Chapter 7: Didn’t Your Teacher Tell You Not to Speak Bad

Alone in the men’s restroom. If it had been a girl, I would have felt a little awkward about it, but being alone with Osako was a ‘No Thanks’ kind of thing.

“Ayano listened to my problems without saying a word. No other girl could be so kind.”

Even though he had finished his business, Osako’s self-talk did not seem to end.

It seemed that what he was talking about was how he and Matsuyuki became acquainted. Although the story was vague, he said that he was gently consoled by her when he was depressed after being bullied. That’s all there was to it.

“Ehh, Is that so”

I washed my hands while replying appropriately. My hands were clean.

I left the restroom and headed for the classroom. For some reason, Osako followed me. I guess it was natural, since we were classmates.

“Fufu~ I can’t believe she would go out with me like this. Ayano is a girl like an angel.”

Hey, seriously, how long is this conversation going to go on? I’m afraid I’m going to be hearing a lot of flirtatious talk at this rate.

My cheeks were almost cramped in discomfort. Osako, oblivious to this, was moving his mouth with a weak smile.

He was dating a beautiful girl who was the envy of everyone. Such self-esteem probably made Osako light-hearted.

“Ayano has a very beautiful heart. Totally different from Chinatsu.”

“Hey.”

I was going to ignore it. I was going to just reply appropriately and get through this.

But if he was going to ridicule Chinatsu-chan, that’s a different story.

“You, who are indebted to Chinatsu-chan, do you have the right to speak ill of her?”

“Eh, huh?”

From Osako’s point of view, it might seem like I was threatening him.

He didn’t believe in his childhood friend who had been with him for a long time, and on the contrary, he only spoke ill of her and deceived Chinatsu-san. To be honest, I wanted to punch him in the face for saying that about the girl I liked.

“You’ve known Chinatsu-chan since childhood, right? Then you know best what kind of girl she is. At the very least, she’s not the kind of girl you can say anything bad about because of how beautiful her heart is.”

But I didn’t hit him.

Because I know that if Osako gets hurt, Chinatsu-chan will be sad. No matter how bad he was, this guy was her precious childhood friend and her first love.

But it’s okay to at least glare at him, right?

Osako was at a loss for words. But, surprisingly, he refuted it.

“Sano-kun, you just don’t know. You just don’t know how nasty Chinatsu is.”

“I don’t care. I have no intentions to play along with your delusions.”

Perhaps it was because we stopped and stared at each other in the hallway. I felt people around me were looking at me with curiosity.

“Oh? What, what? Masa is going to fight? Let’s do it, let’s do it!”

“That sounds fun. I’ll be the referee.”

“No, no, you can’t fight in a place like this. Stop it.”

It wasn’t that it felt like it, the atmosphere really was like that.

It was troublesome that my classmates saw me. What shall I say? I mean, I don’t want to stir up interest.

“No, no… I didn’t mean to…”

And then Osako freaked out on his own. I was against violence as well.

I didn’t want any more trouble spreading. I raised my hands to show that I was harmless.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I gave you a strange misunderstanding. I was just giving you a little advice. You know, when you were in elementary school, your teacher told you not to speak ill of others, right?”

I approached Osako with a smiling face. Oi, don’t back off.

I put my hand on Osako’s shoulder. At that moment, his shoulder jolted.

“All I’m saying is, let’s be nice to girls. See, it’s like an instinct for men to protect women. Right?”

“U-un …… that’s right …….”

All right. That settles the matter.

Just five minutes before class started, the chime rang. There were no questions from the others, and everyone headed to their respective classrooms.

“I didn’t know Masa was a narcissist!

“I’m not a narcissist, I’m a feminist.”

“Rather, I have a desire to be protected by girls. …… what do you think?” A friend replied,

“”Suit yourself.””

I was careless to be seen by my classmates. It was fortunate that it was a group of friends who saw me. I was sure they wouldn’t let it become a strange rumor. You won’t …, right?

I returned to the classroom and took my seat. Chinatsu-chan, who had returned earlier, seemed to be all ready for the next class.

Finally, an awkward-looking Osako entered the classroom. No one looked at him, but Chinatsu-chan was the only one who looked at him.

“……”

Whether she sensed something or was just concerned about his dark expression, Chinatsu-chan looked sad. That expression made my heart ache.