C21

Chapter 21: That Day's After-School — Tatsuya Sugisawa Side

After-school soccer club.

The locker room echoed with the usual voices of the club members.

"I heard there's a lot of running in today's practice."

"You've gotta be kidding me..."

Amidst such chatter, Tatsuya Sugisawa was quietly changing into his practice gear, but the preparations he usually finished unconsciously were taking an unusually long time today.

Floating in his head were Reo Tachibana and Kokona Suzumura. And—Renya Kujo.

He never expected it to turn out like that...

"...Sugisawa?"

Hearing his name called, Sugisawa's hands halted—then, slowly raising his face, Kujo was right in front of him.

"You've been spacing out for a while now, you okay?"

"......Yeah. Whatever."

He replied shortly.

Kujo tilted his head slightly, but immediately smiled his usual smile.

"Is that so? Well, I'm heading ahead then."

"Yeah."

With those words, Kujo left the locker room first.

Watching that back silently, what reflected in Sugisawa's eyes was Kujo's usual appearance: bright, imposing, and looking as though he hadn't a single care in the world.

(...Why is he so unfazed?)

Right after doing something like that... as if nothing had happened at all.

Sugisawa dropped his gaze.

Stepping out onto the ground, the members had already gathered, kicking balls around and lightly moving their bodies while waiting for practice to begin. It was the same familiar sight as always.

"Gather!"

At the shout, everyone lined up, and the usual practice began—even though he should have been right there in the circle, Sugisawa felt as though he had been left behind.

Starting his stretches, extending his limbs, Sugisawa's head couldn't shake off what had just happened in the classroom.

To begin with, he hadn't thought it would turn out like this from the start.

A fake confession.

When he first heard about it, he honestly wasn't on board.

He thought it was a stupid game.

A game just to trick someone, watch their reaction, and amuse oneself with it.

He didn't think there was anything entertaining about that.

Yet, seeing Takamiya and the others getting hyped up over it right there, he figured it wasn't worth the trouble of deliberately throwing cold water on the mood.

In the end, without opposing or stopping it, he simply went along with the surrounding atmosphere—but everything past that point differed from what he had anticipated.

The fake confession he first imagined was much simpler.

You confess, the person is surprised, and at the end you tell them, "Actually, it was a joke," and it wraps up. He figured it was just that kind of minor affair.

Of course, there was the possibility of trouble, and it might hurt the other person—still, if it was wrapped up in a short time, he figured it wouldn't turn into a major issue.

However, what he genuinely thought was dangerous came after that.

When Takamiya suggested not just doing a fake confession, but actually extending it to the point of genuinely dating.

Why bother creating a time period? Confess, and reveal it was a joke right on the spot. If it ends there, that's fine.

Even so...

What was the point of pretending to date like a real couple? He couldn't understand it.

Kokona Suzumura is a well-known beautiful girl at school. An existence everyone knows; naturally, if Suzumura and Tachibana are hanging out together, it draws surrounding gazes.

In the classroom, in the hallway, after school—there were bound to be people watching the two of them. The probability of it turning into a rumor was high.

What do you do if the other person takes it seriously?

What happens if this gets made into an issue and reported to the school?

If it were just a fake confession, they could still wrap it up amongst themselves. But once you create a dating period, the possibility arises that it won't just stay a problem amongst yourselves.

He couldn't see the point in blowing the story up to that extent.

Had Takamiya thought things through that far?

...Even so, if he objected here, the mood would sour. While he was hesitating over that, in the end, he couldn't say a single word.

And... before he knew it, he too had chimed in with words of agreement to match those around him.

◇

Finishing their stretches, the members moved on to their respective drills.

He stepped into the circle as usual and moved his body. Returning passes, executing the routine practice without needing conscious thought, his body moved just like always.

Yet only his head remained trapped back in that classroom.

At the edge of his vision, Kujo was shouting instructions to his peers with a loud voice, just like always.

"Nice!"

"Switch!"

He immediately called out to a junior who made a mistake, naturally lifting the spirits of those around him.

It was the usual Kujo.

