C41

Chapter 41: For Survival — Tatsuya Sugisawa's Side

The questionnaire had begun.

The classroom remained tense with a heavy, oppressive air, and the students kept their gazes fixed on the single sheet of paper placed on their desks. Before long, the sound of pen tips scratching against paper could be heard from here and there.

Amidst all this, Tatsuya Sugisawa sat alone, staring at his questionnaire paper without moving. Even as pens gradually began to move around him, he made no move to pick his own pen up.

◇

Staring at the questionnaire, I couldn't move for a while.

It wasn't that I didn't know what to write. Rather, precisely because I knew what I would end up writing, I couldn't bring myself to easily move my pen.

I pulled my gaze away from the questionnaire once. And then, I recalled this morning's classroom.

The moment I opened the classroom door, I felt an odd commotion. There were more voices than usual. However, it wasn't just noisy. Mixed into the laughter echoing all the way out into the hallway were the voices of guys you'd practically never see talking to each other under normal circumstances.

Over there, someone who should have been in a completely different group was talking with someone else, and right here, a guy who always hung out with the same fixed crew was laughing with an entirely unfamiliar partner.

What is this? I picked up on that sense of incongruity as I entered the classroom without stopping. The number of people hadn't increased. Yet, the entire classroom felt closer than usual. Rather than everyone gathering around a single central figure, it looked as though each person was moving entirely as they pleased.

That was when it suddenly hit me. Normally, at this hour, there was one spot where people gathered the most. Naturally, my gaze turned toward it.

Kujo's spot. Normally, several people would be clustered around Kujo, and that area would be noisy enough to be the loudest. Today, no one was there.

A short distance away from Kujo, a different bunch of people were talking happily. The moment I saw that, I realized it. Kujo is being iced out.

As I walked past Kujo's vicinity, I just casually exchanged a brief greeting, said nothing more, and headed straight to my desk. When I sat down and placed my bag at my feet, a guy I almost never spoke to talked to me with a bizarrely bright tone. Seeming concerned that I had missed Thursday and Friday, he asked if my health was okay.

As I answered normally, I observed his demeanor for a bit. Usually, he'd never speak to me out of nowhere like this. Moreover, he wasn't the type of person to talk in such an uncharacteristically bright tone either.

After talking with him for a bit, I cast my eyes around my surroundings once more. Even though everyone was in places they usually weren't, not a single person thought it looked unnatural. Seeing that, I felt an eerie sensation—as if, while I was resting at home, it had stopped being the classroom I knew.

What is this weird sense of unity...?

...But this incongruity hadn't suddenly been born this morning. Even as early as last Tuesday, there had been tiny changes. The trigger had been Tachibana taking a day off. I understood what that meant.

Yesterday's events weren't over yet. Even so, no one in the classroom made a big fuss. There was just an atmosphere that sort of avoided yesterday's topic, pretending not to see it.

While that subtle air still lingered, Takamiya opened his mouth without a shred of caution. Remembering that Tachibana was absent, he said he'd planned to apologize to him today—he spoke of it without hesitation, in a voice loud enough for those around him to hear.

The moment I heard that, I thought: ...Is this guy an idiot?

So far, the only people confirmed and exposed as being involved in the fake confession were Kujo, Suzumura, and Kano, who had filmed the video. Yet Takamiya was blabbing without a single thought. Takamiya... that guy's dangerous. He doesn't think at all. He's way too carefree. If someone asks him, he'll probably spill everything. Everything about the fake confession members too. The type of person who, if told to keep a secret, goes around telling people he was told to keep a secret.

...We're checkmated. Thinking such things, I could only pray that Tachibana would come to school tomorrow. If he did, things might pass by without anything happening. For me, that was the best-case scenario.

Except—my wish in vain, Tachibana didn't come to school the next day either. And the classroom's atmosphere had shifted slightly. I could tell that the class bunch was starting to become conscious of Tachibana's presence. And changes were beginning to show among the fake confession members as well.

Suzumura-san had started avoiding Kujo. Frankly, I thought that was only natural. Suzumura-san's understanding was that the two of them would reveal the prank together at the very end. That's why she must have agreed to that fake confession. If she had known it would be exposed in front of the whole class, she would never have agreed to it from the start.

And yet Kujo, after driving Suzumura-san into a corner himself, put on a face like a righteous hero at the end. As if any woman's going to fall for you after that. Are you an idiot?

Well... whatever about that. The real problem was that Kujo didn't understand the atmosphere of Wednesday's classroom. Something was wriggling inside that classroom... I had the distinct sensation that the water level was rising quietly, and whatever had been held down was on the verge of overflowing.

Staying here like this is bad. I thought that. Right now, it was somehow being dammed up because Kujo had sworn everyone to secrecy. But what would happen if that dam burst? What if Tachibana didn't come to school tomorrow either? What if he stayed home the day after that too...?

