Chapter 14 | Ex-girlfriend vs. Current Girlfriend

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I was led by Futaba-san to the rooftop.

The door to the prohibited rooftop was locked, but Futaba-san picked the lock effortlessly with a hairpin that she had taken out of her b****t pocket.

“Keep it a secret from the teachers.”

I nodded at Futaba-san, who smiled mischievously.

My heart was pounding violently, and I felt like I was going to throw up if I tried to speak.

I don’t know if it’s from tension or stress.

But, I knew that the conversation I was about to have with Futaba-san would surely not be a calm one.

When we got to the rooftop, a clear blue sky was spread out before us, and Futaba-san, who was standing under it, had her lustrous black hair swaying.

I could sense an adult’s composure from her, not just her expression, but also from her mannerisms.

In comparison, my face was the opposite of clear skies. My face was clouded and I was very flustered.

I knew that my body was hunched over and shrinking.

“…It hurts me to see you looking so scared.”

Futaba-san said with a look of displeasure.

I replied with a small voice, “I’m sorry.”

“I guess that can’t be helped, huh…”

After saying that, Futaba-san leaned against the fence of the rooftop with her arms crossed.

Futaba-san, who was probably 10 centimeters taller than me, was slender, and looked very stylish as she leaned against the fence.

Or rather, if you’re a beauty like Futaba-san, you’d be beautiful like a top model no matter what pose you made.

“Hey, Shiina-san. There’s something that I want to ask you about Shinse.”

The moment that Futaba-san said Shinse’s name, my body shook.

After all, the conversation with Tanaka-san and the others was the truth.

Shinse really is with Futaba-san…

“…What is it that you want to ask?”

Finally, I was able to speak properly.

“It’s about why you fell in love with Shinse.”

“…Eh?”

Why she was asking me such a thing, I couldn’t understand her intentions for a moment.

What purpose would it serve for Futaba-san to know the reason why I fell in love with Shinse?

“Could it be that you’ve forgotten? Or perhaps you didn’t like Shinse from the beginning?”

“T-That’s not true! I still like Shinse, even now!”

I retorted reflexively out of anger.

“—To be saying that after cheating, you’ve got some nerve.”

” !?”

It wasn’t that I was surprised because she had said something that was right.

That’s because the look that Futaba-san had shown me for a moment was scarily demonic.

She was giving off a murderous intent as if she was going to kill me.

“Well, it’s fine. Now then, let me carefully ask you about Shinse, whom you say that you still love. Why did you fall in love with Shinse?”

“What’s the point of knowing that for you, Futaba-san?”

“It’s just simple curiosity. It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me. But… if that’s the case, then I’ll decide that you didn’t like Shinse after all.”

And, Futaba-san would probably tell Shinse that.

That I didn’t like Shinse, and that’s why I cheated.

If that happens, then it’ll be over.

My relationship with Shinse will be completely over.

I still haven’t told Shinse what I have to say yet.

If Shinse’s interest in me disappears before that, then I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

At the very least, I have to make the troublesome Futaba-san understand that my feelings for Shinse are genuine.

After calming myself down, I slowly began to speak.

“…The first time I talked to Shinse, I thought he was a boy who couldn’t read the room.”

“Can’t read the room… is that so? At the very least, I think he’s a man who can read the room.”

“No, Shinse can’t read the room. Especially when it comes to romantic relationships, he’s hopeless at it.”

“Romantic relationships…”

Futaba-san frowned.

I wonder if there was something she recognized.

“Even though he can’t read the room, Shinse was trying to care for the people around him in his clumsy way. He misunderstood that I was enjoying being alone at school, and that I was alone and looking bored, and went out of his way to talk to me every day.”

The human relationships were terrible in the middle school that I had attended before transferring.

It was an environment where if you didn’t do something while reading the room, then you would get hated on, even if it was something good.

Like how I was made the next target of bullying when I tried to help someone who was being bullied.

I would read the room, match the people around me, and live while observing the expressions of others.

I was tired of that kind of school life and those kinds of human relationships, so I didn’t want to interact with anyone.

I wanted to live alone forever.

There wasn’t any bullying at the school that I had transferred to.

But even if there isn’t any bullying, there are still gossips.

The girls in my class would gossip about me, saying that I was acting too high and mighty because I was a little cute, and who did I think I was.

People generally get in a bad mood when the actions that they did out of kindness were rejected.

That can’t be helped, it’s my fault.

Like that, various people left me, but Shinse was different.

“Every day, even when I ignored him, he would call out to me, and although I was annoyed in the beginning, little by little, I didn’t hate being talked to by Shinse anymore.”

“And then… before you knew it, you had fallen in love, is that it?”

“…Well, yeah. Shinse doesn’t read the room, and even when I told him not to talk to me, he didn’t listen to me at all and just kept talking to me. Everyone else had stopped trying to approach me, but… I didn’t know why I had fallen in love with such a selfish person at first, but…”

“In the end, it wasn’t that you didn’t want to interact with anyone, but that you wanted to interact with someone who wouldn’t easily abandon you. And that was Shinse… is that it?”

