I Was Helping Out With The Harem Plan Of The Romcom Protagonist I Admired, But Now That I’ve Realized He’s A Scumbag, Next Time I’m Going To Stop It And Make The Girls Happy Myself - Chapter 12 & 13

Chapter 12: The First Confession Drama

We went around all kinds of places with our group, and time kept slipping by.

Throughout it all, Jinguuji looked irritated from start to finish.

It was probably because I’d been getting more chances to talk with two of his heroines.

The field trip was steadily approaching its end.

When we’d pretty much finished seeing everything, Jinguuji checked his phone, and a new expression layered itself onto his sour face.

With his brows knit tight, he read whatever was on the screen, shot a glance at Takasaka-san, then spoke to the rest of the group.

“Sorry, everyone. Something came up—mind if I dip out for a bit?”

One of the boys in our group replied casually, “We’ve basically done everything already, so sure.”

After confirming the group was fine with it, Jinguuji said, “Alright,” and hurried off somewhere.

“So what do we do?” “Wanna grab food or something?” “I’m down.”

They’d made a big deal about moving together as a group, but now they had zero sense of teamwork.

Honestly, that worked for me. Now I could follow Jinguuji without anyone giving me crap for it.

“ Sugita-kun. Are you going somewhere?”

I was about to move when Takasaka-san—left behind on her own—called out to me.

“Huh. Y-yeah. Something came up for me too.”

“I see. Okay. See you later.”

“Uh… I’ll be going, then?”

For some reason, Takasaka-san smiled at me. I turned my back on that smile and chased after Jinguuji.

The confession drama was about to begin.

※

Jinguuji—unable to hide how irritated he was—headed into a narrow back alley with hardly anyone around.

He walked through the cramped path for a while, then emerged into a slightly more open area.

It was completely different from the quaint field-trip scenery from before. Here, lush green nature filled my vision.

Trees surrounded the area, and small birds chirped, adding a gentle soundtrack.

Right in the middle of that painfully obvious “confession spot,” the heroine—Hina—was waiting, fidgeting and trembling with nerves.

Then Jinguuji appeared, still wearing that same irritated look.

“Kouki. Thanks for coming.”

“It’s fine. So what did you want to talk about?”

Jinguuji hurried her along, like he was saying, Get to the point already.

I hate to say it, but Jinguuji didn’t feel like a romcom protagonist at all right now.

If anything, he looked like a kid throwing a tantrum because someone took his toy.

I didn’t know why, but I had a bad feeling.

“First, thank you for coming, Kouki. I called you because there’s something I want to tell you today.”

“……”

“I…”

Hina took a deep breath, like she was trying to inhale every last bit of air around her, and then—

“Ever since you helped me back in elementary school… I’ve always loved you, Kouki.”

She finally put her feelings into words.

“Do you remember? You saved me when I was getting bullied at school. I was so happy, you know? Nobody helped me, and I was scared and alone—and you were the only one who reached out a hand to me.”

“……”

“That made me so happy. I’ll never forget what you did.”

“……”

“After that, I started following you with my eyes, and before I knew it… I was in love with you in a way I couldn’t even believe.”

“……”

“So—”

Hina drew in another deep breath.

“Please go out with me!”

She bowed her head and held out her right hand.

“……”

A heavy silence fell over the space, and before I knew it, even the birds had stopped chirping.

In that silence, Hina was pouring everything she had into the boy in front of her.

And Jinguuji’s answer to that confession was—

“Haa…”

Not yes, not no—just a disappointed sigh.

“It’s too late.”

That single line froze the air.

“Huh? What are you—”

Hina looked up, confusion on her face.

And when she still didn’t understand, Jinguuji finally snapped and shouted.

“I don’t need a heroine who flirts with other guys!”

Only then did I finally get it—why Jinguuji hadn’t said a word all this time about me and Hina “dating.”

The moment Hina started associating with me, Jinguuji erased her from his list of heroine candidates.

If she so much as leaned toward another guy—even if the reason was something else—then in his eyes, she stopped being a heroine right then and there.

For Jinguuji, it was probably pride. A twisted, pathetic kind.

“It was too late. If you hadn’t started hanging around that guy Sugita, I might’ve considered it.”

Today’s pent-up frustration must’ve finally exploded.

Jinguuji’s verbal abuse wouldn’t stop.

“All it took was me saving you once in elementary school and you fell for me that easily. Then you followed me to the same middle school, the same high school. Must be nice. And after all those years pining for me, I get to reject you this cleanly. Just thinking about it makes me grin.”

In that tree-filled space, the same creepy smile I saw right before I died seemed to take over the scene.

From Hina’s lifeless eyes, without any warning, a single tear traced down her cheek.

It slipped off her expressionless face and dropped onto the ground with a soft plop.

