Chapter 48
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Volume 1: First Performance: A Tragic Love Story Of A Young Lady And Spring Cherry Blossoms
Chapter 48: A Cross-Dressing Boy Captures The Bully
“Fuuma!! I’m here again today!! Let me eat your food again… wait, wh-who is that black-haired woman!?”
Karen and I both opened our eyes wide and were dumbfounded, our mouths hanging open at the same time.
Ignoring our stunned expressions, Akane glared at Karen with a gaze that could kill, raising her voice.
“N-no way, you’re not…Fuuma’s girlfriend or anything, are you!?”
“Akane Tsukishiro… Why are you here?”
“That’s my line! Why is there some strange woman in Fuuma’s house!? Who the hell are you!?”
Karen let out a heavy sigh at Akane’s furious outburst, then turned her sharp, narrow eyes toward me.
“To think, you’ve become so close with Akane Tsukishiro that she can come and go freely from your house without me knowing. You’re quite the popular guy, Yanagisawa-kun.”
“…I didn’t intend for us to be that close, though.”
“Hey!! Don’t ignore me and keep talking! Who the hell are you!? What are you to Fuuma!?”
“Me? Hmm, let’s see. I’d say we share a secret that we can’t tell anyone, something like that.”
Karin said this with a mysterious smile, narrowing her eyes mischievously.
Akane, increasingly enraged by her response, began growling in frustration.
“Come on, Karen… Why are you making things worse…?”
“Then let me ask you this, what do you think I am to you? Your employer? Your master? Your relative? So, Yanagisawa-kun, what exactly am I to you?”
“Well…even if you ask me that…couldn’t we just say you’re a friend or something?”
“That’s a boring answer. You should’ve said something like lover or mistress.”
“L-l-lover!? M-m-mistress!? Is that the relationship, Fuuma and that woman have…?! Are you guys doing it!?”
“No, we’re not!! Don’t get carried away!!”
“Hmm. I think the most fitting term for our relationship would be accomplices. After all, we’ve done something close to a crime.”
It’s true that she knows about my cross-dressing and infiltration into the girls’ school, which is technically a crime… but that’s not something you should be saying out loud right now…
This woman, she’s shifted her thinking to teasing Akane for her amusement, showing her sadistic side.
As I sighed in exasperation at what was happening, Karen stood up from the sofa and slung her school bag over her shoulder.
“Well, I think I’ll head home for today. If I stay here any longer, Tsukishiro-san will probably punch me.”
“Gr…Grrrrr…”
Akane growled like an angry dog, baring her teeth at Karen, who just chuckled softly as she headed for the door.
As she passed by me, she leaned in and whispered quietly.
“…It doesn’t seem like your cover is blown yet… But be careful not to give yourself away as Kaede Kisaragi. Girls have sharp intuition, especially when it comes to someone they like. Be careful.”
After giving that warning, Karen left the apartment building.
After she disappeared, Rurika suddenly appeared from the back of the corridor.
“Uh… I ran into Akane-san wandering around the apartment building when I went to the convenience store… I knew Karen had come to my house, but for some reason, I couldn’t stop Akane from coming… so I brought her along. I’m sorry, Onii-chan.”
“No, it’s not your fault, Rurika. The one who is at fault is…”
“What!? Are you saying it’s my fault!? And who was that woman just now!? What’s this secret you’re sharing!? Tell me that secret too!!”
Later, I managed to explain that Karen was my cousin, and after an hour of talking, I finally cleared up Akane’s misunderstanding.
Still, if you think about it, Karen is my cousin, and Ginjou-senpai is my cousin too…
It’s kind of strange how I have two relatives from both my mother’s and father’s side in that school… It feels like some kind of weird destiny.
Well, one is a sadistic lady who uses photos of me hugging my sister as blackmail, and the other is a handsome girl who’s a guy on the inside and obsessed with the female body… Honestly, I don’t even know what to say about having such strange relatives.
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The season changed to May and the days passed by quickly.
I spent every day performing as Kaede Kisaragi, struggling through a school life where everyone called me ‘Onee-sama’, while also devoting myself to practicing for the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ play.
“Speak louder! You won’t reach the back of the auditorium at all! Let’s start the whole scene over again!”
“Yes! …Tch, your voice was too quiet, so I got scolded again, Kaede Kisaragi!!”
“Huh? That wasn’t my fault. Wasn’t it because of you, Tsukishiro-san?”
“W-what!? There’s no way I would make a mistake like that!! Don’t blame someone else!?”
“Hey, what are you two doing!? Get back to practicing your lines!!”
“Yes!!”
Akane seemed to still see me, Kaede Kisaragi, as her rival, and would pick fights with me whenever she could. Yet, for some reason, she also spent every evening hanging out in my room, eating dinner before going home, living a strange, contradictory life.
“Fuuma… Something bad happened to me today. Will you listen to me?”
Akane muttered, sounding somewhat tired as she leaned her back against the backrest of the sofa and looked up at the ceiling.
