Chapter 25 | A Girl Who Regretted It, From the Beginning

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~ Youka's Point of View ~

At lunchtime, I sit on my usual bench in the courtyard.

There I eat my lunch alone. I’ve been chasing after Senpai for so long that it’s no wonder I’m all alone. I didn’t try to make friends because it was my choice.

“Ah, I really came.”

But today is different.

After a little delay, Senpai’s older sister came over. I thought she wouldn’t come because she was late, but…she came.

She’s a little different from me, so I’m not sure what to talk about… but I’m so glad she came… I wonder what I can tell her that will make her happy.

(Also, for some reason, I feel very comfortable when I see Onee-san’s face. I wonder if it’s because she looks like Senpai? And she really has a dignified and beautiful appearance.)

“I can’t imitate her… I’m a bad girl. I’m the worst kind of woman who doesn’t know how people feel.”

“I can hear you talking to yourself a little bit, but why don’t you just keep it to yourself?”

“Oh, you heard it in my voice… Ha-ha.”

“Well, it’s okay, but… can I join you today?”

“Yes!”

Today, I left a space open in advance for her to sit down. She smiled happily when she saw that…yes, I’m glad I prepared and waited for her after all.

The topic of conversation… Onee-san is a Yankee, so I guess she likes to talk about violence.

“Do you like to hit people?”

“Oh? What’s wrong all of a sudden?

“I’m sorry… Onee-san is a Yankee, so I just thought…”

“I’ve come to say that…I like you better, Nakagawa-san. Also, I’m sorry for being late today, right?… I had a lot of things to do.”

“I see…”

I wonder if she’s busy?

But you’re coming to me like this even though you have things to do, you care about me… right?

I’m glad – but I hope I’m not a burden. I don’t want to drag her down…

I asked fearfully.

“Well… come to think of it, why does Onee-san keep coming to see me?”

In response to this question, Yuka answered in a batty manner while scratching her cheek with her index finger.

“Hm? Oh, well…I saw you the day before yesterday.”

“Oh…is that so?”

Hearing this, Youka drooped sadly.

─ ─ I knew it was so. She saw it firsthand and knows what happened.

I’m sure that she saw the exchange with Senpai and cared about me because she is a kind sister… I was crying so much.

“Aren’t you mad at me for making Senpai sad?”

“If Yuuji didn’t like you, he might have been angry…but he didn’t seem like that at the time. Yuuji seemed to be having a hard time rejecting you.”

“That’s why you didn’t get angry at me at all.”

“Well…something like that…”

“Thank you…

“Mmm…”

“…”

“…”

We did not have any more conversations. For Youka, this matter was really serious. It was inevitable that this would happen.

Ring-ring-ring-ring.

“Then, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I watched her leave with a wave of my hand. I didn’t get to talk to her much today because of my gloomy face. I was looking forward to this time, but… but…

“I don’t want to bother Senpai, and I don’t want to bother his sister either…I’ll tell her tomorrow, okay?”

I’ll tell her not to come here anymore.

I don’t want you to spend your precious lunch break feeling sorry for me…

───────

“Hey, Nakagawa-san! I’m sorry for everything I’ve done!”

“What?”

As soon as I entered the classroom, the girls who had been insidiously harassing me regularly bowed their heads in unison.

They just hid my jacket this morning too…what are they up to this time…?

“Um…I won’t harass you anymore…I didn’t know~ I didn’t know Nakagawa was such a scary Senpai acquaintance!”

“What? Scary Senpai?”

“She said that if I ever laid a hand on you again, there would be consequences… she came to us with a bunch of Yankees in tow…”

“That’s…”

There is no doubt about it. I’m sure it’s Yuka because she’s the only person I know who knows someone like that.

Oh, that’s why she came late…this is what she wanted to do… What should I do?

“Don’t cry! I’m really going to get killed!”

Oh, I was crying.

I’ve been a big crier lately…I’m so embarrassed.

But something is different from usual.

These are not tears of sadness…I’m crying because I’m happy.

“I forgive you, but…please don’t harass me anymore.”

“I will never do it again! Rather, from today, I will become Nakagawa…no, Nakagawa-san’s personal guard!”

“Ah, that’s fine,”

I said, but I was still very flattered the whole time.

I haven’t been harassed that much yet, so I don’t resent her that much, but still, thank you so much, Yuka-san.

You solved one of the reasons why I don’t want to go to school.

It’s fine now, but if their harassment had continued to escalate, I’m sure it would have escalated into bullying, and I would have been driven to the point where I probably wouldn’t have been able to attend school anymore.

I met Onee-san only yesterday…but after such a short relationship, just having lunch together twice, and just being an acquaintance of Yuuji-senpai…I wonder how kind she is to me.

