I’m a Loner, Gloomy Guy Who Accidentally Witnessed the Moment the Top Girl in the Class Got Dumped. I Didn’t Know What to Say to Comfort Her, So I Just Gave Her a Cola and Somehow We Started Having Lunch Together~ - 15-16

Chapter 15: For Whose Sake (Hina’s POV)

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As Hina walked along the way home, the expression on her face was not anger toward Masaki. It was frustration and an overwhelming, crushing sadness.

“Even though it was for Masaki…!”

The reason she had chosen Sakuradai High School instead of Seiran High School, the school she had admired ever since she was little. That reason was Masaki. Hina loved Masaki. She had been harboring a one-sided love for him since elementary school, for a very long time now.

Back then, unlike now, they had been extremely close. They walked to school together every day, and often played together after school as well. As she spent those days with him, she had fallen in love with Masaki. She had thought she wanted to stay by his side forever, just like that.

But when they entered middle school, their relationship changed. One day, without warning, Masaki started keeping his distance from her. He began going to school at different times, and he stopped talking to her altogether. And even when she tried to talk to him herself, all she got were curt, cold replies.

Why!?

She had suddenly been disliked by him. Yet Hina had absolutely no idea what she might have done to cause it. She wanted to ask him why. She wanted to apologize properly, fix whatever was wrong, and return to how things used to be. But Hina couldn’t do it.

She was afraid of being told, “I just started to hate you.” If the person she loved rejected her outright, she knew she would never recover. To Hina, it would be the same as a death sentence. She wouldn’t be able to go on living. So she decided to keep her distance, just as Masaki wanted.

She hated it, and it made her chest ache painfully, but if she wanted to keep living, she had no other choice. However, that didn’t mean she had given up. If she believed and waited, their relationship would surely return to what it once was. The timing was just bad right now. Time would solve everything. That was precisely why Hina chose to enroll in Sakuradai High School together with Masaki.

Now they would be together again, for three more years.

By the time we graduate, my relationship with Masaki will definitely be back to normal. And then, I’ll tell him how I feel!

By sheer luck, they ended up in the same class, and Hina kept an eye on Masaki. Of course, she did it secretly, making sure not to let it show. Masaki wasn’t good at socializing, and he didn’t seem to be getting close to any girls. That fact had given Hina a huge sense of relief. But recently, that had begun to change.

The girl who was sitting at the top of the caste in the class, Noa Amamiya. He had started getting close to her. There shouldn’t have been any connection between the two of them. So Hina had no idea how they had suddenly become so close. But that didn’t matter.

The real problem was that Noa had feelings for Masaki. She looked at him constantly. During breaks and even during class, she was completely fixated on him. What dwelled in her eyes was passionate love. Noa was a girl in love. If this continued, the two of them might eventually end up together and that would mean defeat for Hina.

“Don’t mess with me!”

Stopping in her tracks, Hina clenched her fists tightly. She had been in love for nearly ten years already. There was no way she could forgive losing him to some girl who had just shown up two months ago. There was no way such an absurd injustice should be allowed to stand. She was done with just believing and waiting. She couldn’t bear the idea of standing by helplessly while Masaki was taken from her.

“…I won’t lose. Masaki belongs to me!”

Hina lifted her determined gaze toward the sky and, pouring all her feelings into it, declared war.

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Chapter 16: A Nostalgic Feeling

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Sway, sway, sway.

I felt my body being shaken hard.

…It felt nostalgic. When I was in elementary school, Hina used to wake me up like this every morning. Maybe it was because I had talked with Hina yesterday when she came over for the first time in a while, I ended up recalling things from a long time ago. There was no way Hina would come here, so the one shaking me was probably Mai. With a wry smile, I opened my eyes while still lying in bed.

The next instant, I was enveloped in shock.

“Finally awake, huh.”

What I heard beside me was Hina’s voice. She had a firm grip on my shoulder. The one shaking my body wasn’t Mai. It was Hina. No wonder it felt nostalgic. After all, the one doing it back then was the same person. Was I dreaming or something? I pinched my cheek, but it hurt. This was reality.

“Stop fooling around. Don’t do stupid things. Go get changed already.”

“…………Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We’re going to school. I’ll be waiting at the front door.”

Hina released my shoulder and briskly left the room.

“That wasn’t the kind of ‘why’ I meant…”

My childhood friend who was supposed to hate me had come to wake me up. I couldn’t understand the situation at all. At this point, I’d have to think it through myself… No, wait, if I didn’t hurry and get changed, this would be bad. If I took my time here, Hina would definitely get angry. I could easily imagine her storming into my room and yelling at me. I didn’t want my morning to start with something so depressing. I had to avoid that at all costs. 

I put the questions that had come to mind on hold. I quickly changed and headed for the front door at a brisk pace. After leaving the house, Hina and I walked side by side along the route to school. The only sound was the steady tapping of our footsteps. Without a single word exchanged, we just kept moving our legs. It was awkward. But there was nothing I could do about it.

After all, we’d cut off contact for nearly three years. I had no idea what kind of topic I was supposed to bring up. It would have helped if Hina had started a conversation, but that didn’t happen either. A small part of me thought, “You’re the one who showed up out of nowhere, at least start a conversation,” but I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to upset her and get yelled at.

Still, we couldn’t just keep going like this. The school was still a fair distance away. Enduring this awkward silence the whole way felt unbearable.

“Walking like this kinda makes me remember elementary school, doesn’t it?”

“……”

I worked up the courage to start a conversation, but Hina completely ignored me. It seemed I had picked the wrong topic.

“Why did you suddenly come over anyway?”

I didn’t give up there. As my next topic, I threw out the question I’d put on hold.

“Because I decided to fight.”

“…What does that even mean?”

When? With whom? Where? Why? For what purpose? And how? Hina’s words were seriously lacking in information. I really wanted her to think a little more in terms of the whole five-Ws-and-one-H. But Hina stayed silent.

She shut her mouth after that and didn’t answer anything. When Hina and I entered the classroom together, the boys immediately started buzzing.

“Murase seriously landed Yuuki-san too, right after Amamiya-san? As expected of a Romance Master!”

“But isn’t Murase dating Amamiya-san?”

“You idiot. Romance Masters run on a polygamy system. Having two at once is totally allowed. That’s just common sense, you know?”

There’s no such special rule. You’re looking all smug, but you’re probably the only person on Earth who thinks that’s common sense.

I was utterly fed up with my classmates’ ridiculous comments, but then my back suddenly stiffened. An intense killing intent washed over me. Its source was a classmate standing a short distance away, Amamiya-san. Her eyes were pulled wide open as she glared straight at us. She looked like she might pounce at any moment.

I couldn’t help but flinch at the sheer pressure, but Hina didn’t seem fazed at all. If anything, she even wore a provocative smile. Neither Amamiya-san’s murderous aura nor Hina’s smile made any sense to me. All I could do was stand there, utterly confused.

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