Chapter 11: Prescription *Shinonome’s perspective

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Translator: Soafp

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Monday had come again.

When I grabbed my indoor shoes from the shoe lockers, they felt terribly heavy.

As I walked down the long hallway with my head lowered, unpleasant sweat gradually seeped out.

Even when I entered the classroom, no one spoke to me.

As I sat blankly with my cheek resting on my hand, some plain-looking girl watching me gave a derisive snort.

(…Hah. What a nasty personality. Is watching me fall this low really that fun for you?)

But I understood how she felt painfully well.

After all, I was one of them.

I knew I was nowhere close to being an extrovert.

My self-esteem wasn't high, either.

I hated being short. I wasn't as pretty as Sakura or Nakina.

I even hated that I was from the middle of nowhere, and that my dialect might slip out if I let my guard down.

And my parents ran a ramen shop. It was so plain it was laughable.

That was why I could understand exactly what those girls were thinking.

They were thrilled.

A girl who had been praised as cute and had gotten full of herself had been dragged down so perfectly. Serves her right. A scheming b*tch like that belonged at the bottom.

It pissed you off when someone was cuter than you, didn't it?

I get it. I get it.

Because I felt the same way.

But I didn't want anyone to misunderstand one thing: I had only claimed a position where I could look cute and created the right sort of atmosphere.

“Morning, everyone! Morning, Masaki! Morning, Rina!”

Sakura entered the classroom cheerfully, waving at everyone without discrimination. The moment she saw me, she hugged me.

“Morning, Shi-chan! You're tiny and cute today too!”

“Ahaha… Morning, Sakura.”

Yeah, sorry for being short.

See? This was what a real extrovert was like: an absolute airhead like her.

Everyone else treated me like a landmine, but she didn't care at all and still tried to be friendly.

“Hehe. I'm seriously so excited for the trekking trip. Nakina and Shi-chan are both going to be there too—we've got the best group possible, right?”

“Totally.”

As if.

How could she be that carefree?

Still, without her, I would have bowed out of this hellish classroom long ago.

When I entered high school, Sakura was the very first person I approached.

The reason was obvious: if I stayed close to her, people would think I was one of the cool girls too.

That had been my survival strategy since I was little.

Pile on as much sparkling coating as possible, then wear the skin of an extrovert.

“Morning, Sakura.”

“Oh, morning, Nakina! Your makeup looks cute today too!”

“Th-Thanks. But I'm nowhere near as pretty as you are. Morning, Shi—”

“Morning.”

Nakina gave me a timid little wave.

I knew I had done something awful to her. Even so, somewhere deep down, I still found her annoying.

She was so pretty, yet she acted like she was nothing special.

It made me angry.

It meant that all my desperate efforts to hide what I really was had no place to stand. Like I was lower than garbage.

She should be more confident…

Most likely, she was one of us too. Someone from the shadow side.

Hehe. I may look like this, but I was confident in my ability to observe people.

Her thoroughgoing habit of putting herself down made me feel something close to the disgust of recognizing my own kind.

As I gave responses to the two of them talking, Katsurama called out to me.

“Hey, Shi-chan.”

A tongue click nearly slipped out.

Careful, careful.

“What is it, Katsurama-kun? I'm talking with Sakura and the others right now.”

“Hehe. You know that ELLIT concert footage was released yesterday, right? I thought you probably watched it, Shi-chan.”

“Ohh, yeah. I saw it.”

That was a lie, of course.

The only reason I publicly said I liked that girl group with their suspiciously cheerful smiles was because I thought posting online about liking them might make me seem cute. In reality, I wasn't interested at all.

“The opening dance scene gave me chills, didn't it?”

Sure, I was the one at fault for being vague with him, but was he seriously making a move on me after I got so spectacularly rejected by Masaki-kun?

I couldn't reject Katsurama now that I had no standing in class.

If I did, people would laugh and say I was getting full of myself again.

If only it were Masaki-kun instead, how happy would I be?

I had fallen for him for the same reason I had approached Sakura.

I wanted to stay close to the most prominent boy; if I somehow ended up dating him, even better. That was all it was supposed to be…

As Katsurama's words went in one ear and out the other, I secretly looked at Masaki-kun.

He was as radiant as ever.

It was ridiculous, but after he was a little kind to me, I had ended up seriously falling for him.

So seriously that I couldn't see anything else around me.

Funny, wasn't it?

Here I was sneering at everyone in my own head, yet I had developed a full-blown case of lovesick maiden's heart.

It was the first time I had been this consumed by a sweet first love.

That was why I panicked when I heard that Masaki-kun liked Nakina, and why I pushed her into that fake confession.

As I stared at him absentmindedly, I made eye contact with Hatsukade as he entered the classroom.

Maybe he noticed me gazing at Masaki-kun, because he gave a faint, mocking curl of his lips.

(That b*****d…!)

His detestable voice played in my head: Hey, Shinonome. That's a hopeless cause.

(Damn it, damn it, damn it! What is with him!?)

Even with my powers of observation, I genuinely couldn't get a read on Hatsukade.

He was the textbook class loner.

No friends. He spent his spare time either reading or disappearing somewhere. When school ended, he went home without speaking to anyone.

But was he really an introvert?

Something about that didn't feel right either.

