“Why can’t you tell me? Can I take it he’s not the kinda guy you want to tell people about?”
His words shook me up once again.
Of course, the real reason Shirakawa-san wasn’t talking about me was because I’d asked her not to. But...perhaps, deep inside, she might’ve felt embarrassed to tell people that I was her boyfriend. From an outsider’s perspective, a sunny guy like the one she was currently talking to would certainly look like a better match for her...
I’d almost started to feel a little down again, but then...
“No,” replied Shirakawa-san. “I’d be completely fine talking about him, but he’s super shy. He’d rather people didn’t know that we’re dating.”
“The hell is that supposed to mean?” The soccer guy wasn’t satisfied with her answer. “Runa, is there seriously a guy out there who wouldn’t want to say he’s dating you? He’s not one of the total dorks in our class by any chance, is he?”
I was shocked by the fact he’d hit the nail right on the head.
“Ah, what am I saying?” he then said. “There’s no way a guy like that would be going out with you... Hey, at least tell me what club he’s in. He’s not in mine, right?”
“Nope, he’s not in the soccer club.”
“Basketball club, then?”
“No.”
“Tennis club?”
“Nuh-uh.”
Come on, Shirakawa-san, I know exactly where this is going! You’re going to say “It’s a secret” when he guesses correctly and it’ll be completely obvious! Please notice!
“What, is he not in any club at all?” asked the guy.
“Hmm... Maybe? It’s a secret!” she said.
“So he is...”
See?!
The soccer guy had splendidly found the correct answer.
“You realize only losers don’t join any clubs, right?” he said. “What’s so good about a guy like that?”
I’d join a Gameplay Video Club if there were one or something similar, all right?
Anyway, it was maddening to hear someone speak as though club activities were everything in life.
“Still, now I get why you don’t want to say who he is,” continued the guy. “You must be too embarrassed to tell people you’re going out with someone so boring.”
Wow, he’s really ripping into me...
Maybe he was getting back at me because Shirakawa-san had turned him down, but everything he was saying was making me really angry. At the same time, however, I was slipping into self-loathing—with my lack of self-confidence, I couldn’t completely deny his words.
I could tell a guy like him would’ve been more suitable to be her boyfriend. As painful as it was to admit it, the two of them struck me as a good match.
Perhaps even Shirakawa-san thought the same—I was sure all of her previous boyfriends had been handsome, sunny guys like him... It was a distressing thought.
“That’s not true. Like I said, I’d be fine with talking about him if it were up to me,” Shirakawa-san calmly replied. “I think he’s a nice guy even if he’s not in any clubs. Besides, neither am I.”
“Oh, uh...” It looked like the soccer guy was searching for an excuse so Shirakawa-san wouldn’t think he’d disparaged her.
She cut him off before he could. “I don’t think my boyfriend is boring—I chose to go out with him. But he doesn’t want people to know, and I want to respect his wishes.” She wore a kind, considerate smile as she explained herself. “I wouldn’t be embarrassed even if the whole world knew we were going out.”
Shirakawa-san...
Her words made my love for her wash over me. She was such an amazing girlfriend—the most wonderful girl in the world and way too good for me. I was ashamed of myself for being swayed by this guy’s words for even a moment and suspecting Shirakawa-san really didn’t want to tell people she was going out with me.
It was hard to believe she would talk that way about me to other people—especially to a guy who’d just confessed to her. Perhaps I could afford to be more confident as her boyfriend—more confident in the fact she’d chosen me.
As those thoughts passed through my mind...
“Fine... Then pick me when you’re done with him,” said the soccer guy with a mean smile. “You’re gonna make him spend a lot of money and then move on once he’s broke, right?”
“Huh? What’re you talking about?” asked Shirakawa-san.
“That’s what everyone says. No wonder you chose a guy who’s not in any clubs—he can have a part-time job. He’s probably got money.”
“What?!”
Anger appeared on Shirakawa-san’s face, but the soccer guy gave her a nasty grin and left the classroom. I hurried away from the door and pretended to be coincidentally passing by, but then I started listening to what my classmates gathered in the hallway were talking about.
