Synopsis

Full title: When I lent a handkerchief to a girl who had lied to me and told her, “If you feel so guilty that you’re crying, then don’t accept the punishment game,” she suddenly fell genuinely in love with me and started to feel down

Even though I deliberately choose to stay a loner, fragments of conversation from the top-tier girls still reach my ears.

Apparently they're going to hit me with a fake confession as a punishment game.

The one stuck with the job is the class gal—Nakina Amanatsu.

She's good-looking, but her overly serious nature keeps her constantly out of place in the girls' group.

She clearly doesn't want to do it, yet she can't withstand the pressure from the others and ends up nodding along.

Of course I planned to shut her down without mercy.

But the fake confession that came out of Amanatsu—crushed under the weight of her own guilt—was so pathetic and miserable that…

I felt completely deflated. The urge to get angry just vanished.

“If you feel so guilty you're crying, then don't accept the punishment game in the first place.”

I lent her my handkerchief and tried to comfort her, but…

Wait—Amanatsu?

What's wrong? Your face looks…