CH 58

“…Huh?”

My mind went blank for a moment.

I could not understand what Saijo-senpai was saying.

I could understand the word-for-word meaning of the words, but when they became sentences, I couldn’t sort them out in my brain.

I managed to pull the question out of my head, starting with the barely sputtered murmur of “Why?”

“Saijo-senpai is… that is to say, you are also dating another woman apart from Karen, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Do you know what you’re talking about? You’re cheating on Karen…”

My head gets hot.

I just couldn’t understand why it was happening.

I stared at him, and Saijo-senpai quietly stared back at me.

We stared at each other for a few seconds.

I regained some of my composure during that time.

Saijo-senpai, as if sensitively seeing through my change, opened his mouth.

“To be honest, I had intended not to let you guys know about this. It was unexpected that anyone other than Aizawa-san knew about it.”

“It sounds as if you were expecting that Karen would find out.”

“That’s right. That’s what I was aiming for. The reason being that I’m dating a different woman than Aizawa-san – Nanase.”

Saijo-senpai’s cheating partner’s name doesn’t matter.

There are even more shocking facts.

“You mean Saijo-senpai was cheating on Karen from the beginning so that she would know about the affair?”

“Yes.”

“For what purpose?”

When I asked, Saijo-senpai raised his eyebrows for a moment.

However, as soon as he returned to his usual expression, he began to speak as if he was squeezing it out.

“I wanted her to understand how I felt… Or to put it another way, I wanted her to see me.”

Saijou-senpai declared with a voice that sounded like he was explaining the reason for his actions.

However, listening to the story so far doesn’t come to mind.

Saijo-senpai and Karen are dating.

You shouldn’t need to do that.

When I was confused, Saijou-senpai blatantly frowned.

After that, his whole body shuddered and he turned to me with questioning eyes.

“You don’t understand, you mean you don’t understand. You don’t understand why I did this?”

“……Saijou-senpai and Karen both love each other and are dating, don’t they? In that case, there’s no reason for Saijou-senpai to imitate cheating and want her to look at you.”

“Don’t… don’t play around!”

“……!”

He was so close to me that he suddenly grabbed me by the collar.

Don’t fuck with me, he shouted.

“You… you, who is being favored by her, don’t understand anything, that’s unreasonable…”

“Her favor…”

“Oh yeah! Aizawa-san likes you! That’s why I’m doing this to attract her attention…”

“What about me…?”

I was puzzled by the shocking fact being thrust at me while I was being grabbed by the collar.

I tried to tell Saijo-senpai that it couldn’t be true, but I kept my mouth shut in the face of his anger.

Saijo-senpai’s voice was somewhat clinging to me as he continued to speak to me.

“Ever since I started dating her, every time she opened her mouth she talked about you. At first I thought it was because you were childhood friends, but one day I realized… She likes you.”

“… But if that’s the case, there’s no way Karen would go out with Saijo-senpai…”

I don’t believe that the look on her face when she told me that she was going out with Saijo-senpai that day on the riverbed was a lie.

Yes, it was. That’s why I–.

Saijo-senpai suddenly loosened his hand and I was released.

Saijo-senpai squeezed his hand that had lost something to hold, and spat out in agony.

“I guess she wasn’t aware of that either… But I suspected you might try to go out with Aizawa… That’s why I exchanged contact information with you on that day of the first visit. To get to know you.”

“…………”

“And I knew right away that you had no intention of doing so. I was going to wait until Aizawa-san was looking at me… but no matter how long it took, you were still inside of Aizawa-san.”

I choked on my words at the anguish in his voice.

What words should I say? What should I say back? Can I say anything back?

I could not say back that Karen could not possibly like me, Saijo-senpai’s words had an uncanny persuasiveness.

So, I barely managed to squeeze out a few words about Saijo-senpai’s behavior.

“… So you cheat on Karen to get her to look at you?”

“Oh… It can’t be helped, can it? Who wouldn’t?”

He asked me to agree with him.

Assuming that everything Saijo-senpai told me was true, I finally understood the reason for his behavior.

However, I could not agree.

“Still, you shouldn’t have cheated on her. You should have talked it over with Karen. And yet–“

“You, you know what!”

“!”

“You have no idea how I feel when I hear the person I love talking happily and happily and lovingly about another man!”

“——–“

I heard something snap in my brain.

It was a sound I had never heard in my life.

When I came to, my hand was holding Saijo-senpai’s chest.

Saijo-senpai’s face was filled with astonishment.

I stared up at his face from the front, and I hit him with this urge that welled up in my heart.

“I know, I know too! Still, I supported you! I just want the person I love to be with the person she loves and have a smile on her face…! And yet, this is…!”

As I screamed, my anger was painted over by sadness.

Something went wrong. Something has crossed my path. I failed to communicate something.

My heart fades rapidly.

I turned my back on Saijo-senpai, who was still dumbfounded, and told him.

I managed to tie up my body, which was trying to wander away, and left him saying with my back to him.

“Please tell… Karen, at least from your own mouth.”