Cats are fickle. I know, since we have one.
They rub against you sweetly, asking to be petted, then bite you outta nowhere. Probably my fault—maybe I pet them wrong. They’re affectionate to everyone, but no one can control them.
But that’s fine. They live freely, following their own will. Authenticity is their charm.
Anyway, here’s an extra afterword.
An ordinary Monday morning arrived as the clock ticked equally for all.
After the unexpected weekend work, I dragged my gloomy self to school, only to face an even worse gloom.
——DAAAAN!
A thunderous crash echoed through the classroom, silencing the usual chatter.
A hammer large enough to crush even a hornet slammed onto my desk. I blinked a few times while sitting. She loomed over me, hands on the desk, her sharp gaze piercing down. Her messy, revealing uniform and her casual, picky long hair screamed aristocratic confidence.
Normally, she’d inhabit a world apart from me. She was the class Queen Bee, Shishihara’s best friend.
“Got a sec, Komori?”
I’d never heard her say my name before, but I felt zero historic excitement.
She jerked her chin toward the hallway – apparently telling me to hand over my face. By the way, flanking her on either side like royal guards were two of her usual gal lackeys (whose names I couldn’t remember), smirking with that “you’d better come quietly” look. Absolutely infuriating.
“You got a warrant for that?”
“What? What’re you yapping about?”
I tried a cop drama line, but it flopped. Shishihara hadn’t arrived yet, so no backup.
“Hey hey, Komori! Did you mess up? Haha, baka!”
Takizawa, the soccer ace, butted in with legendary annoyingness. Queen Bee glared in disgust. Normally, I’d react the same, but today, I rooted for Takizawa. Come on, be more annoying. Drive her off.
“Tch… Don’t have time for you. Let’s go.”
She shoved her arm under mine, yanking me up. Instantly, a sharp, aggressive gal scent (what kind of scent?) flooded my nose. I wanted her off me, deep down.
“Hey hey, don’t leave me out! Let me jo—”
Takizawa followed, but—
“Back off.”
Under the murderous glare of a girl who looked genuinely capable of killing a man, all I could do was wave weakly as he said, “Ah… yeah… if you survive, tell me all about it later, Komori?” I couldn’t even blame him for bailing.
What followed was a rendezvous from hell. The rules were clear: You can’t touch back when girls touch you. Like some Antarctic penguin mating ritual, I could only stand there and take it. The stares from other students burned, while Gal Lackeys A and B kept triumphantly pushing me forward. I don’t know your names now, but I’ll remember them later, you bitches.
Soon, we arrived at the connecting hallway. No one came here between homeroom and classes—it was deserted by design. Perfect for an ambush. Backed against the wall, surrounded by the trio, the setup was unmistakable: gender aside, this was a straight-up shakedown.
“Look… Did I offend you? What was it, um…?”
She frowned, pride wounded.
“You don’t even know my name?!”
“Ricchan, right? I just wondered if I could use that nickname…”
“Of course not! Saejima Ritsu.”
“So did I offend Saejima-san somehow?”
“…You’re so full of yourself.”
“Not as much as you.”
“Ewwww,” A and B squealed. No one else dared treat Ritsu this rudely. She glared like I’d insulted her existence. I had zero reason to like her—well, not exactly. After hearing Shishihara’s memories, I’d warmed up a bit. Now? Ruined.
“I’ll ask you straight.”
“That helps.”
“You put some unnecessary ideas into Maon’s head, didn’t you?”
“…………”
The model answer was probably “What are you talking about?” or “I didn’t do anything,” but…
In addition to being overwhelmed by Saejima’s interrogation style of “I’ve already got proof,” the sad face of Shishihara that I’d last seen inevitably flashed back in my mind. I’d created too unnatural a pause to keep playing dumb.
“Looks like you remember something?”
“…I did think maybe I was being too meddlesome, yeah.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You should be grateful. I praised you, after all.”
“…Huh?”
“Though I guess my way of saying it was a bit harsh, so I’m reflecting on that. I was thinking of following up later, but when I thought about it calmly, I don’t even know her contact info…”
“Sorry, what are we talking about?”
“About Saturday, when we went out.”
“Huh~, I see…”
Saejima smiled for the first time. She gets dimples when she smiles, I observed carelessly.
“—!?”
Immediately after, I couldn’t even retch as my throat was seized. Saejima, showing hints of violence beneath her smile, mercilessly dug her manicured fingers into my skin.
“You went out~? While I was being completely ignored… Where did you go? Was it fun?”
“N-no, it wasn’t… it wasn’t just me… senpai was there too, sensei too, it was a club gathering!”
“Oh really.”
Saejima’s fingers moved away from my throat, but she was seriously ready to kill.
—Shishihara, who used to have this girl under control, isn’t she dangerous?
Seeing me lose my composure, lackeys A and B wore bitter smiles like “I told you so.” Thinking about it again, I’m not good with people like them. My senses had gotten dull because of the irregular Shishihara (an approachable gal).
