Chapter 7: CH 7

I know that.

Translated by Dawn

I know that.

After school, I left school and headed for the station.

As I was walking my usual route home, I suddenly saw a brown-haired girl with permed medium hair in front of me.

That familiar back figure belonged to Satomi Ayaka.

It was somehow awkward to pass her, so I slowed my walking speed.

As I proceeded cautiously, I approached the stairs leading to the river bank.

If I walked along the bank for a while, I would reach the station.

As I was about to go up the stairs, I stopped when I heard a voice coming down from above me.

“Ah, Tsuyoshi!”

It was Satomi’s voice walking in front of me.

It was florid, different from when she was mean to Mizutani.

Who was that “Tsuyoshi”?

I wondered, and as I watched her downstairs, a low voice came.

Next, a tall man with a shaved head came into view.

“…What, Ayaka?”

I didn’t know “Tsuyoshi” was Yamamoto.

But the fact that they called each other by their first names meant that they had a pretty deep relationship.

Yamamoto was probably in the middle of running, wearing his training clothes and a towel around his neck.

Meanwhile, not being able to move forward, I decided to stay quiet.

“I heard you bumped into Mizutani in the hallway the other day, is that true?”

Unlike Satomi’s cheerful voice, Yamamoto’s voice had an accusatory tone.

Even Satomi, who had seemed happy at first, was in a bad mood as she looked at him.

“…I did bump into her, but what does that have to do with Tsuyoshi?”

“Of course it does. She’s going to be my girlfriend soon.”

“…you’re being a little delusional. Tsuyoshi, she’s not interested in you at all, you know?”

“…delusional? Are you making fun of me?”

“I’m not making fun of you, but…I’m telling you to look at reality.”

“Then, let me ask you, is there any other guy in our school who is good enough for her, except me?”

“…I’m not saying that. I’m saying she’s not good enough for you.”

Satomi said in a weak voice.

I was downstairs and could hear her, but it seemed that Yamamoto’s ears had not heard her.

“Hm, did you just say something?”

“!? I didn’t say anything!”

“….? Then why are you so mad at me?”

Oi, oi. That was a very manga-like exchange.

I’d never seen anything like that before in my life.

I didn’t know deaf protagonists existed in this modern age.

In the end, the two remained in the same place.

As they were leaving, Yamamoto turned to Satomi and said

“Anyway, you should apologize to Mizutani.”

After reminding her, he ran off in the opposite direction from the station.

Satomi, who was left alone, followed Yamamoto’s back with impatient eyes.

As if a page from her youth……did not end there, Satomi began to complain alone on the spot.

“Lately, he’s been talking about Mizutani this, Mizutani that, all about her. I’m really annoyed……in general, that girl was a thieving cat. She should have rejected Tsuyoshi more firmly, but instead, she got his hopes up.”

Thieving cat…was that the way you would say it nowadays?

And, “If only she had refused more firmly,” was a terrible accusation.

Mizutani did make it seem like she was making her intentions pretty clear.

But, well, I’d learned some things from this exchange.

Satomi probably liked Yamamoto.

That was why she was jealous of Mizutani and harassed her.

It seemed that it was not just because Mizutani was popular with boys.

But these two, listening to their exchange before, were rather similar to each other.

Both of them could see the other person objectively, so they could give a relatively decent opinion.

However, when it came to their own business, both of them become fools, so they couldn’t accept each other’s decent opinions at all.

…Huh? But, on second thought, things were a little bit strange.

Why did Mizutani stop talking about it yesterday?

If the reason for Satomi’s harassment of Mizutani was based on their conversation just now, all she had to do was, to be honest, and reveal it. Revealing it would not be detrimental to Mizutani.

Was Mizutani simply mistaken about something?

Or could it be that she knew everything and—

I found myself walking toward the end of the stairs.

Satomi noticed my footsteps and turned her head to look at me.

Satomi’s face was stained with shock as if she thought I had overheard her entire conversation.

“Y-you…what’s your name again?”

I almost wanted to hit her.

“…it’s Aizawa”

“That’s right, Aizawa! I thought I’ve seen your face somewhere. …So, did you listen to everything that just said?”

“Yeah, I did.”

Satomi’s eyes narrowed like snakes as I answered honestly.

“…You have a bad hobby. Eavesdropping on people’s conversations, don’t you think it’s creepy yourself?”

“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop either. I just happened to hear you two talking.”

“That’s just an excuse. It’s not possible, but seriously”

Satomi said as if she was going to throw up, and walked up to me.

She came right up to me and looked up at me with sharp eyes.

“Don’t ever tell anyone else what you just heard. If you tell anyone…you’re dead.”

What’s this girl?

She seemed a bit normal when she was talking to Yamamoto earlier but wasn’t she almost looked like an unreasonable person like this? And also, she bumped into Mizutano on purpose. I didn’t think I was the type to get angry at other people, but she really made me angry.

“…Then if you stop harassing Mizutani. I’ll think about it.”

“Huh? What do you mean by harassing her? I don’t remember harassing that girl.”

“What do I mean? It’s about how you recommended Mizutani for the class representative the other day, or how you bumped into Mizutani on purpose…”

“What are you talking about? I only recommended Mizutani because I thought from the bottom of my heart that she was suitable to be a member of the class representative. I didn’t bump into her on purpose either. Or do you have any proof?”

“That’s…”

Certainly, there was no proof.

As I turned my head down in frustration at admitting this, Satomi pushed me to the edge.

“Can you not make accusations without proof? ……Ah, it’s the worst that this guy asked me what I was talking about earlier. I mean, you’re after that thieving cat, too, aren’t you? You definitely shouldn’t go for that thief cat. Girls like that usually a prostitu—”

“Alright, I get it.”

“…Huh? What do you mean you ‘get it’?”

I couldn’t listen silently until the end.

Interrupting Satomi’s words, I declare to the girl who looked at me quizzically.

“I’m going to tell Yamamoto now that you like him.”

Satomi froze for a moment.

When I tried to walk past her at that moment, she came to herself and hurriedly grabbed me by the shoulders.

“Haaaaa!? What are you talking about!? Don’t do that! Even if I confess to him now, I’m sure he’ll reject me!”

“Yeah, get on with it and get dumped. I’ll feel better if Satomi gets dumped. I think this would be much more productive than being mean to Mizutani.”

“…I know that, I know that, too.”

“…huh?”

The strength of the hand gripping my shoulder suddenly weakened.

I looked back and saw a weak-looking Satomi in my eyes. Was she emotionally unstable?

“Even I know I’m doing something stupid. But it’s impossible. I can’t beat her no matter how hard I try. I tried my best with makeup and everything, but Tsuyoshi doesn’t even look at me.”

“…But that doesn’t mean you should harass her. You’re making Yamamoto’s reputation even worse because of it. I saw that earlier, too.”

“But I don’t know what to do…”

Satomi said, looking downward.

I beg you, please stop acting that way.

I was supposed to be mad at Satomi, but now I was at a loss for where to put my feelings.

I sighed and shook off Satomi’s hand.

I turned to face her again.

“Anyway, stop harassing her. If you stop, I won’t tell Yamamoto about Satomi’s feelings without permission. Is that clear?”

“…Yes, I get it. So, you keep my secret, too.”

“Okay, okay.”

I nodded back at Satomi, who looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

…Now, I wonder how much I can trust this girl.

Even if she kept her promise for the time being, I was not sure what would happen in a month’s time.

I would not be at all surprised if she forgot about it and resumed harassing Mizutani.

If I wanted to change Mizutani’s situation.

I should take some action before then.

And I had already found the answer.