My Girlfriend Wanted an Open Relationship, So I Broke Up with Her and Found a Sweet Yandere - Chapter 18: She's Gone

I walked closer.

“…You stalking me now?” he muttered hoarsely.

“Hardly,” I said. “You’re not subtle.”

He huffed out something that might’ve been a laugh. Might’ve been a choke. “Guess not.”

We stood there awkwardly, the space between us thick and uncomfortable. The second-year building loomed behind him, concrete and indifferent.

“So,” I said finally, “you come all the way here just to crouch behind a pillar?”

He glanced away. “Came to meet my girlfriend…remember?”

Yeah, he said that before.

“…Didn’t go well?”

Silence.

Then, quietly, “She didn’t show.”

Something about the way he said it—flat, resigned—made my chest tighten.

“Why?” I asked.

He nodded once.

“Second year,” he added, like it explained everything.

What does even second year mean in this situation or he’s just blabbering now.

I waited. He didn’t continue. His jaw clenched, teeth grinding together as if he was holding something back.

“You don’t look surprised,” he said suddenly, eyes flicking to me. “Guess I look like the type, huh?”

I shrugged. “You looked worse the other night.”

Drunk, Angry… Kinda Miserable.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “That was… related.”

He leaned back against the column, slid down until he was sitting again, elbows resting on his knees. I stayed standing. Didn’t trust myself to sit.

“She’s going on a trip,” he said. “Seven days. Some island. Beach, booze, friends….more like fuck buddies

” A hollow smile tugged at his lips. “Said it’d be ‘good for her.’”

My stomach twisted.

…Fuck buddie?

Another case of this open relationship bullshit- what is even happening?

“And you?” I asked.

“I said okay.”

Of course you did.

He laughed bitterly, like he’d heard my thought anyway. “I always do. I let her do whatever she wants. Thought that was what being understanding meant.”

His fingers dug into his hair. “Guess I misunderstood.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t need to. The words were lining themselves up in my head, one after another, heavy and sharp.

“She didn’t even let me argue,” he continued. “Didn’t even hesitate. Just told me not to be dramatic.” His voice cracked, just for a moment. “I asked if she’d text me when she landed.”

“…And?”

“She said she’d be busy.”

I exhaled slowly through my nose.

“What’s her name?” I asked, mostly to ground myself. To keep this conversation real.

I don’t know a lot of people from second year to be honest.

He answered without looking up.

“Karen.”

The world tilted.

Just a subtle shift, like something inside me slipping out of alignment.

“…Karen?” I repeated.

“Yeah.” He glanced up, frowning. “Why?”

No reason.

No reason at all.

The name echoed, bouncing around in my skull, picking up things as it went. Laughter. Voices. Conversations I hadn’t paid much attention to before.

Haruka’s friends.

Open relationships.

Freedom.

“It’s not cheating if both partners agree.”

My phone, face-down in my pocket. Unread. Still unread.

“She’s… popular,” he added. “People like her. Confident. Knows what she wants.”

Yeah. I know.

“I came here because she studies here,” he said quietly. “Thought if I talked to her face-to-face, maybe… I don’t know. Maybe she’d look at me differently.”

I stared at the concrete at his feet. At the little cracks spidering outward.

A seven-day island trip.

Haruka not replying.

Karen going with her friends.

My chest felt tight. Hot. Like something was pressing from the inside, demanding space it didn’t have.

“So you’re just… okay with it?” The words slipped out before I could stop them.

Kaito stiffened. “What?”

“With her going off like that,” I said. My voice sounded wrong to my own ears. Too sharp. “You’re just fine with it?”

He frowned. “I didn’t say that.”

“But you let her,” I said. “You just said okay.”

I did that too! Whenever she’d be difficult… I’ll just comply with her.

“That’s not—” He stopped, lips pressing together. “What was I supposed to do? Lock her up?”

“No,” I snapped. “You were supposed to say something.”

I was supposed to say something!

He stood up abruptly. “You think I didn’t try?”

“Doesn’t sound like it.”

That did it.

His eyes hardened, something defensive flaring to life. “You don’t know anything about us.”

“Then explain it to me,” I said, my pulse pounding in my ears. “Explain how you can just sit there while someone you love walks all over you.”

His mouth opened. Closed.

“I love her,” he said, quieter now. “That’s exactly why.”

Something inside me cracked.

“I let her do everything,” Kaito said, the words spilling out faster now, uglier. “I give her space, freedom, excuses-”

He stared at me stopping mid-sentence

“How can you even share someone you love?” I continued. “How can you look at yourself after that?”

“Stop,” he muttered.

“You don’t stand up for yourself,” I said. “You just take it and call it love.”

“Stop it.”

“Do you have any pride at all?”

The sound came before I saw it.

A sharp crack. White exploded behind my eyes.

My head snapped to the side, pain blooming across my cheek, hot and immediate. I stumbled back a step, hand flying up on instinct.

Silence.

My ears rang. My heartbeat thundered.

Kaito stood there, breathing hard, his hand clenched into a fist at his side. His eyes were wide—not with rage, but something rawer. Hurt. Shock. Maybe even regret.

“Don’t,” he said, voice shaking. “Don’t talk about me like you know what it’s like.”

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out.

He laughed once, bitter and broken. “You think you’re better? You think you wouldn’t do the same?”

He shook his head. “You don’t know a damn thing.”

Then he turned and walked away, shoulders rigid, footsteps quick and uneven.

I stood there, frozen.

The sting on my face pulsed in time with my heart. My fingers trembled where they pressed against my cheek.

What the hell did I just do?

The realization hit all at once—what I’d said, how it sounded, how it wasn’t really about him at all.

Shame curled low in my stomach.

I sank down against the column, breath coming shallow. The slap grounded me in a way nothing else had. Pulled me back into my body. Into the mess I’d just made.

… I was doing just fine.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Footsteps approached.

Light ones.

“Yuuta!”

I looked up.

Akari-sensei was jogging toward me, waving lightly like she’d just spotted someone she was happy to see. She slowed when she got closer, smile already forming—

—and then it faded.

Her eyes went straight to my face.

“Yuuta…” she said softly, reaching out before she seemed to realize it, fingers hovering near my cheek. “What happened?”

Her touch was warm.

Concern flooded her expression, genuine and immediate.

My throat tightened.

“I’m fine,” I said automatically.

She didn’t look convinced.

Her hand brushed my cheek anyway, gentle, careful. “You’re not.”

The world felt very quiet all of a sudden.

And I had the strange, sinking feeling that I’d just stepped into something I wouldn’t be able to walk away from so easily.

She left for the island, didn’t she?