Chapter 15: Malice

Malice

The day after Hitomi-chan confessed her feelings to me.

Hitomi-chan and I found ourselves back at the park once again.

Earlier that afternoon, she had called Yayoi out after school to try and uncover her true feelings.

To find out why Yayoi had cheated.

And I think… I finally understood her reason.

Most likely, Yayoi had been tricked by Michiru.

The proof? The stack of photographs Yayoi threw at Hitomi-chan.

They showed Hitomi-chan and me entering—and leaving—a love hotel together.

And yet, even as I stared at those photos, I didn’t lose my composure.

Why was that?

Because Hitomi-chan and I had never done anything of the sort.

Of course we hadn’t.

I loved Yayoi far too much for that.

There’s no way I’d ever go to a love hotel with another girl while I was dating Yayoi.

But somehow, Yayoi had those photos—photos of something that never actually happened.

Most likely, Michiru had shown them to her and told her we betrayed her.

And based on that lie, they started a relationship, which led to the situation we're in now… or so I suspect.

My head was about to boil over with rage.

I wanted to punch Michiru in the face right that second.

But if I let my fists do the talking, it’d only make things worse for me.

I couldn’t forgive the person who deceived Yayoi and destroyed what we had.

And from what I could tell, Hitomi-chan felt the same way.

Naturally.

She’d been lying to her best friend about something that never even happened.

Hitomi-chan said she liked me—but that wasn’t a feeling she ever intended to pursue at the cost of hurting Yayoi.

Anyone could’ve seen that, just by watching her over the past three years.

All we’d ever done was quietly, gently nurture our feelings for each other.

And yet, a single act of malice was enough to shatter it all.

“I can’t forgive Michiru for this.”

“Yeah. Me neither.”

“These photos aren’t real. We know that. So the question is—where did the originals come from? I’m guessing these weren’t taken firsthand. Most likely, the base images were bought somewhere, and then they photoshopped our faces onto them.”

“—Yeah. That’s probably the only explanation.”

“Exactly. So I’m going to reverse image search them. I’ll track down the originals—and then we’ll prove to Yayoi that we’re innocent.”

“That’s the right move. She’s a victim in this too, after all.”

Hitomi-chan gave me a worried look and asked, “But… what are you going to do about Yayoi after that?”

Honestly, even if we got back together, I couldn’t say we’d be able to love each other the way we used to.

Then the only real option is to prove our innocence and part ways for good.

When I told Hitomi-chan that, she lowered her eyes and whispered softly, “I see…”

The next morning, we walked to school together—and found our names scrawled across the blackboard in huge letters, followed by: [Filthy cheaters.]

On our desks, too—words like [slut] and [two-timing scum] had been written.

I never imagined they’d come at us this directly.

I glanced around. Our classmates were glaring at us, whispering under their breath—Unbelievable, What garbage, Cheaters are the worst.

Hitomi-chan’s face went deathly pale. She rushed to the blackboard and began erasing the words.

I filled a bucket with water and grabbed a rag to wipe the graffiti off our desks.

I could’ve started with mine, but I chose to clean Hitomi-chan’s desk first.

Maybe that ticked them off, because I started hearing mutters: “Sucking up to his side chick,” “Poor Yayoi…”

Apparently, the words had been written with water-based markers, so they came off fairly easily.

But I didn’t get around to cleaning my own desk.

I figured the teacher would see it and do something about it.

But when homeroom began… he completely ignored it.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Is our teacher seriously that much of a piece of trash?

I always had a feeling he was useless, but now I was just… done.

Still, if I wiped it off right after homeroom, I’d have time before first period.

As soon as short homeroom ended, I picked up the rag and went back to scrubbing.

Hitomi-chan came over to help, and together we managed to get the desk back to how it was before.

“Thanks, Hitomi-chan.”

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’ll go back to my seat now.”

Just as she turned to leave, someone in the class muttered, “Slut.”

I started to rise from my seat, but Hitomi-chan grabbed my sleeve and held me back, whispering, “It’s fine…”

Her hand trembled ever so slightly as it clutched my sleeve.

Michiru and Yayoi were watching us, smirking with cruel satisfaction.

Seeing their expressions, I felt a fresh wave of fury.

It was the first time I’d ever felt anger toward Yayoi.

Up until yesterday, the sadness still outweighed the rage. But the fact that this bullying started the very next day after Hitomi-chan confronted her—

There’s no doubt about it now. Yayoi is one of the culprits too.

She believes we betrayed her.

I’d been hoping that once she heard the truth, she’d understand.

But instead, she got the whole class involved just to ruin us.

That’s not heartbreak anymore. That’s pure malice.

And she didn’t stop at me—she even turned that malice on her best friend, Hitomi-chan.

How could I possibly forgive that?

After school, I walked Hitomi-chan home, then headed to a certain place.

Once I bought what I needed, I returned to school and began preparing at my desk.

Every last person who tried to set us up… I’ll make sure they pay.