What introvert carried himself that confidently?

Was he some kind of secretly powerful figure in the class?

Then, out of nowhere, Hatsukade's words from when he walked me to the station flashed through my mind.

“I'm not hitting on you. But I am encouraging you.”

How could he say something that embarrassing without the slightest hesitation!?

No way, no way. It wasn't like I thought it was a little cool or anything!

More importantly, he was the person who had knocked me all the way down to the bottom of the class hierarchy.

I had nothing but resentment toward him.

I knew I had brought it on myself, but for some reason, I refused to admit that in front of him.

The morning bell rang, and Katsurama finally moved away.

Then Sakura, seated behind me, poked me with her ballpoint pen.

“Shi-chan, let's go buy trekking stuff together after school. I have discount vouchers!”

“…”

I wasn't excited in the least.

At this point, staying home and reading was far more enjoyable than spending time with classmates.

But if I ran away now, it would feel like I had lost.

More than anything, I didn't want to turn down Sakura's invitation when she still cared about someone like me.

“Yeah. I'm looking forward to it.”

The fact that I could lie so smoothly made me hate myself a little more.

---

After school, I boarded the train with Sakura and Nakina to shop for trekking gear.

(Why is Hatsukade here toooo!?)

He looked at my scowling face and gave a dismissive snort.

How many times had he given me that mocking smile already!?

A dark flame surged in my chest.

Clenching my back teeth, I forcibly moved my facial muscles.

“H-Hatsukade, why are you on the same train as us?”

“Because Hiiragi invited me too. Couldn't you figure that out?”

“Ghk.”

I was asking because you didn't seem like the kind of person who would accept an invitation like this!

Ugh, being around Hatsukade always threw me off.

Someone save me.

“Still, Shinonome, you really have bad luck.”

“W-What do you mean…?”

“Trekking is absolutely the kind of thing you'd be bad at. You're always the first one to collapse and start wheezing in P.E. class.”

“Wha!?”

Then the insufferable Hatsukade turned to Sakura.

“Hiiragi, you think so too, right? She might not even be able to walk halfway through, and someone will have to carry her.”

“Totally! Shi-chan is bad at sports. Whenever she plays basketball, she always travels.”

“Then maybe we should make her hold a ball during the trek. She might keep walking forever.”

At Hatsukade's needlessly elaborate sarcasm, blood rushed to my head like an instant boiler.

“Sakura, what are you saying too!? You're seriously underestimating me!”

“Ehh, it's just a joke. You don't have to get so mad.”

Hatsukade rubbed his chin and tilted his head.

“It'd be nice if it stayed a joke. Amanatsu is in our group too.”

“M-Me!?”

“At worst, we need to be prepared to carry two people.”

“No, no, it wouldn't be that bad! Shi-chan can't even skip!”

I raised my fist at Nakina.

“Hey, Nakina! We promised you wouldn't tell anyone that!”

“Ah, sorry. But it was too dishonorable to be lumped together with you…”

“Grrr, you idiot.”

I wanted to clutch my head and scream.

Then I looked up at Hatsukade and saw the right corner of his mouth lifted.

Could it be…? Had this guy come along just to insult me?

(Unforgivable!)

As I hurled curses at him in my mind, Sakura suddenly laughed.

“Ahaha!”

“…W-What?”

“No, it's just been a long time since I've seen Shi-chan this energetic.”

“Huh!?”

Now that she mentioned it, that was true.

It even felt nostalgic to speak honestly with Nakina and Sakura like this.

After that, we kept bickering, and before we knew it, the train had reached our destination.

---

When was the last time I thought time had passed this quickly?

The sky was completely dark.

On the return train, a paper shopping bag containing my trekking clothes hung from my hand.

The four of us had gone around looking through shops together.

Once Hatsukade bought what he wanted, he left early without reading the room.

In the end, it was almost entirely just the girls spending time together.

Nakina, who had been unusually low-energy the whole time, got off first because her nearest station came earlier.

Only Sakura and I remained.

“…”

That couldn't be it.

There was no way that was it, but I couldn't stop myself from asking.

“Hey, why did you invite Hatsukade too?”

“Huh? I had discount vouchers, so I thought it would be better with everyone.”

“But he doesn't seem like the type to accept an invitation like that…”

“Hmm, you really can't tell what Hatsukade's thinking, can you? I mean, when I first asked him, he turned me down in one second.”

“What do you mean…?”

“On Saturday, he suddenly told me through Nakina that he'd go. Oh, and Hatsukade was the one who told me to invite you too, Shi-chan.”

“…No way.”

Sakura furrowed her brows and softly whispered:

“That guy really does have an awful personality. I thought maybe he wanted to make up with you, Shi-chan, but he teased you and then barely talked at all. And can you believe this? He said, ‘I've used the discount voucher, so I don't need you anymore,' and went home. I want my feelings back—I thought he might have opened up to us a little.”

Sakura pouted in obvious dissatisfaction. But when we reached her station and the doors opened with a hiss, she immediately returned to her usual smile and waved.

“Oh, I'm getting off here too. See you tomorrow, Shi-chan!”

“Yeah.”

Left alone, I sank into an empty seat.

“…What is with that guy?”

Even if he did things like that, I was never going to apologize to him…