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 40

Chapter 40: [Overwriting the Scenario] Catching the Stalker

The moment I reached the sixth floor, I checked for a spot that would be a blind spot from the stair landing.

I quickly found a good one, slipped into it right away, and waited for the stalker I’d lured to catch up.

Just as expected. The sudden silence probably made him think he’d lost sight of his target.

The guy came rushing up the stairs without even trying to hide his footsteps, breathing a little hard, and stopped on the sixth floor exactly as planned.

He poked his face out a tiny bit from the corner, trying to check the situation—but from this angle, even if it was someone I knew, it’d be hard to make out the face clearly.

Still, the fact that he was wearing the boys’ school uniform meant the stalker was definitely a male student. His build made that pretty much certain too.

He stood there on the stair landing, looking around nervously.

“…He disappeared?”

He tilted his head, looking puzzled, and muttered that to himself in a leisurely way.

Maybe because he’d lost sight of me, his target, the lack of caution was showing through pretty obviously.

—Sorry, but the prey was you from the very beginning.

I spat that out in my mind, then stepped out from the blind spot as quietly as possible.

The distance between me and the guy kept shrinking. Then—three steps. Two steps. One step. And—

The instant I was right behind the stalker, I reached out without hesitation.

I clamped one hand tightly over his mouth and pinned his right arm down with the other.

“—!?”

His shoulders jerked up hard when he suddenly got grabbed from behind.

But he wasn’t really resisting… or rather, he couldn’t. I’d completely caught him off guard, so his movements were totally restricted.

I made sure to keep my voice as light as possible and said,

“…Hello. Did you need something from me?”

I whispered it right next to his ear.

Without waiting for his reaction, I kept going.

“Oh, and please don’t make any noise, okay? Neither of us wants to turn this into a big deal, right? If you understand what I mean… nod quietly.”

I kept my voice low and spoke like I was trying to calm the person in front of me.

A few seconds of silence spread slowly through the space.

Eventually, the guy’s head gave a small nod inside my hand.

“…Yeah.”

After confirming that, I slowly removed only the hand covering his mouth. I kept the arm lock in place though, just in case he tried to run.

Even with his mouth free, the guy didn’t shout or make a fuss. Whether it was pure fear or because he was the smart type, either way it was safe to assume he had no intention of fighting back.

If that was the case, the first thing I needed to do was check his face. Whether I already knew him or not, once I saw his face I could gather as much info as I wanted later.

I shifted the guy’s body half a step while still holding him. That finally let me get a clear look at the stalker’s face.

“Ah…”

Thankfully, it was someone I knew, so a sound of understanding slipped out.

Same year, same class. And one of the guys who always hung around Ryuki.

If I remembered right… he was the son of the Nakamiya family.

“I see.”

The situation was starting to make sense.

First of all, it was almost certain that Nakamiya was tailing me on Ryuki’s orders. So why would Ryuki, who hadn’t interfered until now, suddenly do something like this?

The fact that he found out I was connected to the conglomerate heiresses was probably part of it… but I doubted that was the only reason.

I’d also caught rumors that Ryuki had been cooking up some weird plan lately, so this tailing was likely related to that. If anything, the most believable scenario was that learning about my connection to the conglomerates made him move the plan forward.

But—if that was true, it actually worked out in my favor.

I’d been getting ready for whatever Ryuki might try, but now I could wreck his plan much more easily.

Plus, I’d already picked up some interesting info about the Nakamiya son.

Inside my head, I started overwriting the scenario Ryuki had been drawing up for what came next.

And for that, this stalker guy in front of me was going to have to help out a lot.

“…Nakamiya.”

When I said his name, Nakamiya’s shoulders twitched a little. He probably never dreamed he’d get caught tailing me and have his identity exposed too.

I let out a small breath and continued quietly right next to his ear.

“Look, I’m not mad. I’m not even blaming you for following me. So you can relax about that.”

I kept my tone as calm as possible, and Nakamiya nervously turned his eyes toward me.

But those eyes were filled with obvious wariness and really easy-to-read fear. That made sense. He’d just been grabbed from behind out of nowhere.

Well, for me, that state was actually really convenient.

While I put just a little more strength into the hand pinning his right arm, I kept talking one-sidedly.

“You probably… had something you wanted to tell me, right?”

When I asked that, even though I wasn’t really expecting an answer, Nakamiya blurted out,

“N-no! I was just—”

“—Yeah, yeah, I get it. You can’t really talk calmly here, can you? Somewhere no one else can hear… how about over there?”

I pointed with my eyes toward the boys’ bathroom at the far end of the hallway on the sixth floor.

At this time after school, there was almost nobody on this floor anyway, and even if someone happened to walk by—inside the boys’ bathroom, no one would see the two of us.

“Let’s talk somewhere quiet for a bit.”

I adjusted my grip on Nakamiya’s collar and gave his body a firm tug.

“Wait, hold on—”

“—It’s fine. We’re just going to talk.”

I cut him off shortly.

He did try to twist his body and resist, but I half-dragged him along as I walked toward the boys’ bathroom.

I pushed open the heavy door.

Inside it was completely silent, and there was no one except me and Nakamiya.

Then, after slowly closing the door—I turned the lock with a click that echoed in the quiet space.