Translator: Haruto.

“Haa… I-I’m back! I was so freaking nervous!”

As though a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders, Tajima lets out a sigh the moment he enters Mahiro and Rina’s room, where they had agreed to meet.

Inside, he finds Yuito, Mahiro, and Rina…

“Welcome back, Tajima-kun. And great work out there,” Yuito praises Tajima.

“Yup, welcome! How did it go?” Mahiro asks.

“Everything’s going according to Kasashima’s plan. He’s alone with Risa right now… I’m worried, though. He might be—”

“He wouldn’t have said those things if he wasn’t prepared for the consequences,” Mahiro responds.  

The four of them then remember the conversation they had with Yuuji…

We’ll first try luring her in with Tajima’s text, but there’s always the possibility that she might head to Rina-san’s room and confront her instead, so I want you three to remain there just in case, Yuuji said.

Alright, and what should I do after I send her that message? asked Tajima.

After you get her into your room, you’ll have to come up with an excuse to leave. No, wait, it’s better if we give you some sort of sign… I’ll give you a call. That’ll be your cue to leave the room, Yuuji answered.

G-Got it, Tajima said.

Once it’s just the two of us… I’ll take care of the rest… This villain here will be putting that girl in her place!! Mwahahaha!

“That smile Kasashima-kun had back then… made him look like a real villain. It was a bit frightening… but I wasn’t actually scared, okay?” Mahiro says.

“He was just acting! Yuuji-kun is a good person!” Yuito declares.

“Hehe, yeah, I know. He wouldn’t be your male best friend if he wasn’t,” Mahiro responds.

“That’s right!” Yuito exclaims.

And Tajima says, “Still, I never imagined he’d be the kind of guy to go out of his way to help others…”

“It just goes to show how good of a person he is!” says Yuito.

“Y-Yeah, you’re just preaching to the choir at this point, Saeki…” Tajima responds.  

While the two of them are talking, Mahiro looks silently at Rina.

“…”

Rina’s sitting on the bed, with her head down and a puzzling look on her face.

“…”

Mahiro turns her back to Rina and looks at Yuito and Tajima.

“But you know, I don’t think Kasashima-kun is doing this just to help Rina.”

“So you think Yuuji-kun has another objective?” Yuito asks.

“Maybe he just wants to… teach Risa a lesson or something like that?” Tajima wonders.

“I don’t think it’s anything that complicated.”

“?” Both Yuito and Tajima tilt their heads in bewilderment, and Mahiro smiles in response.

“I’m not sure of it myself, but… I don’t think he’s doing it because he wants to be a better person or raise his popularity… he just…”

“He just…?”

“…Gulp.”

“…”

Yuito, Tajima, and even Rina, wait for Mahiro to continue.

She takes a deep breath and—

“He just wants to give her a piece of his mind. I think so, anyway… After all, he’s also had to experience his fair share of troubles because people judge him by his appearance.”

“…Hmm?”

“I-I don’t think I totally get what you’re saying, Mahiro-san.” Yuito and Tajima seem perplexed still.

“Haha, it’s fine, I don’t really know what I’m getting at either.”

“You don’t?!”

As the three of them laugh away, the tension that was hanging over the room seems to disappear. However, Rina…

“I’m going to buy something to drink,” she announces in her usual cheerful voice while standing up.

“Huh?! Wait! Rina-chan! You shouldn’t leave the room yet!” warns Tajima.

“Can you get me something too? Tea with zero sugar, please!” Mahiro requests.

“…Okay!”

“Huh?! Mahiro-san, shouldn’t we stop her?!” Tajima asks, confused.

Rina keeps walking towards the door and leaves.

“Mahiro-chan, is Rina-chan going to…”

“Yeah, I think she went to have a look.”

“What?! So she went to check on Risa and Kasashima?! Isn’t that bad?!” Tajima asks loudly.

“It’ll be fine. I doubt Kasashima-kun will take Risa out of the room,” Mahiro says.

“B-But…!”

“We’ve become outsiders at this point, so let’s just wait here, okay? Neither of us can truly understand what those two are going through anyway.”