“Did you hear about Shirakawa Runa?”
“Oh, yeah. She’s a manipulative slut who makes her boyfriends spend money on her and then dumps them, right?”
“Hot girls can get away with anything, I guess.”
“I wish a girl would smash and dash on me too!” shouted a guy in jest, prompting the other guys to laugh.
There was a group of girls talking about Shirakawa-san as well.
“Is Shirakawa-san’s boyfriend that rich?”
“I was in her class last year, but I didn’t know who she was going out with either. She seemed to date guys from other schools and college students.”
“Huh... None of them ever lasted more than two or three months though, yeah?”
“She’s got such good looks, but she still only sees any one guy for a few months at most. Doesn’t that mean...?”
“Yeah, makes you think those rumors are probably true...”
“Oh, crap.”
At that point, one of those girls looked my way and got flustered. The next moment, the whole group filed back into our classroom.
Looking behind me, I saw that Shirakawa-san had just entered the hallway. She stood there in blank amazement—perhaps she had overheard what people were saying about her.
I impulsively went up to her. “Shirakawa-san...”
Upon noticing me, she smiled. “Ryuto.” I started to open my mouth, but before I could speak, she added, “I wonder what that’s all about. It looks like there’s some weird rumor going around.”
“Yeah... Who could’ve spread something like that...?”
“But it’s okay!” she quickly replied with a cheerful smile, interrupting me. “It’s just a rumor. It doesn’t bother me at all.”
With that, she walked past me and returned to our classroom. The sight of her made my chest hurt—she looked uncharacteristically weak from behind.
“What the hell is this rumor? Who’s behind all this...?” I wondered.
Claiming that Shirakawa-san made her boyfriends spend as much money on her as they could before moving on to the next one once her current one was broke?
“Yeah, like hell,” I said. I knew better than anyone that this rumor couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Then how about this? This is what I want.”
Shirakawa-san had smiled happily when I’d given her my homemade map with zero monetary value as her birthday present.
“Take it. It’s for you.”
And she’d spent her own allowance to get me a phone case matching hers.
Claiming that she was just dating guys for their money? Ridiculous.
If she really were doing that, there was no way she’d be going out with a gloomy guy like me in the first place. Sad as it was to say about myself, I really didn’t look like somebody with much in his wallet.
Who could’ve spread this completely unfounded rumor? I promised myself I’d never let them get away with it.
***
While this rumor was spreading, Kurose-san’s popularity in my class was shooting through the roof.
“Man, Kurose-san is so nice...”
Guys in my class would say things like that, talking about her in our classroom during breaks. And as I kept my eye on Kurose-san here and there, I could clearly see the reason for it.
When one of our classes ended and break began, Kurose-san dropped her notebook. A guy sitting diagonally behind her picked it up and tried to return it to her. Kurose-san herself had gotten up from her seat to pick up the notebook as well, and at that point, she touched the guy’s arm.
“Ah, sorry. Thank you,” she said, bending over slightly and gazing up at him with upturned eyes.
“Oh, i-it’s no problem,” the guy stammered back. He went beet red and looked away from her.
Then, on another day...
Kurose-san and I both ended up on class duty due to where our seats were. After morning homeroom, the teacher asked us to take all of the students’ health reports to the staff room.
“Let’s carry half each,” I suggested.
While we were bringing reports for all the students in our class there, they were simply paper files with a few sheets inside each one. They weren’t all that heavy. Since there were more guys overall, I thought we’d be just fine if I carried the boys’ files and Kurose-san carried those that were about the girls.
“Man, these are heavy...” Kurose-san uttered with a troubled look on her face. She tottered as she began to take a few steps.
“Huh? Really?” I asked.
Since she was petite, she did look like she was struggling with the load in her hands, but I still had trouble believing it. And then...
“I’ll carry them for you,” piped up a guy from my class, taking the files from her. “Huh? They’re not heavy at all.”
“Oh, really?” asked Kurose-san, making a surprised face. “You’re so strong, Saito-kun. It’s too heavy for a girl!”