“I can’t repay…this favor…”

I whispered to myself while no one else was around.

And then…

“It’s… no good… to continue to be lenient like this.”

I decided to do something.

─────────

The next day lunchtime arrived. Today, without delay, she comes to me. And when our eyes meet, she waves at me happily.

I don’t doubt her eyes.

I don’t think she’s thinking that I’m behind her back or that she’s up to something. So I know he is helping me out of the goodness of his heart.

“Thank you very much for your help yesterday when Onee-san was late.”

“What? Ah, you know, I’m kind of pissed off at those people. I just told them off, that’s all. It’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Yes, you were right… Onee-san is that kind of person”.

“Eh? What kind of person?”

“…”

She is just like Senpai in the way she goes off on tangents when she is embarrassed. And after all, I don’t want to cause him any more trouble.

“Um…you don’t have to come tomorrow.”

“Huh? What’s going on all of a sudden? I’m not sure if I’ve seriously done something unnecessary!”

Seeing Yuka’s intense dismay, Youka hurriedly added,

“Oh, no. I didn’t mean it like that! I just didn’t say enough! I just don’t want to cause trouble for you! I think you have your own friends, too!”

“Oh, what’s that supposed to mean? So you don’t want to see my face again?”

“No! That’s not possible!”

“Well, then that’s good, but…”

Yuka patted down her chest.

Youka doesn’t seem to realize it, but it’s not just out of pity that she eats lunch with her every day and helps her out when she’s being harassed.

Yuka simply likes this junior.

At first, she was going to ask Yuuji what kind of conversation he had with her, but when she found out that she was being harassed by a classmate, she helped him afterward only because she talked to Youka and liked her personality.

After all, this was the first time Yuka had a junior she could talk to in this way.

Among the second-year students, rumors about Yuka spread and wiped her out. Even Airi, who is the closest to her, does not have good feelings for Yuka.

So Yuka is actually quite happy to have a junior who can talk to her face to face like Youka.

(Takamiya often has serious discussions with the student council members during lunch, and Mai has gone to her boyfriend’s place…so eating with her is…quite fun…she’s a nice, caring girl…)

“Oh yeah, I have something for you… here.”

“Oh, an envelope?”

Yuka took out an envelope from her pocket and handed it to Youka. Youka tilted her head when she received it.

“Do you want to open it?”

“Yes.”

When Youka opened the envelope, she found an A4-size sheet of paper with the following words on it.

[I can’t meet you or talk to you, but I think I can do it if we chat.]

It was written in black ink in big letters.

Reading this, Youka’s hands trembled.

“Senpai…really, senpai wrote this…?”

“It’s like a letter, right? I’ve never written a letter before, so they used our school’s president as a reference, right?”

Yuka placed her hand on the shoulder of the girl who had been staring at the letter for a long time.

However, this is not just for Youka. Her younger brother was also suffering from not being able to accept Youka, so Yuka, with whom he had been in touch recently, approached Yuuji about this.

[Why don’t you try chatting with her?]

The younger brother nodded his head in agreement.

But Yuuji was not ready to send a letter himself, so he decided to write a letter before the chat.

“He said he might be okay with a text. Why don’t you send it later as a test? You haven’t erased his contact information, have you?”

“Yes…I haven’t erased it…I left it…I’ve left it forever and ever!”

“Well, then…”

Yuka, who was suddenly embraced, made an unusually surprised and genuine sound. The sudden event was unexpected by Yuka.

“T-Thank you so much!! I thought I had to give up on Senpai!! The same goes for the bullying incident!!──Yuka-san!! I will be forever indebted to you. I won’t forget it!! Thanks to you, I can start over with Senpai again! Thank you so much…!!”

Youka shed tears without stopping as she hugged her. They were tears of joy, of course, not of sadness.

Yuka also involuntarily burst into tears.

“Well, if you cry like that, I'll cry too…Gudzu ─However, don't make the same mistake this time, okay?”

“Yes! I will never repeat the mistake!”

─Youka looked up at the letter she received and smiled happily as she looked up several times.

“I can connect with Senpai again…I won’t make any more mistakes this time!”

She said strongly at the end.

The road ahead is still endless…as long as they cannot exchange words, they have not even made it to the starting line.

What will happen from now on depends on her efforts.

~ Yuka's Point of View ~

After school that day, Yuka was going home with Takamiya, who had a day off from his officer duties.

On the way home, Yuka told him about the incident with Youka.

“There was something that happened… I hope she can recover from it.”

“…”

“Huh? Why are you so silent…I mean, aren’t you a little angry?”

“Hmph! You’d save any poor girl if it wasn’t me anyway!”

E”h? Are you super mad at me? What?”

“I thought I was special! I don’t even know you anymore, Sakamoto!”

“Areeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

She was a narrow-minded student council president.

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