The Most Beautiful Girl in School Has Become a Mother - Chapter 3: Sanada Isaki’s Life

Even after school, my position was unlikely to change, and as I lay face down at my desk, overwhelmed by despair, footsteps approached.

The chair in front of me is suddenly pulled back, and someone sits down in it. Judging by the sound of his breathing coming from this side, it seems he is sitting facing backward.

“Yo, ‘heartbreaker.’ Your way of getting hurt is so fresh, huh?”

I could hear the voice of that detestable bad friend.

It’s already a hassle to even deal with him, but I can’t just stay silent when he says something completely different from the truth.

“Don’t call me by such a cringy nickname… and besides, neither of them is right.”

I looked up and expressed my dissatisfaction.

In front of me was my troublemaker and best friend, Matani Shinya. Since we entered high school, we’ve been hanging out together, and I usually spend my time at school with him.

Shinya is basically a fun-loving goofball, but he’s considerate of his friends and never a bad person. Additionally, he holds a mood-maker position in this class and is popular with both boys and girls. Because of his personality, he has many friends and acquaintances.

From my perspective, where I barely have any acquaintances, I find it enviable, but according to the person himself, that’s not the case. He says he just talks on a whim and doesn’t really have any friends.

“Oh? Then what is this gaze directed at you right now?”

Shinya points to the classroom with his thumb.

Then, there were the pitying gazes from the boys and the terrifying looks from the girls, as if saying, “No way should we tolerate stalking.” It felt like I was being publicly executed just for being alive.

“That’s why… it’s different.”

I answered, utterly exhausted and dejected.

Even explaining it had become a hassle. It’s not exactly a heartbreak, but rather a situation where, in many ways, I can’t even have a one-sided love. It’s a bit different from a heartbreak. And I’m not hurt. I’m just troubled.

“Well, let’s head home for now. It’s a bit of a hassle here, right?”

After Shinya sighed, he made that suggestion. Nodding in agreement with his proposal, I slung my school bag over my shoulder.

When I was leaving the classroom, I felt a gaze and looked over. The source of the gaze was the person at the center of the storm—though I was more the one in the storm—Imiya Miori. When she met my eyes, she hesitated for a moment as if she was about to say something, but perhaps because she was conscious of the surrounding gazes, she lowered her shoulders and gazed apologetically.

──I’m making things difficult for Imiya-san too.

I cursed the foolishness of my actions.

I thought we had no connection, but she was a girl I was interested in. Normally, she has such a lovely smile, but seeing her shoulders droop like that makes me feel incredibly guilty.

But what can I do now? Rather, if I take action, I might just cause more trouble.

I, like her, lowered my shoulders and gaze and followed Shinya as he walked down the hallway.

“So? Why did you, who don’t seem particularly interested in romance, reach out for a flower blooming on a sheer cliff rather than a flower on a high pedestal? Let’s talk over some ramen.”

At the entrance, as I was changing my shoes, my mischievous friend asked with a playful grin.

He suspects that this rumor is not as it seems. Since he has been with him for over a year, he probably understands this person, Sanada Isaki, to some extent.

Yes, there’s no way I could become a stalker. However, it was also sad that only Matani Shinya understood that.

“The invitation for ramen is tempting, but I don’t have much time left.”

I tapped my smartphone to display the time and then said it.

“I see, you have to go pick up Shuri-chan now.”

“I forgot,” Shinya let out a small sigh.

He seems a bit disappointed. Maybe he wants to spend a little more time with me.

“Today I had classes until the seventh period, so I went straight there as soon as they ended.”

Yes, I have a five-year-old sister. Her name is Shuri. Because of the age difference, she’s so cute that I could never get tired of looking at her.

Since my sister’s daycare closes at six, on days with seventh-period classes, I have to go straight from school to pick her up. On the way back, I stop by the supermarket to buy groceries for dinner, and when I get home, I cook dinner and feed my sister.

And then, once that’s done, there’s no free time—it’s all about taking care of my little sister, playing with her, reading picture books to her, and so on. After that, I give her a bath, and around nine o’clock, she starts to doze off, so I tuck her in.

After doing the cleaning and laundry, if I finish that, I finally have my own time. From there, I do a bit of studying, like homework and test preparation, take a bath, and go to bed around the time the date changes. That was my daily routine.

“It’s tough, isn’t it? I’d probably go crazy living like that.”

“…I’m used to it now.”

I paused for a moment before responding to Shinya’s words.

If he asks whether I’ve gotten used to my current life, to be honest, I haven’t. I’m just doing it because I have to.

“Let’s have ramen another time. I’ll make it up to you.”

“Yeah. Well, I guess we can walk and talk for now.”

While having such a conversation, I head home with Shinya.

Since the route to the nursery is the same as Shinya’s school route, it’s somewhat helpful to be able to pick up my sister while talking with friends like this. I also have some regrets about spending time after school with friends and chatting about trivial things.

To be honest, I want to go to family restaurants or fast food places after school, and I want to go to arcades or karaoke too. But I can’t do that. It’s because my sister, Shuri, is around.

It goes without saying at this point, but I don’t have a mother. To be precise, she passed away when I was eleven. During Shuri’s birth, her uterus ruptured, and she suffered massive bleeding. If there had been enough blood transfusions, she might have been saved, but due to her blood type being AB Rh-negative, we couldn’t get enough transfusions.

In the end, my mother passed away in exchange for my sister’s life, leaving me with her last words, “Please take care of Shuri.”

My father, who was a devoted husband, completely fell apart after my mother’s death. No, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that he is throwing himself into his work to keep himself from completely breaking down.

My father worked as if to escape from my mother’s death, coming home late at night once or twice a week. In the morning, he would leave the house before I woke up, and he hardly ever saw my sister. For my sister, the concept of a father might no longer exist.

When Shuri was born, my grandparents who lived far away helped with raising her, but once she was able to enter daycare, I ended up taking care of her almost entirely on my own. This was because Shuri didn’t get very attached to her grandparents.

I decided it would be better if I took care of everything, so by the time I entered high school, I was doing everything by myself, including picking up and dropping off at the daycare.

I think it would be nice to hang out with friends and experience love. My father gives me quite a bit of money for food and living expenses, so I’ve never had any financial troubles, but I also had the desire to try part-time work as a social experience.

However, considering the current situation, I don’t have the luxury to do either of those things right now.

If I say something like this, it might seem like I’m resenting Shuri for taking up all my time, but that’s not the case. For me, taking care of my sister has become a normal part of my daily life, neither more nor less. I’m not really pushing myself… Well, I can’t say that for sure, but I’m managing to cut back on what I can and keep life running smoothly. It’s just a daily routine of keeping life on track.

More important than my own matters were the words my mother left behind at the end, “Please take care of Shuri.” I thought I absolutely had to fulfill my mother’s last wish.

──Or maybe… just like father, I’m avoiding facing Mom’s death by taking care of Shuri.

Somehow, while I felt my true feelings, I laughed at Shinya’s silly stories and spent a brief after-school moment.