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As preparations for the cultural festival kicked into high gear, the name “Yuto Kasugai” began to spread in strange ways, unbeknownst to me.
There wasn’t just one reason for this. Student Council Vice President Rena Himuro kept coming over to my desk every lunch break. Natsume from the track and field club was even skipping morning practice just to walk to school with me. Shiina from the literature club was writing a novel apparently based on me. And first-year student Maho Shirasaki, who makes no attempt to hide her feelings for me and nonchalantly saves the seat next to mine, whether in the student council room or in the hallway.
On top of that, recently, even senior Fuyuka Mishima, the student council treasurer, has started frequenting “Anemone.”
From my perspective, they’d all simply become involved with me through heartbreak or preparations for the cultural festival, and there was a reasonable explanation for how things had unfolded. However, to students who didn’t know the circumstances, it must have looked as though all the most prominent girls in school were gathering around a single boy.
“Kasugai, can I talk to you for a second?”
After school, while I was painting a sign for the cultural festival, three boys from my class called me over to a corner of the classroom. Their expressions were serious, but it didn’t seem like they were looking for a fight; rather, their faces showed a mix of confusion and fear.
“Are you dating the student council vice president?”
“No, I’m not.”
“Then what about Natsume from the track team?”
“No.”
“What about Shiina from the literature club?”
“I just read her novels.”
“What about Shirasaki, the freshman?”
“She told me she has a crush on me.”
All three of their faces twisted at the same time.
“Don’t just admit to one of them…”
“It’s not like I’m admitting anything—she said it herself.”
“Then what about Mishima senpai?”
“A customer at my part-time job.”
“But I heard she only comes on the days you’re working.”
Why did they know that much? Before I could ask, one of the boys grabbed my shoulder and told me in a heavy tone, as if laying out a harsh reality.
“Kasugai. Right now, the boys at school are starting to call you ‘the enemy of women.’”
“Why?”
“Because you’re asking that question with a straight face!”
A shout echoed through the classroom, and students working on their assignments turned to look at us. The boy hurriedly lowered his voice, but his frustration with me didn’t seem to subside, and he began explaining, one after another, the rumors being whispered around school.
He infiltrated the student council to meet Himuro and took advantage of her heartbreak. He’s been targeting Natsume during her vulnerable period, summoning her to his part-time job every day. He’s made Shiina write a romance novel with him as the protagonist, and he’s keeping Shirasaki close by exploiting the fact that she’s a first-year. On top of that, he’s even won over Mishima and is trying to take control of the student council itself.
While there was hardly anything that could be called fact, he couldn’t deny that simply stringing together these fragments created a strange sense of persuasiveness.
“What’s the point of me taking over the student council?”
“No idea. You’re just gonna surround yourself with pretty girls, right?”
“You’re already surrounded, aren’t you?”
Another boy said this dismissively. In his voice, there was less anger than a sense of awe, as if he were looking at a creature he couldn’t understand.
What was even more troubling was that it wasn’t just the boys.
It seemed I was becoming a target of suspicion among the girls as well.
“I heard Kasugai-kun is nice to vulnerable girls to make them dependent on him.”
“And apparently, he acts like he’s not doing anything at all.”
“That’s the most dangerous type, isn’t it?”
Whenever I walked down the hallway, whispers like that would reach my ears. If I turned around, the conversation would stop, and the girls would make way for me with forced smiles. Before, I was just an unremarkable guy—Kotonoha’s childhood friend, Ren’s friend, nothing more, nothing less. But now, I’m starting to be seen as a dangerous person who attracts nothing but beautiful girls who’ve just been dumped.
I couldn’t accept it.
But there was a part of me that couldn’t completely deny it either.
I didn’t intend to have romantic feelings for Himuro and the others. Still, it’s true that when they were vulnerable, I listened to them, welcomed them into my shop, and cared for them more than necessary. To an outsider, that might look like I was taking advantage of their pain.
“Kasugai-kun.”
As Himuro walked down the hallway toward me, the female students who had been nearby visibly grew wary.
“Let’s go to the student council room.”
“Yeah.”
Himuro naturally fell into step beside me. At that moment, a faint murmur rose from the crowd around us.
“So Himuro-san is…”
“You’d better stay away from him.”
It seemed Himuro had heard those voices as well. She stopped in her tracks and quietly turned to face the girls who were gossiping.
“It seems there’s been a misunderstanding, so let me set the record straight. Kasugai-kun has not taken advantage of any weakness of mine.”
Her dignified voice echoed down the hallway.
“On the contrary, I am the one who approached him of my own free will.”
That wasn’t exactly a correction.
The girls’ gazes grew even sharper, and I felt like burying my face in my hands.
“Himuro, saying that just makes it even more—”
“It’s the truth.”
“But there’s a better way to say it, isn’t there?”
“Then how should I have said it?”
Himuro looked up at me, her cheeks flushing ever so slightly.
“The reason I want to be near Kasugai-kun isn’t because he tricked me. It’s because I myself want it.”
The hallway fell silent.
To me, it sounded like she trusted me as a fellow heartbroken soul. However, the students around us seemed to interpret it differently, and by the next day, the rumors had gotten even worse.
“Yuto Kasugai makes women so dependent on him that he gets the victims themselves to defend him.”
At that point, anything I said would only backfire.
And after school, as I headed toward “Anemone,” Himuro, Natsume, Shiina, and Shirasaki lined up behind me, with even Mishima walking a short distance behind us.
The boys near the school gate cleared a path the moment they saw the scene.
“Here he comes, the enemy of women…”
“Don’t make eye contact. He’ll steal your girlfriend too.”
At those whispers, Natsume doubled over with laughter, Shirasaki grabbed my sleeve with a satisfied look, and Himuro refused to move from my side, as if keeping the others at bay.
I hadn’t done anything.
At least, that’s what I thought.
But my standing at school had, before I knew it, begun to shift from that of a “losing hero” to that of “the enemy of women”—someone who was stealing the affections of beautiful girls one after another.
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