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The cheerful moments were fleeting. Just like the gloomy weather outside the classroom window, they came to an end before the seventh period in the afternoon was over.
The rain was light. Carried by a gentle, cool breeze, it tapped against the glass like an endless string of jade beads falling into a dish, producing soft, rhythmic sounds.
Pat. Pat.
Thinking about the bad news he would soon have to deliver, Harutaki had completely lost the will to listen to the lesson. He turned his gaze toward the window, staring out at the dim world beyond.
In the distance, the school’s wide, solemn front gate looked hazy beneath a thin veil of mist, gaining an inexplicable sense of mystery. Reflected in the spotless glass he had polished earlier, however, was the brightly lit classroom behind him, as though the inside and outside were two entirely different worlds.
Harutaki hated rainy days too.
Not just because laundry was hard to dry, but because it was easy to soak his clothes and dirty his shoes when walking outside.
But at the same time, Harutaki liked rainy days a little.
The steady patter of rain, as if muffling everything else in the world, always brought a sense of calm. And also…
Creak.
He carefully pushed the window open just a crack. In an instant, a cool breeze rushed in, carrying a refreshing scent with it. The fragrance of young grass mixed with damp earth filled his lungs, clean and pleasant.
“Hah……”
After taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out, Harutaki finally calmed the tangled thoughts in his chest.
If it were anyone else, he probably would not be this worried. But the other party was Shihou. What he needed to do was not just deliver the news, but also consider how the girl would feel and what she might think afterward.
He was not an all-powerful god. He could neither see through the ever-changing complexity of human hearts, nor foresee a distant future.
If the Shihou family’s confinement of the girl was a burden born of helplessness, then telling her the bad news was anxiety born of the unknown.
When it does not concern you, you stay calm. When it does, your heart grows chaotic.
That was exactly the state he had been in earlier.
When school ended, Harutaki sent a message on Line, asking Shihou to wait for him in the school building’s entrance hall.
“You’ve got something important to tell me? Don’t tell me it’s a confession?”
Chouko greeted him with a bright smile. Seeing that there was no one around, she immediately started joking with him.
“I already used that joke before.”
Harutaki let out a shallow breath and decided to get straight to the point.
“That karaoke incident… there’s a good chance your family already knows about it.”
“Th… that’s not funny at all……”
Watching the stiff smile Chouko forced out after freezing for a moment, Harutaki shook his head, dispelling the last shred of hope in her heart.
“Sae’s dad said that when he went to look into it, that scumbag Yobitani had already been ‘taken care of.’ I can’t think of any other force besides the Shihou family that would do something like that.”
“……”
“I’m sorry. If I hadn’t called the police on my own, then…”
“……It’s okay. This has nothing to do with you, Hoshikawa.”
After a brief silence, Chouko smiled gently and reached out to poke his cheek.
“If anyone’s at fault, it’s me for not listening to warnings. And besides, if it weren’t for you, I definitely would’ve…” She paused, then crossed her arms confidently over her chest. “Anyway, you don’t need to worry about me that much. My surname is Shihou, after all. There’s no way my family would actually do anything bad to me. At most, they’ll just drag me back and give me a scolding.”
“I lost count of how many times my great-grandmother and my mom lectured me when I was little. Hehe. I’m not exactly a good girl, you know~”
Honestly…
Harutaki sighed inwardly. He had been worrying about how to comfort her, only for things to turn around and have her comforting him instead.
“If anything happens, come to me.”
After saying that, he added another line.
“No matter what it is.”
“Mmm… plenty of leeway, plenty of leeway~”
“Do you want me to walk you home?”
Noticing Chouko opening her umbrella, Harutaki took his own out of his bag and asked casually.
“It’s a rare rainy day. I want to be alone for a bit.”
The implication was a gentle refusal.
“Then… see you tomorrow, Shihou.”
“Mm. See you tomorrow, Hoshikawa.”
Even though she had politely declined walking home together, Harutaki still followed from a distance, watching until she safely reached her apartment building.
Just as he was about to leave, he noticed that Chouko did not go inside. Instead, she stopped in front of the building, turned around, and waved at him with one hand while holding her phone in the other.
Buzz buzz.
His phone vibrated twice in his pocket.
Chouko: Thank you [cat heart hands]– Read
Harutaki: Isn’t this the part where you invite me in for tea, let me take a bath, and then…– Read
Chouko: Let’s talk about that when you’re a soaked miserable dog~ – Read
But the next day, even when the bell for first period rang, Harutaki still did not see that familiar figure in her seat.
……
Clatter.