And in that moment, something small and round made the air tremble.

Then—

“Bff!”

That round mass exploded across Jinguuji’s face.

“Don’t screw with me.”

That “round mass” was, of course—my small clenched fist.

Chapter 13: Her Struggle

“Ow—!!”

Blood dripped from Jinguuji’s nose after taking my fist head-on.

If he could make a girl cry, then bleeding himself was the only fitting payback.

But seeing that bright red blood didn’t bring me back to my senses. Even staring at it, I still couldn’t control my anger.

Because Hina—

“Do you have any idea how much she cared about you… how long she agonized before she confessed…! She couldn’t bring herself to say she loved you for so long, and even then she kept trying—kept working to catch your attention!”

I knew her struggle so well it hurt.

Because in my previous life… back then… she came to me for relationship advice over and over.

She spent all her time—always, always—thinking only about Jinguuji. She’d try changing her hairstyle, putting on a little heavier makeup, and once, she even asked me to teach her how to cook so she could make food for him.

Among Jinguuji’s heroines, she was probably the most sincere.

She never stopped trying. Even when Jinguuji got distracted by other heroines, she didn’t shrink back—she kept attacking head-on without giving up.

And this guy did the one thing you absolutely must never do to a girl like that.

My eyes hadn’t been wrong. This man was pure trash.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Jinguuji stood up slowly, clutching his bleeding nose.

“You kept getting in my way again and aga—”

I hooked his foot and made him plant his hands on the ground again.

Even then, my anger still wouldn’t cool.

A guy like this doesn’t deserve the right to make any of them happy.

“Maybe I should just do it again—”

Maybe he sensed the killing intent in me, because Jinguuji scrambled up, flinching as he backed away.

“Bastard…”

He spat that parting shot and hurried off.

I tried to go after him, but Hina grabbed my shoulder and stopped me.

“Sugita… it’s fine now…”

That was what finally snapped me back to reality.

It’s true—what I did wasn’t enough. Not even close.

But right now, I needed to put her first, not waste any more time on him. I couldn’t just leave her here in pain.

Even so, I couldn’t comfort her.

That wasn’t my role. I didn’t have the right to stand beside her.

Just like Jinguuji, I didn’t have the right to “make her happy” either.

Because I’m someone who already died once.

For someone like me—someone who knows the future—to use that knowledge to make her happy… that would be cheating.

Still, I stayed near her because she mattered to me. Not romantic feelings—something deeper, like friendship.

Hina—after stopping me—dropped to her knees and hid her face in her arms, like she was trying to block out every sound in the world.

She was probably crying. I could hear faint, broken little sounds, almost like sobbing.

I didn’t talk to her. I just stayed beside her. I didn’t interfere—nothing.

And right as I thought that, rain began to fall, as if the sky itself was expressing her emotions.

I opened the folding umbrella I had and held it over her so she wouldn’t get wet—so she wouldn’t have to feel any worse than she already did.

※

After a while, the rain finally stopped.

A wind heavy with moisture slapped my cheeks, like it was telling me to comfort her.

I still hadn’t said a single word. What was I even supposed to say…?

Then suddenly, Hina sprang up from where she’d been kneeling.

“Alright!”

“O-oh… you okay now?”

“Yeah. I’m not okay at all. I feel like I’m about to start crying again.”

With that nasal voice, she said it clearly, so I tossed out a small joke.

“You were crying like crazy a minute ago.”

Hina turned toward me and gave me that same dead-eyed stare as before.

“You seriously don’t understand a girl’s heart, Sugita.”

“No guy who’s never had a girlfriend can understand a girl’s heart.”

“Well… yeah. Fair.”

We only “dated” to make someone jealous, so it doesn’t count. Maybe she understood that too, because she didn’t press it.

“More importantly, Sugita—why won’t you call me by my name?”

“Huh?”

The question was so sudden it threw me off.

“Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Since I said I was going to confess to Kouki, you haven’t said my name even once.”

My stomach dropped.

So she noticed.

Just like she said, ever since she told me she was going to confess, I hadn’t said her name a single time.

Because I thought it was arrogant of me to use it.

And by then, our fake relationship had already fallen apart, so there was no reason to.

That name was only something I used to make our pretend romance feel real.

“So you won’t call me Hina anymore?”

…And yet, with her eyes faintly bloodshot like that, I found her strangely, irresistibly alluring.

“Hina.”

“What?”

“You’ll be fine. You’ll find a new love soon. There are billions of men in this world.”

“Shut up. None of your business.”

I tried to comfort her and got an awful response.

“But… thanks for earlier. I was happy.”

“Yeah.”

I’d been afraid she might call even helping her “none of your business,” but Hina wasn’t like that.

“Still—punching him was too much.”

“You are completely correct…”

On that point… I did reflect, at least a little.