Episode 14

At soccer team practice that day, I was treated as a tumor in a different way than I had been yesterday.

No one actively approached me during practice, not because the whole club was ignoring me to get rid of me as they had done yesterday, but because the whole club that had been lynching me didn’t know how to get involved now that I had been found innocent.

The members of the club practiced in an awkward atmosphere from start to finish, and the coach was somewhat awkward.

When it came to the game, I wasn’t being shaved down by my teammates like I had been yesterday.

Rather, when I had the ball, everyone was reserved and didn’t come for it easily.

When I tried to drink water, even the senior members of the team gave me first place, and the manager handed me a cold bottle as if in a hurry.

Everyone seemed to feel sorry for me.

But none of them said a word of apology.

I could sense that they wanted me to say something to them, just as my classmates and family members had done.

I could feel their  pressure on me to go to them and tell them that I would let bygones be bygones, smiling and joking.

But I never intended to say I forgave them.

In fact, I had no intention of forgiving them even if they apologized to me.

I had already lost all trust and confidence in the members of the club, the coach, and the manager.

No matter what happens from here, my opinion of them will never change.

“T-then…I guess that’s it for today’s practice…….”

Soon it was almost time for the students to leave the school.

The coach closed the club activities with these words and turned back to the school building as if to run away.

“Ah, Shinonome senpai…”

“Don’t worry about cleaning up…”

“We’ll take care of it…”

“Please go home first…”

As I was about to start cleaning up, the juniors tried to grab my cleaning supplies.

I pushed them away with my hand.

“Don’t disturb me. Get out of my way.

[ [ […!?] ] ]

The junior members who were rejected by me looked at me as if they were dumbfounded.

I ignored them and tried to start cleaning.

I could see their intention of treating me special and trying to get me to forgive them by being nice to me.

Perhaps they thought that if they continued to be kind and special to me, I would get into a better mood and they might be forgiven for what they had done to me without having to apologize.

But I was never going to forgive them.

I was not going to accept their generosity, and I did not want them to think that I could make up for what they had done to me just by cleaning for them, even if it killed me.

I left the younger members of the club, who I had pushed away and were looking at each other, not knowing what to do, alone, and I started cleaning.

“Hey…..! You can’t talk to them like that !?”

“Ah…?”

While I was quietly cleaning up alone, I suddenly heard a high-pitched, shrill voice from behind me.

It was the manager, Asakura Aina.

She was standing in an imposing position, glaring at me in annoyance.

When I realize that it is Asakura, I immediately decide that there is no need to bother her, ignore her, and resume cleaning.

“Hey, don’t ignore me ! ! !”

But that seems to have caught Asakura off guard.

She suddenly walks up to me and takes my cleaning supplies from me.

“What was that !? You’re making the atmosphere of club activities worse and…..we’re trying to make up for it….could you not ignore us…..?”

“Ha…..?”

I looked at Asakura in dismay.

She spoke like a victim.

I looked at Asakura twice because of her tone of voice, which made me doubt her sanity.

“Don’t [ha?] me. It’s true that we were wrong about Kisaragi san’s case too, but……why don’t you get back in a good mood?”

“….”

Anger wells up.

Don’t these people realize what they did to me?

I immediately felt the urge to hit Asakura.

But I managed to restrain myself, knowing that if I did so, I would be standing in the same ring as the guys who lynched me.

“Hey, Asakura. You can’t talk like that. It wasn’t Tohru who was at fault, was it? It was the one who misunderstood and believed Kisaragi’s story, wasn’t it? That’s not how you treat him”

“Hayato. Don’t do that.”

Just like this morning, Hayato came out and tried to blame Asakura on my behalf.

But I stopped him with my hand.

I don’t need Hayato to play the role of the hated twice.

He’s helping me this much.

I have the right to blurt out what I want to say.

I looked Asakura squarely in the eye.

“Are you insane?”

“….? What?”

“Do you know what you’re doing? You called me a criminal. You tried to attack me and kick me out of the club for a crime I didn’t commit?”

“….T-that’s…”

Asakura’s face turns extremely ugly.

I managed to restrain myself from vomiting out abusive language, and kept my words calm.

“First of all, don’t you have something to say about that?If you make a mistake, don’t you have something to say?”

“…I-I felt bad….”

“Is that all you have to say? You better say the words.”

“B-but…that wasn’t something that could be helped ! ! !”

“….Excuse me?”

I demanded a simple apology, and Asakura suddenly reopened his mouth without even saying sorry.

I doubted Asakura’s humanity and couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

Asakura desperately tried to defend herself in front of me.

“Everyone thought you were a criminal…! They believed Kisaragi san…! That’s the kind of air we had ! So……it was inevitable in a sense that we, the club members, would misunderstand !”

“….”

“If you demand an apology from us…..then it would be strange if you didn’t demand an apology from the other students, right…? Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense.”

“…Haa.”

A sigh of dismay escaped me.

Is this guy really a high school sophomore?

She’s talking like a kid.

She’s just trying to make up some stupid argument because she doesn’t want to apologize, because she doesn’t want to admit he made a mistake.

It’s not worth talking to her.

I was wrong to ask such an idiot to correct her mistake.

She is an irredeemable scum.

She doesn’t deserve anything.

“Hey…go back to the old Tohru…the kind Tohru who is devoted to club activities…we had a little misunderstanding, but I think we can still try again.

So…… let’s let bygones be bygones this time……okay?”

“……”

I felt anger welling up in me.

Asakura’s behavior clearly showed that she did not feel very bad about what they had done to me, and that she was taking it lightly.

She  seemed to really think that she could be forgiven for calling me a criminal, lynching me with all the club members, and trying to kick me out of the club without any apology.

“What do you mean, back to the old me? There is no way I can go back. Don’t you understand if you think about it normally? Who wouldn’t be offended by something like this?”

“There’s nothing I can do about it ! How can you not understand !”

“Haa…..you’re hopeless. I can’t talk to you anymore….”

Is it to protect the other members of the club…or is her character so scummy that she can’t admit her own mistakes?

Maybe it was both, but anyway, Asakura definitely did not want to apologize to me and admit her mistake.

I tried to walk away, saying I couldn’t talk about it any more.

“Wait ! ! Where are you going !? I’m not done talking to you ! ! !”

“No, I have nothing to talk to you about.”

“We have..! First of all, you need to apologize for making the club atmosphere worse today ! ! !”

“Don’t touch me ! ! !”

“Kyaa !?”

I shooed away Asakura’s hand that was trying to grab my arm.

I walked up to the coach and said.

“I’m quitting the club today. Thank you for everything.”

“O-oh….”

The coach nodded his head without any particular retention.

The coach seemed to think that whatever was going on would just make the trouble go away, and he easily accepted my resignation.

“Do I need to submit my resignation?”

“N-no, you don’t need it…I’ll write it down…”

“I see, thank you.”

I bowed to the coach and was about to leave.

But I stopped on the way and said to the members of the club who were silent.

“Ah, also, I’m going to talk to the police about the violent and slanderous acts I’ve received in this club this time.”

[ [ [….!?] ] ]

The coach and club members became visibly agitated.

I said in a cold voice to those who were upset.

“I was actually gathering evidence such as audio of the slanderous remarks, the broken locker, and the video of me being shaved down during practice……I would like to show it to the police and explain what really happened in this club.”

“Wait.”

“That’s…”

“Toohru senpai !?”

“Wait, Tohru…! ! !”

The club members who had remained silent until a few minutes ago, and had not even kept me back when I told them I was leaving the club, began to get impatient.

Everyone was upset and called my name impatiently, but I ignored them and ran toward the club room.

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