The Protagonist's Sister Loves Me, But She's Definitely a Yandere. - Chapter 34: What Lies Beyond

Chapter 34: What Lies Beyond

I froze as I stared at the message from Mimi Ogawa.

The only sound was the distant cawing of crows, ringing loudly in my ears.

I snapped back to reality and looked down at my phone again, still clutched tightly in my hand.

No matter how many times I read it, the message didn’t change.

This meant… well, exactly what it said.

Hinata’s harem group was probably built on thin ice. After all, Hinata kept dodging every approach thrown his way. It made sense that someone would eventually get fed up. It wasn’t surprising that Mimi decided to go for it and confess.

Mimi had definitely been planning something during the sports festival.

It felt like her plan had hit a wall when I joined the committee, but her goal must have been a confession. It was an event that could end in success or in rejection.

“Wow… Seriously?”

I scratched my cheek, my voice dazed and unfocused.

I knew that eventually, someone would take that step.

Someone would cross the line and confess.

It just happened to be Mimi who went first. Whether Hinata liked someone else or really wasn’t interested in dating anyone, the fact remained that Mimi—

“…Should I at least hear her out?”

It might’ve sounded a bit arrogant. But if she went out of her way to tell me she got rejected, she was probably feeling pretty broken and hurt.

I thought about it for a solid ten seconds before typing a message.

“I guess I can listen if you want to talk.”

It was a vague and awkward way to put it. But it’s not like I had any experience comforting a girl who just got rejected. Plus, I had a limited window of time before Runa finished her tasks.

Mimi’s reply came almost immediately. Probably less than a minute.

“Rooftop.”

Just one word. Short and straight to the point.

She wanted me to go to the rooftop right now.

Even though the rooftop was usually open to students, not many people went there on the day of the sports festival. It was the perfect spot for a confession.

I sent her a quick acknowledgment and started walking.

All while still holding on to the suspicion that she might be the stalker.

When I opened the rooftop door, it let out a loud, unpleasant creak.

The hinges were bad, and for some reason, the sound annoyed me even more than usual today.

As I stepped onto the rooftop, a cool breeze hit my face, and the city, glowing red from the sunset, stretched out before me.

I looked around for Mimi, and surprisingly, I found her right away.

She stood at the far end of the rooftop, leaning against the railing.

For a moment, she looked so fragile that I almost worried she might just fall over the edge.

She must have heard my footsteps because she slowly turned around.

“You’re late, Usui-senpai.”

I hadn’t planned what to say. Or rather, I had thought about it, but I wasn’t sure if any of my words were good enough to ease her pain. I knew I had to say something, so I opened my mouth.

But no words came out. My mouth just moved silently.

“I got rejected.”

She said it with a mix of teasing, cheerfulness, loneliness —and a smile.

Seeing the changes in her expression made all my planned words vanish. I didn’t know what to say anymore. All I knew for certain was that Mimi Ogawa had been rejected by Hinata Ichinose.

“…I see.”

“Yeah, I really tried my best, though.”

She leaned against the railing again, quietly looking down at the city below.

She tapped the spot next to her, signaling for me to come over. Without a word, I followed and leaned on the railing too, catching a glimpse of her profile. An awkward silence settled over us.

Trying to live up to my role as the older one, I forced out some words of comfort.

“…If you gave it your best, that’s what matters, right?”

“That’s not helping. If anything, it’s making me feel worse.”

“Ah, crap. …But seriously, it’s amazing that you even tried with Hinata.”

I thought I was helping, but I’d only made things worse.

I quickly apologized and tried to come up with a compliment for her. I wasn’t lying —the fact that she had the guts to confess to someone like Hinata, who was either a romance expert or completely clueless, was worthy of praise.

“I knew the chances of becoming his girlfriend were low.”

Mimi drooped her head, staring at the rooftop floor.

Even I, his childhood friend, didn’t know what Hinata was really thinking. With him stringing people along like that, it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. Harems might work in manga and anime, but reality isn’t that simple.

“Man, if only you hadn’t been on the event committee, Usui-senpai.”

Mimi spoke with a mock bitterness that was obviously meant to tease me. I narrowed my eyes at her.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean? …Yeah, yeah, sorry for being me.”

“If you weren’t there, I’d have had more time to talk to Hinata-senpai. We could’ve spent so much more time together. I had everything planned out to make the confession a success… Stupid Sakuragi-senpai, dumb childhood friend.”

“‘Childhood friend’ isn’t an insult. And by the way, I’m his childhood friend too.”

As we talked, it seemed like her frustration shifted from me to Rika.

