Chapter 28: Strong Person, Sumika Hosokawa’s Point of View
Translator: Soafp
[Sumika Hosokawa PoV]
[See you later, Hosokawa] I couldn’t say anything and had to walk away. [“You’re not really close enough to ask that, are you?”] That is true. But I wanted to know Shota’s ranking. I also wanted to know if he had taken the exam seriously, and I didn’t want to lose to Shota now. If Shota had taken the exam seriously, he would be in the top 10 or so. I was ranked 5th, so I might have lost.
I should have asked him for his ranking even if I had to bite down on …….
“Sumika, let’s go!”
“Oh, yes, I’ll be with you in a minute.”
A friend from the same club in another class calls out to me. I didn’t have my bag yet, so I said so and went back inside the classroom.
“Ah, Sumika. Are you having a club activity today?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Too bad.”
In the classroom, my friends were talking about their future plans for today, and it seems they were going somewhere to play. Unfortunately, I can’t go because I have club activities today.
“Ask me out some other time.”
“Yes, I will. Good luck with your club activities.”
“Bye bye.”
After walking and taking the train after club activities, I finally arrived home and opened the front door, my legs feeling tired and heavy.
“I’m home.”
“Welcome home. Dinner is ready.”
Mom says, probably from the kitchen.
“Yes, I’ll be right there.”
“Okay”
After washing my hands, I went to my room, put down my bag, and changed my clothes. Then I went to the living room with a paper with the results of the test.
“How much rice do want to eat? …… Ah, is that the exam paper?”
“Yes. Same as usual for the meal, please. ……Here are the results.”
Mom put the rice in my bowl and I put the results on the desk.
Then mom put the rice at my seat and picked up the results and started to look at them.
“Where, where? ……No.5! Amazing! You did great!”
“…… yeah. Thank you.”
“What’s wrong……? Did you get something you weren’t satisfied with?”
“No, I didn’t come in first, so I thought I’d do better next time.”
“Is that so? ……Even if you came in fifth that’s still great.”
“Thank you…..Thanks for the food”
I ate dinner and went back to my room. I lay on my bed and looked at the results of the exam I got today.
I was ranked 5th overall, and no subject was ranked 1st.
……, I did pretty well though.
I wonder if the first place for the overall score went to …… Mizuki Miyamoto, who was the representative of the new students. …… or …….
…… I wonder why she is often with Shota.
When the name Mizuki Miyamoto comes to mind, I can’t help but think of Shota.
……I hate the current Shota.
The old Shota was my idol.
Shota was very strong, and I admired him for being able to do anything …… that he could do, giving his all to everything.
One thing in particular that I remember from the past was when I was in the fourth grade. There was bullying in my class. It was the kind of thing where the girl had done nothing wrong but was being sarcastic so that the person in question could hear.
…… At that time, all I could do was stand by and watch. It was Shota who stopped the bullying. I talked to Shota, who was in a different class at the time, about the bullying, and two days later the bully apologized to the kid who was being bullied.
And it was the same when I became a junior high school student and the bullying turned on Shota. Before I knew it, Shota had stopped the bullying before it became big enough to become a problem.
It was in the second year of junior high school that Shota began to change. Suddenly his attitude toward me became distant and he started hanging out with Ryosuke all the time. Because it was so sudden, I was quite dissatisfied and distrustful. And my mistrust was justified. In the summer of my junior year, that incident happened. According to Ryosuke-kun, Shota deceived Ryosuke-kun and seduced and stole a girl that Ryosuke-kun liked.
I wondered if that was the reason he had kept his distance from me. At the same time, I also thought that Shota would never do such a thing.
But Shota never stopped the bullying that occurred in the class after that. He was being talked about behind his back and harassed as if he was being punished. The bullying gradually escalated and Shota began to get hurt. I thought it was too much and reported the bullying to the teacher and Shota’s parents.
If Shota was not at fault, he would have stopped the bullying himself. He is very strong.
