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 43 & 44 & 45 & 46

Chapter 43: True Nature

Ri-chan and I had been friends since we were little.

We went to different schools, and I didn’t even know how old she was.

But after school, if I went to that vacant lot, I could see her almost every day.

She was thin, and her clothes weren’t something you could honestly call clean.

Every single day, I gave her the leftover school lunch I brought home from elementary school. But one day, she suddenly disappeared from the vacant lot.

Just in case, I still headed there with leftover lunch in hand—but all that was there was that concrete pipe she used to sit by.

We only ever called each other by nicknames, so I didn’t know her real name. And I didn’t know where she lived either.

After that, we never met again.

Now I understand.

Ri-chan… she was probably being abused by her parents.

“Are you okay now?”

I asked the girl in front of me, who had grown so much she barely resembled who she used to be.

“Yes. Thanks to you, Senpai.”

Tachibana-san smiled faintly, then continued.

“Actually, after that, I ended up going into a children’s home.”

Hearing that, relief washed over me.

“So that’s what happened…”

“I’m sorry. I disappeared without even saying goodbye…”

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you grew up safe.”

Looking down, she murmured, “Yes…” then raised her face and met my eyes.

“But Senpai… aren’t you kind of late to notice?”

“Sorry about that. I never imagined we’d reunite like this.”

“Well, that’s only natural… the last time we met was like, eight years ago.”

Even so, it seemed like she remembered.

A question suddenly came to mind—why did she hide the fact that she was Ri-chan?

And also—

“Why did you do something like revenge?”

When I voiced the question honestly, the air around Tachibana-san changed instantly.

“……”

It was like I’d stepped on a landmine.

After thinking for a few seconds, Tachibana-san finally opened her mouth.

“This is… repayment.”

“Repayment?”

“Yes. This time, it’s my turn to repay what you did for me. Of course, I don’t think I can repay it with something at this level, but—since you wouldn’t do it, I did. That’s all there is to it.”

Repayment.

If she put it that way, it oddly made sense—but it still didn’t fully click.

There were still too many things I didn’t understand.

How did Tachibana-san figure out that Jinguuji was trash?

How did she find me?

And honestly, it was hard to process that she’d come to my house a few times as Kaede’s friend.

Seeing the questions flying all over my face, Tachibana-san seemed to understand, and she started explaining from the beginning.

“First, as a premise—I’ve been watching you this whole time, Senpai.”

“……”

Silence hit the space instantly.

“Uh… just to confirm—since when?”

“Since middle school.”

“Seriously…?”

“Seriously.”

This might sound rude, but why are there so many stalkers around me?

Is it really true that birds of a feather flock together?

Tachibana-san continued without caring.

“After I spotted you in town when I was in middle school, I’ve been stalking you the whole time. I’m sorry about that.”

She gave a small bow, then continued.

“One day, I found out your little sister was at the same middle school. So to get closer to you, Senpai, I decided to try making contact with your sister, Kaede-chan. I thought if I became friends with her, I’d be able to talk to you. But even now, Kaede-chan is still a precious friend to me, so… please don’t worry about that.”

After telling me everything, Tachibana-san took a breath, and—without looking guilty at all—stared straight into my eyes.

“I think I mostly get it, but… why did you decide to get revenge on Jinguuji? You’re right that I wanted revenge on Jinguuji, but you shouldn’t have known the reason, right?”

“That’s right. So I decided to investigate. That person named Kouki Jinguuji… it made me sad that I couldn’t stalk you anymore, Senpai, but I didn’t have a choice. I started following Kouki Jinguuji instead. Every day, every day, after school, I chased after him. And then I noticed something. At random moments, he’d smile. Not a happy smile—an eerie one. But there were times when it suddenly vanished.”

“So that was when I—”

“Yes. Because you got in Kouki Jinguuji’s way. To be honest, at first there were too many incomprehensible things, and I couldn’t make sense of anything. But then I noticed something strange. This was a few months ago. When Kouki Jinguuji was walking home with a girl… another girl’s stalker—someone besides me—was following him.”

That had to be Anna-san.

“And Kouki Jinguuji would keep oddly watching his back, so I panicked and hid a lot. But the moment I wondered why he was so aware of his back… he looked directly at the utility pole where that stalker was hiding. I thought he noticed the stalker. But then why didn’t he do anything even though he noticed…? I understood instantly once I heard the girls’ conversation.”