“So then… Maon dyeing her hair and stuff, that wasn’t your doing?”
“Huh? Oh, that’s what you meant… I only met her after becoming a second-year.”
“Then that’s good. That girl has a tendency to get fixated on things… if she got hooked by a bad guy, I think she’d get dyed in his colors.”
“I’m not her boyfriend.”
“I know. It’s a metaphor. Is your comprehension garbage?”
Maximum contempt was loaded into that. But even as garbage, I understood well.
This girl suspected that Shishihara had made her second-year debut under the influence of bad friends, and suspected that I might be one of those bad friends, which is why she was being unnecessarily hostile. Additionally, she doted on Shishihara enough to throw a tantrum just from being cut off for a few days, and if that girl ever got deceived by a bad man, she’d probably kill the guy and then herself.
“…Then I need you to do your job properly.”
“What did you say?”
“If you’re her best friend, if you know she’s reckless, then you need to hold the reins.”
This wasn’t some shallow talk from just yesterday or today.
Fed up with all the deception, cover-ups, and looking the other way since Shishihara knocked on the literature club’s door until now, I had no choice but to finally let it all out.
“If she’s doing something cringe, you need to tell her ‘you’re doing something cringe.’ She won’t understand unless someone tells her. It’s not because she’s stupid or simple—you can’t understand yourself by yourself. Even when you think you understand, it’s just pretending to understand.”
“…………”
“That’s why she ends up confiding her troubles to someone like me. Even though I’m never going to give her kind words. How cornered must she be? ‘Someone like me isn’t needed’? ‘It’s the same whether I’m here or not’? Someone needs to tell her that’s not true. She’s kind, unlike me. Not just to lost children—she can be kind to anyone in the world. That’s an amazing talent, and you need to help her realize it. Otherwise it’s just pitiful.”
In the end, I said it. Since she’s not here, is it safe? Probably not thinking I was the type to babble this much, Saejima and lackeys A-B widened their eyes and looked at each other’s faces, and realizing the same impression was reflected there, the head lackey spoke up as their representative.
“Are you into flat-chested gals or something?”
“Don’t make fun of this. I’m being serious here.”
“You’re reeeally acting high and mighty… I know this without being told.”
The last words were as if telling herself. Saejima walked away briskly just like that.
As I was breathing a sigh of relief at having narrowly escaped death…
“Well, tell Maon this, Komori(bat)-kun. That she should hurry up and make up, okay?”
Lackey A familiarly placed her hand on my shoulder.
“Ricchan’s in a bad mood when Maon’s not around. Please, Komori-kun?”
Lackey B even patted my head. While reconfirming that I really didn’t like these guys, the two of them chased after Saejima. Since I don’t feel good about having my nickname remembered one-sidedly, I’ll remember their names next time too.
“Making fun of me… they’re probably not bad people though.”
Muttering to myself, I took a step in the opposite direction from the classroom, toward the vending machine installed in the middle of the connecting corridor. I wanted to wet my throat since I’d unexpectedly overused my vocal cords, but…
“I didn’t bring my wallet… hm?”
That’s when I happened to discover something growing from the edge of the vending machine.
Brown or orange colored, about the size of a cat’s tail—I had seen it before, so I tried forcibly pulling the tip.
“Owww!”
As expected, the girl who had been curled up behind the vending machine rolled out. The fool who hides her head but not her butt.
“…What are you doing?”
To my question while my temple twitched, Shishihara replied “Ah, hahahaha…” while scattering her gaze in all directions, diligently doing eye exercises.
“A-ah, yeah. I got to the classroom earlier, but Takizawa was making a fuss about how Komori-kun got kidnapped by Ricchan or something. I was worried, or rather, I thought maybe it was my fault. I rushed out to look for you and found you surprisingly easily, and since you were talking about me as expected, I couldn’t find the right timing to interrupt…”
“I see.”
Let me say this first—I absolutely, definitely will not ask “How long were you there?”
It’s like Schrödinger’s cat. The theory that nothing is confirmed until observed.
Whether my embarrassing lines were overheard or not—if I don’t know the truth, it remains unfinished in my mind forever, floating as mere possibility.
Please understand this mindset where I can only maintain my sanity by doing this.
“Let’s go back to the classroom.”
“Yeah.”
I couldn’t look at Shishihara’s face. Probably Shishihara couldn’t check my face either. We both stared at one point and just walked, but somehow, only the sound of her sniffling reached my ears.
“Did you forget to take your rhinitis medicine?”
“Eh! Ah, yeah! Totally forgot to take it, yeah! It’s really tough… hahaha.”
“That woman doesn’t seem as angry as she acts. You should fix your relationship quickly.”
“I know… thanks, okay?”
Since Shishihara was now rubbing her face like a cat, I could only think somewhat escapist thoughts about whether it might rain today.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
