!
The matter had been simple enough to begin with—so long as it did not involve Sogo Doma.
Wasn't what Masuzu Natsukawa wanted simply to avoid dating, while also ensuring that rejecting a boy's confession would not earn her a terrible reputation...?
People in this country were far too "clever." Even in high school, they already knew how to read the room. Having a confession rejected was humiliating, and the air would be filled with the atmosphere of "XX didn't know their own place." For high school students who could already read the room—
After having their confession rejected, they could read countless humiliating implications into even an unintentional glance from someone else...
Some might retreat into silence, but there were always "clever" people in this world. They would shift all the blame onto others. Their rejection was not their own fault; it was because the other person was too arrogant, because...
So long as everyone believed that, then being rejected would not be their fault—the person they confessed to would be the one with the problem. It sounded absurd, but once Masuzu Natsukawa had rejected enough people, there would be a basis for such talk to spread. When enough voices repeated the same lie, even if Masuzu Natsukawa herself had done nothing wrong, who would believe her?
Why had Yukino been isolated in the past? Why had Utaha been unable to make friends? Ako Tamaki had been driven by reality into becoming obsessed with the internet, while only Eriri, relying on her decent family background and the outgoing persona she had put on, had managed to gain a few friends she was not truly close to...
It was precisely because they had gone through such things themselves that Yukino and the others considered Masuzu Natsukawa's request so difficult. For