Shallow Literature Club
Takayanagi’s PoV
The next day.
After leaving Tachibana’s case to the police, I called the other members of the literature club to ask them about the situation.
As expected, since rumors had been circulating about Tachibana’s case, most of the club members talked about it as if they had given up on it.
After all, many of the club members were involved in the bullying of Aono-kun, led by the manager of the Literature Club. When I saw the students confessing that they had gotten rid of his personal belongings and manuscripts, I began to feel something indescribable. I don’t know why we humans are so weak. When the group mentality kicks in, anything outrageous can be done. It seemed to me that the more normal honor students are, the more vulnerable they are to the group mentality, and the more serious honor students are, the more they are afraid of being out of the majority.
Do not be silly.
They trample on the dignity of others because everyone else is doing it.
Why can’t they see how cowardly and despicable that is? They are high school students.
The failure of education.
With such hopeless words in my mind, I cannot give up here.
As an educator who could not prevent this incident, I definitely could not give up.
So I called Matsuda-san, who seemed to have taken a leading position in the Literature Club along with Tachibana.
“Come in.”
I called her into the guidance office. Just to be sure, I asked Mitsui-sensei to accompany me.
Matsuda-san came into the room, her face pale and even her legs shaking.
“I’m sorry.”
She spat out words of apology in a voice like a buzzing mosquito.
“We are not the ones who should apologize, are we, Matsuda-san?”
Mitsui-sensei said that beside me as if it were a matter of course. I nodded.
“You know what I want to ask you. You, the members of the Literature Club, participated in the bullying of Aono Eiji. You hid his personal belongings and manuscripts and disposed of them without permission. Do you admit this?”
When I calmly asked her to confirm the facts, she seemed shaken and unable to speak.
“…”
“I heard that you had a relationship with Kondo-kun from the soccer club. Did it develop from there?”
“…”
She still won’t say anything.
“The other members of the soccer club have already testified. Please don’t lie to me.”
“…”
She shivered silently, her face pale.
“Did you have a grudge against Aono Eiji?”
“No, I don’t. It’s just that everyone was bullying him…”
I knew it. Most people said that. She thought it was okay because everyone else was doing it.
“I see.”
“But I wasn’t the mastermind. I was just instructed by the manager and Kondo-senpai.”
I knew she would make excuses like that. That’s why I put her last on the list.
“But other students testified…”
“Don’t worry, Aono is a bad guy.”
“He is an enemy of women.”
“It would be better for such a man to die.”
I told her. Most of the students had already heard about the misbehavior of the mastermind, Tachibana, so it was easy for them to talk.
She opens her eyes in surprise and slumps her shoulders.
“Look. You have no right to judge anyone. It’s okay because someone else is doing it; you’re insulting another person’s dignity for such a random reason. That is the worst thing a person can do.”
When I told her, she said,
“Why? I just trusted someone else. Why did this happen?”
In the end, she still doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of her sin.
“And you can’t hurt anyone.”
She ended up playing a major role in the attack by the remnants of the soccer club.
The gravity of her sin is quite serious, even in the Literature Club.
“No, no. How could this happen? I, only…”
I can’t stand her self-pity anymore.
“Even the victims of bullying have always felt that way. Especially Aono-kun, who was falsely accused by you.”
She screams when she hears these words as if she realizes the weight of the responsibility from which there is no escape.