“‘Actually… I’m being bullied…’”

“‘Do you know who’s behind it?’”

“‘I don’t.’”

“The stalker who heard that smiled—like she was basically declaring she was the culprit herself. The moment I saw it, I was sure. He was deliberately provoking the stalker’s hatred, and making her bully the girl on purpose. The motive was obvious if you looked at Kouki Jinguuji’s smile.”

To build a harem…

“Up until now, I’d felt something was off about how unnaturally popular Kouki Jinguuji was… but he was winning girl after girl with that kind of method.”

It sounded like Tachibana-san already knew everything. She probably watched from behind even during Mizuki’s incident.

She was certain that Jinguuji was trash during the whole Mochizuki-san situation, and—

“So I deliberately bumped into him at a corner and acted like I liked him.”

“So it was revenge on an insane level.”

The thought slipped out of me, and maybe it rubbed Tachibana-san the wrong way, because she puffed out her cheeks and glared.

“That’s unfair. Senpai might not have noticed, but I’ve only ever said ‘Jinguuji-senpai’ out loud one time.”

Meaning, every other time she said “Senpai,” she meant…

Tachibana-san looked up at me like she was saying, “Use your imagination.”

“But this time makes it two.”

“Huh? Senpai… are you jealous?”

“N-no, it’s not like that…”

When I looked away, her face suddenly went blank.

“Senpai. Please have sex with me.”

“……Huh?”

She said something completely unbelievable.

Chapter 44: The Notebook

“……”

A silence longer than anything I’d ever felt dominated the room.

The one who broke it was Tachibana-san.

“Senpai, you’re really a flirt, aren’t you? The girls you get close to keep changing.”

“That’s…”

“I know. It’s because you’re trying to save those girls, right?”

“……”

No… it’s not something that clean. I time-leaped back for one reason only—to get revenge on Jinguuji.

Tachibana-san, as if she understood that perfectly, wore an enchanting smile.

“Senpai… I like you.”

Looking me straight in the eyes, Tachibana-san said the same confession again.

A girl who would go this far for me… honestly, there’s no way I wouldn’t end up liking her.

“I like you too—Tachibana Ririka—”

“Thank you. I’m really happy.”

“Then—”

“Sorry. But I can’t give you the answer you’re hoping for.”

Despite what I felt, the words that came out of my mouth pushed her away.

Surprisingly, Tachibana-san stayed calm, like nothing had happened.

“Senpai, do you hate me?”

“No…”

“Then do you like me?”

“……”

I answered her question with silence.

“So it’s okay if I interpret that as ‘you like me’?”

“I… you…”

After a long silence—

“I don’t like you.”

I said something I didn’t mean.

“I see. Then from now on, I’ll try not to talk to you as much as possible.”

“……”

Still dignified and composed, she turned her back on me and left the empty classroom.

All I could do was stare blankly at Tachibana-san’s back, until the door finally closed.

This was for the best. It had to be. I can’t make her expect things.

Pressing my hand to my chest like I was telling myself that, I finally made up my mind.

“Alright. Guess I’ll die.”

◇◇◇

Hina POV

The next day—Yuuya was absent from school.

Feeling it was strange, I was about to eat lunch when I noticed a single slip of paper inside my desk drawer.

“If you want to know why Sugita was absent today, lunch break. Empty classroom on the 3rd floor.”

It was obviously shady and suspicious, but… I did want to know the reason, so I decided to go to the place written there.

I arrived at the empty classroom and opened the door—only to realize four other girls were already there besides me.

Takasaka Yuzuki. Nanase Mizuki. Mochizuki Kanon. Tachibana Ririka.

From the look of it, everyone had been called here for the same reason as me: “Why Yuuya was absent.”

But who could’ve done something like this—

The moment I thought that, the door I’d closed swung open dramatically, and the one who called us here was revealed.

That person was—

“Thanks for coming, everyone.”

It was Kouki—holding a notebook in his hand.

I immediately confronted Kouki.

“This ‘reason Yuuya was absent today’—what is that supposed to mean?”

“Yeah. Alright. Then I’ll teach you his true nature right away.”