“Really...?” Saito looked much more satisfied than his reply would suggest, after which he carried the files for her.
He left the staff room once his hands were empty. Then, after Kurose-san and I had reported to the teacher and were heading back to our classroom...
“You have to fill out the class journal when you’re on class duty, right?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“Oh, I have a few things to do after school today... What do I do...?” she said, looking troubled.
“You don’t need to put in that much effort. It’ll only take two minutes.”
Had this been me in my first year of high school, I’d totally have enthusiastically offered to do it for her. Just like the guy who’d picked up her notebook, and Saito too.
However, there was no doubt that Kurose-san was that sort of girl. She kind of unconsciously took on an attitude that made guys want to protect her and made them interested in her... It wasn’t like I was special to her.
Since she’d already made me taste the bitterness of rejection once and I was gradually falling deeper and deeper in love with Shirakawa-san, I could now find it in me to keep a presence of mind when dealing with Kurose-san.
She hung her head in silence for a short while. “Tsk.”
What?! Did she just click her tongue?! I-I must’ve imagined it...
As I thought that, she looked up again.
“Kashima-kun, you have a grudge against me, don’t you...?”
Her large eyes glistened like those of a Chihuahua, unexpectedly making me flustered.
“Huh?! What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Are you being mean to me because I didn’t return your feelings back then?”
“Hey, I’m not being mean to you at all!”
Why was she saying such things to me all of a sudden? Was it because I’d refused to take on the responsibility of filling out the class journal?
“Okay, I’ll take care of the journal,” I hastily added. It was safer to do that than to risk the guys in my class ganging up on me if people started saying I’d made her cry.
Her face brightened up and she flashed me a pure smile. “Really? You’re so sweet...” She blinked at me in a nearly suggestive way, then gazed at me with upturned eyes. “I like sweet guys like you.”
“Huh...?”
What caused me to make a surprised noise was the fact that this time, she said those words without insurance in the form of “I think.”
Calm down, Ryuto. You know what she’s like, and you already have Shirakawa-san.
Kurose-san smiled in satisfaction, as though taking pleasure in my internal turmoil. “It’s okay, though. I’ll do the journal too.”
“Eh?”
“See you later,” she added before briskly walking away.
All I could do was follow her with my eyes in confusion.
“What was that all about...?” I wondered.
At that point, I felt someone’s eyes on me. Turning around, I saw Shirakawa-san standing there.
“Ah, Ryuto...” she said with an unusually serious expression, then checked her surroundings. Once she’d made sure nobody was paying attention to us, she took a step toward me. “Are you on class duty?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“With Kurose...san?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Did it go okay? No problems?” she asked.
“Huh?”
As I wondered what she meant, Shirakawa-san took another step toward me. She then lowered her voice. “There’s something I need to tell you...”
“Hm? What is it?”
But the moment I asked...
“Ah, there you are, Runa!”
“We’ve been looking for you! What are you doing?”
A group of good-looking girls called out to her from across the hallway, catching her by surprise.
“Ah... I’m coming!” After responding to the girls, she gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, Ryuto. I’ll tell you next time.”
“It’s okay, go on ahead.”
Once I’d sent her off, I was alone again.
“There’s something I need to tell you...”
“What was she going to talk about...?” I wondered aloud.
I felt like I’d never seen her make such a face before. Did this have something to do with the bad rumor going around lately?
Curious as to what she’d meant to tell me, I found myself absorbed in thought for a while, even after the next class had started.
***
That day after school, while almost all of my classmates were still idling in the classroom, Kurose-san handed me the class journal.
“Here you go, Kashima-kun,” she said from beside me.
Checking it, I saw that exactly half of today’s entry was completed, with everything written in a concise way. To my surprise, she’d done a perfect job.
“Okay, I’ll turn it in once I’m done filling out my part. You can go now if you want,” I said. I remembered that she’d mentioned she had things to do.
“That aside, have you heard?” she began, leaning toward me.
“Eh? Heard what?”
“What Shirakawa-san is really like.”
“Huh...?” I froze up in shock.
