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 31 & 32 & 33 & 34 (CUZ IT'S EXHAUSTING-)

Chapter 31: Attempted

A lukewarm wind brushed my cheeks, swaying my short-cut bangs and Mochizuki-san’s long hair.

With heavy steps, Mochizuki-san walked all the way to the edge of the rooftop and placed her hands on top of the fence.

Maybe she hadn’t noticed I was behind her. Or maybe she noticed and chose to ignore me.

Without showing any reaction at all, Mochizuki-san started to climb over—so I stepped up beside her.

Only then did I realize she’d just now registered my presence.

“…Oh. It’s you.”

She looked relieved for a moment after noticing me, and yet it still felt like she wasn’t really looking at me.

“What are you doing in a place like this?”

I already knew what she was about to do, but I asked anyway.

“That’s my line.”

“Fair.”

“……”

Silence fell. All I could hear was the wind, and the athletic club voices calling out from the field below.

I wasn’t trying to buy time. Buying time wouldn’t change the situation.

The reason I came here was—

“Same reason as you. Why I came here.”

“Huh?”

This happened because I changed the future. Because I couldn’t do anything. Because it’s my fault.

If that’s the case… then at the very least, if she was going to die, I should stay beside her and die with her. Otherwise it doesn’t add up.

Dying with two people is probably—at least a little—easier than dying alone.

“Still, it’s awful.”

“What is.”

“The bullying you’ve been dealing with. Having your things hidden. Having graffiti written on your personal stuff.”

At that, Mochizuki-san slowly turned her eyes toward me, and for the first time, she moved her expression to show real surprise.

“…How do you know? I hid it so no one would notice.”

Mochizuki-san had been enduring it alone, without asking anyone for help—except for one person.

But I noticed anyway. Because—

“I’ve been watching you this whole time.”

At my creepy statement, Mochizuki-san lifted the corners of her mouth slightly in reaction.

“What is that, you’re like a stalker.”

“Yeah. I’m your stalker.”

And it wasn’t just Mochizuki-san. I’d been stalking Yuzuki, Hina, Mizuki… and even Jinguuji, too. I’m a freak, basically.

At my shameless stalker confession, Mochizuki-san raised her mouth corners again, then let go of the fence.

“Never mind. Because of you, I missed my chance to die.”

“I see.”

“……”

We stared at each other in silence for a while—Mochizuki-san now away from the fence.

After tens of seconds, she said something insane.

“You’re not going to die?”

“You say that so casually. I’ve got my own timing.”

“True. That was careless. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’m sorry too. For getting in the way.”

“Yeah.”

In the middle of this overly bizarre conversation, one thought stayed in my head.

If Mochizuki-san has even the smallest desire to live right now, then I’ll help her with everything I have—literally, with my life on the line.

“Did you predict this would happen from the start?”

Still expressionless as she looked down at the field, Mochizuki-san spoke again.

“That future where I attempt suicide.”

“That’s not it. I’m seriously ready to die. I’ve been—”

But Mochizuki-san looked at me like she didn’t believe a word.

“Whatever. Next time, don’t get in my way.”

“Fine. I won’t. I absolutely won’t.”

As if that “absolutely” meant she believed me—or wanted to believe me—Mochizuki-san lifted her mouth corners again like she was covering something up, then left the rooftop.

This is fine. This has to be fine.

Repeating that to myself, I made my resolve.

From here, it depends on what I do. For now, tomorrow morning—I’ll do everything I can.

◇◇◇

The next day. 5:30 a.m.

I quietly went downstairs, trying not to wake my family, and just as I was about to open the door, I heard someone call out.

“Onii-chan…”

“What are you doing up so early?”

I turned around. Kaede was rubbing her eyes, her clothes messy, her neckline partly exposed.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?”

“No. Not that. I smelled you, Onii-chan.”

“Kaede…”

“What, Onii-chan.”

“Don’t ever let anyone but me see you like that.”

