Another Best Friend
After Ichijo-san leaves, I go back to my room.
What should I do tomorrow? It is obvious that I should go to school. But I’m afraid to go. I guess it was thanks to her that I had forgotten my fear until a while ago. But when I’m alone in my room, I’m suddenly overcome with a feeling of loneliness and fear.
“Ah, I can’t stop shaking.”
Just walking down the hall, I get a lot of abuse from students I don’t even know.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to my shoebox tomorrow. There’s a good chance it’ll be filled with garbage or food scraps or something.
And even after I endured the abuse and made it to the classroom, I was still ignored and given cold looks like, “Why is this guy even here today?” or “Why don’t you just read the atmosphere and quit school?” I’m getting more and more mentally cornered.
I have to stay in class and sit at a desk full of scribbles and curse words.
I can only sigh at every negative image I can think of. I have a test coming up soon, but I don’t have time to study.
I feel like crying. A junior student is by my side. That alone will save my heart a lot, but …
I’m still worried about what I’m about to face.
I feel so sleepy. I’ve heard that when people have a mental breakdown, they just become lethargic and don’t get enough sleep no matter how much they sleep, and I think that might be the case for me too.
I wonder how much Ichijo-san’s presence has saved me so far.
Only when I talked to her could I forget this bitterness.
My phone rang again. Maybe it’s another mental attack because I ignored it before. Just blocking it is a hassle, so let’s delete my account.
Thinking so, I managed to open my phone. But what I found there was not despair, but another hope.
[Hey, Eiji. Are you okay?]
A message made up of nothing but bold letters and symbols. I have known him for as long as I have known Miyuki, and he is my best friend since childhood.
Satoshi Imai.
Satoshi has been a good friend of mine since elementary school, although our classes were separated because of my science background.
[Somehow.]
I reply, barely.
[I’m glad to hear that. Anyway, can we meet after the club activities? At our usual family restaurant.]
His messages were always short.
But his words were always the same. It was the same as before I got involved in that incident.
[I understand.]
I’ve been afraid for a long time. Because Miyuki had betrayed me. If Satoshi betrayed me too, I would have nothing left. My classmates and club members that I was close to turned their backs on me.
Satoshi and Ichijo-san. They treat me the same way they used to. That alone was enough to bring tears to my eyes.
“Hey, Eiji, this way, this way.”
I arrived at the usual cheap family restaurant. It would have been time for club activities, but he must have skipped. He has a stocky body and an intelligent face that looks perfect with his intelligent glasses.
He is the ace of the Japanese archery club and a talented guy, both literary and athletic, always in the single digits in his class. Although not as good as Ichijo-san, he is also one of the top students in the school.
Normally, I would have ordered fries because I was so hungry, but today I only ordered soft drinks.
“You’re so fast.”
“Yeah, it’s a big deal for my friend. It’s more important than club activities.”
From his tone, it seems that Satoshi knows what he is talking about.
Maybe rejection will follow.
And that scares me a little.
I sit down and Satoshi immediately lowers his head.
“I’m sorry, Eiji! I didn’t notice your emergency. I’m not fit to be your friend. Please forgive me!”
Satoshi, who was supposed to be rational and intelligent, was unusually emotional.
“What?”
“I’m rarely active on SNS, so I didn’t know there were all those weird slanderous comments going around. Because our classes are different, I didn’t know until after school what… you had suffered today. You’ve always been there for me, but I couldn’t be there for you when you needed my help the most… I’m so sorry!”
With a bow, Satoshi apologized to me very emotionally.
Thank God, Satoshi is still believe me.
“Satoshi, do you believe me?”
“After school, a junior member of my club showed me an article that had been written about you. But I knew right away that it was a lie. I knew it was a lie. I’ve never seen you hurt a girl. And it was Miyuki. There was no way. There is no way that you would do such a thing. This is some kind of mistake.”
“…”
I could feel my emotions getting all mixed up at Satoshi’s words.
“I rushed to ask the club members in your class, and they told me that you disappeared before homeroom today and left early. I immediately went to your homeroom teacher, Takayanagi-sensei. I wanted to give him a beating if he tried to cover up or abandon you.”
Wouldn’t Satoshi be suspended or expelled from school because of me? The thought crossed my mind and made my blood run cold.
I had heard that schools usually cover up such problems when they occur.
So I was about to give up. Adults are unreliable.
I’ve always thought that.
“So how did Sensei react?”
Satoshi’s face changed from the angry look he had before to a melancholy expression.
He pauses for a moment, then continues.
“Takayanagi-sensei, to my surprise, was very concerned about Eiji. Apparently, he found out about the problem this morning, and after school, he interviewed several students to gather information. But he was getting impatient because he couldn’t seem to gather enough information.”
“…”
I nodded.
“Sensei usually looks so unmotivated, but when I go to see him, he asks me earnestly, “Please. If you know anything about what happened to Aono, please tell me.” He must have known that we had been close since elementary school. So I told him about the post my junior had shown me. I’m sorry I didn’t talk to you about it before.”
Satoshi must have been worried about my pride or something.
I shook my head slowly.
“So Sensei said. “If you can, please tell Aono. It may be scary, but you can count on us adults. I will take responsibility for this problem and I will definitely solve it. Even if it’s just a little. Please trust me.””
When I heard those words, the ice in my heart seemed to melt little by little.
In front of my best friend, I exploded with emotion from the bottom of my heart. I couldn’t stop crying.