My Online Friends Turned Out To Be the Ultra-Beautiful Girls in My Class and They Were Yandere - 3

Chapter 3: Describe Your Feelings When There Was a Lunchbox in Your Shoe Locker

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー

After that, we just chatted normally in the group and went to sleep. Thinking about it again, even knowing that “e” was actually Muna, her “old man” act was seriously convincing. Who would have ever guessed that someone who talked like that, using such stereotypical phrasing, was actually an unbelievably beautiful girl?

But still, I was glad. I had learned a lot, but “e” was still “e.” It would be fine, right? I should be able to trust her, Muna Tanatsuki. After all, we had talked all night long for two whole years. She even knew about my trauma.

♢♢♢

And then the next day. On the bus, I had an insane pull in a mobile game and was in a great mood. I was practically bouncing with excitement as I opened my shoe locker like usual. One second passed. No, two seconds. My excitement vanished instantly. There must be a reason people said things like “my jaw dropped” or “time stood still.” Because for some reason, inside my shoe locker was an unfamiliar lunchbox wrapped in a pink napkin.

Question: Describe how I felt when I found a lunchbox in my shoe locker.

“What? What is this?”

The answer was confusion. I mean, what else could it be?

No, normally if someone puts something in your locker, it’s chocolates on Valentine’s Day or something. Why is there just a full-on lunchbox sitting in there? For now… Well, it is kind of scary in a lot of ways, but I’ll gratefully accept it. 

If this was just simple kindness or affection, I couldn’t just reject it outright. Before that, though, I pulled out my phone and messaged a certain person. I already had a hunch.

『hara: Muna, what’s the meaning of this?』

『e: What do you mean, what’s the meaning of this?』

『hara: The lunchbox. That’s yours, right?』

『e: Ah, you figured it out. Yeah, it’s mine. Think of it as thanks for yesterday』

Bingo. Well, I barely interacted with girls at all, so she was the only one who could’ve done something like this. Now that I knew, it should be safe. I took the lunchbox and headed into the classroom.

“Gooood morning, Hara-kun!”

“G-good morning, Muna.”

Muna noticed me right away and waved with a bright smile. It made my heart skip a beat. Despite everything, I genuinely thought she looked really cute.

“Hey… what happened to that cut?”

Looking closer, I noticed a bandage wrapped around the index finger of her right hand, something that hadn’t been there yesterday. Did she get hurt after that?

“Hm? Oh, this? I actually cut my finger by accident while making Haruki’s lunch. It doesn’t hurt that much, so don’t worry. But thanks.”

“You didn’t have to go out of your way to make mine too, you know? You should’ve just spent more time on Tanaka’s.”

Come to think of it, Tanaka always ate the lunches she made, right? Suddenly, I felt kind of bad. She made one for Haruki, one for herself, and even one for me. Wasn’t that way too much effort? What time did she even wake up every day?

“No, no, I wanted to. You always skip lunch anyway, don’t you?”

“…Yeah. I don’t want to burden my mom, and skipping lunch is no big deal for me.”

“That’s exactly why. So at least once in a while, try eating a lunch. Though honestly, I just stuffed in some frozen foods.”

“I’m still really grateful. And you really don’t have to keep making them, okay?”

I said it casually. I really did. What I meant was, “focus more on Tanaka.” That was my intention. But…

“You won’t eat it? Or are you saying my lunch is disgusting and I shouldn’t make it anymore?”

For some reason, she said that in a low voice. Tears were falling from her eyes, her gaze completely devoid of light.

Whoa, wait, wait, wait, that’s way too heavy!!!

“Th-that’s not what I meant! I just meant you should spend more time on Tanaka and yourself! I said that earlier, right? I mean, it’s a lot of work, isn’t it? You don’t have to make mine!”

“Hah…! S-sorry! I got a little carried away. Still… huh, you’re kind, aren’t you?”

As if snapping back to herself, she took a step back in surprise. The light returned to her eyes, her tears stopped, and she was completely back to normal.

…What was that just now?

Maybe she has some kind of trauma about being rejected?

That was the only explanation that made sense. If that was the case, then I’d messed up. But still… This was complicated. I knew Muna liked Tanaka and I wanted to support that. That was why it felt wrong. I was happy she talked to me, happy she did things for me, since all of this was new to me. But at the end of the day, Muna and I just happened to meet online and talk for about two years. That was it. From what I’d heard, she and Tanaka were childhood friends, and she’d probably been in love with him for a long time.

I wanted her to end up with Tanaka. I didn’t want her to worry about me. I wanted us to have the same distance as before and for her to just focus on him. That was why I felt hesitant about accepting things from her.

…Well, I’m still going to eat it, though.

“Hey, Kamitsuru. Why are you making my Muna cry?”

“I don’t know, Tanaka. I mean, I do feel bad that she cried. But I seriously have no idea why. And I didn’t do anything.”

A voice came from behind me. When I turned around, Tanaka was glaring at me. What a pain. Of all things, he saw that moment when she suddenly started crying.

“Your words mean nothing to me. Do you really think I’d trust you after that incident?”

“That has nothing to do with this. Don’t bring it up.”

Because of something that happened back in middle school, he hated me. And he often used it as an excuse to paint me as the bad guy. Though, in this case, I really was at fault.

“Tell me, Muna. What did Kamitsuru do to you?”

“What Kamitsuru-kun said is true! Haruki, I was just asking him for advice!”

“…I see. If you say so, I’ll believe you. Kamitsuru, stay away from my Muna. You’ll only make her suffer. Before my fist does the talking, you’d better keep your distance. Come on, Muna.”

“Eh? Ah, okay… tch.”

Honestly, weren’t their feelings  already basically mutual? Saying “my Muna” like that. Still… what a pain. I wanted to help Muna, but… was it really okay for me to get involved? He told me to stay away, but… yeah, that wasn’t happening. There was no way I could keep my distance. I’d probably end up interacting with her every day. And the others in the group would get worried too.

『e: Sorry』

『hara: Don’t worry about it』

♢♢♢

Then it was lunchtime. I hadn’t spoken to Muna since then. And during class, I could feel Tanaka’s gaze stabbing into my back the whole time. I didn’t even need to look to know he was glaring at me. Honestly, he should’ve just looked at Muna instead.

Normally, I’d just kill time on my phone since I didn’t have lunch. But today, I had the lunch Muna gave me. So, I opened the lunchbox.

“…!?”

Inside was an overwhelming amount of octopus-shaped sausages. Did she seriously remember me saying yesterday that I liked those…!? But there were way too many! This wasn’t even a lunchbox anymore, it was just a pile of octopus sausages!

“Thanks for the food.”

When I tried them, they were actually really good. But something felt off. These weren’t frozen. I ate frozen octopus sausages all the time, so I could tell. The seasoning was different. Wait… did she seriously make all of these by hand? Like, around twenty of them? I was incredibly grateful, but somehow that made it even harder to accept. What time did she even wake up?

『e: So? How was it? Was it good?』

『hara: Yeah, it was good. Thanks. Also, those were homemade, right?』

『e: Huh? Nope, just frozen! The homemade ones are for Haruki!』

『hara: I see. Sorry. Oh, I’ll wash the lunchbox and napkin and return them tomorrow』

『e: Okay, thanks』

『hara: That’s my line』

For some reason… I found myself feeling a little jealous of Tanaka.

ーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーーー