The Fatal Poison of Friendship for the Lonely

"Detective?"

Upon hearing this, Tendo Haruka was taken aback. Suddenly, she seemed to recall something.

A look of surprise gradually appeared on his face. "You wouldn't happen to be that high school Great Detective who's always on the news, would you?!"

"That's right."

Fujino nodded silently. "I don't know about being in the news often, but I'm definitely the only high school Great Detective with the surname Fujino."

He paused, then looked at Tendo Haruka: "But now that you know I'm a detective, can you tell me why you wanted to kill Miss Shirafuji?"

"I..."

Tendo Haruka hesitated for a moment, and remained silent for a long time.

"You've already been caught, what are you still shy about?"

Tendo Haruka sighed as he looked at the stammering Fujino and deduced, "Since you don't want to answer, I'll answer for you. You're a fake heiress. You used this false identity to win them over, paying to go to Hawaii with them and stuff. Later, they found out you were just a fake heiress, but they still wanted to continue exploiting you, and that's when you had the idea to kill them..."

At this point, Fujino looked directly into Tendo Haruka's eyes. "Was my deduction correct?"

Looking directly into those dark eyes staring at her, Tendo Haruka was momentarily stunned.

Her motives were completely revealed by the other party...

Tendo Haruka is a child from the countryside. Her father died in an accident a long time ago, leaving her mother to raise her.

It was a small place without schools; the only way to continue one's education was through nearby cities.

However, her life away from home was not smooth. Because she was a child from the countryside, she didn't understand many things, and her family was also in dire straits. She often suffered the cold shoulder and even bullying from her classmates.

And so, years of life went by, and the seeds of inferiority were quietly sown in her heart.

As the seed took root and sprouted, she suddenly realized that only by disguising herself could she avoid discrimination. So after entering university, she disguised herself as a rich girl.

This disguise was quite effective; she quickly made friends and joined the outdoor enthusiasts' club.

Having tasted the flavor of friendship for the first time, she has been drawn deeper and deeper ever since.

To conceal her identity, she could only constantly do things that conformed to it, secretly working 996 non-stop every day, and secretly borrowing money from those around her to support the outdoor enthusiasts in traveling to various places together.

However, not long ago, Shirafuji Taimi secretly followed her back to her place of residence—a remote and dilapidated tatami room.

It's a two-story building, similar to a construction site prefabricated house.

The guy Fujino caught online, the one who was just spouting nonsense, also lived in that kind of house.

It is a very cheap rental house in Japan.

Through this, Bai Teng discovered her true identity as a fake heiress and informed the members of the outdoor enthusiasts club.

However, as her 'good friends,' they did not express any remorse or sympathy towards her.

Instead, they said things like, "We'll squeeze every last drop out of this rich girl before graduation," "It would have been so hard to hold back my laughter for four years if it weren't for the money," and "We'll break up with this fake girl after graduation."

Just as Fujino had predicted, these people intended to completely drain Tendo Haruka.

Overhearing these words, Tendo Haruka was blinded by rage and decided to kill Shirafuji Taimi first, and then frame her boyfriend Fukuura Reiji...

Fujino listened silently to Tendo Haruka's lament, his eyes lowered as he lost in memories.

Different experiences, but the same recipe.

Fujino was all too familiar with the sense of inferiority that Tendo Haruka harbored deep within her.

In his view, the Tendo Haruka in front of him didn't seem to be lying. If she really had ulterior motives and was pretending to be a socialite, she wouldn't have needed to find a scoundrel as a boyfriend, nor would she have let those people bully her so politely.

After all, in his past life, he had a similar experience of being foolishly treated like an ATM because of his reclusive personality...

They were so isolated that no one noticed when they were tricked into joining a pyramid scheme.

It wasn't until six months later, when he had become a lecturer, that he was finally released after the police raided and arrested him along with his entire gang.

He did indeed want to kill someone at the time, but he didn't succeed in the end, mainly because he didn't have the Mikado man's ability to get stuck on things and his drive to take action.

However, since then, he has completely given up on interpersonal relationships.

"I worked hard to earn money so I could take them out to play, and I even had to secretly borrow money from others, and this is what they turned out to be like..."

Tendo Haruka's eyes reddened as she spoke, "I really don't understand why they, as my friends, would do this. We're such good friends!"

"Do you really not understand?"

At this moment, Fujino came to his senses and looked at Tendo Haruka, asking, "From the very beginning, your relationship was based on the exchange of money. You gained emotional satisfaction, while they gained material satisfaction from what you provided, didn't they?"

Upon hearing Tendo Haruka raised her reddened eyes to look at Fujino, wiping away her tears with a hint of confusion in her eyes.

"In the end, you're just exchanging interests; there's no friendship between you."

Fujino recalled for a moment and explained, "To put it simply, it's like a vending machine. You put in money, and it will provide a drink to quench your thirst for a while. But when you stop providing anything, it will naturally stop providing anything to you."

He paused, then continued, "Of course, this might be a kind of friendship, but it's just a facade you've created. It's nothing but a hypocritical game from beginning to end."

"You can only exchange one heart for another, and money for money... You were wrong in how you built this relationship from the beginning. A relationship built on money can only be maintained by money in the end."

"The moment you can no longer afford to maintain the relationship like a rich heiress, the relationship will break down sooner or later, even if they haven't discovered your identity yet."

At this point, Fujino took out a handkerchief and handed it to Tendo Haruka: "Think about it, isn't that right?"

Tendo Haruka took the handkerchief and sobbed, "But, I just..."

"I just want friends, I just want someone to play with, I just want someone to comfort me when I'm sad, and someone to share my happiness with, isn't that right?"

As Fujino spoke, he slightly raised his eyes and glanced at the dappled shadows of the trees. "Humans are social animals. For a lonely individual, the friendship and care of the group is like a slow poison... Once you get hooked, you can't get rid of it."

"Some people take advantage of this to relentlessly exploit the lonely. I don't quite agree with the saying that human nature is inherently good. There are indeed good and bad people, but I have always believed in the saying that human nature is inherently evil. Some beasts are beasts from birth and can never change."

At this point, Fujino narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice, "If you can't satisfy these kinds of people, they will try every means to squeeze the last bit of value out of you... until they have completely consumed you and then throw you into an endless abyss."