My Ex-Girlfriend Who Dumped Me, the Top Student, Is at Risk of Failing and Repeating a Year—but I’m Too Busy Tutoring a Former Shut-in Beauty To Get Back Together With Her - 27-28

Chapter 27: Shooting Game

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The heat of the festival had reached its peak. The smell of burning sauce, the scent of sweet cotton candy, and the sound of people laughing. Kisaragi-san and I walked along the street lined with food stalls, our fingers still tightly intertwined.

“Mmm… it’s delicious.”

In one of Kisaragi-san’s hands was a bright red candy apple. She stuck out her small tongue and gave the red candy a lick. That gesture, combined with her glamorous yukata appearance, looked strangely alluring. The red of the candy overlapped with the red of her lips.

“……Do you want to eat some too, Sensei?”

“N-no, I’m fine.”

“Are you worried about an indirect kiss?”

“Of course I am. I’m strictly here as your escort.”

When I turned my face away, Kisaragi-san giggled and said, “Too bad.”

I was being completely toyed with. However, I could tell she was enjoying herself from the bottom of her heart, and my cheeks naturally relaxed as well.

“Ah, Sensei! Look at that!”

Suddenly, Kisaragi-san stopped in her tracks. At the end of her gaze was a target gallery stall. It was a traditional game where you knock down prizes with a cork gun.

“That… that cat plushie is so cute.”

She pointed to a slightly large black cat plushie on the top shelf. It looked similar to her LIME icon.

“Do you want it?”

“Mhm. ……But it looks difficult.”

“Alright, leave it to me. It’s a teacher’s duty to grant a student’s wish.”

I rolled up my sleeves, thinking this was my moment. To be honest, it would be a lie to say I didn’t have a desire to show off a cool side of myself in a place like this. I handed five hundred yen to the old man at the stall and received the cork gun. I loaded the bullet. My target was the black cat. However, just shooting blindly wouldn’t hit it. Stall guns have their quirks, and cork bullets are light.

(The distance is approximately two meters. Considering the misalignment of the muzzle and the mass of the cork…)

Inside my brain, a calculation formula was instantly assembled. A trajectory describing a parabola. The influence of gravity. Air resistance. My thought process, which Rina had once called “too logical” and “creepy,” was now a weapon.

“The target is slightly below the center of gravity. ……Right here.”

Pop!

A dry sound echoed. The cork bullet described a beautiful parabola and was sucked right into the black cat’s feet. The plushie wobbled and then fell backward.

“Splendid! You’re good at this, young man!”

The man at the shop rang a bell, clatter-clatter. The surrounding customers also raised a cheer, saying, “Ohhh!”

“Incredible……! Sensei, you’re amazing!”

Kisaragi-san was jumping up and down with joy. I handed the plushie I received over to her.

“Here you go. ……Well, I just shot according to the basics of physics.”

“Thank you! I’m so happy……!”

She hugged the plushie to her chest, then looked up at me with sparkling eyes.

“You really are amazing, Sensei. Not just with studying, but to even calculate a target gallery.”

“……Usually, this is where people would say I’m ‘too logical and boring.'”

“No. It’s cool. ……I love that smart side of you, Sensei.”

My heart gave a heavy thud. There wasn’t a single cloud of doubt in her words. She completely affirmed the part of me that used to be my insecurities, saying she “loved” it. I was supposed to be the one who took the shot at the gallery, but instead, I felt like my own heart had been shot through.

“……It’s almost time for the fireworks. Let’s move.”

I started walking at a quick pace to hide my embarrassment. Kisaragi-san laughed, saying “Wait for meee,” and while clutching the plushie, she tightly squeezed my free hand again.

We slipped through the crowd and headed toward a little-known spot I had researched in advance—the riverbed. The surrounding clamor gradually grew distant, and I could hear the scent of grass and the murmuring of the river.

However…. We had not noticed. That a dark shadow was tracking us from behind.

“……What is that.”

In the shadow of a stall, Rina Aikawa was grinding her teeth. At the end of her gaze was the figure of Kisaragi-san happily clutching the black cat plushie and Kashiwagi-kun watching over her kindly.

To her right now, the sight of the two looking so happy appeared as nothing but a slight against herself.

“I won’t forgive this…… I’ll definitely get in their way.”

Rina-san straightened the collar of her disheveled yukata and forced a smile onto her face where her makeup had run.

The quiet riverbed before the fireworks went up.

That would become the final battlefield for her.

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Chapter 28: Celebratory Fireworks

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The riverbank was as quiet as if the festival’s clamor had been a lie. Only the sound of drums echoing from afar and the chirping of insects in the grass resounded.

“……From here, it looks like we’ll have a good view.”

“Yeah. The breeze is cool, so it’s a premium seat.”

