Chapter 26 The Line Between Joking and Ridicule

The Line Between Joking and Ridicule

Unfortunately, school is still in session.

It was good that I survived the morning class, but it was finally time for lunch.

(What will happen now?)

This is the time I was most worried about.

The reason is——it’s those guys of course.

“Takumi, I’m going to eat lunch, so hurry up! Don’t be lazy, I’m already hungry.”

“That’s right. Takeshi-kun already said that, so can’t you hurry up?”

Those two guys who are being so loud right now, and we’re going to have lunch together.

Kaori and I started dating two weeks ago, but Takeshi and I’ve been eating lunch together every day since we started school.

So those guys probably think I’m going to have lunch with them like I always do.

But I don’t want to go. I mean, I don’t want to talk to them and I don’t want to be in the same room with them.

But…I can’t help but feel that if I suddenly refuse, I’ll provoke them.

They don’t think the affair has been revealed. In case you were wondering, Kaori and I are still dating. So it would be unnatural for me to intentionally leave my girlfriend alone with another man.

“Hey, Bean Sprout! Didn’t I tell you before? I hate it when you keep me waiting.”

“Hey, don’t say Bean Sprout~ Bean Sprout is too good for Takumi!”

…I’m being ridiculed like this.

The very act of being rejected by me will be a trigger for their pride.

Frankly, it’s a pain in the a🬀s to be angry, sad, and desperate about these two anymore. If possible, I would like to remain an uninvolved stranger…To that end, it would be better to gradually grow apart and eventually disappear from our memories than to suddenly sever ties.

So I can’t help but have lunch with them today.

Let’s spend some time together on our stomachs and adjust the schedules to make other plans for tomorrow.

“…Sorry to keep you waiting. The usual rooftop is fine. Let’s go.”

Anyway, I took my lunch box out of my bag and approached the two who were waiting at the entrance of the classroom.

For some reason, Takeshi was holding Kaori’s shoulder and waiting for me, but I ignored him and walked past them, and…they sighed in a bored way and followed me.

“What, he should be mad because I’m holding your shoulder. Hey, are you kidding me?”

“No way, he’s a bean sprout, right? Takumi is kinda effeminate, or rather weak, haha.”

“You’re right, haha.”

They’re so loud.

They’ve been saying a lot of things that are hard to listen to.

But is it my fault too?

I used to take all those remarks as jokes and laugh them off. I didn’t care what was said, so maybe it’s not surprising that they escalated their remarks.

“I’m recovering from a cold. I’m still not well.”

“So? Haha, it’s your fault that you caught a cold by yourself and you want me to take care of you? What a pain in the a🬀s.”

“Takeshi-kun’s not catching a cold, is he~?”

“Well, you know. I’ve never caught a cold. Unlike Takumi, I’m a strong person.”

…Of course, I don’t care about your worries about my physical condition.

I wasn’t looking for that either, so I don’t think anything of it.

However…I still found myself comparing him to those people.

[Hana-san and Ichika are very worried about me, why are you, who live…under the same roof with them, not like that?]

Even though the mother and daughter of the Itsumi family are good and kind-hearted.

It was a pity that only Takeshi grew up ugly and scummy——