The Mysterious Background

The following afternoon.

A file was placed in the Chairman's Office.

Sakayanagi Narimori broke the seal and took out several photographs. When he saw the familiar face in them, he frowned slightly.

They were the photographs of Bai Ye beating someone up.

"Chairman, how should we handle this?"

A weathered-looking man with a trace of killing intent in his eyes stepped forward.

If Bai Ye had been there, he would have recognized the man as the "old man" who had always looked after him.

"Number 7, are you threatening me?"

"Of course not. It's the young master's good fortune to have the chairman take him in... It's just that if this matter affects the young master's future, I can't simply stand by and do nothing."

"And..." The man paused. "That person wouldn't want to see this happen either."

"...I know. This is currently the safest place for him, and he's practically my son-in-law. Why would I kick him out?"

Sakayanagi Narimori shook his head and set the file aside. "As long as nobody reports him, the school won't take the initiative to deal with this. That's part of the school's rules."

"And what if someone reports him?"

"Then we'll treat it as self-defense. It was two against one, after all. No matter how you look at it, he was the one being bullied."

The man said nothing more. He stood motionless to one side.

Sakayanagi Narimori opened a drawer, put the photographs inside, and took out some other documents to look through.

Neither of them mentioned the matter again.

A few more days passed.

"Well? Ready to admit defeat, Yamauchi?"

They were at the same spot as last time. Bai Ye looked at Yamauchi's constipated expression, utterly at ease.

"Could you wait a few more days? Maybe the teacher just hasn't noticed yet..."

"No. I'm done waiting. You choose: get expelled and take a beating from me, or run around the school once without any clothes on."

"Wah... I really don't want to run... Please let me go, Jingu-sama... Wah..."

Yamauchi was sprawled on the ground, trying to grab his leg, but Bai Ye kicked him away.

"Fine. You look so pitiful that I'll be generous. You can wrap your clothes around your face."

"Th-That..."

"You don't want to? Then we're back to..."

"I'll do it! I'll run!"

Yamauchi stripped in a flash, then wrapped his shirt around his face, leaving a gap for his eyes.

"Go on."

Seeing Yamauchi hesitate, Bai Ye kicked him in the butt.

Yamauchi shot off at top speed.

He was probably afraid Bai Ye would change his mind—or maybe he just wanted to finish running as soon as possible.

After Yamauchi left, Bai Ye stared blankly at the path.

"What should I do now... Sigh, this is so boring..."

Kushida was busy making friends every day, and he didn't want to bother her. Horikita had recently been investigating something in the library. As for Wang Meiyu...

He had told Wang Meiyu not to talk to him during the day, because whenever she saw him, she either threw herself at him or clung to his arm.

He didn't want to go out with a little pet hanging off him every time.

And so, he ended up alone.

To be honest, he wasn't interested in making friends. He was always transferring schools, and couldn't be bothered to build relationships with people he'd only be around for a few months.

Little by little, he'd gotten used to it.

In the end, he stopped looking for people to hang out with and simply wandered around campus by himself.

As luck would have it, while wandering, he happened to spot a girl from his class on a secluded patch of grass.

She was lying on the sloping grass with her eyes closed, resting. There wasn't another student around.

Seeing someone like himself gave Bai Ye a strange sense of kinship. He slowly walked over and lay down two meters away from her.

He knew the girl's name. She was Hasebe Haruka, who had become a topic of conversation among the boys as soon as school started.

The reason she'd become a topic of conversation was her figure. She had the biggest breasts in the class.

Of course, she was pretty, too. The beauty mark beneath her eye gave her an added air of mature charm.

As soon as he lay down, Hasebe opened her eyes and glanced over at him. "You're... Jingu?"

"Yeah."

"Why did you... come here?"

What she meant was, why had he lain down beside her?

"Because I was bored. I saw you lying here by yourself, and wanted to see how it felt."

"Oh."

Hasebe asked nothing more.

Two meters apart, they lay quietly on the grass, gazing at the sky and listening to the breeze rustle through the leaves.

Now and then, the scent of flowers drifted by, mingling with the fresh smell of earth. Just lying there made it feel as if they were enveloped by a sea of nature.

Only when all the clamor of the world faded away could they sense the breath of life in the quiet.

The chirping of birds in the trees, the splashing of fish at the water's surface.

He immersed himself in the sounds, painting a beautiful landscape in his mind.

Until—

"I'm heading back."

At some point, Hasebe had gotten to her feet and was brushing leaves off her clothes.

He looked over at the sound of her voice and asked, "Will you come back tomorrow?"

"Um... Tomorrow, maybe... I might." Hasebe first froze for a moment, then nodded lightly.

"Then I'll come back tomorrow too. This place feels pretty nice."

"Oh, all right."

Hasebe wanted to ask, Why don't you just come by yourself? Why ask me?

But suddenly, she didn't want to ask anymore.

Because she felt that this... wasn't bad either.

That evening, Bai Ye returned to his dorm and saw Wang Meiyu leaning against his bed, playing on her phone.

She'd been given a key a few days earlier, so she could come and go from his room as she pleased.

As soon as she saw him come in, Wang Meiyu put down her phone and hurried over in her slippers. "Welcome back, big brother~"

He smiled and patted her head, changed his shoes, and walked farther into the room.

"Meiyu, where did you go today?"

Although he didn't want Wang Meiyu clinging to him every day, he still cared about what she was up to. She seemed somewhat frail, and wasn't assertive enough. It would be easy for people to bully her.

Wang Meiyu padded back to the bed. "Today, I went with Inokashira and the others..."

"Mm."

As he listened, he walked over to the desk, picked up a book, and began to read.

Reading was one of his few hobbies.

He read everything from light novels to various classics.

Of course, he didn't read to show off how knowledgeable he was. He read to experience life.

Every book contained the life of a person, from birth to death. Finishing one was like experiencing a different life.

Even if it was all made up by the author, spending a few hours—or dozens of hours—experiencing a life from beginning to end was an incredible bargain.

So rather than absorbing knowledge from books, he was more drawn to the stories.

And to the lives behind them.