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The next morning, I went to school alone.
Last night, I’d received several messages from Rino: “Huh?” “This is actually kind of a problem,” “Haven’t you been acting weird lately?” Every time I looked at my screen, I thought about how to reply, but in the end, I just wrote, “I’m too busy getting ready in the morning.”
The truth is, I’m not really that busy. I just didn’t think it was right to leave early just to carry Rino’s stuff. I felt that way because Shiori Miyahara’s words from yesterday were still on my mind.
There are people who take advantage of kind-hearted people.
When I walked into the classroom, Rino was standing next to my desk. Her brown hair, which fell just past her shoulders, was a little messy, and there were two paper bags sitting next to her desk. It seemed she’d brought them herself after all.
“Minato, what was that reply you sent yesterday? Telling me to carry them myself—isn’t that just plain mean? You’ve been carrying them for me all this time. We’re childhood friends—you could at least do that much for me, right?”
Rino was seriously scolding me. I hadn’t broken any promise. The bags belonged to Rino. Still, being scolded like that made me almost think I might be in the wrong.
I set my bag on the desk and replied in as normal a voice as I could manage.
“Just because I’ve carried them until now doesn’t mean I’ll carry them today, right? If I don’t want to, I’ll say no.”
Rino’s eyes widened, then she laughed in a way that seemed forced. A few people in the classroom looked over at us.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Is that really the kind of person you are, Minato? Did someone say something to you? I don’t see you that way, and it’s awkward if you suddenly start acting like my boyfriend.”
Acting like boyfriend.
The words stabbed me in the chest. I wasn’t acting like her boyfriend at all. I just turned her down. Yet, in Rino’s mind, the very act of saying I didn’t like her seemed like an unnecessary intrusion.
Just then, Mikoto Shiraishi walked in. She brushed her loosely curled hair aside with her finger and smiled, as if to smooth things over.
“Come on, come on, don’t fight first thing in the morning. Segawa-kun, if Rino was having trouble, couldn’t you have helped her out a little? You’re friends, after all.”
“Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean she can ask me to do anything, does it?”
When I replied, Mikoto’s smile stiffened slightly. She immediately put on a troubled expression and continued in a voice loud enough for everyone around us to hear.
“It’s not like I was asking for ‘anything,’ was it? So, did you mind that I was confiding in you? It was easy to talk to you because you didn’t get the wrong idea, but if you suddenly start getting self-conscious about that, it makes it hard for me to open up, too.”
The way she said it made it clear to me.
What mattered to Mikoto wasn’t whether I’d been hurt. It was whether she could continue to use me as a safe confidant, just as she always had.
“There were times when I didn’t like it. After listening to other guys’ problems, being told, ‘You’re a pain as a boyfriend, but you’re the best as a friend’—that’s just plain tough to hear.”
Mikoto fell silent. It was a familiar expression. But she didn’t apologize. Just as her gaze began to wander, a cheerful voice rang out from the back of the classroom.
“Senpai, that was really bad yesterday.”
It was Mei Onodera. The petite first-year had gone out of her way to come to my classroom, putting on a pitiful “junior” act.
“I ended up going to buy it by myself. Even the girls from club activities told me I was late. I thought you’d help me since you’re my senpai, but suddenly trying to look cool just because there were girls from our class there—that hurt a little.”
Mei’s gaze shifted toward Shiori, who was standing at the classroom entrance.
In that instant, I understood. More than being rejected, what bothered Mei was that her attempts to act dependent hadn’t worked in front of Shiori. That’s why she wanted to make it seem like I’d changed because of Shiori’s influence.
Neither Rino, nor Mikoto, nor Mei—none of them asked if I really disliked her.
The bell rang, and our homeroom teacher walked in. The conversation ended there, but the tension lingered. During the morning classes, I felt eyes on my back countless times. I took notes, but the words didn’t really sink in.
At lunchtime, I left the classroom with my lunchbox. Just as I reached the stairwell landing, Shiori caught up to me. She didn’t rush me; she simply stood beside me.
“You didn’t laugh silently just now, did you?”
“I don’t know if I could’ve talked back. Honestly, it’s pretty tough. I just turned them down, but it feels like I suddenly became the bad guy.”
Shiori thought for a moment, then said quietly.
“I think they didn’t expect you to say no because you’ve never turned them down before. That’s why they’re trying to make it seem like you’ve become cold toward them. That way, they don’t have to think about what they’ve been doing.”
It was a harsh thing to say. But I could see her point.
If they make it my fault, they don’t have to face the fact that Rino forced her stuff on me, that Mikoto treated me as a safe confidant, or that Mei asked in a way that made it hard to refuse.
I looked at Shiori.
“Why does Miyahara see things so clearly?”
Shiori didn’t answer right away. Her grip on the book tightened slightly. The corners of her eyes—usually so calm—fluttered ever so slightly.
“Because I hated it. I hated seeing you, Segawa-kun, smiling even when people were saying mean things to you.”
Shiori took a deep breath and looked at me without looking away.
“When Asakura-san said, ‘I could never have a boyfriend,’ and when Shiraishi-san said, ‘Boyfriends are a hassle,’ you were smiling, Segawa-kun. But you didn’t look like you were okay with it. I didn’t fall for someone who’s okay with being treated that way.”
At her last words, my breath almost caught in my throat.
“……Is that what you mean by ‘I like you’?”
“Yeah. I like you, Segawa-kun. It’s not because you’re convenient. It’s not because you never say no. I saw you as a real person, and I fell for you.”
Laughter drifted in from down the hallway. School was going on as usual, but it felt like only my surroundings had been cut off from the rest of the world.
I’m happy. But I’m afraid to believe it right away. What if she’s just teasing me? What if I’m misunderstanding? Then I’ll be the one left hurting again.
Shiori continued, as if sensing my hesitation.
“I don’t need an answer right now. But I wanted to say this much. Segawa-kun, you’re not the ‘convenient person’ those people say you are. At least, that’s not how I see you.”
I couldn’t reply right away. But I didn’t want to just brush off Shiori’s words as if they were a joke.
“Give me a little time to think about it. But I’m happy. I think that’s probably what I wanted to hear.”
Shiori nodded slightly. The bell signaling the end of lunch break rang. We walked side by side back to the classroom.
As we entered, Rino and Mikoto looked our way. The girls who had been talking with Mei turned their gaze toward us as well.
I still didn’t understand what that meant.
But I knew I couldn’t go back to just smiling and pretending everything was fine. Now that I’d heard Shiori’s words, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know that I’d been hurt, or that someone had actually seen me for who I was.
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