Kaede stared blankly, still not fully awake. I hurriedly turned my back to avoid looking straight at her and left the house.

Around 6:00 a.m.

I arrived at school, and of course there wasn’t a single student in sight.

The only person there was a security guard, but maybe he judged I was fine since I was in uniform—he didn’t say anything.

Thinking how impressive it was that he was working this early, I walked alone down a hallway I’d never get to experience like this normally.

Then I headed not to my own classroom, but up to the upperclassmen’s floor.

6:10 a.m.

Alright. Time to start.

I got to work immediately.

First, I searched the school for Mochizuki-san’s indoor shoes that had been hidden somewhere.

Then I scrubbed the miserable words written in permanent marker on her desk—over and over—using the rag and nail polish remover I’d brought.

Again and again—

By the time I finished, it was 7:30 a.m.

Over thirty minutes just to find the shoes. Over thirty minutes to get the desk completely clean.

Upperclassmen who’d started arriving little by little stared at me like I was a weirdo as I walked down the hall.

Every day… I’ll be doing this every day. But if this level of effort can protect Mochizuki-san’s peace, then it’s cheap.

From now on, Mochizuki-san is going to live as if bullying doesn’t even exist.

I won’t just stop her from saying “I want to die.”

I won’t even let her think about it.

Chapter 32: Cover-Up

The next day, and the day after that, and the day after that too.

Every single day, I woke up at 5 a.m. and completely covered up every trace of the bullying.

Honestly, it wasn’t that painful.

But as a side effect, my sleep time got absolutely destroyed.

Because of that, during class and breaks, I had to spend my time sleeping.

“Sugita-kun, are you okay? Haven’t you been sleeping the whole class?”

Yuzuki spoke to me while I was face-down on my desk. I lifted my head and answered.

“I’m fine. Just sleep-deprived.”

“I see.”

The fact that she didn’t pry into the reason felt very Yuzuki-like.

“But even so, you’ve been getting to school early.”

That comment betrayed my expectations.

Well, it’s only natural she’d notice. Lately, I’d been the first one in this classroom every morning.

That said, after I finished hiding the evidence, all I did until class started was sleep.

Of course I couldn’t tell Yuzuki the reason, so I dodged it by dropping my head back onto the desk.

“I’m usually the second one here.”

My body twitched.

The words “second one” made me react.

“Every time, when you’re asleep, Sugita-kun…”

Yuzuki suddenly fell silent, and it freaked me out enough that I hurriedly lifted my head.

There was Yuzuki, wearing an enchanting smile—and for some reason, she was licking her lips.

Terrified of what might be happening to me in the mornings, I tried to forget everything by slamming my head back onto the desk again.

◇◇◇

Mochizuki POV

Lately, when I came to school, my indoor shoes were just… there in the shoe lockers like it was normal, and my desk was clean like it was normal.

The bullying I’d dealt with every day had vanished completely.

This is definitely strange. Ever since that day.

Since the day after I attempted suicide. Could it be…?

In my empty home, I ate breakfast alone like always, said an “I’m off” that would never be returned, and left early today.

When I got to school, I walked down the empty hallway. It was so quiet it felt no different than being at home.

While thinking that, I was about to enter my classroom when I noticed there was exactly one student inside.

He was—

◇◇◇

MC POV

Today as well, I scrubbed the desk from the morning onward.

Still, the person doing these scribbles must have incredible stamina to keep at it day after day without getting bored.

Though if someone looked at me right now, they might say I’m not much different.

Thinking that, I somehow finished the cover-up again today and hurried to leave the upperclassmen’s classroom.

“Hm?”

At that moment, my eyes met someone practically glued to the classroom door.

Long, glossy purple hair and a familiar blank expression—of all people, the one person who absolutely couldn’t find out had caught me.

“Ah.”

Mochizuki-san noticed me coming out, panicked for an instant, then regained her composure immediately.

“What were you doing at my desk?”

“N-nothing.”

