Chapter 6: What If a Friend Helped Me?

Meari and Kiyama, how dare they hurt me and then walk around with innocent looks on their faces, being celebrated by everyone, that can't be allowed to happen.

「What's wrong? You were making a rather scary face.」

Was it showing on my face, huh.

「Nah, I just remembered something unpleasant. It's rude to think about such things in a place like this, my bad, my bad.」

That's right, it's rude. So I can just think about it seriously when I get home.

◇◇◇

「I'm home. Not that anyone would reply.」

I'd returned from the upper-class mansion to my commoner's apartment.

Inside is naturally pitch black, with no sign of anyone.

My only parent is my old man, and he is away on a long-term work assignment.

My mother──she ran off with another man. I don't know where she is or what she's doing now. And I don't want to know.

When I was seven, the face of that woman as she shook me off while I clung to her crying, looking at me like I was garbage, is burned into my mind and won't leave even now.

Meari should have known about that... She told me she'd always be by my side...!

Maybe she really thought so at the time, but that's not the point.

The person she is now is scum. She thinks nothing of doing things that people hate. Her own desires come first, and she became a woman who can easily trample on others.

It doesn't matter what triggered it, I can't forgive the fact that she changed.

A decent person wouldn't do something so vile, no matter what happened.

She must have been rotten to the core from the start. She was just wearing the mask of a sensible person until now.

Scum must be purged.

Especially scum with a good public image, they have to be thoroughly humiliated!

Those two are popular.

They're good-looking and get good grades, if you just knew them casually, you'd think there was no couple more perfect.

So does that make me, with barely any friends, garbage? Am I the kind of person who deserves to have anything done to them?

Don't be ridiculous! Screw you! What's the point of a life that's just being messed up by a bunch of shitty people like them!

That's why, it's revenge. I'll drag you down. I'll absolutely make you regret this.

The next morning, I don't feel as bad as I did yesterday. The reason I feel rather good is probably because I didn't have a nightmare.

My stomach still feels a bit off, but it's a promise to my old man that I eat, even if it's just a little. I couldn't two days ago, though.

Even though he's having a tough time with his work assignment, my old man still transfers me more money than necessary, I'll never be able to thank him enough.

I didn't want to touch that money, so I paid for dates and presents for Meari with money I earned from a part-time job. I started that job for her, but I don't need it anymore.

Thinking about such things, I finished my breakfast of just potato soup and headed for school.

◇◇◇

「Oi, Kouto. Actually, I saw something crazy yesterday.」

When I got to school, my one and only friend, Makita Yuu, came up to talk to me.

「Ahh? It's not something stupid again, is it? Last time you made me listen to you talk about your favorite idol or whatever for like an hour. When you think about it, I'm a pretty considerate friend.」

「Idiot, that was an important topic for me. That's not it──Yesterday, I saw that Kiyama bastard and your girlfriend, Togawa-san, come into the karaoke place where I work.」

Come to think of it, he works a part-time job too.

「I wasn't at the front desk at the time, so they didn't see me. You know, karaoke places have cameras in every room, right? So I took a peek at what they were doing. And get this, Kiyama was groping Togawa-san's chest! With a kiss thrown in for good measure.」

So those two are close enough to start doing that stuff as soon as they get into a private room.

It's a shame for the fired-up Yuu, but seeing that just makes my heart grow colder.

「Isn't your reaction kinda slow? I mean, it's your girlfriend. Normally you'd be pissed, like "what the hell", right?」

「I knew. They wait until no one's around and start making out at school. Seriously, it's no joke.」

「...Ahh, about that. What can I say…」

「I don't need your sympathy. But there's no point in just calling them bastards forever, right?」

「You're giving up?」

「Nope. I'm saying I won't be satisfied until I get them back for what they did. And for that, I've got a lot of planning to do.」

This is the first time I'm saying it to someone else, but saying it out loud made my resolve feel even stronger.

Seeing me like this, Yuu has a look of admiration on his face.

「How do I put this, you've got guts! But I don't hate it, it's way better than just taking it lying down. It's not fun watching someone get screwed over and just whimper about it.」

That's unexpected, he's the type to say things like that.

So that's why we get along. It finally clicked, all this time later.

「Sounds fun, let me in on it. Luckily, I don't see Togawa-san as much as you do. Even less so with Kiyama. Plus, unlike you, I've got a lot of friends, I've got connections with the upperclassmen and underclassmen. If I wanted to, I could cast a net over the whole school. You're lucky I'm your friend.」

「Heh, no kidding. I'm grateful you're such a weirdo.」

「Don't mention it. All you gotta do for payment is come to my karaoke place and spend some money next time. Well, before that, we gotta gather evidence of their misdeeds. Wait a sec, I'll see what I can dig up on my end.」

「Ou, I'm counting on you. I'll be waiting, but not with high expectations.」

「Oi oi, that's harsh. In that case, I'll exceed those expectations of yours.」

We continued our conversation, trading lighthearted jabs like that until the first bell rang.