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On Friday after school, on my way to the entrance, a first-year girl called out to me.
It was the girl who had been with Mei. I think her name was Aizawa. She looked down the hallway awkwardly, then bowed her head slightly to me.
“Segawa Senpai, I’m sorry. Mei is waiting in front of the club room. She’s too scared to tell you in person, so she asked me to come get you.”
Just from the way she said it, I knew this was going to be a hassle.
Shiori, who was standing next to me, looked at me. I exhaled once. I could have walked away. But if I did, people would say, “Segawa Senpai ignored her” again. Mei is good at creating that kind of situation.
“Got it. I’ll go.”
“Minato-kun, I’ll come too.”
“Thanks. But I’ll handle the talking.”
Shiori nodded and took half a step back. I realized she wasn’t pushing me away—she was making space for me to stand on my own.
In front of the club room building, there were a few first-years from the same club as Mei. There was also a second-year boy. Mei stood in the center of the group, her eyes red. She was deliberately looking down slightly, as if to make it look like she’d been crying.
“Senpai.”
Mei spoke in a trembling voice when she saw me.
“I just want you to apologize to me, Senpai. I was really scared—both when you turned down my offer to run errands and when you snapped back at me in front of everyone. I won’t ask you to do that again. But I can’t accept being made out to be the one at fault.”
The second-year boy looked at me. He didn’t know the full story, but seeing a younger female club member pleading with a face on the verge of tears probably made me look like the stronger one.
“Segawa, weren’t you a little too harsh? Onodera looked pretty down.”
At those words, Mei’s shoulders trembled slightly. It was the kind of reaction you’d expect from someone seeking protection.
I didn’t answer right away. Before anger, I felt exhaustion. I wondered if just turning her down was really going to cause such a big fuss. But if I stayed silent, the story would solidify in a way that made me look bad again.
“If I was too harsh, then I’m sorry.”
Mei’s face brightened slightly.
But I didn’t stop there.
“But I won’t apologize for turning down the shopping trip. I won’t apologize for saying I wouldn’t go alone with you because I have a girlfriend. And I won’t take back what I said about you stopping with the comments—that I’m cold, that I’m abandoning you, or that I’m tied down by Shiori.”
Mei’s expression froze.
“But I was really in a bind…”
“If you were in a bind, you should’ve asked someone from the club. Actually, the other day, Aizawa-san and the others said they could go with you, right?”
When I said that, Aizawa-san nodded slightly.
“Yeah. We said we could go. Mei just said it would be faster to ask Segawa Senpai.”
Mei turned to look at Aizawa-san.
“Why are you putting it that way?”
“Because that’s how it was, right? Mei, even after Senpai turned you down, you kept saying that once he had a girlfriend, he wouldn’t care about underclassmen at all.”
The atmosphere around us shifted.
Even the second-year boys furrowed their brows slightly. Their expressions changed from looking ready to blame me to trying to figure out what was going on. Mei noticed this and quickly turned back to me.
“But that’s what I thought. Senpai, you helped me before, but then you suddenly turned me down. If I’m made to feel like I’m the only one at fault, of course I’m going to be hurt.”
“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy.”
My voice dropped slightly.
Mei gasped. Everyone around us fell silent.
“I just turned you down. I didn’t say I hated you, Mei, and I didn’t laugh at your predicament. I simply said I wouldn’t do anything she’d dislike, and asked you to stop making requests that are hard to refuse. Yet you phrased it in a way that made it seem to everyone else like I was cold or that Shiori was holding me back. Isn’t that the same as making me out to be the bad guy?”
Tears welled up in Mei’s eyes.
I didn’t mean to make her cry. But if I apologized after seeing those tears, the same thing would happen all over again. Mei probably thinks, somewhere deep down, that if she cries, I’ll give in.
So I didn’t look away.
“If you think I’ll apologize if you cry, please stop that too.”
Mei’s expression clearly fell.
“I don’t think that at all…”
“Then let’s end this right here and now. I’m not the one in charge of buying supplies for Mei’s club. Since she’s here, I won’t meet with you alone. Please resolve any problems within the club.”
Aizawa-san gently tugged at Mei’s sleeve.
“Mei, let’s go. If we keep talking like this, we’ll just look weird.”
Mei bit her lip in frustration. Tears fell, but they weren’t just tears of remorse. The cuteness that had always worked for her didn’t work in front of everyone else. That frustration seemed to be the stronger emotion.
Eventually, Mei said quietly.
“……I won’t ask you for help anymore, senpai.”
“That’s for the best.”
When I replied, Mei walked back toward the club building, her face still wet with tears.
The second-year boy left behind scratched his head awkwardly.
“Sorry. I only heard one side of the story.”
“No, it’s fine. It’s true that I was a bit harsh, too.”
“But I do think you’re right about not being the one in charge of shopping.”
Just hearing those words made it a little easier to breathe.
When I returned to the entrance, Shiori walked up beside me. She didn’t take my hand; instead, she looked me in the face first.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m not okay. But I managed to avoid apologizing when I didn’t need to.”
“I think that’s for the best.”
When we stepped outside, the evening sky was slightly overcast. I walked side by side with Shiori beneath it. I’d decided to stop making myself the villain by taking on someone else’s tears. The walk home felt heavy, but it was straighter than before.
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