My Childhood Friend Who is My Girlfriend was Stolen by My Best Friend. From Now on, I'll Flirt with My Ex-Best Friend's Little Sister! - Chapter 32

Mission 4: Make My Childhood Friend Understand the Mistakes She has Done!

“—you should shut up already.”

I look at my childhood friend with unusually cold eyes and calmly said so.

“T-Toshi-kun…?”

It isn’t like the last time I hurled harsh words at my childhood friend.

Back then, I done it with the intention of pushing her away.

But this time, I’m just simply letting out the frustration that has built up inside me.

I’m a bit surprised by how cold my tone of voice is, but I have no intention of stopping now.

“Even at this point, do you still not understand your mistakes?”

“I-I do understand. It’s my fault for being an easy girl who gave my body away…b-but I’ll never do it again! I’ll never let anyone else but you touch me, Toshi-kun! I swear! I swear, I swear!”

“You really don’t get it…”

“Eh?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? I don’t care who you were with or what you did before we started dating. The problem is that after we got together, you still got involved with that guy. And by the sound of it, there are probably others too, right?”

“……”

“No matter how noble your reasons may be or how much you blame others, it’s all just excuses. Don’t take your anger out on Rinka. This is all your own doing.”

“W-Why are you defending that girl…? If it weren’t for Rin-chan, maybe we could have been together a long time ago…!”

Tears well up in her eyes.

Her voice sounds hoarse, she is on the verge of crying.

“It’s my decision to ask Rinka for love advice, and I took her advice with my own will. In the first place, there’s no rule that says I have to be the one to confess. You could have just confessed first. Stop complaining when you didn’t even do what you needed to do.”

“I-I was scared…scared of being rejected…”

“Everyone’s scared of that.”

“…w-why are you being so cold, Toshi-kun!? Be kind to me…don’t look at me with that scary face…that’s not the Toshi-kun I know…”

Tears begin to stream down her face, but I don’t stop. I can’t hold myself back anymore.

“Earlier…you said something about understanding how I feel, didn’t you?”

“…y-yeah…because I know how it feels to be cheated on by Toshi-kun…it hurts so much…”

My childhood friend sniffles and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, but as soon as our eyes meet, I coldly cut off her words.

“Don’t act like you understand my feelings.”

In that moment, my childhood friend’s eyes widen in surprise and her mouth opens slightly in shock.

“Eh?”

“We’ve already broken up. I don’t owe you any explanation about who I’m with now, and it’s definitely not cheating.”

“B-But…I never agreed to break up with you…you were the one who said we were done. I never agreed to it!”

“Do you really think you’re in a position to say something like that? Clearly, you don’t understand my feelings at all.”

I clench my hands tightly

Supressing my irritation, I continue.

“Being betrayed by the girl I loved—my childhood friend, it wasn’t something I can take lightly. To top it off, the other person involved is someone I thought was my best friend. Do you have any idea how much that hurt? Don’t just say you understand my feelings so easily. In the end, both you and that guy looked down on me, right?”

“…t-that’s not true! I never looked down on you, Toshi-kun…”

“Then why did you lie to me? After cheating on me, you came up with such a ridiculous excuse that even a monkey could’ve seen through it…in the end, you thought I’d be so easy to deceive, right? Both you and him. That’s why you kept seeing each other even after we started dating…because you both looked down on me.”

“T-That’s not true! I just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding—”

“Misunderstanding? What part of this is a misunderstanding?”

“…ah, no…well.”

My childhood friend falters.

I’m at my wit’s end…I feel like I’m going to burst into tears.

Why do I feel like crying…? Hold it together.

“I’m not good at doubting people. I tend to trust too easily…if it weren’t for Rinka, I probably would’ve believed that ridiculous excuse of yours.”

“Toshi-kun…”

“So in that sense, maybe you’re right—maybe if Rinka weren’t around, things would have been different.”

“……”

“Just the thought of it makes me sick. If Rinka weren’t around, you would’ve kept lying to me…kept deceiving me and betraying me behind my back, right?”

“T-That’s not true…I would never!”

My childhood friend leans forward, desperately denying it.

Even at this point…she’s still lying. It’s like a sickness at this point.

