Oh, I see~ People at our school didn't recognize me. Can't be helped if they mistook me for a boy from another school~ As I pretended it had nothing to do with me, Miura and Ebina's gazes stabbed into me.
"Hey, hey, hey, what's this about?"
"Yeah, tell us."
"Eh, ah, eeh~"
Miura and Ebina questioned Yuihama while sneaking glances at me. Yuihama went "awu awu" and turned into a seal.
This was bad... If I stayed here, I had no idea when the spearhead would turn toward me. Better get out of here fast.
I stood up from my seat, used my specialty, "Zetsu," to erase my presence, and walked out of the classroom.
The after-school clamor spilled out into the hallways.
The school was filled with the restless excitement unique to the New Year—or rather, the new term.
The corridor leading to the special building was usually empty, but today, scattered students could be seen here and there, all seemingly chatting happily.
"Did you hear──? That rumor about Hayama──"
"Ah──that one. It sounds pretty real, doesn't it?"
The girls passing by me brought up the rumor they had just heard, and the other chimed in. Their laughter never stopped.
It was probably the same as what Classmate Ebina had said in the classroom. Fragments of information had been pieced together, sparking a trend of people speculating about the truth and gossiping over it, spreading it further.
Even though it wasn't a topic directly related to me, every time I heard someone talking about it, an unpleasant feeling rose in me that made me want to hunch my shoulders.
It was probably because I felt sickened by those strangers casually gossiping about someone else.
The hardest thing about rumors was that those people didn't necessarily mean any harm.