After a while when Uehara-san started going to the school library after school, she started coming to me and Chihiro in the classroom for a chat during lunch break as well.

「I know you’ve been over here at lunchtime lately, but are you okay with leaving the guys in the group over there alone?」

「I don’t mind. Kurashima has been persistent lately. He’s not even my boyfriend, but he’s constraining me so much that it’s really depressing.」

Uehara-san used to call Kurashima “Kazuto,” but recently she has changed to calling him by his family name.

Indeed, every time Uehara-san came to visit our table, Kurashima went out of his way to bring her back. But for the past few days, he has done nothing but watch from afar. Had he given up?

「Toyama was talking about the trade-offs the other day, and I thought I might as well choose the one that would free me.」

「What’s the trade-off you were talking about, Uehara-san?」

Chihiro, who was listening next to me, would not know what she was talking about even if he knew the words.

「Simply put, Uehara-san has a lot of friends but is tied to the group, while I am free but have few friends.」

I gave Chihiro a brief summary of what had happened.

「I see… I kind of know what you mean. It’s the kind of thing where you sacrifice something else if you choose one over the other.」

Chihiro is smart, so even a simple explanation like the one I just gave him seemed to be understood for the most part.

「But is Uehara-san going to be okay? Kurashima-kun kept coming to take you back, but if you don’t do something. he might not like you, you know?」

Unlike me, Chihiro is a good guy at heart and never thinks badly of anyone. Even if it was Kurashima.

「I don’t care if people don’t like me. I’d rather have myself happy.」

「Uehara-san used to call Kurashima-kun by his given name, but it seems you’ve grown tired of him.」

I tried not to mention the change in the way Uehara-san addressed Kurashima, but Chihiro seemed to have noticed it well.

「Enough, don’t you say that anymore. When I first met Kurashima, I thought he was cool and nice. When he asked me to call him by his given name, I was ashamed of myself for being happy that he seemed somehow special…」

Uehara-san seemed to be remembering her past self, saying that she did not have the eyes to see at that time.

「But the past is the past! I will be reborn and free!」

Uehara-san is overreacting, but I guess there are some unpleasant things about the bondage in the upper caste that only she can understand.

It was eerie that Kurashima did not take any action against Uehara-san, who was so obssessed with her.

I saw another free person, which was Takai. She did not try to get involved with us, and she was still alone today.

◇ ◇ ◇

The next morning, when I arrived at school and opened the shoe box to change into my jacket, I found what looked like white copy paper on it.

On it, in what appeared to be scribbled words, was the following:

『Don’t get carried away, creep.』

Malicious language?

— —Has it begun?

It is no doubt due to the fact that Uehara-san, who is popular in class, has been getting along well with me lately. I don’t know if it was an individual or a group that did this, or if Kurashima was involved, but I am sure I will find out eventually.

I don’t think anything of this level, but if Uehara-san finds out, she may feel responsible for it being her fault.

The problem is that I am most afraid that someone other than me will become a target. I’m worried about Chihiro, who is the closest to me, but unlike me, he is very friendly and gets along well with all the other students, so I’d like to think he will be fine…

I remained vigilant and made it through the day without incident.

◇ ◇ ◇

The day after the paper was found in the shoe box, I arrived at the school and carefully opened the shoe box. There was nothing in the shoe box except for my shoes. I checked the shoes to be sure, but there were no signs of mischief.

I patted my chest in relief and headed for my classroom.

Chihiro in the seat in front of me does not seem to have arrived yet.

I opened my bag, took out my textbook for first period class, and tried to put it in my desk, but something was holding it up behind the desk and it wouldn’t fit.

I looked into the desk and found trash stuffed in there. When I took it out, I found that it was trash consists of bags of candy and paper scraps, and it looked like the contents of the trash cans in the classroom had been shoved in there.

–Has he finally started harassing me directly?

I let out a sigh and thought, this is turning out to be a real pain in the ass. How far will this escalation go? I’d rather be harassed directly than have something done to me in secret, so that I can fight back if possible.

I was calm for being harassed. If they tried to use violence against me, I was going to do my best to fight back.

「Good morning, Yuuki… Huh? You look scared, what’s wrong?」

When Chihiro came to school, he seemed to notice something strange when he saw my face and looked into my face with concern.

「No, there’s nothing going on. I just wanted to go home because I was tired of going to class.」

I hurriedly shoved the trash into my desk and acted as if nothing had happened.

「But you looked like thinking of something, that’s why… tell me if you have any problems.」

「Of course I will. I only have have a thousand friends to talk to.」

Trying to lighten the mood, I responded with a self-depreciating joke.

「I don’t think so. You have Uehara-san now.」

Uehara-san is a… is she my friend, huh? We talk a lot, but what is she to me? Just classmates? Or a friend?

Lately I have been eating lunch with Chihiro and the three of us, but I wasn’t really feeling it at the moment.

Then I turned to my other classmate, Takai.

She was quietly reading a book alone, as usual.



Lunch break arrived, and I was still unable to concentrate on my classes. As usual, Uehara-san came over to where Chihiro and I were sitting and spread out our lunch boxes.

This harassment seems to have started with Uehara-san, but she is blameless. I cannot deny the possibility that she will bear the brunt of the harassment if she gets involved with me any further. However, it is also difficult to tell her that she should not be with me.

With that in mind, I guess I’ll just have to continue to treat them normally and see what happens.

However, today’s lunch break was different than usual. Students were looking at us as if they were whispering and gossiping with each other while looking at their phones. Their eyes contained something like contempt or hostility.

Since Uehara-san joined our circle, she has attracted some attention, but nothing like this had ever happened before. What on earth was going on?

「I don’t know what’s going on with everyone. I feel like we’re the center of attention.」

「Yeah, it’s kind of a bad feeling.」

Chihiro and Uehara-san also noticed that the class was different from usual.

In the end, we spent an uncomfortable lunch break without knowing what had happened.

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