Hikigaya stood up.
He stood by his seat, hands in his pockets, his expression very calm.
"Those rumors—I spread them myself."
The air in the classroom seed to freeze.
Hiro stared at him, her fingers clenching tight.
"What did you say?"
"I said, those rumors were my doing," Hikigaya repeated. "I registered the account, I made the posts—all so everyone would know that I have two beautiful girls chasing after ."
He stepped out from his seat and walked forward, step by step, not looking at Emma or Saeki as he passed them.
He walked all the way to the podium and stood beside Hiro.
Then he turned around to face everyone in the classroom.
"At first, I just thought it would be fun.
Saeki and Sakuraba—two beautiful girls both getting close to . One transferred schools just to be here, and the other clings to and follows every day. Don't you think that's pretty interesting?"
Soone whispered, "What's so interesting about that..."
The corners of Hikigaya's mouth pulled into an arc.
"I just wanted you all to know that I, Hikigaya Hachiman, am not so transparent nobody. I have two pretty girls revolving around .
So I made the first post, intentionally ntioning the Cafe Leblanc incident, wanting students from our school to see with them.
Post after post, until everyone started talking.
The effect was quite good."
Dead silence filled the room.
"Weren't you all guessing? Weren't you all spreading it?" Hikigaya swept his gaze across the room.
"I wanted you to spread it; the more fierce the rumors, the better.
Because,"
He paused.
"It felt great.
Having two girls fighting over , being the talk of the whole school... things like that, in the past, I wouldn't have even dared to dream of them."
He gave a small laugh.
It was a hideous smile.
No one spoke.
Only the wind from outside blew in, making the curtains sway gently.
"You're lying."
The voice was icy.
Hiro stared straight at Hikigaya with her blood-red eyes.
"You are lying."
"Where is your proof?"
Hiro opened her mouth, but nothing ca out.
All those "details only the person involved would know"—he knew all of them. The criteria for the suspect she had listed earlier—he fit them perfectly.
Now that the "culprit" had proactively confessed their "motive," she had no evidence left.
Hikigaya turned around, reached into his pocket, took out a piece of paper, and placed it on the podium.
A withdrawal application.
"Starting today, I am no longer a student of this school."
Then he turned and walked toward the door.
Hiro hurried to the door, blocking his path.
"You're crazy," she lowered her voice. "Do you know what you're doing?
Why are you still protecting her!"
Hikigaya didn't answer.
He sidestepped her, pushed the door open, and walked out.
The sound of his footsteps gradually faded down the hallway.
Saeki, having just regained her senses, rushed out in a hurry to chase after Hikigaya.
Sakuraba Ema sat there, motionless.
Inside those pink eyes, sothing had shattered.
The classroom descended into complete chaos.
Everyone was discussing the drama that had just unfolded. Miura sat back in her seat with a complex expression; Tobe stood in the back row, mouth agape, not knowing what to say.
Hiro looked down at the dozen or so papers on the podium, neatly arranged.
Every single one of them proved she was right.
The evidence she brought out was real. The truth she exposed was real.
The proof should have been ironclad; the truth should have been revealed.
Hiro gathered the papers one by one, put them back into the envelope, and turned to leave the classroom.
The hallway was quiet; the other classes had already emptied out.
Hiro stopped and stood in the middle of the hallway.
She heard a sound from behind her.
Hiro turned her head. Sakuraba Ema was standing there.
"Hiro, accompany sowhere." Her voice was very soft.
Hiro didn't move.
"Where?"
Emma didn't answer.
She walked past her toward the stairs.
Hiro stood still, watching her back.
That pink figure looked very faint in the sunset, as if she were about to lt into it.
Hiro followed her.
-
-
-
Emma pushed open the door.
The wind gusted in—it was strong.
The rooftop.
Emma walked to the railing and stopped, her back to Hiro.
Hiro stood at the doorway, not venturing forward.
The wind blew between them, bringing the slight chill of early spring.
Emma spoke.
"Why did you do this? Why did you make him leave?"
Her voice began to tremble.
"Hiro, you have everything—grades, ability, the affection of everyone.
But I have nothing. I only had him..."
Hiro looked at her.
Those blood-red eyes were very calm.
"So that gives you the right to lie to him?
You get to script and direct those rumors just so he'd pity you, just to make him unable to leave you?"
"I didn't!"
Hiro's brow furrowed.
"What?"
"...I didn't post those rumors."
Hiro stared at her.
"That's impossible. Only you fit the timing and the details..."
"I know."
Emma interrupted her.
"I know the evidence points to , but I truly did not do it."
"Then why didn't you explain? Why didn't you speak up in the classroom just now?"
Emma looked at her.
"Because explaining would have been useless. The evidence was there, and you all had already made up your minds. No matter what I said, no one would believe .
And Hikigaya-kun is gone too..."
Hiro froze.
"Hiro."
Emma called her na.
"The matter with Yuki—I rember now.
That day, I did nothing. I watched her jump.
Later, I started to forget. I forgot her face, her voice, her na... until eventually, only one image remained.
A person stood there, looking at with those dead fish eyes, and pulled out from the crowd.
That person was Hikigaya-kun.
But that wasn't real. I made it up."
She lowered her head.
"I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand being a coward, couldn't stand the fact that I did nothing. So I invented a person—invented a hero to save the 'self' that was trapped on that rooftop.
I told that lie for two years; I even ca to believe it myself."
The wind blew, fluttering her hair.
"I thought that as long as I followed him, as long as I kept him from leaving , I could keep lying to myself.
But then you ca.
You dug up the truth. You laid those screenshots out on the podium one by one. You wanted everyone to know that Sakuraba Ema is a liar.
Hiro, you were right."
Emma's voice was very calm.
"I am a bad girl.
I always have been."
She looked up, facing Hiro.
"You should go. I want to be alone for a while."
Hiro looked at her.
There were no more tears in those pink eyes.
Hiro turned, pushed the door, and left.
When she reached the first floor, she stopped, rembering what Emma had just said.
"And Hikigaya-kun is gone too."
Hiro's breath hitched for an instant. She turned, intending to head back up.
And then she heard it.
A dull thud.
She turned her head.
There was a person lying there.
Pink hair was spread out.
Beneath her, red blood was spreading, symtrical on both sides—like wings.
Hiro's eyes went wide, her breathing beca rapid, and her vision began to darken.
She ran toward her.
Halfway there, she stopped.
Because she could already see clearly.
That face, those pink eyes—open, staring at the sky.
Hiro's knees gave out.
She knelt on the ground.
'No.
Not like this...
No!'
Sothing was thumping violently in her chest.
Sothing was cracking deep inside her body, spreading outward from the position of her heart.
And then she felt it—an itch at the back of her head.
Like sothing was pushing its way out; she didn't have ti to figure out what it was.
Her face began to itch too; sothing was wriggling beneath the skin, as if trying to tear an opening.
Hiro looked down at her hands.
Her fingers were trembling, as if sothing were burrowing out from within the bone.
Her vision grew redder and redder.
The world around her began to distort; the light of the sunset turned into a mass of chaos.
Only the person lying on the ground remained.
Those open eyes. Those pink eyes.
Still staring at her.
Hiro's hands shook violently as she fumbled the fountain pen out of her pocket.
The cap was pulled off, revealing the sharp nib.
She gripped the pen, aid it at her own neck.
She plunged it in.
It hurt.
Warm liquid gushed out, and her vision began to blur.
It started to grow dark.
And then—
A white light flashed.
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