That doesn’t sound like you. I thought you’re the kind of guy who was calm and not interested in your surroundings, so why are you so upset?”

Despite being grabbed by the chest, Haruki didn’t seem to be frightened at all.

Of course, Haruki hadn’t just spent a year in the same class as Yō for nothing.

Haruki knew that he wasn’t the kind of man who would be so rash as to resort to violence here.

However, this leeway irritated Yō.

Originally, Yō had summoned Haruki to this place with the intention of asking him to properly face Marin head on.

He was angry with Haruki for using Kasumi to hurt Marin and trying to trap her in this farce, but he thought it would be best if Haruki faced Marin head on to get some kind of closure and resolve the issue peacefully.

Since Haruki chose to keep Marin away from him, it is unlikely that her love will be fulfilled.

But even if she was rejected again and hurt, she could move on this time.

Yō had already noticed it in the way Marin treated Kasumi.

He knew that Marin was aware of the feelings that Kasumi had for him.

He fears that this may have created some smoldering feelings in Marin.

Even if that wasn’t the case, she would be hurt badly when Marin eventually found out about this farce.

Before that happened, Yō wanted Haruki to face Marin.

But instead of feeling bad for Marin, Haruki replied that her presence was annoying.

He also made fun of the seriousness of the conversation, which made Yō lose his temper.

“You’ve been around her for over ten years and you really think she’s annoying!?”

“I thought she was cute at first. But day by day, her presence became more and more annoying. I wanted to live a peaceful life, and she was a nuisance to me.”

Hearing these words, Yō’s former self momentarily overlapped with Haruki’s words: “She became an annoyance day by day.”

He, too, became more and more disgusted by Kasumi’s presence every day.

Even though the form of the feelings are different, what kind of result will be brought about by the accumulation of feelings― it is a farewell to the source.

And Yō understood.

He understood why he had faced Kasumi head-on and pushed her away, but Haruki had pushed Marin away in such a roundabout way.

It’s because Haruki subconsciously understands that Marin is not at fault, and that’s why he ran away without being able to express his feelings to her.

“That doesn’t mean―!”

“And the same goes for Kasumi. She made me look even worse. That’s why I gave her a stupid push. I gave her a love magazine I found randomly.”

Kasumi wanted to attract Yō’s attention.

Then, in order to keep Marin out of her way, she colluded with Haruki, who told her that if she wanted to attract Yō’s attention, she needed to pretend that she was seriously interested in another man.

But while that might have worked for a normal boy, it would have had the opposite effect on Yō, who was not interested in other people.

Without realizing it, Kasumi took Haruki’s words at face value, and ended up taking a detour of more than a year.

For a moment, Yō was almost shaken by Haruki’s words, but when he heard Haruki’s words about Kasumi, he became angry again.

“Don’t you feel guilty for playing with Akimi’s and Nemoto’s feelings…!?”

“Of course not. It was very amusing to see the tormentors of my life in such agony. Especially the look on Kasumi’s face when she heard the rumor that you and Marin had started dating was a masterpiece. I wanted to take a picture of it.”

“Kinoshita…!”

“Haha, don’t be so mad. You’re having a hard time too, right? You’ve been dragged around by Kasumi, who is concerned about what you’re up to, and she’s jealous and looks at me like she could kill me.―Really, what a pain in the *ss.”

Haruki is laughing all the way down.

He clearly looks like he’s going crazy.

(I see, so it wasn’t just Kasumi who was broken…)

Finally, Yō understood why Haruki was acting strangely.

He had already given his answer in the first place, but Yō, whose head was already bleeding at the time, had not paid attention to it.

So once again, Yō took a deep breath to try to calm down in order to make this matter go away.

Then, he decided to ask him to confirm the facts―.

“What the hell happened to you in the past―”

“―Please stop!”

This was interrupted by the appearance of an unexpected person.

“Akimi, why are you here…?”

Yō can not hide his agitation at Marin’s sudden appearance.

He knew that Marin would be very hurt if she heard this story.

This is the reason why Yō had asked Kasumi to buy him some time before Haruki and him went to the roof.

However, Yō still didn’t understand what was going on with Marin.

He had thought that if he wasn’t in the classroom, she would give up and leave, but Marin had then gone out to look for him.

The reason was that Kasumi’s stalling didn’t add up.

And before that, Kasumi was talking to Haruki, and he was the only one who left the classroom before her.

This made Marin think that Yō was trying to get in touch with Haruki, so she went out to look for him.

It was just a coincidence that she went to the rooftop first.

She wondered if Yō would try to talk to him on the rooftop, where she could see the view, and that was the only reason.

But her hunch was right on the money, and here he is.

“What are you doing! Please remove your hands from Haru-kun!”

Marin shouted loudly as she tried to get Yō to let go of his hand.

When he saw Marin’s face, Yō gulped.

“You, listen to me…”

Marin was desperately trying to get Yō to let go of his hand, and many tears were streaming from both of her eyes.

Yō is not so stupid as to not understand what it means.

“…Haru-kun, I’m sorry…”

When Yō let go of his hand, Marin turned her back to Yō and bowed to Haruki.

She then looked up and smiled through her tears.

“I’ve been hurting you, haven’t I? I’m really sorry. But please don’t worry. I won’t come near Haru-kun anymore.”