Natsukawa ignored the panic of the girl in his arms. He merely looked up at the utterly stunned Shiranami Chihiro and said in a matter-of-fact, even faintly innocent tone:
"I just want to give the girl who likes me a stable home. What did I do wrong?"
Hearing this textbook scumbag line, Ichinose Honami felt both embarrassed and angry. She instinctively tried to struggle, but Natsukawa's arm around her waist was as steady as a mountain. She could tell he was not actually using much force, yet his unmistakably uncompromising attitude rendered all her resistance futile. In the end, she could only bury her burning face in his chest and give up struggling.
To Shiranami Chihiro, this scene was undoubtedly the last straw.
She watched Honami, the girl she admired and loved most, being held in another man's arms. Not only did she fail to resist, she even wore that bashful, helpless expression that only appeared in shoujo manga.
In that instant, Shiranami Chihiro felt her whole world collapse.
"Honami... You'd rather choose a scumbag... than me..."
Leaving behind those words, she could no longer bear the sight before her. Covering her face, she turned and fled down the path she had come from, crying.
Shiranami Chihiro's figure completely vanished at the end of the path, and her suppressed sobs faded into the distance. Silence returned to the surroundings, leaving only the excessively clear sound of the two of their heartbeats.
Natsukawa Sosuke released the arm around Ichinose's waist.
The instant the force holding them tightly together disappeared, Ichinose Honami seemed to lose all strength. Her body involuntarily staggered half a step back, her legs going slightly weak as she nearly lost her footing.
She still had her head lowered, her pinkish-gold hair hanging down to hide her expression.