Yuuya’s true nature…

Everyone except Kouki swallowed hard.

Kouki said, “First, look at this,” opened the notebook, and held it out toward us.

“Huh—what is this…?”

The notebook he showed us was packed full of writing about Takasaka Yuzuki.

The instant I saw it, I thought: this is a record Yuuya wrote.

It had details about Takasaka-san—things that happened in the past—bullying, too.

What stood out most was what he wrote about the field trip money.

“How can I interfere with Jinguuji → Stop it by making myself the one who stole the money.”

Just as Takasaka-san opened her mouth in confusion, Kouki cut her off and flipped to the next page.

This time, it was packed full of writing about me.

“Kisaragi Hina is Jinguuji’s childhood friend and has liked him since she was little. To interfere with this: XXXXXXXX.”

There were all kinds of plans written in detail, but they’d been crossed out with huge X marks so you couldn’t read them.

I couldn’t hide my shock any more than Takasaka-san could—then Kouki flipped to the next page again.

After that, there were pages filled the same way about Nanase-san, Mochizuki-senpai, and Tachibana-san.

After we’d read everything, Nanase-san murmured:

“This is…”

“It’s something that guy wrote. It’s seriously disgusting.”

“……”

At Kouki’s words, we had no choice but to fall silent.

Everyone must’ve been confused.

Even if you get shown something like this out of nowhere, confusion is all you can feel.

“This is written like everything that happened already happened once before…”

While I was thinking that, surprisingly calm, Takasaka-san muttered like she was talking to herself.

She was right.

This was like—

“Time leap…”

Next, Mochizuki-senpai murmured.

“No, but… that’s impossible…”

In my confusion, the words slipped out.

Takasaka-san stayed calm and analyzed. I was confused. Nanase-san was confused too. Mochizuki-senpai stayed expressionless. And for some reason, Tachibana-san was looking down.

Then Takasaka-san—the one who’d been analyzing—asked Kouki:

“So, how does showing us this tell us why Sugita-kun was absent today?”

“Ah. Right. That’s what we were talking about.”

Kouki opened the notebook again, showed the next page after the one about Tachibana-san—and said something insane.

“Probably… he’s going to die today.”

Chapter 45: Resolve

Today, I skipped school.

It’s not because things are awkward or anything like that—I just decided I won’t struggle pointlessly anymore.

Without going to school, I found myself standing in the exact spot where I died in my previous life: right in the middle of that park.

Is this a leftover from my past life? Or did I come here because I wanted to?

…No. It’s neither.

It seems my body has already given up.

On living.

It’s impossible. Avoiding it is impossible.

That man—the one arrested on stalking suspicion—is going to be released.

There’s no way to escape it. No matter how much I resist, it’s pointless. He’s already seen me with Mizuki anyway.

I had no idea where the stalker was now, or from where he might be watching me.

Maybe because he got caught once, he’s being meticulous now—his calculations and planning were so thorough that I couldn’t get any information on him at all.

I tried to distract myself by staying close to the girls I’ve been saving.

Of course, I noticed all of their feelings.

I tried to deceive myself by falling in love for real—trying to erase the future where I die.

But fate is cruel.

“Death” was always right beside me, stuck in the corner of my mind, and it never went away.

I could always imagine my own death clearly.

I can’t change fate.

Because I time-leaped back for one reason only—to get revenge on Jinguuji.

If anything, that makes me worse than Jinguuji in my previous life.

I dragged those girls into it, and to distract myself, I controlled them.

I should set them free now.

They don’t need to be trapped by me or Jinguuji.

Now that the goal is achieved, I have no regrets about my life.

The only thing I still regret is that I never got to apologize to Tachibana-san.

Saying “I don’t like you” was a complete lie.

But saying the truth would be breaking the rules.

Me—the one who time-leaped—begging for help from people living in the “now”…

That would just be cheating.

◇◇◇

Hina POV

In the empty classroom after school, silence fell—so quiet it was almost unnatural.

That silence had been caused by a single line from Kouki.

“Today, Yuuya is going to die.”

There was no way I could believe it. I didn’t want to believe it.

But after seeing the notebook Kouki had opened, it became impossible not to.

—

“Either way, I’ll die. Even if struggling is pointless, here’s a basic countermeasure.”