After that, Shota stopped being serious in everything he did and started cutting corners in gym class and at school events…….That was what I hated the most. I hate people who cut corners and don’t work hard when they can.
Then in high school, I went to class a little nervous, and there was Shota. His eyes were still hidden by his bangs as they were at the end of the third year of junior high school, and he even started wearing glasses, but I recognized him by his voice. We had not talked much since about the second year of junior high school and not at all since the summer of the third year of junior high school, so I did not know that we went to the same high school.
About two weeks after we started high school, Mizuki Miyamoto, who was the freshman representative, came to our class. Everyone knew Mizuki Miyamoto because she was very pretty and I could match her name and face. The whole class was surprised to hear that she had come to see Shota.
If it was just that, it would not be anything, but my friend became interested in Shota, like, what kind of person is he that he is friends with that Miyamoto-san. If it was the old Shota, I would not say anything, but I had to stop …… because she wanted to talk to the current Shota.
At that time, I told my friends about what happened in middle school and warned them about it, which led to bad rumors about Shota circulating throughout the school year. …… but I didn’t lie and I guess I had no choice.
And then the ball game. As I expected, …… Shota was not serious at all. Someone who was probably a …… friend of Shota’s was saying that I was trying to say that he lost because of Shota, but you would think so, because if Shota had really tried, they might have won. At least, he was better in middle school, and if he had tried like he did then, he might have won.
…… Yes, she is probably a friend of Shota’s. Also, I sometimes see her with Yuki Abe and Mizuki Miyamoto who is in the same class with her.
…… friends, huh……. I wonder how he can make new friends after betraying his friend once, and then forget about it. This should be done only after the Ryosuke case is properly settled.
I get up from the bed and somehow look towards Shota’s house. It seems that Shota is not there now. Mom told me that she heard from Auntie that he is living alone.
……Why does he live alone? I asked myself. It would cost a lot of money to live alone. Even from here, it’s not too far to go to school every day. In fact I spend about an hour and a half to get to school every day.
The current Shota does things that are so incorrect that it is hard to imagine the old Shota.
I don’t like the current Shota. But the old Shota was my idol. I want Shota to go back to the old Shota.
nika77722
June 27, 2022 at 6:06 pmThanks for the chapter
pezantri
June 27, 2022 at 6:17 pmWell, at least Sumika isn’t guilty of betraying a friend- hard to say that’s a good thing though, since the only reason she’s innocent of that is because she was clearly never a friend to Shota at all. But at least we have indisputable evidence that Shota is better off without her.
Batiste
June 27, 2022 at 6:27 pmIt’s not that she wasn’t a friend. It’s the fault that she relied to much on the information from other sources, like ryosuke. And the actions of shota change and she felt like this was him admitting his guilt.sorry would go into more detail, but I’m driving right now.
some mob
June 27, 2022 at 6:51 pmYou don’t deserve anything punny idiot. This is absolutely on you. You dare to believe someone instead of the “idol” you have been admiring.
I really want for the truth to be revealed some day and read Shota’s gullible family’s reactions as well, this fool thoughts.
Shota himself doesn’t seem to be to keen on the idea but i guess Yuki or Miyamoto will do it for him.
nika77722
June 28, 2022 at 12:06 amThanks for the chapter
pezantri
June 28, 2022 at 12:17 amWell, at least Sumika isn’t guilty of betraying a friend- hard to say that’s a good thing though, since the only reason she’s innocent of that is because she was clearly never a friend to Shota at all. But at least we have indisputable evidence that Shota is better off without her.
Batiste
June 28, 2022 at 12:27 amIt’s not that she wasn’t a friend. It’s the fault that she relied to much on the information from other sources, like ryosuke. And the actions of shota change and she felt like this was him admitting his guilt.sorry would go into more detail, but I’m driving right now.
some mob
June 28, 2022 at 12:51 amYou don’t deserve anything punny idiot. This is absolutely on you. You dare to believe someone instead of the “idol” you have been admiring.
