Source
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16816927860895175888/episodes/16816927862309466356
On the night of the day Jinguuji was arrested, Mei told Ken she had something to do and went out.
Although she had gone out alone before, Mei’s face showed emotion, and Kurogane looked at her with suspicion.
But Ken simply said, [Have a good day.]
He probably knew where she was going and didn’t dare to say anything.
Whether it was a kindness or a trick to get away with it, Mei does not know.
“It’s sad to see hostility directed at you so soon after you came to my house. Can we please go upstairs for now? It’s bothering the neighbors.”
Kaga Touko said and headed for the living room of her house.
For the first few minutes after Mei came here, Touko had no intention of letting her up to the house.
The two had never spoken before. It was only natural that she would not invite such a stranger to her house.
The only thing they knew about each other was that she was Ken’s ‘ex-girlfriend.’
But when Mei told her what she wanted to talk about, she gave her a cold look and invited her inside.
“……Coffee? Or milk?”
“No, thank you.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. He also said that the coffee I make is delicious.”
“I see. I went to a cafe with him before I came here.”
“Hmm, I see.”
She smiled, only her voice was not bright.
Mei sat down on the chair provided, and Touko sat down on the sofa opposite her.
“As it turns out, I’m the one who told Jinguuji kun about you.”
“……You don’t hide it, do you?”
“I’m not going to hide it from you. Besides, you came all the way here because you were sure about it, right?”
Touko looks at Mei while touching her coffee cup.
“But that’s not true. I wanted him to suspect Madoka, Kudo kun, and Shinkai kun, who were around him, instead of you.”
“Mei has nothing to do with these people. Also, I know that you were originally in Jinguuji senpai’s group.”
“It’s not like the group was particularly close, you know? It’s just that I got involved one-sidedly when we were in college.”
“Yes, I know. I was there, too.”
The moment she said that, Touko’s sharp eyes looked at Mei.
But she immediately put up a smile that would give anyone a good impression of her.
“Did he tell you about that, too?”
“No, not from Senpai.”
“Hmm.”
“……Why did you tell him about Mei’s information? Didn’t you think it would cause Senpai to suffer again?”
The topic of Jinguuji triggers memories of a painful past for Ken. Touko probably knew that too.
If he had found out that it was Touko who had been leaking information behind his back, he would have thought that she might not like him.
“If he suffers, I can just comfort him.”
“Eh……?”
Without hesitation, Touko said.
“If he suffers, I can comfort him again. That’s all. Besides, that’s what I would have done if you hadn’t turned to him.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I told Jinguuji kun about you in the first place, I already knew that he was gonna join GG Corporation. He was not gonna be in charge of more than one person, but he was gonna be in charge of one of the “easy streamers” and the others would learn from our former stream, Kato san.”
However, after the Marmoro incident, Kato was removed from her position.
“But you were famous among the managers as a man-hater. He never learned about you from Kato san’s side, and if someone hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t have known about you or gotten involved with you.”
“….If Kato san had not stepped down from her assignment and Mei had not been shown a list of the roster of the next available assignment, Mei had no interest in the manager to whom she belonged, and would never have learned of Senpai.”
“So, unbeknownst to you, Ken and I were gonna meet again–and together, we were gonna save you from being targeted by Jinguuji kun.”
She continued as if reading from a script she had prepared in advance.
“I’ll tell him this. Your junior is in trouble. Let’s help her together….. And since he was originally a good person, he would help without hesitation–even from behind the scenes.”
“……”
“He avoided getting involved with you. Even if he wanted to help you, he would not have come to you.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“It’s obvious.”
Touko put her hand on her cheek and smiled happily.
“I am his.”
“……Eh?”
“To be precise, when I was dating him. I have a personality that makes the other person completely dependent on me.”
Even to Mei’s ears as a high school student, the name Kaga Touko was well-known.
She was a good, sexy woman who quit college halfway through, but also a devilish woman who didn’t know what she was thinking.
And when she actually met her for the first time, she had the impression that she was different from what she imagined.
“I didn’t know who I really was until I met him. I love to make the person I love dependent on me, to monopolize the person I love, and to torment him to the point where he can’t live without me.”