The center of the soccer club, an existence relied upon by everyone.

From outside the ground, cheers from the girls could also be heard.

"Kujo-kun, do your best today too!"

Hearing those voices, Sugisawa thought:

This guy doesn't change no matter where he is.

Popular at school, the ace of the club, everyone trusts Kujo.

But I saw it. What Kujo did in the classroom just now...

◇

Practice progressed as usual.

Connecting passes, moving to the rhythm of his teammates' voices. It was a drill he'd repeated countless times, so his body moved out of habit even without conscious awareness.

Yet inside his head, he still couldn't leave that classroom.

Ahead of his gaze, Kujo was raising his voice... encouraging his teammates, smiling just like always. As if nothing had happened at all.

And then, he remembered again.

In the classroom just now, with the classmates still remaining.

Kujo had exposed the fake confession in a manner akin to a public execution.

The reason... he could guess roughly.

Spending time close to him, you couldn't help but notice Kujo held feelings for Suzumura.

Seeing Tachibana and Suzumura looking like they were in a good mood, he got irritated.

He wrapped it in pretty words, but that was probably the gist of it.

Even so... that didn't make it okay to do something like that.

Originally, it was supposed to end with just the two of them.

Suzumura would call Tachibana out and tell him it was a lie there. That's how it was scheduled to end. If so, it would have wrapped up as a brief relationship.

And yet... Kujo exposed it in front of the entire class.

The moment he did, even the classmates who happened to be present in that room became involved parties.

What if Tachibana makes an issue out of this?

What if it reaches the school side?

"I didn't know" won't cut it anymore.

And I...

am a person involved in this fake confession.

There was no way people would think he—someone who always hung around Kujo and the others—had nothing to do with it.

Before he knew it, his turn in the shooting drill was approaching.

He looked at Kujo.

Seeing Kujo receiving cheers from those around him as usual with an unbothered face stirred up irritation.

(Kujo...)

Even though it was all for your own sake.

(Don't drag me into your pathetic jealousy!!!)

The shot he swung through lacked control, soaring far wide of the goal frame, as if carrying his anger.

"Hey, Sugisawa! Where the hell are you kicking?!"

Laughter erupted from the club members.

"......My bad."

Sugisawa raised a hand lightly and headed off to retrieve the stray ball.

Even during that time, the scene from the classroom wouldn't leave his head.

When Tachibana walked out of the classroom back then, Kujo bowed his head.

Toward the classmates who remained in the room.

Kujo begged everyone not to speak a word about what happened today.

He probably thought things were settled with that. He explained to everyone in the class, bowed his head, and swore them to secrecy. So it was over—but it wasn't a problem you could brush off that easily.

Kujo was forgetting the most important thing.

The people he needed to look at weren't just the classmates in that room.

The most important one was Tachibana.

He had been swept up in the momentum of being framed as the victim of a prank, but thinking calmly, anyone could figure it out.

The side that pulled off the fake confession was us.

The true victim who got hurt was Reo Tachibana.

If Tachibana takes some kind of action.

Kujo bowing his head to the class, swearing them to secrecy—all of it becomes completely meaningless.

And when that time comes—the classmates who were in that room will have to think once more.

What were they watching back then?

Who was the one genuinely at fault?

Once people who had merely drifted along with the room's atmosphere realize they too are getting dragged in as involved parties, the story changes.

Even the people who watched in silence, once it starts affecting them personally, will try to figure out who bears the responsibility and what caused it.

And rather than having their hidden involvement surface as an issue later on, some might choose to speak up themselves...

Tomorrow.

If Tachibana comes to school as usual and spends his time quietly in the corner of the classroom just like before, then fine.

In that case, this story ends there.

But.........

If Tachibana skips school.

If he reports today's events to the school.

At that time—

I'll have to figure out how to save my own skin, too.

Thanks to all of you, we’ve reached a total of 1 million PV!

Thank you so much for reading this far!

I’ve also updated my recent notes regarding reaching 1 million PV. This time, I’ve posted an illustration of Kokona & Kaho.

Please feel free to check it out if you'd like!