I answered the moment she asked, but it was obviously a stretch.

It was suspicious enough that a first-year like me was even in an upperclassman’s classroom, and on top of that, at a time like this when no one was around.

And the final blow was the rag in my hand.

“Did you wipe it for me? And my indoor shoes too?”

“……”

“Or was Kouki the one who did all this for me?”

I wanted to stay silent, but that misunderstanding was the one thing I couldn’t allow, so I admitted it instantly.

“I did it.”

“Right. You didn’t have to lie about it.”

“Did you notice from the start? That I was covering it up?”

“Yeah. I had a pretty good idea.”

“I see…”

“Ever since the day I attempted suicide, the bullying suddenly disappeared without a trace. The only thing that made sense was that you—someone who knew about my attempt—did something.”

It was a reasonable conclusion. If I were in her position, I probably would’ve thought the same.

“But from now on, you don’t have to do that. I can’t keep causing you that much trouble.”

Mochizuki-san kept speaking, still calm.

“And you’re not sleeping, right? Your dark circles are really bad.”

I hurriedly covered under my eyes.

“It’s too late. Hiding it won’t help.”

“No, that’s not it. I’m hiding it because it’s embarrassing.”

“Doesn’t look like that to me.”

It really was embarrassing. It was embarrassing that my dark circles got found out, and even worse that my cover-up got exposed.

Covering things up only means something because nobody knows about it. Once it’s exposed, it’s just self-satisfaction.

“So really, stop. I also have a dependable boyfriend.”

Mochizuki-san’s voice stayed flat.

“If it comes down to it, I’ll rely on him, so you can relax.”

Nothing about that let me relax.

Sure, if it truly became dangerous, Jinguuji-kun might actually help. But it wasn’t “that time” yet.

He only acts when he’s certain it will make her fall for him.

But telling Mochizuki-san any of that would be pointless.

I had no proof, and I wasn’t even fully sure Jinguuji-kun was connected to the bullying in the first place.

In the end, I had to find the culprit.

If I kept covering things up every morning, I’d just slowly lose ground, and maybe this was the moment to change tactics.

Bracing myself, I told Mochizuki-san, “I’m going back to my classroom.”

“…Okay,” she replied, a beat later.

Wondering what that pause meant, I watched Mochizuki-san head into the classroom.

Then—

“Thank you.”

She popped her face out from the doorway, smiled, and said it.

Before I could even respond, Mochizuki-san pulled her face back in and didn’t appear again.

For the first time, I felt like I’d seen Mochizuki-san’s real smile.

Looks like covering up the bullying wasn’t completely pointless after all. If I helped her even a little, then that was enough.

Getting stared at like a weirdo again by the upperclassmen trickling in, I returned to my classroom and slept like a corpse until homeroom.

Chapter 33: The Culprit

After school that day.

When I saw Jinguuji leave the classroom, I followed after him.

In the end, I went back to being a stalker.

Honestly, I didn’t want to keep doing this kind of thing anymore—but this time I had no choice. Now that Mochizuki-san had told me “You don’t have to do that anymore,” I had to find a lead on the culprit as soon as possible.

Walking beside Jinguuji was his girlfriend, Mochizuki-san.

The couple passed through the school gate side by side and started heading home.

“By the way, Kanon-chan. Is the bullying okay?”

“It’s okay. It’s been calming down lately.”

“That’s good. If anything happens, tell me right away, alright? I’ll protect you no matter what.”

“Yeah. I’ll look forward to it.”

As he said that, Jinguuji closed the distance between them.

They pressed closer together.

Not because they were truly in love—just because both of them were clinging to each other for the sole purpose of making the other fall for them.

Watching it, I didn’t panic. I didn’t even get worked up.

I just stood there, stunned.

Because I wasn’t the only one watching them from the shadows.

There was another girl watching them too—

Anna-san. The same Anna-san who’d been forced to drop out a few months ago because of bullying.

Anna-san looked exactly like the man who’d stalked Mizuki.

