Volume 2 - CH 20

After school the day after Sakuya-san asked me for a favor.

I and Kanade were following behind Hazuki as she left for school, trying not to be noticed.

“Ahhhh, I wish this was a date or something.”

“Well, it can’t be helped. In return, let’s go on a date with each other after the exams are over!”

“Eh? Are you sure? Wow, I’m getting excited! I’m going to do my best for the exam!”

“Hey, hey, calm down, it would be pointless if we get found out.”

Kanade says, “Ehehe, sorry,” and flicks her tongue out.

Damn, she’s so cute!

If Hazuki’s habits had not changed, she would have gone to cram school every day after school. And even after classes were over, she would have gone into the study room and continued to study until the cram school was over.

As expected, Hazuki went into the cram school. And she did not come out even once until the cram school was over. In the end, there was nothing suspicious about that day, and she went straight home after cram school.

I wondered if there would be any activity on the way home from cram school, but as expected, she didn’t seem to be suffering from life so blighted that she would go out to play from this time on.

“Hmmm. She was just going to her regular cram school.”

“Yeah, nothing really happened.”

“Are you going to follow her again tomorrow?”

“I guess so. I’ll follow her for the rest of the week.”

“If you’re going, I’m going too! No objections!”

“Ah, thanks.”

We ended the day without getting anything in particular.

———

Two days after following her for the first time, Hazuki acted differently after school than she had before. She was with us until she entered the cram school, but she did not go to the study room, or she came out earlier than the cram school closed.

I was a little caught off guard, and Kanade and I quickly put away our drinks and followed Hazuki.

Hazuki was headed for Hanasaki Park.

She entered the park and looked around for a bit, but then she spotted something and ran toward it. Ahead of him was a man that Kanade and I knew well and never wanted to see his face again.

That man’s name was Kouki Kitajima. He was the man who had caused Hazuki and me to part ways.

We hid in the park tree behind the house so that the two of them wouldn’t see us.

“I can’t really hear what they’re talking about…”

As I said this, Kanade dropped the backpack she was carrying and began rummaging through it. Then, she took out something that looked like a microphone from her backpack and set the cord to her phone.

Then he took out an earphone and Kanade handed one to me.

I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but when I put the earphones in my ears, I could hear their voices more clearly than before, although there was some noise.

I was stunned and looked at Kanade, who was making a smug “hmmm” face.

“For now, let’s just leave the explanation for later and listen to what the two of them are saying.”

I nodded at Kanade’s suggestion and focused on their conversation.

———

“It’s unusual for you to want to meet me in the park. What’s the matter?”

“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had a good talk with you in the park.”

“Oh, I see. It’s nice to talk outside like this once in a while.”

“Thanks.”

I thought she wanted to talk to him, but Hazuki suddenly stopped talking. Kouki also became suspicious and asked, “What’s wrong?” he asked. Time passed in a heavy atmosphere, and finally, Hazuki opened his heavy mouth.

“I wonder if Kouki loves me?”

“A, Ah, I love you the same as ever, Hazuki.”

“Phew, I’m glad. Since I broke up with Yuuri, you are all I have left. At that time, Yuuri was my priority, but I decided to put you first. Now I love you too.”

“…Well, I’m glad. Thank you.”

Kouki’s upset can be seen in his reply. It seems that he is unable to gauge Hazuki’s intentions as to why she suddenly told him such a thing. And again Hazuki closed his mouth.

“Hazuki, what’s going on all of a sudden?”

“…You know. I’m carrying your baby in my belly right now.”

“Huh?”

Kouki wasn’t the only one surprised by Hazuki’s words; I was surprised too, of course. I glanced at Kanade with a sideways glance and saw that she, too, looked quite surprised and was holding her mouth with her hand.

“Hey, you said you love me. So you’ll marry me and we can have a baby together, right?”

“Hey, hey, hey, hey. You need to calm down a little bit. Do you think we’re going to be happy if we have a baby? We’re still in high school.”

“We’ll be out of high school by the time the baby is born, and if we both work, we can manage to live on our own.”

“No, we can’t. Hazuki, you have to get rid of the baby. This is not a request. You must do it.”

“I don’t want to. I want to have this baby. I was so happy to have a child with you. I had a lot of worries before I told Kouki that we were going to have a baby. Even so, I wanted to marry you and have a child with you. So please.”

“No, I can’t do that. You must absolutely abort. You understand, Hazuki?”

“No, I don’t want to do that…”

Hazuki broke down in tears.

Without saying a kind word to her, Kouki got up and walked out of the park.

———

We’re walking out of the park and toward Kanade’s house so Hazuki doesn’t find out.

“That was a little too shocking…”

“Yeah, but I don’t think she was on birth control when she was doing it in my room, so I’m surprised she hasn’t gotten pregnant before.”

“Yeah, that’s true…”

Neither of us opened our mouths after that, and we just kept walking in silence. We arrived at Kanade’s house. I said, “Well then” and was about to leave, but Kanade stopped me.

“Hey, do you think we could get Hazuki to marry him?”

I did not expect such words from Kanade. I was surprised and asked, “Why?” and started talking in a small voice.

“Hazuki said she had been troubled for a long time. She also said that she came to love Kouki-kun…”

I listened intently so as not to miss any of Kanade’s words.

“As a woman, I understand the feeling of wanting to give birth to the baby of someone you love. So, if Hazuki wants to have the baby, I want to let her have it. Of course, I know that’s irresponsible…”

Kanade was shedding tears as she spoke, even though it was not about her.

I wiped Kanade’s tears and then stroked her head.

While stroking Kanade’s head, I thought about her words again.

“I can’t help but be disgusted with Kouki, who only has sex without contraception and without considering the risk of getting pregnant, and then asks her to have an abortion. He needs to be brought to his senses.”

“But even if you say that, it’s still difficult for a high school student to get married, isn’t it? Even his parents won’t agree to it…”

“Well, if you think about it normally, it would be so. But maybe that’s okay. As long as we get the order right, maybe we can get them married.”

“What?”

“For the time being, I have to confirm again with Hatsuki what she wants to do. What about you, Kanade? Do you want to go with me?”

“Yes, I want to go with you.”

Thus, we decided to follow Hazuki again tomorrow and catch her on the way home from cram school to talk to her.

TLN: I get that Hazuki was wrong to betray Yuuri. But now that she’s accepted it and is moving on and taking responsibility is really great. Kouki is the real b*****d tbh.