My Childhood Friend Who Was Doing Personal V-Tubing Got Ntr’d by a Singer (LOL), but I’ve Decided to Just Sit Back and Watch the Two of Them Roll Down the Hill of Life and Fall Into Ruin - Chapter 3: The Beginning of the Fall ~It's Too Late to Apologize Now~

Chapter 3: The Beginning of the Fall ~It’s Too Late to Apologize Now~

When I arrived at class, everyone in the class spoke to me about the way my arm was fixed with a cast, so I brushed it off by saying I had just tripped and fallen clumsily.

When I took my seat, Asakura was sitting in the seat to my left. …Asakura and I had seats right next to each other.

“Since we’re neighboring seats, I’ll help you with anything inconvenient.”

“Thanks, Nasu!”

As I chatted like that with Asakura, Kusaka-san, who was about third in popularity among the guys in the class, came over near my seat and started talking with Asakura. Kusaka-san was a stylish girl with well-groomed hair that had just the tips lightly permed, but since she was surrounded by brothers at home, she had deep knowledge of topics and hobbies that guys liked, and her range of conversation topics and social connections was wide too.

By the way, if you tease her about her small chest, she gets angry in a really sharp way, so that’s a forbidden phrase. Before, when some other guys sexually harassed her too much by teasing her about not having any chest, if it were in a manga, it would have been about seven and a half pages of her punching them with no mercy, no mercy, no mercy, and leaving them unable to recover. Everyone, you shouldn’t say things that people hate, okay?

Kusaka-san was good friends with Asakura, so she often talked to me too since I was sitting next to Asakura, but the usual sight was Kusaka-san trying to somehow awaken Asakura to fashion versus Asakura, who was indifferent to her appearance and had no motivation… but today, Kusaka-san talked to me.

“Hey, hey, Takao-kun, did you twist that left hand yesterday?”

“Exactly right.”

“Can I ask one more thing? In that video that’s blowing up from last night, the cuckold victim who got twisted was the left hand, right?”

“I don’t hate girls with sharp intuition like you.”

…Kusaka-san had totally suspected me. The timing was the timing, so no helping it. Kusaka-san said, “Hmm… so Takao-kun is single now. Huh…” and then the preparatory bell rang, so she went back to her seat. What was that meaningful line?

After that, during classes or at lunch break, whenever I couldn’t use one hand and it was inconvenient, Asakura helped me, so I didn’t have any trouble in daily life. Asakura seemed spaced out, but she was a good person, and her b00bs were big too!!

At lunch break, my tall and skinny otaku guy friend Tate, short for Tachikawa, and my fat otaku guy friend Yoko, short for Yokoi, came to invite me to eat, so we ate together. By the way, these two were the ones who edited and spread the video. These two, called by the nicknames Tate and Yoko from their names and features, had pretty strong personalities and were interesting guys.

While I thanked them for the video editing and we ate lively in the cafeteria, Himeko came to call me.

“Um, Tak-kun. Can I talk to you for a bit?”

It’s about yesterday, right? I held back a sigh, nodded, finished eating just in time, cleaned up my meal, said goodbye to Tate and Yoko, and followed Himeko to the back of the school building as she led the way… but as I left, Tate slapped my back with a smack. And next to Tate, Yoko was giving a thumbs up.

“—We’ll make sure you keep your spirits up, young man. We humble ones are with you, Tak-kun-dono.”

“Cheaters deserve death, no mercy. Good luck!”

“Oh, thanks, Tate! Yoko!”

With that, I said goodbye to Tate and Yoko and walked after Himeko. …We were both silent on the way.

“I’m sorry about yesterday.”

When we reached the deserted back of the school building, Himeko said that while averting her eyes as she apologized.

“If you’re going to apologize, then you shouldn’t have done it in the first place, right?”

When I replied like that, her face showed obvious irritation. Hide your attitude a bit more; since we were kids, you’ve always shown your bad feelings too much on your face, and I think that’s a bad habit.

“It was the worst that you cheated and slept with other guys like crazy, but when I might have been getting beaten, you sided with Hachiyama without a second thought.

And after that, you didn’t even glance at me while I was injured and crouched down. You think I can forgive something like that? If anything, I’m angrier about being left alone while I was assaulted and injured than about the cheating. If there hadn’t been evidence footage, I might have been forced to just swallow my tears.”