Even the bystanders in the class who had stayed quiet up until now would start changing their minds. Someone might even go snitch to a teacher. And if nobody reported it to the school—the spearhead would point straight at Kujo and his group.

I didn't think Kujo, who was completely oblivious to the classroom's mood, could suppress that muddy torrent. If that happened, I'd get dragged into it too. I refuse to be made the class scapegoat. That's why I decided to stay home from school.

◇

Having decided to stay home from school, I laid the groundwork starting that night. I returned to my room earlier than usual and put on an act of seeming slightly unwell. I casually mentioned it to my parents as well. I didn't need any exaggerated lies.

The next morning, acting as though my condition hadn't recovered yet, I told my parents, "I'm staying home today." Thanks to the groundwork laid since last night, the excuse went through without any particular suspicion.

However, thinking that taking a day off school would let me escape scot-free—that was too naive. I probably wouldn't get out of this unscarred. Depending on Tachibana, I needed to act while assuming the worst-case scenario.

If so, there was only one action to take. Get ahead of it and apologize. However, there was one massive problem here. I didn't have Tachibana's contact info.

In the first place, did that guy even exchange contact details with anyone? I didn't recall ever seeing him hanging out with the rest of the class. If there was any possibility, it would be Suzumura-san, whom he had "dated" even if it was a fake.

I hesitated whether to ask Suzumura-san, but decided against it, sensing it was a potential landmine. Instead, I checked which class Tachibana had been in during his first year the day before, and decided to approach it from that angle.

By the previous day, I had already looked up what class Tachibana was in during his first year. Chatting casually with a soccer club guy who had been in the same class as Tachibana in their first year—saying something like, "I'm feeling a bit under the weather today"—I steered the topic toward their freshman year and asked, "By the way, do you know who Tachibana used to hang out with back in the first year?"

The reply I got was, "I've never once seen that guy hanging out with anyone."

What is wrong with that guy? When he was pretending to date Suzumura-san, he used to talk with such a big smile... Does Suzumura-san's beauty really have the power to change a person that much, regardless of whether they have a communication disorder?

If so... Tachibana's mental damage must be immeasurable. I once again keenly realized the gravity of the situation.

After that, I tried various means to investigate, but all I found out was that Tachibana was a smart guy. Conclusion: Tachibana had way too many mysteries. ...Is that guy really a high school student? Could he be some kind of national agent or something? Thinking about such things, the day passed by.

Naturally, I stayed home from school the next day as well. Only this time, starting from the previous night, I projected an atmosphere of brooding over something. This was to make my parents think, "My son is agonizing over something," for any future developments. Play whatever cards you can.

However, as for Tachibana's contact info, I had already exhausted all possible options by the previous day. Therefore, there was nothing left for me to do. With time on my hands, I considered asking Suzumura-san for Tachibana's contact details, but held back, feeling like it was a trap.

I wonder what the classroom is like right now...*
Did Tachibana come to school?*
Should I ask someone in the class?*
Aiming around lunch break, I casually messaged the least problematic-looking guy on LIME: "Is anyone besides me absent?" After a while, a blunt reply came back: "Tachibana."

I realized it: the dam had broken. When it comes to this, it's the final resort. The surest move is for me to confess to the school, but... If I do it before anyone else reports it to the school, it'll have an effect. In that case, Kujo won't escape unscathed. He'll lose his current standing and plummet to the very bottom of the caste.

But... what if Tachibana comes to school on Monday as if nothing happened? Kujo's temporarily lost trust will probably return over time. In that case, I can just suck up to Kujo and lift him back up. He's worth at least that much effort. If that happens, Kujo's status in the soccer club won't change either. As long as Kujo remains popular, the benefits of staying by his side are huge.

...Should I talk to a teacher and look like a remorseful guy? Or should I do nothing and wait for Tachibana to come back? (If the former, I lose Kujo. If the latter... things might go back to normal, as if nothing happened.)

After mulling over various options, I decided to wait and see a little longer. However, I'd still play whatever cards were available. Even over the weekend, I acted as though I was troubled by something, eating very little. From my parents' perspective, I was entirely a son troubled by something happening at school.

◇

I dropped my gaze back to the questionnaire paper. I didn't know how much the school had grasped. Even so, the fact that the fake confession had been exposed was certain. And my name would likely leak out quickly through Takamiya or someone like that.

If so, hiding it was a foolish strategy. Here, I'll write the honest truth. Not just writing the truth, though. I'd color it carefully to suit myself.

I hadn't actively participated from the start. So, I tried to stop them, but couldn't go against Kujo and the group—I would write that part while skillfully layering on just enough color so it wouldn't seem excessive.

And the final question. ⑦ If there is anything else you would like to convey to the school, please write it down.

Without a single moment of hesitation, into that space—

「I want to apologize to Tachibana-kun.」

I wrote it down firmly.