Shirakawa-san was still in the classroom, pleasantly chatting with Yamana-san and others. Was Kurose-san talking about the recent rumor?
As I remained silent, she leaned in close to me, all smiles. “You see, my sister’s junior at her school used to date Shirakawa-san.”
My chest quickly began to ache. I’d done my best to avoid thinking about Shirakawa-san’s exes, so having her dating history come up so nonchalantly in a conversation showed that it was an undeniable fact of her past.
“And? What about it?” I asked after a moment’s pause, just barely maintaining my composure.
Kurose-san smiled, apparently satisfied that I was showing interest. “He said it was exhausting to date her. She twists guys around her finger, thinks it only natural that the guy pays for everything on their dates, and is just plain selfish.”
My first reaction to those words was a large question mark appearing in my mind.
“Was he really talking about Shirakawa-san?” I asked.
Kurose-san deeply nodded. “Of course. Her ex-boyfriend said it, so there’s no doubt.”
I went silent at that. If Kurose-san was telling the truth, then the ex-boyfriend in question must’ve been lying. After all, there was no way Shirakawa-san could act like that.
“How much was it? I’ll pay for mine.”
Even when I’d taken her on a date for her birthday, she’d tried to pay for her bubble tea as a matter of course. I couldn’t imagine her thinking the guy was supposed to cover all the date expenses.
Also, selfish? Shirakawa-san was considerate even of a boyfriend like me, trying her best to please me.
That said, I now knew the source of the recent disgraceful rumors surrounding Shirakawa-san.
“Kurose-san...” I began.
“Hm? What is it?” she asked, still looking at me cheerfully. She didn’t seem to have noticed the anger in my tone.
“Have you told others about this too?”
“Huh?” She appeared to have finally taken notice of the change in my attitude—her face went a little stiff. “Why do you ask? Hmm... I don’t remember. But it’s the truth, so don’t you think everyone should know?”
I went silent again. Kurose-san had probably fed bullshit like this to my classmates the exact same way, making it sound plausible.
I didn’t know who exactly was lying—whether it was her or the ex-boyfriend she’d mentioned—but I was angry with her for merrily going around and spreading such shameful rumors.
Having no way of knowing about the irritation brewing inside me, Kurose-san tried to continue. “You know how popular she is, yeah? I hear she takes stock of several guys who she might date next. She moves on to one of them when her current boyfriend doesn’t have any money anymore. Scary, right?”
Kurose-san shot a frightened glance behind her. In that direction was Shirakawa-san, still happily chatting with her friends.
Looking at Shirakawa-san’s cute, carefree smile, the flames of anger inside me rapidly grew in intensity.
“There’re actually other things they say about her,” Kurose-san continued. “For instance...”
“Stop bad-mouthing Shirakawa-san,” I said.
All the chatting in the classroom died down in an instant. Evidently, I had spoken more loudly than I’d meant to. Or perhaps everybody was surprised that a gloomy guy like me had even uttered that name.
“Oh my... What’s the matter, Kashima-kun?” asked Kurose-san, a flustered look on her face.
“What you’re saying is just plain wrong. Shirakawa-san is nothing like that.”
At my words, Kurose-san replied with unconcealed annoyance. “It’s not wrong. I really heard it from her ex.”
“Then that ‘ex’ is lying.”
My classmates were observing our argument with curiosity in their eyes. But in this moment, I didn’t care about that. All that was on my mind was protecting Shirakawa-san’s reputation from Kurose-san’s slander.
“Shirakawa-san is nothing like what you said,” I continued. “She’s a kind girl who’s extremely affectionate toward her boyfriends. She acts with their happiness in mind, more than her own.”
Kurose-san’s lips curled up in a sneer. I’d never seen such a look on her face before...but it felt like I was seeing her true nature. It sent a shiver up my spine.
“Are you imagining things or something? You realize I know her ex-boyfriend, right?”
“And I know her current one.”
It was too late for me to back down, and I didn’t want to either. I wanted to clear up this misunderstanding. To correct Shirakawa-san’s groundless bad rep.