I really want for the truth to be revealed some day and read Shota’s gullible family’s reactions as well, this fool thoughts.
Shota himself doesn’t seem to be to keen on the idea but i guess Yuki or Miyamoto will do it for him.
Omnefarious
June 27, 2022 at 11:22 pmHosokawa is getting exactly what she deserves: ignored, replaced (with new friends and a cuter girl), and told-off (by Shota’s new bro, Yuki). Nothing drives a self-righteous and self-centered person crazier than rejection and having to admit he/she was wrong. And really, she’s got more than a few screws loose. She seems to have created this idealized version of Shota in her head while ignoring or just outright mistreating Shota, the actual person, who was right in front of her. And then, just like a celebrity who finds themself embroiled in a scandal where everyone is dogpiling him/her despite being innocent, so too does she turn on him: punishing him for “abandoning” her and failing to live up to her perfect image of him. Not once does she give him the benefit of the doubt given his history helping others in primary school, nor does she go to him to have a heart-to-heart like you would expect long-time, childhood friends would. Nope, guilty because enough people say so, she feels slighted (despite her own, big mouth being the cause), and because he no longer has the will to defend himself from seemingly EVERYONE (including his family, who SHE turned against him). And her excuse is…”well I didn’t lie and I guess I had no choice”?! Zero accountability or remorse, although we can see the seeds of doubt have finally been planted in her mind. It’s still too little too late now. She can cope, seethe, and wallow knowing that Shota wants nothing to do with her anymore and is moving on fine without her.
Gatts
June 27, 2022 at 11:47 pmThank you for the chapter !
Omnefarious
June 28, 2022 at 5:22 amHosokawa is getting exactly what she deserves: ignored, replaced (with new friends and a cuter girl), and told-off (by Shota’s new bro, Yuki). Nothing drives a self-righteous and self-centered person crazier than rejection and having to admit he/she was wrong. And really, she’s got more than a few screws loose. She seems to have created this idealized version of Shota in her head while ignoring or just outright mistreating Shota, the actual person, who was right in front of her. And then, just like a celebrity who finds themself embroiled in a scandal where everyone is dogpiling him/her despite being innocent, so too does she turn on him: punishing him for “abandoning” her and failing to live up to her perfect image of him. Not once does she give him the benefit of the doubt given his history helping others in primary school, nor does she go to him to have a heart-to-heart like you would expect long-time, childhood friends would. Nope, guilty because enough people say so, she feels slighted (despite her own, big mouth being the cause), and because he no longer has the will to defend himself from seemingly EVERYONE (including his family, who SHE turned against him). And her excuse is…”well I didn’t lie and I guess I had no choice”?! Zero accountability or remorse, although we can see the seeds of doubt have finally been planted in her mind. It’s still too little too late now. She can cope, seethe, and wallow knowing that Shota wants nothing to do with her anymore and is moving on fine without her.
mcdex
June 28, 2022 at 3:36 amWhat a selfish person!
And Ryosuke. I am beginning to suspect that he was responsible of some of the rumors (before the whole “he stole my girl”) to isolate him and take advantage of him.
Gatts
June 28, 2022 at 5:47 amThank you for the chapter !
mcdex
June 28, 2022 at 9:36 amWhat a selfish person!
And Ryosuke. I am beginning to suspect that he was responsible of some of the rumors (before the whole “he stole my girl”) to isolate him and take advantage of him.
Yuuka
June 28, 2022 at 9:22 amjust laugh at her.
Yuuka
June 28, 2022 at 3:22 pmjust laugh at her.
xson1995
June 28, 2022 at 8:01 pmI love the way its heading to! I can’t wait to her reaction to his point of view and how life decided to screw him back then ;D
xson1995
June 29, 2022 at 2:01 amI love the way its heading to! I can’t wait to her reaction to his point of view and how life decided to screw him back then ;D
john
May 21, 2023 at 4:44 amI really hate character like Sumika… I really hope she and ryosuke have a bad ending