“…….You’re cra–.”
“Crazy? I don’t want to be told by you, a vixen who is loyal to her master.”
Mei couldn’t say anything in response to Touko’s clear words.
“……We’re getting sidetracked, aren’t we? So I was gonna save you and start the relationship over with Ken. But my plans went awry that day he joined the company. I didn’t think they’d put a rookie in charge of more than one person.”
“And so Mei and Senpai were reunited.”
“Yes. You talked to him directly, which messed up my plans to draw it up, and as a result, the story was completed without my knowledge.”
Touko sigh.
“I’m sorry it turned out so badly this time, but it can’t be helped. I was too naive to think that it would work.”
“Then, you’re done with Senpai—“
“I have to work harder from now on. I’ll make him dependent on me again……so that the vixen can’t mess with him.”
Touko is probably an eccentric person.
She has a warped idea of love, but Mei can’t deny that.
She is like herself, and all human beings are like that.
It is the difference between putting it out there and keeping it hidden, and she is probably living her life putting it out there without hiding it.
“If that’s the case, then Mei will do her best. I don’t want Senpai to be driven mad by an evil woman.”
“Yes, both of us. …..Then, let’s play a game then.”
“A game?”
“Which one of us will be tied with him first. Of course, I could go home and confess to him right away,……but you won’t.”
“……Then will you?”
“No, I won’t. If I tell him that, I’m sure he’ll run away.”
She agrees about that.
Tachibana Ken is a person who is torn between being a good person and a bad person.
If you think that he acted like a good person, sometimes showing a kind side, sometimes showing a sincere side.
He acts as a bad person, such as being faithful to his desires or putting someone down by turning off his emotions.
Perhaps he has been messed up and distorted in his life so far.
Even if two people confess to him like that, he won’t nod his head now.
He backed away from Mei, saying, [I can’t let you get involved with me any further] and to Touko, [If you get involved with me any further, it will ruin both of us.]
At first glance, this comes from his actions as a good person, but the part of him that doesn’t leave them and doesn’t sever the relationship is probably made possible by the part of him that is a bad person loyal to his desires.
The only way to be on the side of such a messy emotional blessing is to maintain a moderate distance and not provoke either good or evil.
Mei understands this, and so does Touko.
That is why neither of them speaks the word [confessing].
“But there is a way to be together. …..You can figure it out, can’t you?”
“…If Mei ties the knot first, will you give up on Senpai?”
“Yes, I’ll give it up. But if I get tied first…….”
Touko smiles at her and rubs her own belly.
Seeing her happy expression and imagining the future that could never be, Mei clenches her fists tightly out of anger.
“I’m going home.”
“Yes, go ahead. And yeah I’m sure we’ll be good friends with each other in front of him, right? You don’t want to embarrass him, do you?”
“I understand. I hope I won’t have to see you in front of him.”
“Fufu.”
Mei heads for the entrance.
She wished that she would never have to see or see her face again.
As she put on her shoes at the door, she asked her one last question.
“Did it never occur to you to fall in love with another man?”
With beauty as good as hers, many men would have come to her, but why was Touko so fixated on Ken?
It was a frank question.
And then, after a little hesitation, she said,
“……The same as you, I wouldn’t fit in with ordinary people.”
“……”
“My romantic feelings are distorted. But I can’t change them, and I can’t hide them. Even if I suppress these feelings and go out with other men and have fun on the outside, someday it will become painful and useless. But I can’t change my true self. Even if I show myself, ‘normal’ people won’t accept me. I don’t know anyone who will accept me like that…”
After saying that much, Touko stopped talking.
This is probably her true feelings.
She, like many others, has always lived her life according to others.
What is wrong is wrong, and what everyone else says is wrong, so it must be done this way. She was a creature who adapted to others, just like a human being, or rather a Japanese person.
But when she met Ken, she learned about her true self.
Her distorted self. Once that happened, she couldn’t not go back. She had to live in a way that conformed to the people around her.
And Mei herself has the same thought.
“Well, goodbye.”
“Yes, goodbye.”
Mei left the house without saying another word to her.
She just stared at her clearly, with the determination that she would not be defeated by her, and she stared back in response.
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