With that single desire occupying my mind, I continued. “Shirakawa-san is a nice girl. She gave her boyfriend a matching item as a surprise for their anniversary, and even when her boyfriend didn’t have enough money to buy her a birthday present, she was happy to receive a simple homemade café map.” It was deeply touching to recall our date. “Shirakawa-san isn’t selfish. She’s a wonderful girlfriend who’s always thinking of her boyfriend.”
Hearing my words, Kurose-san narrowed her eyes. “Excuse me? And just who is that boyfriend? Does he even exist? Go on, let’s hear it if you’ve got something to say.” Noting my silence, she added, “See, you can’t even—”
“I can say it.”
My thudding heart pounded in my ears.
“I’m Shirakawa-san’s boyfriend.”
The classroom quieted down in an instant.
I’ve said it now. After being so afraid of people finding out, this is how I’ve gone public with our relationship...
After the kind of silence that could make my ears hurt, a commotion began to slowly develop in the class.
“What...?”
“The hell is he talking about?”
“Hey, is it true? What he said?” The majority seemed to not believe me, and a frivolous guy among them asked Shirakawa-san for the fun of it. “Is he really your boyfriend?”
“Huh...?”
Hearing that astonished voice, I turned around. There was Shirakawa-san, looking at me with surprise written all over her face. It appeared she, too, had heard what I’d just said, given how much attention my argument with Kurose-san had drawn.
Bewildered though she was, she nodded. “Yeah.”
“What?!” replied that same guy in astonishment, despite being the one who’d asked her. “You gotta be kidding me. There’s no way, right?”
“I’m serious,” Shirakawa-san uttered quietly, facing my dumbfounded classmates. “I’m going out with him.”
“Whaaaaaaaaaat?!” At last, the commotion of my classmates developed into a full-blown cacophony.
“How’s that even possible?! Why are you going out with a plain guy like Kashima?!”
“You’ll even date guys like him?!”
Everyone took turns expressing their surprise.
“I never saw this coming... It’s just too unexpected.”
“But why? What could’ve possibly brought you together...?”
After the initial shock was over, some of my classmates became weirdly excited—mainly the guys.
“If even Kashima is good enough, does that mean I am too?!”
“I always thought she only dated good-looking guys who ticked all the boxes and I didn’t stand a chance with her.”
“Man, she’s such a nice girl! I like her even more now.”
“Maybe I should go for it and confess to her next time she’s available?! What’s the harm, right?!”
“Do I have a shot with her too?!”
While this was going on, people showered Kurose-san with chilly looks.
“If she’s so nice even to a boyfriend like Kashima, I guess that means what Kurose-san was saying was a load of crap.”
“Maybe that ex-boyfriend is just trying to slander Shirakawa-san to get back at her for dumping him?”
“Actually, she might’ve made up that whole story to begin with...”
“You’re right... It’s not even like I’ve ever heard that kind of thing about Shirakawa-san before.”
“Wh-What...?” uttered Kurose-san. Sweat appeared on her forehead as she realized she was suddenly at a disadvantage. Our classmates were staring her down. She tried to appeal to them, clenching her fists tight. “That’s really what I heard, okay...?”
However, upon realizing that insistence wouldn’t get her out of this one, she launched out of her seat.
“How terrible of you all! I’m not lying about anything!” she shouted. An overabundance of tears welled up in her large eyes and she sped away into the hallway.
“H-Hey!” I called out.
I still had something to ask Kurose-san. I had to know why she had spread such a false rumor, and why it was about Shirakawa-san in the first place.
With that in mind, I dashed into the hallway after her, away from all my classmates’ still-curious stares.
Kurose-san ran down the hallway and eventually stopped on a narrow flight of stairs leading to the roof.
“Sniff... Sniff...”
Her shoulders trembled as she sobbed convulsively and wiped her eyes with both hands. It appeared she was crying for real, rather than as a pretense.
“Kurose-sa—”
“Stay away from me!”
As I began to approach her, she lashed out in rejection.
“Why’d you come after me...?” she continued. “I know you don’t like me... Why don’t you go back to that bitch?”
What the hell is this about...?
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