I could feel the tension and obsession radiating from her—like she absolutely couldn’t afford to be noticed.

Staring at the flirting couple, Anna-san’s eyes were bloodshot as she dug her fingernails into a utility pole.

So that’s what it was. That’s what it had been.

The moment I saw it, every doubt I’d had was blown away, and the final missing piece clicked into place.

Anna-san was the bully. It was her.

She saw Mochizuki-san being all over Jinguuji, got jealous, and that jealousy turned into the kind of malice-filled bullying Mochizuki-san had been suffering.

But how? How could someone who’d been expelled even hide Mochizuki-san’s belongings and scribble on her desk? How did she even get into the school?

By the time I arrived at school in the morning, the bullying had already been “completed.”

So the only possibility was that she broke into the school at night and did it then.

But that still felt too unclear.

I remembered the morning school.

The entrance. The school gate. The security guard.

Come to think of it, whenever I got to school early, the security guard was already there.

“……”

After thinking for a while, I got my answer.

Of course—her uniform.

Anna-san used to be a student here, which means she still had her old uniform.

If the guard saw her in uniform, he’d assume she was a student at this school.

She probably came in wearing it and made up some excuse like “I forgot something,” and got let in.

Yeah… around 9 p.m., it wouldn’t be impossible.

But if she used the “forgot something” excuse over and over, it should start to look suspicious.

So why was the guard coming in so early every day…?

Because he was probably worried about her.

If she kept showing up at night over and over, then surely something had happened that she couldn’t talk about. Thinking that, the guard waited—so that Anna-san could enter whenever she came.

It was just speculation.

But it wasn’t impossible.

And the way Anna-san was stalking them right now was practically turning my speculation into fact.

She was trampling on that guard’s goodwill.

Even now, she stared at the couple with eyes full of hatred.

I genuinely couldn’t understand how someone could fall that far for someone.

Did Jinguuji keep stringing Anna-san along even after she got expelled?

Honestly, for him, it wouldn’t be strange. He might do it just to secure “a useful piece” on the board.

As if to provoke Anna-san’s emotions on purpose, Jinguuji went out of his way to flaunt their flirting.

He pretended not to notice Anna-san at all.

He was probably thinking: Good. Tomorrow the bullying will get worse again. And then it’ll be about time to settle things.

—Click.

To stop that plan, I took a photo of that decisive moment.

◇◇◇

A few days passed.

Mochizuki-san’s bullying stopped completely.

After that day, I decided the “stalking photo” alone wasn’t enough as evidence—so I went to the school at night too.

And sure enough, Anna-san was there, scribbling on Mochizuki-san’s desk.

I photographed that moment too.

I had no idea what she’d do if she noticed me, so I hid myself. After Anna-san finished and left, I did the same thing I always did in the morning: found Mochizuki-san’s indoor shoes, and erased the writing on her desk.

With solid proof in hand, I rushed straight to the koban (police box) and submitted everything.

They sent me home with a “It’s already late,” but a few days later, I got a follow-up about Anna-san.

Anna-san… was going to be sent to a juvenile reformatory for girls.

It felt a little cruel, but if it was the only way to wake her up from Jinguuji’s brainwashing, then it couldn’t be helped.

Exhausted, I went alone to the rooftop during break, breathed in the outside air, and let it all out in one long exhale.

This one really wore me down.

Still, I was glad it got resolved.

After that, I spent a slow, quiet moment alone, staring up at a perfectly cloudless sky.

Chapter 34: A World Given Color

I’d been spacing out for a while on the rooftop, both hands on the ground, when the door behind me burst open with a loud clack.

“What are you doing?”

Without even looking back, it was easy to tell who had opened the door just from her voice.

As always, her voice carried no emotion, so I answered with my back still turned.

“Getting some fresh air.”

“I see…”

As she said that, she sat down beside me.

“Why did you come up here? Don’t tell me… again?”

I asked, wondering if she’d come to finish what had ended as an “attempt” last time.