At the very top, it was written like a bold headline—but below it, the handwriting was messy and shaky, like it had been written while trembling.

Just reading that much made everyone want to look away, but I forced myself not to turn from reality and kept reading.

—

“How to escape the stalker. Either run—or kill him first.”

“No. Never mind. If I run and cause trouble for the people around me, it defeats the purpose. I can’t act in a way that becomes a burden to Mizuki when she’s working so hard at streaming.”

“Then, first I shou—”

The writing cut off there.

He probably tried to write “kill first,” but fear stopped his hand.

That part alone was violently messy—more than anywhere else.

I almost looked away, but I kept reading, because I wanted to know everything Yuuya was thinking.

—

“No. That’s wrong too. Neither running nor killing first.”

“Then I guess… I really do have to die. I have to accept death.”

“I’ve already died once, so I should think about it lightly. If I can endure just that one instant of pain…”

That’s where the entry ended.

“……”

All of us couldn’t breathe.

Of course we couldn’t.

Because the bottom-right of that page was blurred by droplets.

These were Yuuya’s tears.

Like he tried desperately to erase them, the paper there was rubbed raw, slightly peeled.

The situation was so brutal that tears rose in my eyes without permission.

The other four girls wore the same kind of expression—

Takasaka-san covered her face with her hands from the cruelty.

Nanase-san looked like she might cry at any moment, as if drowning in guilt.

Mochizuki-senpai—rarely—had her usual expression broken and stood frozen.

And Tachibana-san still kept her head down.

Why would Kouki show us something like this…?

As I gathered courage to speak—unsure if any sound would even come out—

“Senpai…!”

Tachibana-san suddenly snapped her face up like she’d remembered something, then rushed out of the classroom in a panic.

Like she already knew where Yuuya was.

Even so, Kouki didn’t care at all and kept talking.

“Now you get it, right? That guy’s a total piece of trash. He knew everything and still set me up!”

Kouki kept getting louder, and all we could do was watch.

“He got in my way to get revenge, and even saving you girls was all part of the story he planned out!”

After saying it clearly, Kouki muttered like he was convincing himself: “He cheated.”

At first, I couldn’t understand what Kouki was saying.

How could he talk that badly about Yuuya when someone might be about to die?

I couldn’t understand it.

My confusion turned into anger, and the way I looked at Kouki changed.

Just as I was about to shout—

A sharp, loud slap cracked through the classroom.

The one who did it…

Mochizuki-senpai—crying.

Tears ran down her cheeks, and a drop hit the floor.

“You’re the worst.”

Mochizuki-senpai, openly furious, turned her back on Kouki and stormed out—chasing after Tachibana-san.

Then Takasaka-san and Nanase-san followed too, faces set with resolve.

At their backs, Kouki shouted again:

“Why are all of you trying to save someone like that!? You still don’t get it even after seeing this notebook!? That guy is trash! Wake up already!”

No one listened.

Kouki, his anger reaching the limit, slammed the notebook onto the floor.

And then there was me—

I glared hard at my first love.

Right now, Kouki was unbelievably frightening—and at the same time, I hated him.

The Kouki I knew is gone.

I ran after Mochizuki-senpai and the others.

◇◇◇

MC POV

Alone in the park, I looked up at the rainy sky.

Droplets hit my face again and again, and sometimes they got into my eyes, making me squeeze them shut on reflex.

No one is here to hold an umbrella over me.

No—wrong.

I’m the one who ran away.

I ran away from life, and I ran away from those girls.

It was nothing but escapism.

I just made myself alone.

Now it’s time to pay for dragging so many people into this.

From the direction of the park entrance, I faintly heard footsteps splashing through puddles.

See? They came.

Those footsteps sped up—

Stab.

The same sharp pain as my previous life tore through my side.

Chapter 46: Hospital Room

Hina POV

The five of us—including me—headed to the hospital room where Yuuya was hospitalized.

Five days had passed since then. The person who stabbed Yuuya was caught, but Yuuya still hadn’t woken up.

After that, the four of us who went to search for Yuuya found Tachibana-san at a park near the school, and we rushed over.

In front of Tachibana-san—standing frozen—was Yuuya collapsed on the ground, bleeding from his stomach. A knife was still stuck in his abdomen, and by the time we arrived, the culprit seemed to have already fled.

