"Does it taste good?"
"It's pretty good, but I'm starting to feel a little sick now."
Shintō Katsuya picked up the napkin beside him and wiped his mouth. Only then did he get a good look at the person in front of him, and a strange expression crossed his face.
"You... You wouldn't happen to be Rika, would you?"
"Watch your mouth! How dare you talk to our big brother Ryuen like that?!"
The guy leading the group seemed to be named Ryuen. And if he was their big brother, it was only natural that he'd have a loyal lackey.
"Ah, sorry. I mistook you for someone else. So, are you Rika?"
"I'm gonna fucking—"
Ishizaki was clearly furious. This arrogant brat had met Ryuen and, instead of trembling in fear, kept provoking them again and again.
Didn't the guy know that Rika was a girl's name?
Ryuen turned and glared at his underling. "That's enough, Ishizaki."
"I... Sorry, big brother. I was wrong."
The chastised lackey was as docile as a kid caught playing video games by his dad after he'd gotten off work early. He didn't even dare breathe too loudly.
Ryuen was feeling a little worn out himself. There weren't many useful people in Class 1-C, and they were severely polarized. Aside from him, the ones with brains lacked physical prowess, while the strong ones had no brains.
Right from the start, his underling had fallen completely into the other guy's rhythm.
Then Ryuen fixed his snake-like eyes on Karuizawa beside Shintō. He could tell that this girl was the real opening.
"Manabe told me you knocked Rika flying. Is that right?"
The girl at the very back hurried forward and nodded frantically.
"Yeah, Karuizawa knocked into me."
No wonder Ryuen had become the leader of the delinquents. The intimidation he inspired in Karuizawa far surpassed that of anyone who'd bullied her before.
Already fragile, she shuddered in fright and stammered, unable to get a word out.
Fortunately, Shintō patted her hand in time and answered for her.
"Her mouth's right there. Whatever she says goes, huh? In that case, I could say she bit me yesterday."
"Heh. I don't know if you're really stupid or just pretending to be. But your girlfriend clearly knocked into my classmate. I doubt this is going to end that easily."
Shintō didn't know why Ryuen had reached that conclusion, but if Ryuen had misunderstood things, he might as well take advantage of it.
"So your theory is that my girlfriend deliberately bullied some kid in your class who looked easy to pick on, someone from your class happened to see it, and Karuizawa just happened to be alone at the time."
After summarizing Ryuen's logic, Shintō let out a mocking laugh.
"Heh heh heh. What a story. What a setup. The whole thing's practically perfect—except for the evidence. Where is it?"
"Do you think there aren't any security cameras here?"
"Security cameras? Oh... So should I take that to mean you'd already had your eye on someone in our class? That you deliberately picked the right moment to frame us, and had a frail girl from your class who looked easy to bully play the role of an obstacle so you could stage an accident and demand compensation?"
Ryuen's face turned livid, and he narrowed his eyes. He knew there couldn't possibly be any evidence. Besides, Rika didn't have any serious injuries.
In fact, Shintō Katsuya had seemed like a tough opponent from the very beginning.
This time, Ryuen had underestimated him.
But to maintain his position as the leader of his class, he quietly stared Shintō down for several minutes. When his eyes started to hurt, he burst out laughing.
"Heh heh heh heh, hahahahaha! You're pretty interesting. I thought Class D was just a bunch of grasshoppers in a ditch, but it turns out you're one tough bastard."
"Well, there's probably a lot you don't know. If you'd prepared some reasonable evidence beforehand, maybe your scheme would've actually worked~"
What Shintō hadn't expected was that Ryuen would actually learn from this later. But...
"I have no idea what you're talking about. You got lucky this time. What's your name?"
Give him his name?
"Trying to threaten me? Class 1-D, Ayanokōji Kiyotaka."
"Ayanokōji... I'll remember that!"
With that, Ryuen turned to leave. Manabe, who hadn't gotten to see the scene she'd wanted, wasn't about to let him go so easily.
"Wait, are we really just going to—"
But before she could finish, she saw the terror in Ryuen's eyes and swallowed the rest of her words.
Long after the students from Class 1-C had left, Karuizawa finally loosened her grip on Shintō's arm. Everything that had just happened had been terrifying.
Especially for her... If things had gone badly, wouldn't she have had to relive that nightmare from before?
As she let her mind wander, a strange sensation came over the top of her head again.
"Karuizawa, Karuizawa, there, there. The bad guys are gone. Don't be scared."
(That's how they comfort people in some kids' cartoon, isn't it?)
The childish words made Karuizawa laugh at once. Blushing, she batted the hand on her head away.
"Is that how you comfort someone? I'm not a little kid."
"All right, all right. But are you feeling a little better now? And at least Ryuen and the others won't be able to use this to threaten you anymore."
Only then did Karuizawa realize she might have missed something important just now.
Right!
Hadn't Shintō called her something like "my girlfriend" just now?
Why had he said that?
Could it be...
"Um... Shintō-kun..."
"Hmm?"
Karuizawa turned slightly away so he couldn't see her expression and asked in a quiet voice,
"Just now... why did you... call me your... your... girl..."
"Oh, that. I just said it without thinking. Anyway, Ryuen—"
Shintō instinctively tried to explain, but halfway through, he realized something seemed off. He couldn't see her face, but he had a vague feeling that her mood had suddenly dipped.
Hey...
"You seem a little disappointed?"
Of course, Karuizawa denied it with all her might. She quickly turned around and waved her hands.
"N-no, I... I'm not disappointed."
"Huh?"
Now it was Karuizawa's turn to freeze. After she said that, she clearly sensed that he seemed a little disappointed.
"Shintō-kun, you... you... seem a little disappointed?"
Well, now what was he supposed to say?!
To be honest, Shintō didn't know why he'd deliberately made that face. Maybe joking around had become a habit?
Or maybe he really was a little disappointed?
For a moment, even Shintō himself couldn't quite tell.
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