“Just…stop talking, will you? I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”

“T-Toshi-kun…”

“I told you to stop calling me that.”

“I-I’ll change, I promise…I’ll fix everything! Just let me stay by your side…I don’t have to be your girlfriend. I don’t care if we’re just childhood friends, or even just an acquaintance. I just…want some kind of connection with you…”

Tears fall from her eyes.

Her eyes are already red and swollen, her voice sounds hoarse.

Even after all this, she still won’t give up.

Do you still want to torture me? Do you still want to make me suffer?

I’m tired of this. I just want to forget about all this. I don’t want to see her face or hear her voice anymore.

Being betrayed by the girl I loved, by my first girlfriend, by my childhood friend I’ve known since I can remember…

The damage that caused to my mental state isn’t something small or easy to overcome.

Without Rinka as my emotional support, I would have collapsed. Or maybe I would’ve just lied to myself and pretended I didn’t see anything. That’s how much it hurt—it’s just too painful for someone as emotionally fragile as me.

I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

I don’t want to know any more about it.

As I’m about to lower my gaze to the floor—

—Slap!

A sharp, dry sound echoes throughout the room.

It happened so suddenly, without any warning.

Rinka, who was behind me moments ago, is now standing right in front of me.

“Enough already!”

My childhood friend gently holds her left cheek, freezes in place, stunned.

After a few seconds of silence, she opens her mouth.

“What are you doing, Rin-chan…?”

“Please, just stop…don’t make Senpai suffer any more than this! I don’t want to see Senpai’s pained expression again. There’s no way you can go back to how things were. You’ve done too much.”

“…I-I’m saying I’ll change! I’ll fix everything…so just give me a chance!”

“People don’t change that easily.”

“I will change. I promise! So…”

“Then at the very least, you should change before showing up in front of Senpai. You need to seriously reflect on how much you’ve hurt Senpai. Right now, you have no right to meet Senpai.”

“But if I do that, then Rin-chan and Toshi-kun…”

“Is there a problem with that? Senpai and I are in a relationship.”

“I don’t want that…”

“Honestly, it seems like you don’t even have a single shred of regret. Seriously, can you please just stop?”

“……”

My childhood friend bites her lower lip tightly.

A silence falls over the room.

I don’t know how many seconds or minutes have passed.

In the quiet world where only the sound of the clock’s ticking can be heard, it’s my childhood friend the first to make a move.

She comes before me and bows her head so deeply that her long black hair almost touch the floor.

“…I’m sorry.”

She continues to bow her head for a while.

It’s not a problem that can be solved by an apology. If you look at it objectively, she apologized simply because Rinka told her the truth.

However, it’s not easy to admit what you did wrong. I understand that, so I don’t say anything in response to her apology.

My childhood friend fiddles in her pocket and places the spare key to my room on the table.

“Why did you take it?”

“I got tempted when you let me stay over the other day…”

Apparently, she had stolen a spare key.

So that’s why she was able to get into my house.

Now that I think about it, I did lose my keys inside the house. I had no idea where hey had gone, so I gave up looking for them…

After bowing her head a few times, my childhood friend turns back to leave.

Her footsteps are heavy.

However, I feel like she truly regrets what she has done.

Rinka’s words must’ve resonated with her.

In the end, it seems like I’m once again saved by Rinka.

As she’s leaving, my childhood friend looks back at me.

“Can I ask you one last thing…?”

I don’t nod, but I also don’t shake my head.

Rinka is silently watching us.

“I see. Then I’ll just talk to myself…do you know what yesterday was?”

Curl my thumb inside my fist and reply with just one word.

“I don’t know.”

“…I see.”

My childhood friend looks down for a moment but quickly lifts her head.

Forcing a smile on her face, she leaves the room.

I don’t see her off.

My childhood friend has left the room, it’s just Rinka and me left in the room.

Rinka comes over to me.

Gently, she wraps her arms around my back and hugs me.

“…you did well, Senpai. You can indulge in my kindness as much as you want today.”

“Just for today?”

“If that’s what you want, you can do so anytime.”

Her warmth and thoughtfulness soothe my slightly troubled heart.