She shook her head.

“No. Today it’s a different reason.”

“I see.”

I echoed her, almost reflexively.

Honestly, the reason didn’t matter. As long as she didn’t die.

“Yeah. Today I came to see you.”

She continued.

“Did you do something again?”

She didn’t actually say “about the bullying,” but I interpreted it that way on my own.

And after I did, I played dumb.

“Do something?”

“So you’re pretending again.”

“……”

Because I didn’t answer, silence settled over the rooftop.

To break the air, I forced myself to speak first.

“Anyway—if you’re with me, your boyfriend will get mad.”

“You changed the subject again. Well, if you’re fine with that, then I guess it’s fine—also, as for my boyfriend, I broke up with him, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“You broke up?”

I repeated the part that caught.

“Yeah. I don’t know why, but the bullying suddenly stopped. So naturally, there was no reason to have a boyfriend anymore.”

For some reason, Mochizuki-san emphasized the word “suddenly,” so I asked her:

“When you started dating Jinguuji, I think you said ‘I didn’t have a reason to refuse.’ Did a reason to break up come up?”

“No. It wasn’t like that. There wasn’t really a reason to break up, either.”

“Then why?”

“This made me realize something. Having a boyfriend is more troublesome than I imagined.”

I see. For her, “troublesome” counted as a disadvantage.

“But this also made me realize something else. If you run away from troublesome things, you end up alone. Unless you act, you can’t escape loneliness.”

“That’s true.”

“……”

After I agreed, silence came again.

But it didn’t feel awkward.

Maybe she felt the same, because she put the bento she’d brought on her lap and started eating.

The only things that filled the space were the sound of chopsticks tapping a lunchbox from beside me, and the faint white breath leaking from my mouth.

Winter was about to begin.

◇◇◇

Mochizuki POV

I ended up alone again.

That thought came to me suddenly.

But I couldn’t say it to him, up here on the rooftop. If I said it, I felt like I’d just cause him trouble again.

I’m fine alone. I’m used to it.

That’s what I told myself—so why have I been coming to the rooftop every day since then?

Before I know it, I’m searching for him.

But I don’t even need to search.

Because he’s here every day, like it’s normal.

He always says, “I’m getting fresh air,” but I can tell it’s a lie.

We don’t force conversation. We just sit side by side, and sometimes we exchange small, trivial words.

And for some reason, it feels comfortable to me.

It’s like my lunch—food that used to taste like nothing—is slowly starting to gain flavor.

“Did I put in too much sugar…?”

I muttered, and he reacted.

“This omelet?”

“Yeah. It tastes better than usual.”

“I’ve been wondering—do you make it yourself?”

“Yeah. I basically do all the housework myself.”

“I see.”

He answered like he’d known it from the start.

“Can I have one?”

“Sure. Here—”

I picked up a piece of omelet with my chopsticks and held it out to him.

“Isn’t this maybe—”

Even though I was offering it, he wouldn’t eat, muttering under his breath, so I forcibly pushed the omelet toward him.

After chewing for a bit, he said:

“I-it’s good.”

A reaction that could’ve meant either “good” or “not good.”

“You don’t have to force yourself.”

“Y-yeah.”

“What do you really think?”

“……Honestly, sorry. You’re right—maybe you did put in too much sugar.”

Seeing his reaction made me realize: maybe I’ve been eating something pretty terrible this whole time.

It annoyed me a little.

“Next time, expect better. I’ll make you say it’s delicious.”

“Yeah. I’ll look forward to it.”

We made that promise, and I went back to my overly strong-flavored bento.

“Hey.”

After I finished eating, I called to him while looking out over the sports field.

“Do you remember when you asked me, ‘If I confessed before Kouki, would you have dated me?’”

“Yeah. I remember.”

“That answer… I can say it clearly now.”

“Huh—wait, you mean…?”

At his confusion, I smiled.

“Well… it’s still a secret. For now.”