Chapter 32 – Two Resentful Gazes

Even after arriving at their classroom, Ichizu and Miina’s attitudes didn’t soften in the slightest. They interacted with Shinta while blatantly putting their affection on full display. Naturally, acting like that in the middle of the classroom made them stand out. Out of pure curiosity, the girls in the class swarmed Ichizu and Miina. They pressed them about their relationship with Shinta.

“Hey, hey, aren’t you two a little closer to Kamiji-kun than usual?”

“Right? You’re way more all over him than ever.”

In response to these curious suspicions, the two of them had zero intention of playing coy. They openly confessed their feelings for Shinta. Immediately, the girls in the classroom erupted into high-pitched squeals of excitement. The boys, conversely, fell into deep despair upon learning that two of the class’s most beautiful girls had the hots for Shinta.

“Whew~ Get it, Kamiji-kun♪”

“Ichizu-san and Miina are being so aggressive, too! So, what’s it actually like?”

Despite it being first thing in the morning, the girls’ excitement was maxed out over the juicy classroom gossip. Conversely, all the boys’ excitement instantly plummeted to rock bottom. They knew they officially had zero chance with the top-tier beauties of the class.

“Guhhh, I’m so damn jealous…”

“Ugh… I was actually planning on confessing to Arai-san soon, too…”

Feeling pity for the boys wallowing in sorrow and regret, Shinta instinctively averted his eyes. Even so, if this were his old classmates, they likely would have held a prejudiced view. They would have thought the former delinquent Shinta was threatening the two girls. Now that he had largely opened up to the class, he wasn’t looked at that way anymore. The girls teased him playfully. The boys shed tears of frustration and envy. That was the extent of it.

While offering a wry smile at the classroom’s reaction, Shinta felt a certain sense of relief. There wasn’t a hint of disgust or malice in anyone’s response.

(If it were the old me, I probably would have been despised and misunderstood as some scumbag threatening girls.)

The fact that it didn’t turn out that way in this class was undoubtedly thanks to Ichizu and Miina defending him to everyone. He watched the two of them getting bombarded with questions by the girls. He silently sent them his gratitude in his heart. Suddenly, a strange sense of unease pricked Shinta’s senses.

“…Hm?”

Feeling an exceptionally intense and rage-filled gaze, he turned toward the hallway. He spotted a male student glaring daggers at them through the window glass. The guy looked as if he wanted to murder someone. He had been subjected to jealous glares from many boys on the way to the classroom. Shinta had intentionally paid them no mind. He figured there would be no end to it if he cared about every single one. This time, however, Shinta’s expression twisted severely upon recognizing the person.

(That bastard… What does he want now…?)

Standing in the hallway on the other side of the glass was Ichizu’s former childhood friend, Ogawa Keisotsu. The guy was muttering something under his breath while looking at him. No, he was glaring at him. Seeing him standing there like some sort of vengeful ghost made Shinta sick. He couldn’t help but let his disgust show on his face.

But then, Shinta noticed something. At first, he thought the glare was directed at him. Upon closer inspection, the target of that man’s gaze wasn’t him at all. It was Ichizu, who was being interrogated by the girls behind him.

(Is that guy glaring at Ichizu instead of me?)

Shinta was unable to ignore Ogawa. The guy was directing dangerously unstable eyes at Ichizu. It looked like he might burst into the classroom at any second. Shinta stood up from his seat. Perhaps noticing Shinta’s movement, Ogawa visibly panicked. He quickly scurried down the hallway and retreated to his own class.

“Tch, is he seriously still holding a grudge against Ichizu?”

Opening the classroom door, he glared at Ogawa’s retreating back. Ever since Ichizu’s declaration to cut ties with Ogawa right there in the classroom at the start of their second year, nothing had happened. He hadn’t heard her mention suffering any particular harm from that man.

However, he just couldn’t shake the image of those bloodshot eyes glaring at Ichizu. He was just thinking he should find time to tell Ichizu about it later when it happened again. Yet another gaze pregnant with anger pierced him.

“Jeez, who is it this time?”

Reacting to the hostility aimed at him from the opposite direction of where Ogawa had just fled, he found a single female student. She was standing down the hall and glaring in his direction.

However, he didn’t recognize the female student glaring at him. Digging through his memories, she was definitely someone Shinta was seeing for the first time. Yet, for some reason, this girl was shooting him an incredibly displeased look.

“Hmph. Why would Onee-sama choose a guy like that…?”

After glaring silently for a moment, the female student muttered something. She turned on her heel and walked away. Because of the distance between them, he couldn’t make out what she was saying. Judging from that expression, there was no doubt she harbored hostility toward him.

“Dammit, it’s only the start of the week. Why is it just one stomach-ache-inducing thing after another?”

Knowing it was pointless, Shinta grumbled his complaints anyway. But Shinta would soon find out. From here on out, his high school life was going to be thrown into massive turmoil. It would be caused by his three potential girlfriend candidates, the resentful Ogawa Keisotsu, and that girl whose name he didn’t even know yet.