***

Tajima’s ex-girlfriend freaks out the moment she looks at me, but it only lasts a second.

“A-And what about you? What do you think you’re doing peeking into another person’s room?!”

“Me? I just came to talk with Tajima. I noticed that the door was unlocked so I opened it and found you inside. Now, let’s get straight to the point, shall we?”

I step into the room… and close the door. She glares warily at me, not with the same expression of surprise and fear she had on her face when she first saw me… but with a nasty grin.

“You’re the one that stole the envelope, right?”

“H-Huh? What are you even saying?! That’s nonsense! Just get out of here, will you?! I need to have a chat with that idiot and that girl.”

“By that girl… you mean Sumino Rina?”

“Urk…” She bites down on her lip. Bull’s eye, huh.

“I’m sure you’re still eager to take revenge on Rina-san, but… just stop. Judging people by their appearance is one thing, but harming them is another.”

“H-Huh?! What are you… Ah! Don’t tell me… they asked you to trap me here to…”

“No, I was the one that came up with this whole plan.”

I want to have a proper conversation with her, so I grab a chair and sit down.

“…Did you come here to lecture me on what a terrible person I am? Or are you going to convince me to stop bullying Sumino Rina?”

“…Hmm, not quite.”

“Then, what the hell do you want?! Stop getting in my way! That bitch… that bitch stole my boyfriend! I’ve got the right to pay her back for what she’s done!!”

Her anger towards Rina hasn’t subsided at all, huh.

“…Are you sure Rina-san did that, though? Did she ever admit to seducing and stealing your boyfriend? Did you even try to make sure it was true?”

“That’s… I-I didn’t have to! Everyone knows she’s just that kind of slut!!”

She rages on… She rages on treating as an objective fact something that only a handful of people think. And worst of all is that she’s got no idea the kind of hardships those careless remarks put us through.  

I stay silent for a moment and she starts walking towards the door.

“Whatever, just leave already. Or do you want me to run out the door screaming for help? That’d totally be the end of you. Say bye-bye to a good life! Hahaha!”

Glare.

She looks frightened the moment I glare at her, but she quickly regains her composure.

“I-It must suck to be you, huh?!! Everyone just assumes the worst of you because of how you look!! Haha! I’m so glad I’m not in your shoes!!” She breaks into a laugh, thinking she’s already won.

A laugh, huh…

“Hahaha…”

“What?”

“Hahahaha! Hahahahahaha!!!” I also begin to laugh my head off.  

She’s baffled. “W-What’s wrong with you…? Have you gone crazy or something? Freaking weirdo.”

“Well, people have certainly called me crazy before.”

“Huh?” She remains confused. I stand up and walk towards her.

“There’s a bunch of stuff I’d like to tell you… but I can’t come up with the right words to solve this problem flawlessly as a true hero could since… at the end of the day, I’m a villain.”

I walk even faster, and realizing that she might be in trouble, she extends her hand towards the door knob in a hurry, but I grab her arm before she manages to reach it and with my other hand, I push her against the door.

“Ow! S-So you finally show your true colors!!”

“…Shut the hell up.”

“…Urk!”

I’m not doing this for the sake of being praised or liked by other people. I suppose you could say it’s for my own satisfaction, but… I just have to give her a piece of my mind. The way she’s trying to harm Rina without caring to hear her side of the story enrages me.

I take a deep breath and—

“I’ve got one thing to say to you.”

“…W-What?”

“We’re just trying our best to be treated fairly, so don’t get in our fucking waaaaayyyyyyy!!!”

I yell as loud as humanly possible, venting all my bottled-up anger on her.

The moment I finally stop, I feel kind of tired. All I did was yell at her, and yet it’s as if I’ve got no strength left in my body.  

“A-Aah…” Overwhelmed, she collapses to her knees… and passes out.

“I’ve done it now.”

Oh well, I don’t care what happens next. Perhaps she’s going to tell everyone about how I trapped her here and screamed at her, and make the entire school hate my guts even more, but that’s fine.

As long as I have people by my side that see me for who I really am… I know I’ll be okay.

“Man, I’m starving! I wonder if Yuito’s got any food left.”

“…”

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