“Yeah, I guess you can say it like that.”

Even though I thought that I didn’t want to interact with anyone, that wasn’t the case.

I just wanted to interact with someone who wouldn’t abandon me.

“…And yet, you abandoned Shinse.”

The words that were coldly released from Futaba-san’s mouth.

I finally understood the meaning of this question.

Futaba-san was trying to make me, who was clinging to my past feelings, give up.

⭐︎

“You’re a terrible woman, aren’t you. To betray Shinse, who had treated you so well, in such a way.”

I spoke with my voice while doing my best to suppress my anger towards Shiina-san and maintain a calm mind.

I can’t understand why Shinse would fall for a woman like this, up to this point.

No, perhaps most romantic relationships are like that.

From my perspective, I couldn’t see any reason to be infatuated with Takanashi-kun and Sato-kun.

That’s why I didn’t even spare a glance at Takanashi-kun, and I rejected Sato-kun, who had confessed to me in the past, without mercy.

But, Tanaka-san and Suzuki-san like those guys, right?

Even with a person who others would think “Why that person…?”, depending on how you see or interact with them, you may come to like them.

“A person like you has no right to be involved with Shinse. So, would you please not approach Shinse anymore?”

“…That’s impossible. I have to apologize to Shinse, and there are things that I want to talk about. After this, I’m going to meet with Shinse and talk with him.”

I think that it’s necessary for you to apologize to Shinse, but I can’t allow that. What kind of things do you want to talk about?

Even though she had cheated, Shiina-san is desperately clinging to Shinse.

Shiina-san and Shinse are in the same class, so there’s no room for me, who is in a different class, to intervene.

If Shiina-san were to try to talk to Shinse, then she could do that at any time.

But even so, I can’t ignore this.

I have to break her heart so that Shinse doesn’t have to get involved with Shiina-san anymore.

“For now, that’s impossible today. Shinse isn’t coming to school.”

“How do you know?”

“I heard it at my house this morning. He said that he wasn’t going to go to school today because he didn’t want to see Shiina-san.”

I said that like it was nothing.

But, Shiina-san was making a despairing expression.

“Don’t tell me… you and Shinse…”

“We slept together, but does that matter?”

“N-No way…”

She probably didn’t think that a lover who she had just broken up with yesterday would have progressed that far in a relationship with another woman.

Shiina-san’s body stiffened at a fact that was both unexpected and to some degree, something she had prepared herself for.

“Weren’t you and your cheating partner also in that kind of relationship?”

“Me and him weren’t in that kind of relationship! But even then…”

“You’re not going to say that even though you didn’t reach that kind of relationship with your cheating partner, Shinse embraced another woman right after breaking up with you and that it’s unforgivable, right?”

“That’s not it…”

Shiina-san bit her lip and looked down.

She must be frustrated that she knew that her ex-boyfriend had been taken by another woman.

But even so, since she was the one who cheated, I think that she’s just out of line.

“…I have to meet Shinse and talk properly…”

It seems that Shiina-san desperately wants to have a conversation with Shinse.

I don’t think that anything will be solved even if she talks to him.

Anyway, it’s not good for Shinse to meet her right now since her emotions are heightened.

But, Shinse can’t take a break from school forever, so I wonder what I should do.

It would have been better if Shiina-san had just given up after learning about my relationship with Shinse…

“He’s not coming to school today, and I don’t think that he’ll even care for you in the first place.”

“I’m going to Shinse’s house now.”

“Shinse is at my house. Do you even know where my house is?”

Of course, it’s a lie, but there’s no other way to lie.

“…Even so, Shinse will come to school someday. He can’t avoid me forever.”

He’s avoiding Shiina-san right now, but he has the intention of talking with her eventually.

I thought that there was no need for Shinse to be hurt anymore, so I tried to break Shiina-san’s heart here, but she was more stubborn than I thought, and she was still clinging to the past.

If that’s the case, then it can’t be helped—

“I understand. If that’s the case, then I’ll set up a time for you and Shinse to talk. So, would you please stop contacting Shinse without my permission?”

“Sure, that’s fine with me. Even so… you’re already acting like you’re his girlfriend, Futaba-san.”

“Yes, I am. After all, unlike some people who cheated and got dumped, I’m Shinse’s girlfriend.”

I returned her taunt with my maximum taunt.

Even so, Shiina-san’s expression didn’t twitch at all.

Conversely, Shiina-san, who had a faint smile on her face, said this.

“I didn’t think I was cheating. It’s a different story if Shinse felt like it was cheating, but if I tell Shinse about the circumstances, then his thoughts might change.”

“Eh…? What do you mean by that…”

Leaving me dumbfounded with those words, Shiina-san left the rooftop.

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