Chapter 44: The Ex-Girlfriend’s Loss

The Ex-Girlfriend’s Loss

After being discharged from the hospital as if I were being driven out, I tried to contact my friends to find a place to stay.

But I couldn’t reach most of them.

Or rather, I had been blocked.

The only person I managed to get in touch with was her.

“Long time no see, Fuyumi-chan~.”

“I-It’s been a while, Honoka-san.”

“Hmm, what should I get? I’ll go with a strawberry parfait and a banana parfait~.”

“Ah, then I’ll have the matcha parfait.”

“Alright, let’s order then.”

Not long after, the parfaits were brought to our table.

The two of us began eating with our parfait spoons.

I felt like something was off.

But I couldn’t quite tell what it was.

Honoka’s demeanor was the same as always.

Her clothes, her smile, her tone of voice. Everything was just like usual.

And that was exactly why.

“Why?”

“Hm?”

“Why aren’t you asking about my leg?”

That was the part that felt so strange.

I currently had a sprained leg and was walking with crutches.

Normally, wouldn’t someone say things like “What happened?” or “Are you okay?”

That’s the kind of reaction you’d expect when a friend sees you injured.

Sure, Honoka could be a little out of touch with reality, but she wasn’t the kind of girl who would feel nothing when someone got hurt.

In that case, there could only be one explanation.

“Why, huh…”

The smile disappeared from Honoka’s face. Her voice dropped a full octave, noticeably so.

“Do you really need me to say it for you to understand, Fuyumi-chan?”

“Eek.”

If I had to sum up my impression of Honoka in one phrase, it would be “fluffy, sweet girl.”

She liked cute things, was cheerful and gentle, and always had a smile on her face.

It wasn’t like I had misjudged her.

In fact, if you asked her other friends, they’d probably say something similar.

So the one who had misunderstood was me.

In other words, to Honoka, I had become someone who…

“There’s nothing I can say to someone who would betray her own boyfriend.”

I was no longer a friend. No longer someone worth worrying about or caring for.

“W-Wait, um, there’s a reason for what happened…”

“A reason? What kind of reason?”

“Uh, um, I… I was lonely!”

My head was spinning and I couldn’t think clearly. I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

That’s right. I had been lonely.

Since Kengorou and I were in different departments, our schedules often didn’t line up.

Even when I had free time, he might be in the middle of exams or busy with work.

And during one of those times, right on cue, Natsuyama-senpai contacted me. I started talking to him about all sorts of things.

That’s how we ended up getting involved.

Before I knew it, I had told Honoka everything.

“I see, I see. I get it now, Fuyumi-chan.”

“S-So, you understand?”

“Um, hey, if it’s not too much to ask… could I maybe stay at your place for a while? I’ll try not to be a burden, I promise. Just until my leg heals completely. Please!”

I bowed my head.

I had no other choice.

I’d already been kicked out of the hospital and had nowhere else to go.

At this point, staying with a friend was my only option.

I knew that with my injured leg I’d be a burden, but even so, she was the only person I could rely on.

That was the nature of my desperate plea.

“Of course~.”

“Honoka-chan, thank y—”

“Of course not, obviously.”

Honoka rejected me flatly, still smiling.

Her tone didn’t change at all.

“Lonely? Even though you had Kengorou-kun? I’ve never once felt lonely while I’ve had Marco-kun. And if I ever did, I’d just call my boyfriend or a friend. Fuyumi-chan, did you ever once come to me saying you were lonely?”

“Ah, uh…”

She was asking why I hadn’t come to her if I’d truly been that lonely.

And I had no answer.

“No matter what your reason was, it’s still not okay to betray your boyfriend, is it?”

“…”

She was absolutely right.

My excuse about being “lonely” didn’t even hold up as an argument.

“Thanks for your time. Are we done talking now?”

That voice came from above, cutting through our conversation.

It was a voice I recognized, though it sounded colder than I remembered.

I looked up hesitantly and saw a tall, muscular young man standing there.

“Marco-kun…”

“Yo, Fuyumi-chan. Been a while.”

Marco sat down next to Honoka and started eating the banana parfait.

That’s when I understood.

The second parfait had been for Marco.

In other words, this whole setup had been planned from the beginning. The two of them confronting me together.

“W-Why are you doing this?”

“Well, one reason is that I wanted to hear your side of the story too. It wouldn’t be fair to only hear from her, right? After all, you were our friend too, part of our group.”

“…Ah, uh…”

The word “were” stabbed me in the chest.

The two of them briefly exchanged glances.

“Alright, you can go home now, Fuyumi-chan.”

“Eh, um, but what about the parfait money…”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s fine.”

The expressions on their faces when they said that…

“Eek.”

I couldn’t read a single emotion in them.

They looked at me like I was some kind of insect crawling on the ground.

“A-Aaaaah!”

I grabbed my crutches and fled the scene.

I almost fell, over and over again.

“What am I supposed to do…”

This time for sure, my last hope was gone.

What am I supposed to do now?