Manager Tachibana’s Ruin
Tachibana’s PoV
Why!?
Why is that message still there!? I don’t understand.
I should’ve handled this perfectly. I thought I deleted the message. But the message I sent that day was still there.
I had advised him to push Eiji-kun further when he asked me that Amada-san’s feelings had not completely disappeared. I even sent him a link to a website that shows how to do that…
“I’m pretty sure this is the message you sent, right?”
Takayanagi says coldly.
“I don’t remember. Do you have any proof that I sent it? First of all, there’s no such message on my phone. Someone must have faked it, or it must’ve been someone else pretending to be me. I don’t know anything about that.”
Takayanagi sighed heavily when I made that excuse.
“This SNS has an unusual specification; once you delete a message, it cannot be recovered. So if Kondo-kun had synced after you deleted the message, there would have been no evidence…”
As if this teacher didn’t care about my excuses, Takanagi continued the explanation with determination and nonchalance. Cold sweat ran down my back. My excuses are completely untenable.
“I told you I didn’t do it.”
I completely lost my composure and angrily denied it, but Takayanagi didn’t stop.
“…but Kondo-kun was cornered and took it out on his own phone and broke it. So he couldn’t log on to the SNS, and the sync couldn’t happen. Now we have definitive proof that you were behind it all. So, please stop making excuses. Don’t underestimate adults. The problem has gotten so big, Tachibana-san. Your childish excuses won’t work.”
“I’m not making excuses! If you’re a Sensei, you should believe me.”
Why doesn’t my story work? This teacher.
“Okay. The police are going to start investigating the SNS because of this case too. There’s so much obvious evidence so far. The police investigation will make it clear whether what Tachibana-san said was true or false.”
If that happens, the only way is to delete my account…
“Just to be clear, there is no point in deleting your account.”
Unable to answer, I could only stare back sharply.
“Tachibana-san. The school is taking this matter very seriously. You will be under house arrest for a while. Do you understand?”
“Shut up, shut up!!! I don’t approve of this.”
“Grow up, Tachibana-san. You can’t run away now.”
Takayanagi spoke to me as if to admonish me, and I got so excited that I lost my temper.
“Fine!!! I’ll prove my innocence. Then you can’t be a Sensei anymore. I hope you’re ready!”
I threatened this teacher with the strongest words I could, but Takayanagi would not budge.
“This is what we want as Sensei. I hope you’re right. We are also investigating other members of the Literature Club. If we find out anything else, we’ll contact you from here.”
No! I have to do something. If the excuses don’t work, I’ll have to blame someone else, not myself.
If Matsuda-san is being interrogated right now, I should go after Hayashi-san as soon as possible. I have to overcome this case somehow.
I rushed out like a predator after a small animal…
Takayanagi’s PoV
“This is Takayanagi. Yes. I just finished interrogating Tachibana-san. She keeps making excuses and refusing to admit anything. What about Matsuda-san? I see, she almost admitted it. I understand that. Tachibana-san is cornered and may try to contact Hayashi-san or other members of the literature club by force. Let’s step up the patrols this time before trouble breaks out.”
My guess is that Tachibana will try to force them to do something. But that would be like being cornered and taking a desperate leap. There is no way it will work. On the contrary, I expected to get conclusive evidence faster than the police investigation could be completed.
Aono-kun and the others would already be following Hayashi-san, and the teachers would be watching her closely as well, so if she tried to force contact with her, Tachibana would collapse in a single bound like a mouse in a trap.
Just to be sure, I followed her…