"Not many boys in class bothered you, right?" Masuzu Natsukawa said softly in response to Yukino Yukinoshita's question.
"..." After a brief pause, Yukino said, "We did have normal interactions..."
"Even during normal interactions, the boys still kept a certain distance!" Masuzu asserted.
"..."
"You were also very popular among the girls," Masuzu continued. "More importantly, aside from Kasumigaoka, Yukinoshita, Shiina, and Tamaki, you all just transferred here, didn't you? Generally speaking, transfer students have a hard time joining circles that are already established. Being isolated, getting badmouthed behind their backs, and other forms of malice—those are the kinds of experiences transfer students are supposed to have."
"..." Yukino couldn't refute that. She truly hadn't experienced any of those things since transferring here, though she wasn't afraid of them. After a long silence, she finally said hesitantly, "Perhaps Toyogasaki has a different atmosphere from other places..."
"Then how do you explain all those boys surrounding me when I first arrived?" Masuzu tilted her head. "During my self-introduction, I vaguely sensed hostility from the girls too..."
"Hostility?" Eriri froze at that.
"Mhm!" Masuzu nodded. "Maybe I'm overly sensitive, but I've experienced that feeling in many places. Though it was all muda to me—hostility was just hostility, and very few people actually dared to do anything. As long as I acted tough and composed an anthem to courage, they'd be scared off. Still, being hated was annoying... Perhaps you can't understand that. Something like hostility sounds rather unreliable, after all..."
"No..." Yukino shook her head. "I understand. I know better than anyone the malicious desire to make someone embarrass themselves..." Utaha Kasumigaoka: "..." She seemed to understand as well. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been mocked by someone for having so few friends back then.
Eriri Sawamura was the same.
"You understand?" Masuzu