Chapter 4: Collapse

That day I went home with Shiraki, I was in my room grinning.

No, well? It had been my first time with a girlfriend, right?

Isn’t it okay to be a little bit excited?

At that time

Knock-knock!

There’s a knock at my door.

Is it my mother?

Thinking so, I open the door.

“May I have a word?”

There she was, my sister.

Mifuyu Shinzaki, my biological older sister, is a beautiful woman that even I, her younger brother, would consider a beauty.

She is a senior in high school and goes to the same school as me.

“What’s wrong?”

She looked a little uncomfortable.

“Have you been seeing anyone lately?”

I wondered how she knew.

“N-no? Why would you ask me that?”

“Tell me the truth.”

I felt a sense of intimidation from my sister that I don’t usually feel.

Among male and female siblings, I think my sister and I are pretty close.

We’ve never been in a bad mood, and neither of us has ever done anything that would make us that way.

But I had a feeling that this question could be very serious depending on the answer.

I pondered.

“S-She confessed her feelings to me.”

I decided to be honest.

“Who?”

Why did she ask me so many questions?

“I-Isn’t that enough?

“Who?”

She kept asking me the same question over and over again.

I gave up and told her.

“A classmate of mine named Shiraki.”

That was a mistake.

“Ha? Didn’t you go out with Himari?”

Immediately, my sister’s face became stern.

“Himari? What has Himari do with this?”

I wonder why Himari’s name came up.

“Haa, I’m so tired of you.”

She said that with a sigh.

Pish!

There was a sound of something cracking.

But I shook my head, thinking it was just my imagination, and asked her.

“Why?”

She let out another sigh.

“I’m really stunned that you can’t even understand that.”

Pish-pish.

With that, she walked away from in front of my room.

What was it, that feeling of something simmering?

I had never experienced such a feeling before.

It must have been a feeling of anxiety that things might turn sour because I had been getting along so well with others.

That must be it.

Otherwise, I would not have felt depressed about her.

The next morning, I washed my face at the washbasin and sat down at the table to have breakfast, just as my sister came down from the second floor.

My house is a two-story building, and my sister and I have our own rooms upstairs.

“Good morning, sis.”

I said cheerfully.

“…….”

But she didn’t reply.

…..What is her problem?

I finished breakfast and left the house before my sister.

It was uncomfortable for me to stay at home.

Without taking any detours, I walked the shortest distance to school.

When I arrived at the school, I found that for some reason everyone was glancing at me.

They may have been trying not to notice me, but I am very sensitive to people’s movements.

There was no way I could have missed it.

I wondered if there was something wrong with me.

“Shinzaki-kun, will you have lunch with me again today?”

I was paying attention to my surroundings when Shiraki called out to me.

“Y-yes”

As soon as Shiraki and I started talking, everyone started whispering.

…..If you have something to say, say it.

No, something similar to the feelings I had for my sister is rising up in me.

I forcefully suppress it.

“Then, I’ll see you on the rooftop.”

After saying that, Shiraki went back to her seat.

I feel uncomfortable…

After fourth period, I felt uncomfortable in the classroom and headed for the rooftop to escape.

Shiraki was already there waiting for me.

I felt my heart lighten up.

Maybe I love Shiraki more than I thought.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“No, I haven’t been waiting much at all.”

Shiraki smiled at me.

Aah, she’s really cute.

After school, as I was getting ready to leave, some of my classmates, a group of three girls to be exact, came over to talk to me.

” Hey, do you have a minute?”

I don’t have plans to go home with Shiraki-san today.

“I do, but… what do you want?”

“Well, come here for a minute.”

“Yeah, just a minute.”

One of the three turned her back to me and started walking away.

All I could do was to follow her back.

When I got there, I found myself in the back of the school building.

This is where Shiraki confessed her feelings to me.

I was thinking about that as I walked.

When I thought that the group of three had stopped, I saw Himari there.

“Himari?”

Himari was silent.

“What’s wrong?”

“Yu-Yusei.”

Himari opened her mouth.

“What is it?”

“B-break up with Shiraki.”

Crack!

There was a sound as if something was broken.

“W-Why are you saying that?”

When I said that, one of the three girls who had remained silent until a moment ago replied

“Haa? You really don’t get it, do you?”

