Chapter 18
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Amidst the chaotic colors distorting my vision, a short, pudgy figure approached.
It moved like a person, but what on earth was this?
“Kawakami! Aren’t you ashamed of dragging this out for years and years?”
That grating voice… it was Mishima.
“Regardless of what you think, it’s none of your business.”
“It’s not none of my business! Kawakami, we’re best friends!”
“Sorry, but I can’t consider someone who keeps butting into my love life as a best friend.”
“What do you mean, butting in!?”
The blob rippled violently.
“I was worried about you and just giving you advice!”
“Unwanted advice. And not just to me—you’ve said some awful things to Mayuko, too, haven’t you?”
“…What? Mayuko? When are you talking about?”
The volume of her grating voice suddenly decreased. She must be pretending ignorance.
“Most recently, Monday. When you barged into my house.”
“Wait, that means…”
“…”
As her bewildered voice echoed, I felt a firm grip on my hand.
When I looked, the figure resembling Mayuko was trembling slightly.
“…You really need to stop! Do you enjoy tormenting Kawakami so much!?”
“Mishima, you should—”
“You only see Kawakami as someone you can conveniently rely on, you shameless woman!”
…She wasn’t going to listen. We needed to get away quickly.
“Mayuko, let’s go.”
“O-Okay…”
“Hey! Stop right there!”
“Ah!”
With a short scream, Mayuko staggered backward. The pudgy mass clung to her back.
“Hey! Mishima!”
“Please, stop…”
“What’s with ‘please stop’! Acting all innocent!”
“Ow… it hurts…”
“Stop it!”
“Ah!”
I forcefully peeled away the hands digging into her back, causing the blob to topple onto the distorted ground.
“Ouch! What are you doing!?”
“You started it!”
“Oh sure, make me the bad guy again!”
…How could she play the victim in this situation? My head was starting to hurt.
“If anything, Mayuko’s the one at fault! She’s a shameless girl who would cling to anyone who pampered her, regardless of gender… she was the one who approached Kawakami!”
“…”
As her grating voice continued ranting, Mayuko hung her head.
I needed to stop this, but nausea was making it hard to speak.
“And like parent, like child! Barging into someone else’s house without considering the trouble it causes!”
“…”
With the noise, nausea, and heat, my vision grew even more jumbled. I couldn’t tell if the ground was beneath my feet. But I had to move us away from here quickly.
“Just because she’s cute, she thinks she can get away with anything! She’s just like Mayuko!”
I couldn’t let Mayuko hear any more of this—
“…Don’t… lump me… with her.”
“Huh? What are you mumbling? I can’t hear you.”
“…Don’t lump me with that woman!”
“What!?”
—What?
What was Mayuko saying?
“To be honest, I hated that woman too!”
That woman… she spoke as if she were someone else.
“Always whining… ‘But I’ll try my best for you’—making it sound like it was my fault she couldn’t escape…”
In the chaotic vision, Mayuko’s figure became clearer.
“It’s her fault that my grandparents said all those unreasonable things…”
The small feet in white sandals.
The slender body in a light blue dress.
The flowing black hair.
“Always acting like a victim, crying…”
All these features belonged to Mayuko.
And yet—
“When I pointed that out to her, she had the nerve to commit suicide to spite me… it was such a nuisance.”
The face with a bitter expression didn’t look like Mayuko at all.
On the contrary, these words were just like that man’s.
She pretended to be the tragic heroine. Because she was so pretentious and caused me so much trouble.
Words that pinned all the blame on her.
Playing the victim?
That’s you.
Because of you, she became unhappy.
All of it, all of it, all of it was because of you—
“But Kawakami-san told me… it wasn’t my fault!”
—Ah, that’s right.
Children shouldn’t bear the burden of others’ misfortunes.
I did say that, and I believed it.
“She’s all I have left…”
The tearful face wasn’t Mayuko’s.
Nor could it be that man’s.
“So please… don’t interfere with us…”
A faint voice came from her bowed head.
Looking around, I saw Mishima standing in shock and people watching from a distance.
“Mishima, we’ve drawn quite a crowd. Do you want to keep this up?”
“What? Oh!”
Mishima looked around, her face showing realization.
Even the man she was with looked at her with a cold expression.
“Uh… I…”
She mumbled and looked down.
Even she couldn’t continue this scene in front of all these people.
“Okay, we’re leaving. Let’s go, Tsubaki.”
“…!?”
Tsubaki looked up, her eyes wide.
“…Sorry for worrying you.”
“No… I’m okay now.”
Under the blue sky, with a field of sunflowers behind her, the smiling girl no longer resembled anyone else.