Chapter 8: Unfair
In the noisy school hallways during lunch break, Lily wandered alone.
“I thought we’d eat together as usual today, but he suddenly ran off. Shuri and Minaka are at the cafeteria. What should I do?”
Normally, she would already be on the rooftop with Saito.
But today, her childhood friend had ditched her last minute, leaving her without plans.
Unable to join her friends, Lily was unsure where to have her lunch.
“If you had something to do, you should have told me in the morning.”
She muttered complaints about her childhood friend as she bought a tea from the vending machine.
“Machigane-chan is seriously cute, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, I totally want to rub my face on those white legs.”
She noticed all the terrace seats outside were taken, and sensing unwelcome gazes on her,
Sensing something creepy among them a shiver ran down her spine. Lily quickly left the area.
Should she go back to her classroom or head to the rooftop?
These were her options.
Ideally, she wanted an empty classroom, but the rooms were always locked right after class and checked by security guard every day, so it is never open.
In her previous timeline, she had eaten in the restroom to avoid prying eyes, but it was a miserable experience.
That was her last resort.
She preferred to eat somewhere normal.
[The corner of the rooftop is a good spot if you want to avoid being seen.]
Lily remembered something Koyuki had once told her.
There was a hidden spot on the rooftop,
behind the hedge by the terrace.
It seemed like there was no space, but there was a small gap leading to a secluded bench.
Saito and her friends were usually around, so she rarely needed to be alone, making her forget about it until now.
“Let’s go there after a long time.”
Feeling nostalgic, Lily’s feet moved toward the rooftop before she even realized it.
She quickly climbed the stairs and stepped out onto the rooftop.
The usual crowd was there, relaxing in their own ways.
Soon, Lily moves to the rooftop and checks her surroundings so as not to be noticed by them.
When she realized that no one was watching her, Lily moved to the hedge.
After confirming no one was watching, she slipped through the narrow gap and emerged into a small open space with a single bench.
But someone was already there.
“Shirayuri-senpai?”
“Machigane-san?”
It was Koyuki Shirayuri, the upperclassman who had shown her this place.
Her eyes were red and puffy from crying.
“How do you know about this spot? It should be my secret place.”
(Crap.)
Koyuki’s sharp gaze and questioning voice made Lily break into a cold sweat.
This place was supposed to be Koyuki’s secret until about July of her first year.
Koyuki had shown it to Lily out of concern when she confessed her fear of being watched.
Why did Koyuki think she knew about it now? Lily’s brain scrambled for an excuse.
“Um, well, Saito said, ‘There might be a space here,’ and we found it by accident.”
“I see. That sounds like something he would do.”
Lily’s hasty excuse seemed to satisfy Koyuki.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Lily avoided a crisis.
“If you’re going to use it, I’ll leave.”
Seeing Lily’s lunchbox, Koyuki seemed to understand and stood up to leave.
“Oh, no, senpai, are you okay? I can go somewhere else──”
But Lily stopped her.
Koyuki’s red eyes indicated she had been crying,
suggesting she wanted to be alone.
Lily’s words were meant to be considerate,
but they hit a sore spot for Koyuki.
“……Okay? How could I be okay!?”
For the first time, Koyuki shouted in anger.
“Why? Why? Why is it always you!? You have loving parents, a wonderful childhood friend, and even his affection. It’s so unfair, unfair, unfair, unfair! Why can’t I have just one thing? Why do I have to suffer again? Why are you in my way!? I hate you. I hate you for making me suffer so much!”
“……What?”
Lily was shocked and frozen, unable to process Koyuki’s sudden outburst.
“Please, don’t come near me! Leave me alone!”
Leaving a stunned Lily behind, Koyuki stormed off through the hedge.
(What is going on!? No one said Koyuki-senpai had also time-leaped! Well… even if she did, she wouldn’t tell me. Oh no, a third person!? I totally didn’t see that coming. Isn’t it usually one or two people in these situations!? I don’t get it!)
Lily was in a panic,
overwhelmed by the situation.
“Deep breaths.
Calm down. Let’s think this through. First──”
Taking a deep breath, Lily tried to piece together what just happened.
Why was Koyuki crying?
──I don’t know.
Why did she suddenly get angry?
──I don’t know. Was she just in a bad mood?
Why did Koyuki lash out at her?
──It seems she has complicated feelings toward me.
Envy for having a kind childhood friend and family.
Frustration over Haruki’s attention toward Lily.
Dissatisfaction with how things weren’t going well despite her time leap.
And intense jealousy for everything Lily had that she wanted.
All these mixed emotions had festered and exploded when Lily unintentionally triggered them.
From this, Lily understood why Koyuki lashed out but still couldn’t figure out why she had been crying.
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“What happened? Well, it must have been Haruki doing something weird again,” Lily sighed, leaning back on the bench.
If she was that emotionally shaken, it must have something to do with her ex-boyfriend.
Haruki always managed to cause trouble, and Lily couldn’t help but sigh deeply at the thought.
“What should I have done?”
she muttered, covering her eyes with her right arm.