I hurriedly pressed the handkerchief I had against the area around the wound, trying to stop even a little of the bleeding.

Mizuki-san called an ambulance, Mochizuki-senpai went to get help, and Takasaka-san helped me with the bleeding.

But Tachibana-san just stood there the whole time. I tried giving her instructions too, but she started hyperventilating behind us and wasn’t in any state to move properly.

I was scared too. If Yuuya died… if I never got to see him again…

Every time that thought crossed my mind, I felt like I was about to cry.

The doctor told us, “His life isn’t in danger,” but also said, “We don’t know if he’ll wake up.”

He survived, but the anxiety never went away.

The five of us sat around Yuuya—still in a coma—as if surrounding him.

Takasaka-san and I stared at Yuuya’s face with the ventilator on. Nanase-san sat hunched, covering her face with her hands. Mochizuki-senpai stared into space with a sad expression.

And Tachibana-san, who looked like she was in the most pain, had her face buried against the bed where Yuuya slept, completely motionless.

For these five days, during our short visiting hours, we’d spent the time like this—silent.

“……”

In that atmosphere, I was the first to break the silence.

“Hey, everyone. I want you to look at this.”

I said that and pulled Yuuya’s notebook out of my bag.

Everyone except Tachibana-san lifted their faces and looked at me.

“That’s…”

At Takasaka-san’s murmur, I explained.

“Yuuya’s journal. After that, when I went alone to that empty classroom, it was thrown on the floor, so I picked it up—just in case.”

As I explained, discomfort appeared on the faces of the three who’d looked up—probably because they remembered the person who threw it: Jinguuji Kouki.

“So… what about it?”

Mochizuki-senpai asked.

“I re-read it and thought… who was Yuuya writing this for?”

At my question, the three of them widened their eyes.

“Let me see.”

Mochizuki-senpai took the notebook and flipped through the pages.

For a few seconds, only the sound of pages turning filled the hospital room.

Then suddenly, Mochizuki-senpai’s page-flipping stopped, like she’d found something.

“What is it?”

When I asked, Mochizuki-senpai said, “This…” and held the notebook out toward us.

The page was the very last page—completely blank.

Because nothing was written there, none of us had paid any attention to it, but…

As my eyes traveled over the page, I noticed a small set of words written in the bottom-right corner.

“I don’t want to die.”

The moment I said it out loud, Tachibana-san’s shoulders trembled—just once.

And with that, my earlier question was answered.

That’s right.

“Yuuya wrote this to ask someone for help.”

Yuuya had been asking someone for help all along. This notebook was written for the person who might help him.

He probably thought saying it out loud would burden someone, so he chose to write it down like this instead.

Realizing that, everyone’s expressions darkened even further.

“……”

A long silence followed.

And then I broke it again.

“Hey… what do you think our common thread is?”

“A common thread?”

Nanase-san sniffled and asked back.

“Yeah. This is only speculation, but… before Yuuya time-leaped here, I think in his previous life, he died after saving us.”

“Huh… what do you mean?”

Takasaka-san stared at me, pressing for more.

“I was thinking—if this life is following the same future as his previous one… then maybe in his previous life, Yuuya got stabbed by the same stalker. Like, for example, he died protecting Nanase-san.”

“No way…!”

I felt terrible seeing Nanase-san panic so hard.

But I felt like this was something we had to say out loud.

“And then I wondered… why did Yuuya interfere with us, even though he knew he was going to die?”

If revenge was his only goal, there were countless other ways. Simple ones too—like hurting someone. If he knew the future, it would’ve been easy to ruin someone’s life.

But Yuuya… it felt like he was taking revenge while protecting us.

“So that’s why you asked about our ‘common thread’…”

At Takasaka-san’s murmur, I replied, “Exactly.”

“I realized something—every one of us has some kind of connection to Kouki.”

The clearest example would be that originally, all of us were close with Kouki in some way.

“So…”

Mochizuki-senpai prompted, and I continued.

“In our previous life… I think every one of us, without exception, liked Kouki.”

“………………………………”

Silence fell again at my speculation.

It was the longest silence of the day.

And the one who broke that heavy silence was—

“Don’t mess with me.”

Tachibana-san, who had kept her face down the whole time.