Episode 132: The Past, Part 3

Rattle, rattle, rattle.

Nobody talks to me.

I don’t talk to anyone, either.

Humans are funny things; they love to add extra spice to a dumb rumor.

Yuji told me exactly what kind of person I’d supposedly become.

• A nasty stalker who’s been following Yuzuha since forever. A total scumbag who used violence to force her to stay with him. He only isn’t in jail because of her mercy.
• A criminal with an assault record who hit Yamazaki because he didn’t like him getting close to Yuzuha.
• He’s assaulted other guys before and blackmailed them into silence. Currently under investigation.

What even is this? (lol)

A stalker since forever? How old are we supposed to be?

And everything involves the police… a crime? A trial?

It’s such a childish story.

But the biggest problem was…

「It’s true, I’ve been dealing with this for so long. He wouldn’t let me do anything unless I followed him, and he’d hit me if I said no.」

Yuzuha.

Rather, she’s the one taking the lead, confirming those made-up rumors and spreading them around.

And as for why she’s doing it…

「Yuzuha, you’re really the one we should feel sorry for.」

「It’s okay, we’ve got your back!」

「Yeah, we won’t let a criminal like that near you.」

「Yuzuha, let’s go somewhere fun next time to cheer you up.」

「Yeah… thanks, everyone. I won’t let him beat me. I’m so happy you’re all encouraging me.」

This is why.

Basically, she realized she liked the taste of making me the villain so she could be put on a pedestal and pampered by everyone.

She’s pretending to be the tragic heroine, and it seems she can’t get enough of the attention.

「Yuzuha, let’s go on a date next week.」

「Really!? I’m in!!」

Apparently, they’d started calling each other by their first names before I knew it.

I don’t know if he was trying to rub it in my face, but while inviting Yuzuha, Yamazaki was looking at me with a nasty smirk.

Of course, it’s not like I didn’t try to do anything.

I gathered some friends and tried to explain.

Since Yuzuha had used me this much, I didn’t owe her any more silence.

But far from believing me, they just asked,「Where’s your proof?」and since I didn’t have any…

There must have been people who knew about Yamazaki’s rumors, but for some reason, they just called me a liar right to my face.

As a result, there wasn’t a shred of cooperation to clear my name, and those very actions were treated as nothing more than pathetic deeds born from ugly jealousy.

From there… the situation was almost laughable.

That lie full of holes started taking on a life of its own, spreading to other classes with even more details added. A stalker, an assaulter, a criminal, a blackmailer… for a third-year in middle school, I’d become quite the impressive criminal.

Supposedly, if you hung out with me, you’d be suspected by the police as an accomplice.

The rumors spread so fast that I felt like it actually gave them more credibility.

Except for Yuji, none of the people I thought were my friends stayed by my side.

Did they really believe such a ridiculous lie? Did I really seem like the kind of person who’d do that?

In the end, I felt like I’d seen their true colors. I realized that’s all「friends」were, and I lost the will to clear up the misunderstanding.

If they were the kind of people who’d demand proof and refuse to believe me, then I didn’t want anything to do with them anyway.

Yuzuha’s words were believed unconditionally, while my words required proof.

I wondered what the deal was with that unfairness.

「Kazunari, let me know if you’re gonna make a move. Don’t try to do it alone.」

Yuji’s presence was my only saving grace.

If he wasn’t there, I probably would’ve stopped believing in anyone at all.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Yuji was also moving on his own. He was looking into Yamazaki’s girl problems and spreading rumors to try and chip away at the stories about me.

But since talking to someone directly ended up like my situation, he couldn’t find an effective method and could only really spread negative rumors about Yamazaki.

In the end, as a small act of defiance, I chose to stay in that class.

If just being there counted as harassment, then that’s fine by me.

I refused to take the option of transferring schools and running away…

One morning, when I walked into the classroom, Yuzuha was crying.

What happened?

Was it something with Yamazaki?

Wait… I remembered the conversation Yamazaki and his friends had before, and a worst-case scenario crossed my mind.

「Yuzuha, cheer up.」

「Cheating is the absolute worst!」

「I guess the rumors were true after all.」

Judging by the conversation, it looked like Yamazaki’s cheating… well, I don’t know how many girls he was actually seeing… but it finally came to light.

Wouldn’t this give my story some level of credibility?

Even though I knew it wasn’t that simple, I couldn’t help but feel a sliver of hope…

But everything from there was just a farce.

Yuzuha clung to Yamazaki crying when he got to school, and everyone around them made a fuss about how pitiful she was.

Then, he accepted Yuzuha’s side and set a condition that he’d dump the girl he was cheating with right in front of her.

…I don’t want to think she calculated it, but I felt like Yuzuha was using the atmosphere and the situation a bit too well.

In the end, Yamazaki called out the other girl and performed the outrage of throwing her away right in front of Yuzuha. For the other girl, it was nothing but a humiliation. And then he chose Yuzuha.

And the people around them gave Yamazaki a mysterious evaluation, saying he showed “sincerity.”

I seriously questioned their common sense.

Sincerity? You’ve gotta be kidding. Is their brain rotting?

I didn’t have the leeway to worry about others, but I felt bad for the girl who was dumped.

How much of a shock must it have been to be told, in front of a third party, that she was just a plaything?

But that guy’s still got a collection…

Since he’s done whatever he wanted, he’ll definitely do it again.

I don’t know what will happen to Yuzuha then, but it’s not my problem anymore.

Yuzuha finally quieted down around this time.

Actually, it was more like everyone else settled down…

Maybe she was satisfied with being pampered by everyone and having a boyfriend like Yamazaki, because Yuzuha stopped showing interest in me.

No, it’s more like her existence just vanished for me.

And I… felt lighter.

Once Yuzuha and Yamazaki started ignoring me, everyone else in class started ignoring me too. Fine, then I’ll just be like the air, with zero presence.

My parents probably noticed that something happened at school.

Pops even asked about how school was in an unnatural way, but I asked Yuji to help me keep my stories straight.

But there’s no way they wouldn’t notice that Yuzuha and I had drifted apart.

Maybe because of that, they didn’t object when I suddenly changed my target school and asked to go out-of-prefecture.

Yuzuha’s mother was confused by her daughter’s transformation, but it seems she’s accepted it lately.

She noticed Yuzuha and I weren’t close anymore, and it seemed she’d stopped talking to my parents too.

The school trip was easy, too.

As soon as it was time for group activities, I was alone.

I just went wherever I wanted to go.

Compared to when I was sitting on a bed of thorns, it was heaven.

At school, I didn’t say a single word to anyone except Yuji.

After school and on weekends, I spent my days alone whenever Yuji wasn’t around.

And after winter break ended, I focused on studying for my exams, ignoring everyone getting excited over the talk about the Christmas party at Yamazaki’s house that most of the class apparently attended.

Once I get into high school, I won’t have to see these low-life, vulgar, childish faces anymore… that was my only support.

I passed my high school exams and finally reached graduation day.

I tuned out Sensei’s talk, which I wasn’t grateful for anyway. There wasn’t a shred of emotion, and I just wanted to go home quickly.

The graduation albums were handed out, and as soon as the talk was over, I left the classroom immediately.

I had nothing to say to Sensei, and even less to say to the people in my class.

They could do whatever they wanted with their graduation parties and after-parties.

I’m leaving home today.

I don’t want to stay in a town with people like this forever.

Without looking back even once, I left the school as if I were throwing away the memories of my absolute worst middle school life.