“That was… but, but, because, at that time, I had no choice but to do that…”

You’re lying; you were totally into defending Hachiyama!! And without showing any worry for me while I was groaning with my wrist broken, you got in Hachiyama’s car without hesitation and went to the hotel! You can tell if you just go forward without hesitation.

“Isn’t the reason you came to apologize like this because the video from yesterday went viral, so it’s for your own protection?”

“That’s not it! I really feel bad about it!”

Himeko-san, but even as you say that, your eyes are darting around. Swim, swim. Even Olympic athletes would turn pale at that skillful eye-darting; you’re totally acting suspicious because you’ve been caught red-handed??

“Well, whatever. I just can’t trust you anymore.”

“…Ugh, uu, but, but.”

For some reason, she made a sad face, but I don’t think you have the right to make that expression? ?? Why are you making a face like the victim? It’s completely your fault, right? You left me with a broken bone and went to the hotel to fool around with the cheating guy, right??

“…Anyway, since when did you start two-timing with that male singer?”

“That was… um…”

Himeko closed her mouth as if it was hard to say.

“At this point, just tell me honestly. In return, I won’t post your face or voice online.”

…Yeah, I won’t.

“…From around the end of last year, before Christmas. When my personal V started getting popular, Shion-tan… no, Hachiyama-san approached me, and then…”

“Faaah?! So that means the Christmas date last year that you canceled on the day, and the time on Valentine’s night when you suddenly said you had a cold and couldn’t meet, and on your birthday when you said you had family business and it was inconvenient, so you just took the present and left quickly, all that was because you were meeting that Hachiyama… right?!”

“Ugh… I, I’m sorry.”

I had thought there were more sudden cancellations lately.

But on New Year’s, we went to the first shrine visit and such, and even if you canceled, you made it up afterward, so I convinced myself to accept it, but it was all lies after all!!!

Himeko stiffened up in a way that seemed like it came with a sound effect of a jolt. This was just way too awful, right?! Right?! No, even as childhood friends, I don’t want to see you anymore, and cutting ties completely is the only option.

Hmm, but Mom said, “Most likely, even if you break up, that girl is naive in her thinking, and she’ll probably just come over to this house for dinner as usual, so when that happens, Mom will give her a good scolding.” So I’ll leave the final push on that to Mom, and for now, within the range I can manage, I’ll reject Himeko.

“Whoa, that’s rough. Let’s break up… and from now on, if there’s no business, don’t talk to me. Our houses are close, and we are childhood friends… but there’s no romantic love between man and woman anymore.”

As I said that with an expression like a jockey who specialized in wild horses answering an interview, Himeko started sniffling.

“U, uu. I don’t want to break up. Tak-kun is the person I like the most and treasure the most! It’s true!!”

“But you told me, the one you say you like the most and treasure the most, that you wouldn’t do naughty things with me, yet you were doing it like crazy behind my back with the male singer, right? And yesterday too, more than worrying about me while I was injured, it was hotel go! So even if you say he’s the one you like the most, it has no convincing power, Himeko-san.”

“That was—!! Because, Shion-tan is famous, and cool, and I’ve always been a fan of Shion-tan… so, I just couldn’t refuse.”

No, Hachiyama is indeed famous, so I get that. And while it’s true that Hachiyama is a scum and trash guy for going after her knowing she had a boyfriend and for putting hands on a minor, when I was getting beaten and injured, you enthusiastically defended Hachiyama, and after that, you left me injured—that was a choice you yourself made. Also, you sometimes let it slip calling Hachiyama Shion-tan, Himeko…

“Leaving aside that Hachiyama being a scum who goes after someone knowing she has a boyfriend, I can’t be with someone who leaves the person they say they like the most and treasure the most beaten and injured to go do naughty things; there’s no way I could date someone like that.”

“Th-that was just because things got a little weird! It’s not like that anymore!”

Yeah, Hachiyama-san is currently in the midst of a huge backlash, right? You got scared of getting burned yourself, so you came running here, I get it! No, even so, don’t come over here?

“Well, whatever. Anyway, let’s break up. Or rather, please break up with me, I beg you. I don’t want to hate you any more than this.”

“U, uuu, uuuuuu, waaaaah! Why?! I just… wanted to be happy…”

Himeko covered her face and started crying. She was sobbing while saying something like the death cry of a character who couldn’t escape from the world in the mirror and was fading away. Somehow… the one who wants to cry is me, I thought with a sigh as I looked at my left hand fixed in the cast.