Kisaragi-san and I sat down side-by-side at a spot overlooking the river’s surface. Kisaragi-san held the black cat plushie on her lap as if it were precious, a gentle smile appearing on her profile. It was a distance where the sleeves of our yukatas touched. A comfortable silence lingered until the fireworks were launched.

Rustle, rustle!

Suddenly, I heard rough footsteps from the grass behind us. At the same time we turned around, that shadow appeared.

“……pant, pant…… I finally found you……!”

It was Rina Aikawa. She was breathing heavily. Her disheveled yukata—which she wasn’t used to wearing—had a messy hem, and her hair was slightly frayed. Her makeup was smeared with sweat, giving her a ghastly look.

“Aikawa……? Why are you here?”

“What do you mean ‘why’…… Obviously, I was looking for you!”

Rina stepped firmly onto the grass and stood in our way. Then, glaring at Kisaragi-san sitting next to me, she let out a piteous voice.

“Move. ……Because that’s my seat!”

“……There is no longer a seat for you anywhere.”

I replied calmly, stood up, and stepped forward to shield Kisaragi-san. 

(Seriously, what is this girl even saying?)

“Stop following me. Our relationship ended a long time ago already.”

“It’s not over! I was just the one saying things one-sidedly! I take it back—all those words!”

Rina shook her head desperately and tried to cling to the sleeve of my yukata.

“I realized it. It’s no good with an idiot like Hasegawa-kun. ……I need a smart person like you, Kashiwagi-kun.”

“……By that, you just mean you need my ‘functions,’ right?”

“No! It’s because I love you! It was fun when we started dating in the spring, wasn’t it!? Teaching me the crane games at the arcade, studying at the family restaurant before tests…… Let’s go back to those days!”

Tears began to overflow from Rina’s eyes. It might be true that it was fun when we first started dating. However, even those memories were fading because of her current behavior. The one she missed wasn’t “me,” but “herself, who was being devotedly served by me.”

“We can’t go back, Rina.”

Without shaking her hand off, I simply stepped back quietly to put distance between us.

“I intended to be devoted because I thought that being with you would lead to more fun things. But you only ever looked at me as a ‘convenient tool’.”

“Th-that’s why! I’m saying I’ll change! I’ve reflected! Even I can do it if I try!”

“……You can say anything when it’s just words.”

Rina gasped at my cold gaze.

“Even while saying you’ll ‘change,’ in the end, you’re still just trying to rely on me right now. You aren’t trying to walk on your own.”

When I told her that, Rina was at a loss for words, her gaze wandering. And the moment that gaze turned behind me—toward Kisaragi-san—it was inhabited by the color of hatred.

“……What. Then, what about that girl? Even she is just having you teach her how to study! She’s a ‘parasite’ just like me, isn’t she!?”

Rina shouted while pointing at Kisaragi-san. Just as I was about to retort in anger, it happened. Softly. Kisaragi-san stood up quietly. She didn’t hide behind me. Instead, she lined up next to me. There was neither fear nor anger in her expression. There was only a dignified silence.

“……I am dependent on Sensei. I won’t deny that.”

Kisaragi-san said matter-of-factly.

“But I won’t seek just ‘answers’ from Sensei. I want to walk the path Sensei taught me with my own feet. ……Because I want to be a student Sensei can be proud of.”

She hugged the plushie that had been on her lap again and stared straight at Rina.

“You weren’t looking at Sensei. You were only looking at Sensei’s ‘notes’.”

“……”

“But I am looking at Sensei. His hands, his voice, his heart…… I found all of it.”

An overwhelming difference in “class.” Rina, who was wailing, and Kisaragi-san, who was quietly declaring her feelings. There was no need to even compare which one was the important existence to me.

“……That’s how it is, Rina.”

I placed my hand on Kisaragi-san’s shoulder and told Rina clearly.

“The one I want by my side isn’t you, who’s still clinging to past memories. ……It’s Kisaragi, who is looking at me now and walking together with me.”

A decisive rejection. Rina’s complexion turned ashen. Her tears stopped as well, and she just stood there with her mouth open in a daze. She realized that her scenario—her convenient delusion—had been shattered into pieces.

“Ugh…… sob……!”

Rina distorted her face as if she couldn’t take it anymore and fled the scene like a scared rabbit. Leaving behind the parting shot, “I don’t care about someone like you!”, she disappeared into the darkness. That was the genuine, final goodbye to my ex-girlfriend.

Whistle……

Immediately after Rina’s footsteps faded away, a sound echoed, cutting through the night air.

BOOM!!

A large firework burst overhead. The multicolored light vividly illuminated the riverbank, which had regained its silence. As if to bless the world that belonged only to us—me and Kisaragi-san.

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