Chapter 394: I Hate Akito Like This
Chapter 394: I Hate Akito Like This
“I,” Himekoji had a serious expression, yet felt apprehensive. Once wasn’t enough. Thinking this, he emphasized again,
“I never thought Mashiro was troublesome.”
“Never before, and even less so in the future.”
“Mashiro isn’t trouble. Mashiro is Mashiro.”
“…”
Shiina made no response to Himekoji’s words.
Instead, Miss Iida’s urging voice came from the living room.
“Not done yet? Hurry, it’s already very late.”
Ten-thirty – it was indeed very late.
“Right away!”
Himekoji shouted back towards the outside room. After his voice fell, he closed the suitcase, stood it up, and placed the handle into Mashiro’s hands.
“…Doesn’t Akito feel pain?”
Then, at that moment, Mashiro suddenly spoke like that.
He froze instantly.
His brain seemed to freeze as he tried to grasp what she meant.
“I feel pain when I’m near Akito.”
But the very next second, Mashiro had already explained.
Feels pain near me…
“Oh…”
He felt as if something heavy had slammed into him. Himekoji felt the world before him violently shake.
A choking, dizzy sensation struck him suddenly.
“But… not being near Akito would also surely cause pain…”
Her ruby-like pupils flickered, fading in and out. Mashiro’s struggle hid within those shifting, shimmering eyes.
“Shiina…”
Seeing Mashiro like this, Himekoji suddenly didn’t know what to say or could say.
“Just thinking about Akito makes here hurt.”
The hand pressed against her chest suddenly clenched tight.
“I like him… so why is it like this?”
It sounded like she was questioning Himekoji, yet also questioning herself.
Of course, the answer was obvious.
The reason it was like this… was precisely because of that liking.
Because she liked him, that feeling hurt when it wasn’t answered, wasn’t fulfilled.
Minor disagreements that wouldn’t normally matter got magnified without limit here. They became harder to brush aside, became worries, became sadness… becoming pain.
But… the reverse was also true.
Because she liked him, just being together, doing unimportant things, could feel happy.
Even ordinary time together felt like it held special meaning.
She looked forward to every day. Was happy every day.
Yet… also worried every day. Felt sad every day.
This was liking someone, wasn’t it?
A liking that was both happy… and painful.
…
“Shiina, you really must hurry now. The car is downstairs.”
Miss Iida’s urging voice sounded again from the living room.
“Yeah.”
Mashiro responded to the outside, gripping the suitcase handle with both hands.
She took a step… but then halted, as if she still had more to say.
Sensing she wanted to speak, Himekoji quietly waited for Mashiro’s next words.
Hopeful… yet apprehensive.
The next second, Mashiro spoke—
“I… truly don’t understand.”
As she spoke, the hands gripping the suitcase tightened, beginning to tremble slightly.
“Is this… the triangle?”
Mashiro threw out the question directly.
“But…”
“It’s not like we promised…”
Mashiro turned her head back. Her gaze was uneasy, like a shivering baby bird in a storm.
“Have I… been excluded by Akito and Nanami? Excluded… from the triangle?”
“N-no, that’s not it…”
Himekoji shook his head, instinctively wanting to deny it, wanting to shake off the swelling feeling of guilt inside.
“That is how it feels!”
But Mashiro didn’t give him the chance, leaving no room as she made her point.
She suddenly put strength behind her words, unusually ending her sentence with conviction.
“…”
Himekoji sadly realized he couldn’t say anything to refute her now.
“We promised the three of us would try together… but Akito is only trying with Nanami!”
Every word went straight to the heart.
“Is this… the triangle?”
The same question… Mashiro asked it again.
But Himekoji was already unable to give an answer.
“Is the one Akito loves… Nanami?”
Mashiro’s next question followed immediately.
He still couldn’t answer.
Was she?
Is the person I liked Nanami?
Himekoji just asked himself this quietly once in his heart.
“I sometimes hated Akito too.”
“Sometimes…?”
“Yes.”
“And… now?”
Even without asking, he could guess the answer, but Himekoji uncontrollably opened his mouth and threw out this question.
“I think I hated the current Akito.”
“I hate Akito who only looks at Nanami.”
As expected.
The decisive words.
Even though he had made up his mind when he asked, when he finally heard it, he still saw only darkness.
It felt like falling into a bottomless hole.
His legs went weak, and he couldn’t stand steady.
Himekoji quickly gripped the desk nearby.
……
“Shiina?”
From the living room, Miss Iida’s urging voice came for the third time.
“Coming.”
As she answered, Mashiro walked out.
……
But Himekoji had a tight feeling in his throat, unable to speak one sound.
He could only watch Mashiro leave while pulling her suitcase.
He could hear Mashiro’s footsteps fading away, and also hear her talking with Ayano at the Genkan.
“Is this the choice…”
Himekoji, still in Mashiro’s room, softly asked himself that.
His body felt like it was frozen, slow and heavy, unable to move.
He remembered that not long ago during the confession, Mashiro had said this—
“Even if Akito likes Nanami, I still like Akito.”
But now—
“I hate Akito who only looks at Nanami.”
This made a sharp difference.
Of course, this change in words wasn’t Mashiro’s fault.
The problem was only on Himekoji himself.
He had made Mashiro come to hate him.
“Perhaps this is the right way? The idea of three people together should never have been…”
Having come to this, he tried to make up his mind.
Himekoji murmured to himself.
But then, just at that moment, another sudden sound rang out—
[Ding!]
[Please choose!]
[A: Go with Mashiro to sketch places for material.]
[B: Work with Mashiro to kill life for justice.]
It was actually, the long-lost System.
……
……