I Hope You’re Still Alive When Tomorrow Comes - 11

Chapter 11:Plan

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It seemed Kiho really intended to carry out with that plan of hers on her own. After all, Kiho hadn’t appeared in front of me ever since that day. 

Instead, I caught sight of her with Hiwatari several times. I saw them talking in front of the shoe lockers, I saw them walking together in the hallway. I even saw Kiho talking with Hiwatari in Hiwatari’s classroom. 

Of course I wasn’t the only one that kept seeing them together. Rumors quickly spread throughout the school. 

People were saying Kiho was targeting Hiwatari and they were right. That was exactly what was happening here. 

And this was also the first time I came to realize that Kiho didn’t have the best reputation among her classmates.

Apparently, Kiho always responded curtly when her classmates tried to strike a conversation with her. At first, they thought she was like this to everyone but upon seeing how amicable she was being with Hiwatari, her classmates began to look at her unfavorably. Especially the girls. They seemed to hate it a lot. 

“So like, what’s up with Sakashita-san? Is she seriously aiming for Hiwatari-kun?”

I was about to change my shoes at the shoe lockers after school when I accidentally overheard the voice of a girl. 

My hand naturally paused.

“I know, right?’

I could hear the voice of another girl responding to the first girl’s words. 

“She’s always giving us the cold shoulder but look at her now. She’s chatting up Hiwatari-kun so warmly. In fact, she even went out of her way to talk with Hiwatari-kun in his classroom.”

“No way! Hiwatari-kun recently started going out with Nanami-chan, didn’t he? That Sakashita-san, doesn’t she have any shame?”

“That’s why… She’s totally trying to steal Hiwatari-kun, right? I guess since this is Nanami-chan we’re talking about, Sakashita-san is confident. She thinks she can easily take Hiwatari-kun away.”

The girls’ voices were laced with blatant hostility. I wanted to say something, but then I realized there was nothing I could say about it. After all, their assumption wasn’t wrong. Kiho was really aiming for Hiwatari. She was really trying to snatch him away from Nanami. 

The girls continued to badmouth Kiho until they finally left the shoe lockers area. 

I put the outdoor shoes I was about to wear into the shoe locker and put on my indoor shoes again. I walked up the stairs and headed to classroom 1-4. 

There were about five students remaining in the classroom, including Kiho. She was sitting at her desk, reading a paperback book. 

“Kiho, can I talk with you for a second?”

I walked to her desk and said so. She looked up from her book. 

“…Tsuchiya-kun.”

The moment she saw my face, she closed the book she was reading with a thud. Then, she stood up slowly and whispered,”Follow me,” before she walked away.

I followed her out of the classroom as per her instruction and she stopped after we reached a deserted alleyway. She turned to me. 

“Tsuchiya-kun, please refrain from talking to me in public from now on.”

She said with a stern expression on her face. 

“Huh? Why?”

“It won’t be good if people suspect that you are close with me. I’m trying to steal Hiwatari-kun, you know? People are going to jump to conclusions if they suspect we’re close.”

“What?”

I looked at Kiho’s face. It seemed she had decided to throw the glasses and braids away. Her black hair still remained straight though. Her sleek hair cascaded down her shoulders without the curl from before. She wasn’t wearing as much makeup as before either. I didn’t see any visible color on her cheeks or on her lips. This must be Kiho’s version of “clean and neat”. 

“I told you to drop it. Just forget about it. Stop with all these cuckolding and snatching stuff.”

“Huh?”

The voices from those girls I had heard earlier were still echoing in my ears. They were clearly filled with hostility toward Kiho. If Kiho continued to get close to Hiwatari and if by some chance Hiwatari responded to her advances… I could imagine the sort of backlash Kiho would face in the future. 

But… Does Kiho not know about her own reputation?

“Huh? I won’t stop. Didn’t I say it already? No matter what Tsuchiya-kun might say, I’m not going to stop.”

“But… People are going to hate you, you know? If you keep doing that, you will incur other girl’s wrath. Especially since you just transferred here.”

In fact, they already disliked you. However, if Kiho stopped here, we could still prevent the hate from growing even more. I genuinely hoped she would take my advice because I didn’t want to see her receiving all that hatred. 

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m used to that.”

“…What?”

“In any case, I’m not going to stop. I’m definitely not going to stop.”

Her stubbornness left me at a loss for words. 

I sighed. 

“Come on, it’s enough. I already told you it’s fine already.”

“But I’m not doing this for your sake.”

“No, we both know you’re doing this for my sake. That’s why, just stop, Kiho. Look, the person himself is telling you to stop. I’m really fine, okay?”

“Like I said, it’s not for your sake, Tsuchiya-kun. I’m doing this for my own sake.”

Seeing Kiho was still insisting she wasn’t doing this for me, I frowned. It didn’t make any sense. After all…

“Do you even have anything to gain from doing this? I mean, you don’t even like Hiwatari, right?”

“I don’t like him, but I do have something to gain from this.”

“Huh? Tell me then?”

“I get to have revenge against Tsuchiya-kun.”

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T/N: Kihooo whyyyyyyy (╥﹏╥)