Chapter 3 – The Worst, Most Selfish Childhood Friend

During lunch break, Ichizu’s childhood friend, Ogawa, came over from another class to Shinta’s classroom. Seeing the figure of his childhood friend who had been reborn into a completely different person after the break, he floated an affable smile and began to approach her with undue familiarity.

“Wow, you’re practically unrecognizable, Ichizu. How did you manage such a drastic change?”

Exuding a friendly atmosphere, Ogawa touched Ichizu’s shoulder. At Ogawa’s action of casually touching her shoulder, she turned pale and backed away a few steps.

“W-What business do you have with me now?”

“Hey, hey, is it really that strange to invite my own girlfriend to lunch?”

With a look that suggested this was completely natural, Ogawa made an incomprehensible remark. This out-of-touch remark made even Shinta, who was watching how things unfolded, frown.

(Hey, hey, what the hell is this guy saying? After dumping her so spectacularly before the break, too.)

Shinta had also seen the scene on the day of the closing ceremony where this guy brutally dumped Ichizu with an added bonus of verbal abuse. Despite that, this guy was acting as if that past never existed. Naturally, Ichizu, the very person who got dumped, spoke up with anger seeping into her voice.

“Don’t mess with me. You and I are already over, aren’t we? Besides, don’t you have a girlfriend?”

“Ah, I already broke up with her. I’m single right now.”

“Wha… Is that so… But you and I have nothing to do with each other anymore, so…”

Ichizu rejected him, making it clear that either way, her heart no longer belonged to him, but paying no mind to her attitude, Ogawa placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Now, now, don’t be so mad. Everything I said at the closing ceremony… I reflected on it over the break, too. So, let’s start over from scratch, just us childhood friends… Ouch!?”

“Hey, hey, something’s been off here for a minute now. I’m pretty sure you told her not to talk to you acting like a childhood friend, didn’t you?”

Irritated by the playboy’s sheer selfishness, before he realized it, Shinta had grabbed the filthy hand resting on Ichizu’s shoulder.

Ogawa tried to snap at the presence of Shinta, who had suddenly cut in from the side, but his face twisted in pain from the grip strength Shinta was using on his arm.

“O-Oww…!? W-What the hell do you… Kamiji… kun?”

Somehow shaking his arm free, Ogawa glared this way with a furious expression. That being said, to Shinta, who had spent his middle school days immersed in fights, it was no different than being threatened by a puppy. It seemed Ogawa also knew about him and the bad rumors circulating the school, because the moment he realized the person grabbing his arm was Shinta, he instantly backed down. Inwardly feeling let down by his incredibly spineless attitude, Shinta nevertheless stood in front of Ichizu as if to protect her, glaring straight at him.

“I was listening quietly, but don’t try to steer the conversation in a way that’s convenient for you. I know you brutally dumped Arai on the roof. What was it again? I’m pretty sure you lied about needing expenses for your club and pocketed her paycheck as a girlfriend fee, right?”

“H-How do you know about that… Ah!?”

Never expecting that day’s events to have been witnessed, Ogawa let out a panicked cry. Seeing his reaction, the students in the class began to sense the unsettling atmosphere.

“Eh, girlfriend fee?”

“No way. He was taking something like that from his own girlfriend? And tricking her to do it…”

“Absolute scum…”

Facing the contemptuous gazes from the surroundings, Ogawa became flustered, and Shinta applied even more pressure.

“I don’t have any intention of saying anything about you dumping her. Heartbreak between a guy and a girl ain’t exactly rare. But, the fact that you dumped her yourself, and on top of that, wrung money out of her with a malicious lie, only to try and get back together without even an apology—that pisses me off.”

“Eep!?”

In that instant, the air in the classroom pulled taut under Shinta’s pressure. The man who was once feared by delinquents from other schools and given the alias Fierce God. There was no way ordinary students could withstand the intensity of such a person. Even the students watching from a distance broke into cold sweats, and as for Ogawa, who was having that pressure applied directly to him from up close…

“A-Aah…”

He couldn’t even form words anymore, ending up slumped on the floor right then and there. Shinta was about to kick him out of the classroom just like that, but here, Ogawa suddenly started snapping back at him.

“Y-You’re the one deceiving my childhood friend behind the scenes, aren’t you!”

“Hah? The hell are you suddenly talking about?”

“Hmph, you talk big! You’re a rumor all over school, you know? That you’ve been an out-of-control, piece-of-shit delinquent since middle school!!”

Saying that, Ogawa looked around the entire classroom, obviously yelling loudly on purpose. Then, the contemptuous gazes that had been directed at Ogawa up until now shifted over to Shinta.

(Ah, I see. What a truly sly bastard.)

Here, he could vaguely guess this guy’s aim. Most likely, he was planning to redirect the brunt of the class’s disdain toward Shinta and sweep his own mess under the rug. In fact, the classmates who had been aiming their criticism at Ogawa just moments ago were now looking at Shinta with eyes of contempt.

(Hmph, how stupid.)

He was used to being treated like the bad guy for no reason. Figuring he might as well go all the way if he was going to be the villain anyway, he tried to grab Ogawa by the scruff of the neck and throw him out. However, inside the classroom full of enemies, a single girl raised her voice in protest.

“Don’t mess with me! Someone like you and Kamiji-kun are completely different!!”