As I was cooking the food, I casually called out to Akane, who seemed to be in a depressed mood.
“Is it the harassment again?”
“Yeah… It’s really pissing me off…”
Someone kept leaving insulting graffiti on her desk and in her shoe locker.
I kept a close watch in the early mornings and after school, but I hadn’t caught the culprit yet.
Right now, my last resort to solve the bullying was borrowing a surveillance camera from Hanako, who was having one repaired.
“Every day, someone messes with my locker and desk… It’s so annoying. If they have a problem with me, they should say it to my face…”
“Have you thought about telling a teacher? Or maybe asking your friends for help?”
“No way. My pride won’t allow me to ask for help. And… I don’t have any friends at that school…”
“Is there anyone close to you that you talk to often? I don’t think relying on others is a bad thing.”
“Someone I talk to often…? Well, there’s Kaede Kisaragi…? N-no way! I’d never rely on someone like that!! I’d rather keep dealing with the harassment!!”
So, she really hates the cross-dressing me that much, huh, Akane?
Since Kaede Kisaragi is basically me, it kind of hurts when she says she hates “me” so much…
As I was feeling a bit down, Akane suddenly put a hand on her chin, as if deep in thought, and spoke again.
“But… for some reason, by the next day, my locker is always clean, all the dirt and graffiti gone. It’s strange…”
“…”
“Maybe the teachers are cleaning it up for me…?”
Akane tilted her head in confusion and let out a big sigh.
―――――― Well, the one cleaning your locker every morning is me, actually.
6:00 AM――the entrance hall.
After wringing out a rag and let the water drip back into the bucket before carefully wiping the graffiti off Akane’s locker.
She’s my partner for this play. As her partner, it’s my job to look after her mental health, right?
I’m determined to give my best and deliver the best performance I can in this ‘Romeo and Juliet’ play.
However, the only problem is… my yips.
Even during the audition, just 30 minutes of acting made my hands start shaking.
If I have to perform for two and a half hours straight during the actual performance, I might collapse or vomit on stage, just like five years ago.
My mental illness isn’t something that’s just gone away.
I’ll have to pace myself and be careful not to trigger the yips while performing.
―――――― And so, the days continued without much change, until finally, it was just three days before the play’s opening night.
During lunch, I was walking down the hallway with Honoka, on our way to the cafeteria, when my phone buzzed with a vibration.
I took it out of my uniform pocket and checked the screen to find a message from Hanako: “I brought the camera. Let’s meet up somewhere after school (´ω｀).”
The cute message made me smile, and Honoka, walking beside me, tilted her head in curiosity.
“Hm? What is it, Onee-sama? You seem happy about something.”
“Fufu, yes, I suppose you could say that I’ve finally found a way to deal with a problem that’s been on my mind…”
“A problem…? ――――― Huh?”
“You guys are in the way again. Let me through.”
Suddenly, we were interrupted by a voice, and when I looked ahead, I saw Akane standing there.
But for some reason, she was completely soaked from head to toe.
Drops of water were dripping from the tips of her bangs, and her uniform was so drenched that her undergarments was visible underneath.
Seeing her like that, I couldn’t help but let out a startled voice.
“Tsukishiro-san? Wh-what happened to you…?”
“It’s nothing. Move out of the way.”
“But, I can’t just leave you like this! L-let’s go to the infirmary!”
“Y-yes, Tsukishiro-san! You’ll catch a cold!”
“…Move.”
“Huh…?”
“I said move already!!!! I’ll knock you out if you don’t!!!!”
Her angry shout echoed through the hallway. Akane glared at me with a furious expression, as if she might hit me at any moment.
Honoka shrank back at Akane’s outburst, hiding behind me in fear.
I couldn’t say anything to Akane, who was red-faced and teary-eyed… I could only quietly step aside.
As she passed by, I heard her mutter under her breath.
“I won’t… I won’t break over something like this… As Fuuma’s rival, I can’t afford to lose to something like this…”
Then, with tears trailing behind her, sparkling in the air, Akane ran down the hallway.
At the same time, I heard snickering coming from the end of the hallway she had just passed through.
“Serves her right. Did you see her face? She was crying like a baby.”
“Seriously, that was hilarious. We should’ve taken a picture.”
“How about stripping her uniform and posting it online? That would pretty much end her acting career, don’t you think?”
“Oh, that’s a great idea! Let’s all gang up on her next time and make her strip!”
When I looked toward the end of the hallway, I saw a group of unfamiliar female students.
No, among those students, there were a few faces I recognized.
They were… the same classmates who had once said they were my fans, including the girl with the side ponytail and her friends.
The girl with the side ponytail looked flustered when our eyes met and quickly followed the unfamiliar students down the hallway.
… I see. I’ve finally got a lead on them.
Damn it, they weren’t satisfied with just graffiti, they’ve poured water over her head now… How disgusting.
I’ve already arranged to borrow a camera from Hanako. Sorry, but you’re all going to pay for this.
You’ll regret making my partner… no, my rival cry.
