Chapter 50 The Ex-Girlfriend's Choice

The Ex-Girlfriend’s Choice

Chiharu’s Side

“Hey, are you listening?”

“Yeah, I’m listening.”

It was lunchtime, and Nana and I were sitting together in the school cafeteria.

While I was zoning out, she continued talking excitedly, her voice brimming with energy.

“By the way, that Amagi in the photos I showed you before—he used to date you, right? What’s going on with him now?”

“We broke up a long time ago.”

At my quiet response, Nana’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, unable to hide her excitement.

“Oh, so you already broke up? Then maybe Amagi moved on to Shirasaki!”

I couldn’t completely hide my confusion at those words.

Shirasaki Kanade is a national idol. There’s no way she’d be involved with Souta.

And Souta wouldn’t pursue an active idol either.

“Let’s make him pay a little, shall we?”

“What do you mean?”

A bad feeling crept over me, so I instinctively asked.

“I think I mentioned this before, but I’m planning to sell those scandalous photos to a reporter.”

Nana lowered her voice, whispering the words like a secret too thrilling to keep.

Internally, I was surprised, but outwardly, I kept my cool and continued listening.

“Seeing Amagi and Shirasaki getting along after your breakup—you can’t say you feel nothing about it, right? I wonder how you really feel, Chiharu~?”

Her tone was teasing, provocative.

She was studying my reaction, her eyes filled with anticipation.

“Yeah, you’re right. If I saw those photos, I might feel like doing something about it.”

I deliberately responded that way, wanting to gauge her reaction.

“Oh, as expected of Chiharu~! You totally get what I’m saying!”

Seeing Nana’s delighted expression, I realized she was serious about selling the photos.

If I didn’t stop her, this would definitely turn into a huge problem. Even I could see that.

Honestly, I had almost completely cut ties with Souta, so I didn’t particularly care what happened to him.

But for some reason, I couldn’t shake the feeling that letting this happen would be wrong.

Worst of all, I kept picturing Akagi Renji-senpai’s face in my mind.

That out-of-nowhere shaved head, that serious expression.

What the hell is this feeling…?

Before I knew it, I found myself saying,

“Hey, Nana, can you show me those scandalous photos one more time?”

“Why?”

“Because to judge whether they’re actually worth selling, we need a third-party perspective, right?”

“Ah, true.”

Nodding, Nana handed me her phone, where she had saved the incriminating photos.

I took the phone, unlocked the screen, and checked the pictures. They really did show Souta and Shirasaki Kanade talking intimately. If these were made public, they would undoubtedly deal a huge blow to both of them.

“I wonder how much we could sell them for—maybe about a month’s worth of part-time wages?”

“Hmm, I wonder. I don’t really know the market price for this kind of thing.”

Nodding along to her words, I casually scrolled through the photos, all while discreetly working to delete them.

“Yeah… this really could be a problematic photo…”

Mumbling that to myself, I selected the Delete option and moved the photo to the trash. Then, I opened the trash folder and made sure to select Permanently Delete, ensuring it couldn’t be recovered. Now, it was as if the photo had never existed.

“Who knows, maybe in the future, I’ll become a detective exposing scandals.”

“That would be pretty funny.”

Even as I operated the phone, Nana kept talking excitedly about meaningless things. She was already imagining the aftermath of leaking the photos.

If she succeeded once, she might just keep escalating.

“If that happens, Chiharu, you’ll help me too, right?”

Just as she asked that, I handed her phone back.

“Hmm, that might be impossible.”

I answered calmly.

“Oh, come on, Chiharu, you can’t back out now~!”

Joking around, Nana casually operated her phone. But as I watched her fingers move across the screen, a pang of tension shot through me. A few seconds later, her expression twisted.

“Chiharu, what’s going on? The photos are gone!”

Nana’s voice was loud, drawing the attention of nearby students.

She figured it out much faster than I expected.

I really didn’t want her to notice here.

Because I knew it would turn into an argument.

But, well… now that it’s come to this, there’s no helping it.

I let out a sigh and prepared to handle the situation.

“Calm down. Think about it rationally—selling out a classmate like this is a terrible idea. Have you even considered how much this could ruin someone’s life?”

As I tried to reason with her, Nana’s voice rose even further.

“Oh, now you’re lecturing me? Who gave you the right to delete my photos?!”

It felt like I had just poured oil on the fire.

Nana was furious. To her, this was a betrayal. Realizing I couldn’t change her mind, I decided to simply explain my actions.

“We’ve broken up, but he’s still my childhood friend. I don’t want to cause trouble for Souta. But… I know deleting the photos was wrong. You can curse at me all you want.”

At my words, Nana hesitated for just a moment. But then, she quickly fixed her gaze back on me, the anger still burning in her eyes.

Then, she let out a deep sigh, her voice laced with disappointment.

“…I’m really disappointed in you, Chiharu. We’re done. Consider this the end of our friendship.”

Leaving those words behind, Nana walked away.

Ah… so this is how it turned out, huh…?

Left alone at the table, I realized I had lost another friend.

After spacing out for a while, I took my phone out of my pocket and opened Souta’s contact. Seeing his name on the screen, I hesitated for a moment.

But I told myself this was the right thing to do and started typing a message.

There was a chance I had already been blocked, but I decided to send it anyway.

[That girl Kuronuma from our old class seems to be trying to take a photo of you with Shirasaki Kanade. You should probably be careful before this turns into a big problem.]

After pressing send, I felt an odd sense of accomplishment.

I’m not the type to go around helping people… This makes me feel like a complete hypocrite.

Even I don’t understand what’s changed inside me to make me act like this. But I want to believe that letting him know is better than doing nothing at all.

I once betrayed Souta and hurt him. This… is the least I can do to make up for it.