Chapter 40: Akabane Subaru’s Rage (2)
Akabane Subaru’s Rage (2)
Even when Subaru spoke to her, Yuki didn’t show the slightest hint of happiness.
At first, he thought she was just being shy, but no matter how much time passed, Yuki’s cold attitude never changed.
Her response was so unreasonable, it was as if he didn’t exist.
Being ignored by Yuki, a humiliating feeling slowly began to eat away at Subaru’s heart.
No matter how assertively Subaru tried to close the distance, Yuki would always slip away from him.
Subaru had never experienced this kind of response before, and he was completely at a loss.
What further disturbed Subaru’s heart was, of all things, the presence of Taichi.
No matter how often Subaru called out to her and was met with a cold reaction, for some reason, Yuki would approach Taichi on her own. It was an unbelievable sight.
Taichi had only started talking to Yuki because Subaru had made him ask various questions in his place.
So at first, even when he saw the two of them talking, Subaru hadn’t thought anything of it. He simply assumed Taichi was doing his best and paid it no mind.
However, he gradually started to notice how they acted.
He realized that Taichi and Yuki were standing far too close together.
And the fact that Yuki’s response to Taichi was clearly different from when Subaru spoke to her was something Subaru couldn’t believe.
When Subaru talked to her, Yuki just acted completely normal.
It was truly an ordinary reaction. She simply conversed with him like she would with any classmate, and that was all he got from her.
But the way Yuki looked at Taichi was clearly different.
She smiled like someone enjoying the company of a favorite, and the distance between them was obviously too close.
One time, Subaru tried to test things by stepping closer to Yuki.
But Yuki pulled away and maintained her distance.
Subaru’s hand, which had tried to rest on her shoulder, sliced through empty air. When he took a step toward her, she stepped back to preserve the space between them.
And yet, that same Yuki would wrap herself around Taichi and press her body against him. Subaru had no idea what that could possibly mean, no matter how hard he thought about it.
Things were not going well.
Subaru gradually began to see it that way.
Why was Yuki more interested in someone like Taichi than in him?
No matter how he looked at it, Subaru was vastly superior to Taichi in every way.
That question swirled endlessly inside Subaru’s mind.
Appearance, athletic ability, intelligence, and the kind of charm and social aptitude expected of a decent person.
He had the upper hand over Taichi in all of those things and lacked nothing. Subaru desperately tried to understand why that wasn’t enough.
Taichi was short and didn’t have much muscle. He had no masculinity, and there wasn’t even a trace of coolness in his appearance.
When they were younger, he had been socially withdrawn, always alone until Subaru talked to him. Even now, that hadn’t fundamentally changed.
He was still shy around anyone except Subaru and Akari and hadn’t made a single new friend.
He couldn’t build new relationships on his own and could only cling desperately to what he already had.
Of course, he was bad at sports and clumsy no matter what he did. He wasn’t particularly good at studying either and had the worst grades among the three childhood friends.
Even when Subaru reanalyzed him, Taichi didn’t have a single admirable trait.
That was exactly why Subaru had always looked out for him.
When girls bullied him, Subaru would step in to help. Since Taichi would just sit alone if no one talked to him, Subaru would be thoughtful enough to invite him to lunch.
If Subaru didn’t look after him like that, Taichi would always be alone.
He hated being alone, yet lacked the courage to talk to anyone.
Whether he was there or not made no difference to anyone.
Someone like Taichi should not have had any appeal.
Taichi had desperately gathered information about Yuki. Subaru genuinely appreciated that.
At first, Subaru had no real expectations.
He figured Taichi couldn’t do anything anyway and that it was only natural for him to fail. At most, he thought it’d be nice if he got something by chance.
Subaru had even made plans to use Akari next if Taichi didn’t work out.
But despite having never succeeded at anything before, Taichi brought back information on Yuki time and time again.
Subaru had genuinely praised Taichi for doing better than expected.
However, that may have gone to Taichi’s head.
Lately, he had gotten far too close to Yuki.
Subaru didn’t like that and warned Taichi not to get too involved with Yuki anymore.
If it was Taichi, he would never interfere. After all, Taichi had no one but Subaru and Akari.
Subaru knew Taichi always tried desperately not to be disliked and to be useful.
If Subaru showed even a hint of displeasure, Taichi would remember his place and take care not to get in Subaru’s way.
But Subaru had been just a little too naïve.
While Taichi no longer spoke to Yuki on his own, Yuki still kept going to him like nothing had changed.
Even if Subaru called out to her first, Yuki would go straight to Taichi as if Subaru weren’t even there.
Yuki clung to him, rubbing her voluptuous body against Taichi.
Taichi told her to stop, but Subaru could immediately tell he didn’t mean it.
When Yuki hugged him, Taichi looked elated on the inside and made no effort to push her away.
He was clearly enjoying the feel of her body while desperately trying to hide the goofy grin threatening to spread across his face.
Subaru could no longer excuse it by thinking, “Well, I guess it’s understandable since he’s a gloomy guy who’s never been treated kindly by a girl before.”
Subaru had revised his opinion of Taichi. He now saw him as the worst kind of pervert.
Yuki’s sweet-smelling hair.
Her large chest pushing out against her uniform.
Her perfectly shaped legs extending from her short skirt.
Subaru believed all of that belonged to him. So he could never forgive Taichi for enjoying what wasn’t his to touch.
Even so, Subaru had considered Taichi a friend until now.
Though he unconsciously looked down on him, Subaru had spent enough time with Taichi since they were little to at least be fond of his company.
Clumsy at everything, helpless in every way.
Subaru wasn’t mocking him. He just accepted that Taichi was that kind of person, and Taichi had lived up to that role by staying by Subaru’s side.
Taichi had never disobeyed Subaru and always had the spirit of trying to be useful. That was because he had no one else to depend on.
He wanted to be more helpful and liked more. That motivation was so transparent that, in a way, Taichi may have felt like a cute little servant to Subaru.
But now, Taichi no longer acted the way Subaru wanted him to.
Not only was he useless, as always, but now he was even starting to become a nuisance.
That made the part of Subaru that had unconsciously looked down on Taichi swell out of control, to the point that he now even felt disgust toward him.
Because of someone like Taichi, Yuki wouldn’t give him the time of day.
Because Taichi got in the way, nothing had been going well lately.
If only Taichi weren’t around.
That feeling had begun to explode inside Subaru.
Subaru couldn’t understand at all why Yuki liked someone like Taichi.
Still, he figured she probably wasn’t seriously interested.
Yuki was probably just toying with him like a plaything and would soon get bored and throw him away. That was all Subaru could make himself believe.
But even when he tried to convince himself of that, whenever he saw Yuki fooling around with Taichi in the classroom, he couldn’t stop the overwhelming frustration that bubbled up.
Subaru’s irritation kept growing and growing, and now it was just about ready to burst into plain sight.