Click.
Out of habit, she flipped on the entryway light after closing the door. Staring at the room, already plunged into darkness before four o’clock thanks to the gloomy weather, Chouko found that she no longer had the ease she showed around Harutaki.
“I…”
She wanted to say “I’m home” like she always did, to add a bit of warmth to the cold, quiet apartment.
But at this moment, even words of self-comfort felt unbearably heavy, so heavy that they clogged in her throat. Despite it being a rainy day, the air felt as dry as winter, her throat rough and tight, refusing to let her speak.
Recalling the news she had just heard not long ago, it was as if all the strength had been drained from her body. Her legs gave out, and she slumped down against the shoe cabinet, sitting on the cold floor.
“The karaoke incident… the Shihou family knows.”
The Shihou family truly would not do anything bad to her. But what counted as “bad” depended on one’s perspective.
And for her, Shihou Chouko, being dragged back to that lonely, cavernous estate was the worst thing imaginable.
“Hah……”
When she thought about her earlier feelings and thoughts, a shadow crept over her heart.
I really am a bad girl…
She wanted to blame Harutaki for calling the police. She wanted to blame him for forcing her to face her family’s interrogation again.
She wanted to run away, to shove all responsibility onto Harutaki, the boy who liked her.
Wait. That’s not right, is it?
That’s completely wrong, isn’t it?!
When Chouko realized this, an indescribable wave of self-loathing surged up inside her.
She was actually trying to push the blame onto Harutaki.
She was actually resenting Harutaki, who had been so good to her.
If she could not even repay the kindness and goodwill she had received, how could she ever face Harutaki again?
She sat on the floor in a daze. After who knew how many minutes had passed, Chouko finally got up and took off her loafers.
But when she tried to line them up neatly like she always did, her trembling right hand simply would not cooperate. No matter how she adjusted them, they would not sit right, as if the entire apartment building had tilted a few degrees in a single day.
Pat.
She gave up, leaving the shoes at the entrance. Picking up her bag, she walked into the living room with heavy steps.
She tossed the bag onto the single sofa. Her uniform was stripped off in a rough mess. In the end, she stumbled into the bathroom with her hair sticking up wildly in all directions.
She did not even wash herself. As soon as the hot water was ready, she stepped straight into the bathtub and submerged herself completely.
Glug. Glug.
Glug. Glug.
After a stream of bubbles rose to the surface, Chouko finally emerged from the water, like a mermaid princess just returning from the deep sea. She casually shook her head, sending droplets flying from her jet-black hair.
But in her own eyes, the motion looked less like a mermaid and more like a stray animal caught in the rain.
…A stray dog, maybe.
No, a stray cat would be better.
Cats were cute. And besides…
Harutaki liked cats quite a bit.
If she were a stray cat, he would definitely take her in, right?
At the thought, a faint smile appeared on Chouko’s gloomy face.
Just earlier, she had teased Harutaki, telling him to come over only after he became a soaked, miserable dog.
“Sigh……”
Would Harutaki take her in?
Even if he would, she would not go.
She did not want to cause him more trouble, especially with a colossal existence like the Shihou family looming over her. She did not want him to get hurt, nor did she want him to smash himself bloody against a wall for her sake.
Harutaki… he had already done more than enough for her.
After soaking in the hot water for about half an hour, a dizzy Chouko stepped out of the bathroom. She dried herself, applied body lotion, blow-dried her hair, then changed into casual loungewear from the laundry basket.
The possibility of being confined again by the Shihou family was despairing, but she had never once thought about giving up on herself.
Or rather, the moment she thought of Harutaki, she decided to throw away any thoughts of surrender.
That night, when she had faced the threat, she had given up resisting and chosen to submit to fate.
The disappointment and anger on Harutaki’s face, no matter how well he hid it, could not have been completely without cracks.
At the very least, she noticed.
She did not want to keep running away like Onii. She wanted to become someone like Harutaki.
Unaffected by the surrounding atmosphere, he saved a classmate who was being bullied. He endured Izumi’s oppression and intimidation, then calmly cleaned up the aftermath after retaliating.
She wanted to be like Harutaki. Independent. Brave enough to shoulder things herself.
She had once resisted control and left the Shihou family to come to Tokyo. Now, she could definitely protect her freedom again.
Even though she knew the meaning and nature of the two incidents were completely different, she refused to give up so easily.
She had finally made real friends. She had finally met Harutaki.
How could she just give up now?
Just as Chouko was about to throw together a simple meal to deal with dinner…
Ding dong.
The doorbell suddenly rang.