That surprised me. Honestly, I expected Mimi to be sobbing, and I was ready to just sit there and listen to her vent. But instead, she seemed weirdly okay, just throwing out some grumbles and insults.

…Or maybe she was just forcing herself to seem fine.

“…I thought you’d be crying. Guess you still have enough energy to complain.”

“I was crying! I ran out of tears before you got here, Usui-senpai. Now all that’s left is this empty feeling and a whole lot of anger. I’ll probably cry again once I get home, though.”

It seemed like she’d passed the crying phase and landed straight in the anger phase.

The sunset cast a glow on her face, conveniently hiding any traces of her tears.

Then she launched into a long stream of insults aimed at Rika and Himeno-senpai.

But suddenly, she stopped talking.

“What’s wrong? Got everything off your chest?”

“…I was planning to tell Hinata-senpai that I’m being stalked and bullied. That is, if he agreed to go out with me. Oh! And I was going to check with you first, Usui-senpai, so don’t worry about that.”

Mimi continued speaking.

“I thought that if he became my boyfriend, he’d protect me. It’s hard to rely on someone when you’re just friends. Also… I didn’t tell the teachers or my parents about the stalking because I didn’t want them to stop me from confessing to Hinata-senpai.”

Mimi had clearly thought through her own way of handling things.

If she became his girlfriend, the stalker might back off. After all, Hinata was a guy, and if she had a boyfriend, there was a chance the stalker would lose interest in her.

“…I see. But you could’ve talked to me or Runa—”

“I wanted to. But I was scared.”

Scared. That word made me tilt my head in confusion.

“Scared that if I told you, the stalker might get even worse. …And, this is just my guess, but… what if Ichinose-san is the stalker?”

“Runa? The stalker? Come on, don’t joke about that.”

Honestly, even I had my suspicions about Runa, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud. Right now, I needed to hear Mimi out and understand how she felt.

“I’m not joking. Why is it that the person closest to you —Ichinose-san— is the only one who hasn’t been targeted? Why hasn’t she been attacked? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Well…”

I couldn’t say anything to that. There was no way to argue against it.

It was only natural that Runa would be seen as a suspect. But I just didn’t want it to be true. Mimi’s reasoning was perfectly logical.

“I thought if I could date Hinata-senpai, I’d have both happiness and safety. …But I rushed things. I should have taken my time and gotten closer to him slowly.”

“That sense of urgency… it was because of that fear, wasn’t it?”

When I asked, Mimi nodded, her expression drained of energy.

“I’ve been holding on, but I’m scared. I’m so, so scared.”

She hugged herself tightly. Her small frame made her look like she might disappear at any moment. When I looked closer, I saw her shoulders trembling slightly.

Her blonde hair swayed in the breeze, glowing under the sunset.

“My last hope was Hinata-senpai, but now he’s gone… Usui-senpai.”

She said my name. Her voice sounded different from the usual, bratty tone I was used to hearing.

“…We should probably tell the teachers or our parents. I’ll explain the situation too.”

“If Ichinose-san really is the stalker, once the adults get involved, it’ll be obvious that I or you let it slip. And let’s be real —it’ll definitely be me.”

Her reasoning made sense. If Runa was the stalker, getting adults involved might push her to do even worse things —like making straw dolls or taking creepy photos. Things could get even more extreme.

But should I just accept Mimi’s theory without question?

Believing her too quickly might be a mistake. A warning bell kept ringing in my head.

That day, when I saw her meeting with Kusunoki’s sister…

Their cryptic conversation was still burned into my mind.

And then there was the fact that Kusunoki’s sister was an athlete.

“Usui-senpai, what should I do?”

Relying on adults could lead to terrifying retaliation later.

Even now, she was being targeted by the stalker.

If everything Mimi said was true, then this was the reality she was facing.

In her rush to find safety, she confessed to Hinata and got rejected. The one person who might have protected her had already slipped away, leaving Mimi to deal with her fears alone.

She had stayed strong for so long, but her heart was already at its breaking point.

But if I said something like, “I’ll protect you,” that would just be a comforting lie —a temporary fix. In the end, it would probably only make things worse, pushing the stalker to attack even harder.

—What do I do? What’s the right thing to do?

Do I believe Mimi?

Do I trust Runa?

Is there a better plan?

“Ogawa, can you give me a little time?”

No matter how much I wanted to help, there was no way I could figure it out right here, right now.

If everything Mimi said was true, delaying my answer would be tough on her. But coming up with a half-baked plan would only lead to regret for both of us.

—And then, it happened without warning.

The sound of the rooftop door being swung open cut through the air. A cold, mechanical sound.