difficult at all.

I climbed the stairs step by step, focusing my ears on the footsteps of whoever was trailing me.

It seemed like they were keeping about one floor’s gap, listening to my deliberately loud steps and following along.

Suddenly going back down to catch them was one option, but there was a chance they’d run away. Worse, if I couldn’t even get a look at their physical features, that would be the absolute worst.

What I needed right now was something with absolute certainty.

“…………Hmm.”

Come to think of it, the sixth floor up ahead should be… mostly practice classrooms. At this time, it was more likely than not that no one would be around.

In that case, if I purposely stopped on the sixth floor and waited in a blind spot, I could definitely catch the stalker who would probably rush up in a panic.

Even if the person turned out to be physically stronger than me and I lost in a fight, I’d at least get a good look at the face of the creep who’d been following me from behind. That alone made the plan worth doing.

“…Alright.”

Once the plan was set, all that was left was to do it.

I lightly pumped myself up in a small voice, made sure to focus only on keeping my stair-climbing speed natural so I wouldn’t give anything away, and headed for the sixth floor of the school building, leading along the person who still thought they were the one hunting prey.