It's a Chastity-Reversed World, But It's Different From What I Imagined? - 73

Chapter 73: Childhood Friend’s POV: 5

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【Yuuna Aoyanagi】

On that day, while bathed in the light of the setting sun… 

『Yoru Kurose is graduating from Yuuna Aoyanagi. Thank you so much for everything until now.I’m fine now, so Yuuna, live in your own world and I’ll live in mine. Ah, but as childhood friends, make sure to listen to my love troubles, okay? Because, you see… I have someone I like. I was supposed to celebrate today with my clubmates, but they bailed on me. They told me if I asked the one I like for dinner, she’d say yes, so I’m heading over now.』

What… What is he saying to me? Yoru and I are supposed to have mutual feelings, and now Yoru is supposed to start dating me, isn’t he? Graduating? Does that mean Yoru is leaving me? He likes someone? Isn’t that ‘someone’ supposed to be me?

『See you, Yuuna.』

I stared blankly at Yoru’s back as he walked away, unable to make a sound.

I barely remembered the days after that. I grew to hate going to school and shut myself up in my room. Yoru stopped sending me messages, and I became cut off from the world.

Ah… I see. Without Yoru, my world has nothing in it.

I began to hate swimming, school, and life itself, and I stopped doing anything at all. Even so, there was someone who came to pull me outside.

“Yuuna! What are you doing?! The school called to say you haven’t been attending!”

Mother Yui broke down my room’s door and appeared. I hadn’t eaten in days, so my lips were stuck together, and my voice came out hoarse.

“Are you trying to die?”

Thanks to Mother Yui’s nursing, I narrowly escaped death. She forced drinks into me until I could eat again.

“If you don’t want to go to school, you don’t have to. But you’re not allowed to die. Life is long. If there are bad times, there will absolutely be good times, too. So live.”

It was the first time I had seen Mother cry. Seeing her cry made me cry as well. Even so, I couldn’t sort out my feelings, and without Mother I became like a doll who did nothing.

“Yuuna. Let’s go eat with Tsuki-chan and SEI. At times like this, a girls’ night out is what you need.”

Hearing Tsuki-chan’s name made my body tremble. If I hadn’t gone along with her plan, would Yoru still be with me? Those kinds of emotions welled up inside me.

Mother Yui took my hand, and we waited for Tsuki-chan at the restaurant. Tsuki-chan arrived with a dignified air, and Mother Yui showed her a certain video.

“Hey, Tsuki-chan. Do you know this video?”

The video showed Yoru, who had come to cheer at my swim meet. It had been a while since I’d seen him, and he was still as cool and wonderful as ever. But the Yoru who used to smile at me no longer smiled at me.

“This is—!”

“Ah, so Tsuki-chan didn’t know. This is the club Yoru-kun started in high school. It’s called the Men’s Cheer Team.”

I knew. Yoru had created the Men’s Cheer Team and was enjoying his high school life, full of energy and surrounded by friends.

“I see… Based on your reaction, it seems Tsuki-chan really didn’t know. Yuuna? You knew about this, didn’t you?”

When the conversation was directed at me, I kept watching the video of Yoru instead of answering.

“Ahahaha!!! Yoru—my Yoru—!!! Wonderful. As I thought, Yoru is so cool~ Haa~ I love Yoru.”

I couldn’t stop my feelings. My emotions overflowed.

“The other day, I met Yoru. He was brimming with confidence, so manly… It was a Yoru I didn’t know.”

SEI-san was talking, but I didn’t care. Yoru was in the video.

“What are you talking about, Mother? Brother has always been perfect. Back in middle school, I protected him along with Yuuna-neesan to make sure no other girls took him away. And now you say you didn’t know? Don’t tell me you seriously called him gross out of your heart? That’s impossible!”

“Tsuki?!”

“Excuse me, Mother Yui. We haven’t even started eating yet, but I don’t want to stay here any longer, so please let me excuse myself.”

“…Tsuki-chan. I understand. Let’s talk again another time.”

Tsuki-chan stood up and looked at me. I couldn’t take my eyes off Yoru, yet my ears caught the irritating voice.

“I don’t know what Nii-san said to you, but clearly, you are different from me. Did you perhaps ask him to be your lover? And did he reject you?”

Yoru is mine, so why am I not allowed to want him to be my boyfriend?

The words Tsuki-chan threw at me made my heart grow restless.

“I am the one who protects Nii-san. I am the only one who has always been by his side and knows him completely. Other women mean nothing unless Nii-san himself desires them. If you cannot become the woman Nii-san chooses, then go ahead and fall into ruin.”

Tsuki-chan’s words crushed my heart.

After that, the days of lethargy returned. I stayed home all day, sometimes watching videos of Yoru. Before I knew it, summer had come, the heat made me sweat.

“Yuuna. Let’s go out. I finally got some time off and you need a change of pace.”

I was forcibly pulled from my room and put in the car. After we stayed parked in the lot for a while, Tsuki-chan got in.

“Yuuna-neesan. It’s been a while.”

She spoke to me, but I ignored her. Next, Mother Yui brought Yoru. My body stiffened, and I pretended to be asleep.

When we arrived at the hot spring inn, I bolted from the car as if I was running away from them. If I went to the room, I’d have to be near Yoru. So I escaped to the garden and looked at the mountains.

If Yoru rejects me, then…

For two days, I kept running away. On the second day, Mother Yui took me to the sea, but I couldn’t bring myself to swim. I grew tired from spending time outside for the first time in so long and went to bed early.

In the middle of the night, I woke up. Everyone was asleep, so I went out to the garden alone to feel the night breeze. As I pushed through the grass, I saw a human figure and was startled.

“W-What?”

The other person spoke, and I burst out from the grass.

“Yuuna?”

Even though I didn’t want to see him, Yoru was there.

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