She was saying the same thing as my sister.

Is this my fault?

“I-I’m sorry, but I really don’t get it.”

The trio turns their eyes at me, as if to say, ” Stupid”.

So what is going on?

“Do you really not understand?”

Himari asked.

You too?

“I-I’m sorry.”

Himari looked down.

“That’s enough. Let’s go, Himari”

“Oh, wait.”

Himari was pulled back by the 3 girls and went home.

What’s really going on?

Then a few days passed.

Since that day, when I talked to her, but she ignored me.

Did I do something?

I feel like she is irritated, which is out of character.

“Shinzaki-kun, can you come to the back of the school building today?”

It was Shiraki who asked me that.

It has been a week since I started going out with Shiraki.

“Yes, it’s okay, but what’s wrong?”

“That’s a secret.”

I was so happy to hear Shiraki say that, but her face seemed to be somewhat gloomy.

After school, I came to the back of the school building as Shiraki told me.

Shiraki was already there, and when she saw me, she straightened her posture.

“There’s something I need to tell you, Shinzaki-kun,”

Shiraki-kun said.

“What is it?”

To be honest, I love Shiraki.

Even though my relationship with everyone has been a little bad lately, I don’t mind because of Shiraki’s presence.

That’s how important Shiraki has become to me.

“The truth is”

I waited for her to continue.

“It was all a lie.”

Two figures came out from behind Shiraki.

They were Kinoshita and Kawashima, with whom Shiraki was always talking.

They were both grinning together.

Paki-paki-paki! (cracking sound)

“Eh, ha? A lie.”

“Yes, a false confession.”

What is this person talking about?

“W-Why would you do that?”

“Why huh”

Oh, God.

“I lied to you because I thought it’d be fun.”

That’s enough.

Crack crack, crack crack, crack.

I heard something completely broken.

“Well, don’t give me that look, it was just a joke.”

A joke, huh?

Selfish.

“Hey, say something.”

“Aah, shut up will you”

“Eh?”

Shiraki looks puzzled.

I often look at people.

It’s because I wanted to have a good relationship with them.

But I don’t feel the need to do that at all anymore.

I just do what makes me happy.

What about the opposite?

I know what I don’t like to have done to me, and it goes hand in hand.

I reached into my pocket and operated my phone.

“Did you lie to me because you think it’s funny?”

“T-that’s right. Is is wrong?”

Beyond disgust, I almost let out a derisive laugh.

“You can’t be serious, huh?”

I know that even I have changed my tone of voice.

But for some reason, I don’t feel any different.

It was as if this me was the real me.

“Shiraki, Kinoshita, and Kawashima, what you are doing is trampling on people’s feelings, don’t you know that?”

I told the three of them.

I told them that, making sure to mention their names.

“It doesn’t matter, if it’s fun. “

As long as it’s fun, it doesn’t matter what you do huh.

I see.

“Well, I’m glad to know you guys are scum.”

I left the place after saying that.

At that time, I didn’t notice that Shiraki’s eyes were a little wet.

The next day I arrived at school a little early.

Strangely enough, I was not depressed at all, even though Shiraki had dumped me yesterday.

But I was a little pissed off.

With a wry smile on my face, I headed for a certain place.

After walking for a few minutes, I arrived at my destination.

The broadcast room.

I enter the place marked “Broadcast Room.”

About three minutes before the bell rings, I made my move.

I pressed the switch on the school’s public address system and played the audio I had recorded on my phone yesterday.

It was played loudly throughout the school.

After I finished playing everything, I went back to my classroom.

It was a terrible scene.

“Shiraki-san, she is terrible, isn’t she?”

“Seriously, she’s a scumbag.”

“I never thought she was that kind of person.”

“I was aiming for her for a while, but this is too much.”

Each one of them is saying words as he or she thinks.

In the end, people break up relationships easily.

It means that what I was doing until now was pointless.

Well, there is no point in noticing such things now.

Shiraki and her friends are sobbing uncomfortably.

What a good feeling.

I felt like my rough heart was healed a little.

Ah, that was refreshing.

I smiled wickedly again.

The boy doesn’t know that Himari is looking at him with a sad face at that moment.