She hadn’t meant to hurt anyone.
Koyuki had been a huge help to her in the past,
Lily never wanted to interfere with her happiness in the slightest.
and Lily truly wanted her to be happy.
“Should I have tried to get them together? But I also want Mizuki to succeed, and there’s that other girl coming soon… Ah, it’s so complicated,”
she groaned. All the girls who had fought over Haruki, except one, were good people.
Lily couldn’t bring herself to favor just one.
But she couldn’t ignore Koyuki’s distress either.
Feeling completely stuck, she let out a frustrated, “Ugh…”
Then she hears a rustling sound.
“What’s going on, Lily?”
a familiar voice asked, making her look up. It was her childhood friend, Saito.
“Saito!”
she cried out, relief washing over her as she hugged him tightly.
“Oh, there, there. Did you miss me that much?” he teased.
“Not really, but let’s go with that for now,”
To Saito she looks like a child who misses her father, and he pats her head.
Saito’s presence felt like a comforting hug, and despite feeling a bit like a child, she couldn’t deny the comfort it brought her.
“So, what happened?”
Saito asked, sitting down beside her on the bench.
Lily debated telling him everything but decided against it. Revealing too much would mean talking about the time leap,
“Just a little fight. I got upset.”
she explained the situation in a rather vague way
“Ah, I see. And you feel bad for overreacting?”
“Yeah, something like that. But I didn’t overdo it!”
“Alright, alright. I get it,”
Saito chuckled. He knew Lily well enough to drop the subject when she didn’t want to delve deeper.
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, which helped ease Lily’s mood.
“So, what were you up to? You left as soon as lunch started,”
After a break in the conversation, Lily asks Saito what he was doing during the lunch break
“I went to see the president about the Shiroyuri issue,” Saito explained.
“That was quick! And how did it go?”
“It went well. He said he’d try to make up. Honestly, if you don’t want to be disliked, don’t do things that make people dislike you. It’s a hassle,”
“Ha, you’re right,”
Lily agreed, finding Saito’s bluntness amusing. It seemed he had managed to resolve things
in his usual straightforward manner.
She felt a bit sorry for Takumi, though, knowing how pushy Saito could be.
Saito thought it was easy, but expressing one’s true feelings is difficult.
Especially during the peak of adolescence, it becomes even more challenging.
For such an adolescent boy to have been motivated by someone as rough as Saito, it must have taken some significant force.
(Poor thing.)
Lily, who didn’t interact much with Takumi, put her hands together in her mind and offered condolences.
“After listening to the president, I realized that Shirayuri-senpai is amazing. she used to Takumi senpai nitpick and mean things, but again she told me, ‘We have a normal relationship.’ If it were me, I’d definitely say he’s someone I can’t stand or find annoying.”
Remembering his conversation with Takumi, Saito praised Koyuki.
They hadn’t played together or had any special memories.
They just often interacted with that childhood friend who would constantly criticize him.
“I agree. If I were in Shirayuri-senpai’s position, I definitely couldn’t say that.”
Lily nodded in agreement with Saito.
Maintaining a relationship with such a person would be unbearable.
Most would try to cut ties somewhere along the way.
“Well, considering Shirayuri-senpai’s situation, she might have actually been happy deep down. Being treated as an equal.”
As Saito imagined throwing his nonexistent annoying childhood friend out of his mind, he muttered this.
“What do you mean?”
Lily couldn’t help but ask, a question mark popping up in her mind.
Was he implying that Koyuki was a masochist?
No, that couldn’t be right given the serious tone of her childhood friend.
Lily waited quietly for Saito’s next words.
“It seems Shirayuri-senpai hasn’t gotten along well with her parents since she was young. So, she’s kind of lonely. But, because everyone around her treated her specially, she couldn’t get close to anyone. In that environment, she probably liked the president, who treated her the same as everyone else. Well, that’s just my guess.”
“I see.”
In Saito’s explanation, Lily saw a vulnerable side of Koyuki she hadn’t known about.
She was surprised but also felt relieved.
“So, Shirayuri-senpai did have a wonderful childhood friend after all.”
The thing she envied and despaired over wasn’t absent. Koyuki already had something precious.
But if things continued like this, she might lose it without realizing, just like the first time.
“Alright!”
“What’s up with you all of a sudden?”
Lily slapped her cheeks with a loud smacking sound, stood up beside her bewildered childhood friend,
Then she turns her body around with a mischievous smile n her face and invites him to join her..
“Just getting myself motivated for what’s to come. Hey, Saito? Help me make sure the president and Shirayuri-senpai reconcile properly.”
then
What she was about to do might be just her own selfish satisfaction and unnecessary meddling.
But Lily thought it was the right thing to do.
Just as Saito acted for Takumi’s sake, she wanted to act for Koyuki’s sake.
“Alright.”
Saito blinked twice and then stood up with a smile, just like Lily.
What they were about to start was a secret plan by these selfish childhood friends.
Aiming for a future where everyone could be happy.
“First, let’s talk to Akashi-kun during lunch break.”
“Got it.”
And so, they quietly began to take action.
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