“Are we really going to do this today?”
Right now, I am with Towa at a coffee shop a little away from the station. It is simply too hot to bear outside. The indoor air conditioning is truly like heaven.
Towa speaks to me with a serious expression.
“Yumi said she’s going shopping with a friend today. Besides, she mentioned she’s going to the building in front of the station. So today is our chance.”
This guy, calling it a chance. Is that really something a guy who is staging his own cheating scene should say?
“Hey, Hay… No, Towa. Isn’t calling it a ‘chance’ kind of weird?”
I spoke my mind. Because it is weird, after all…
“What are you talking about?! If we miss today, there might not be another chance, you know?”
It’s only the middle of August, so there should still be chances, but why on earth…
“It’s still the middle of the month, right? There’s still plenty of August left. Even if today fails, aren’t there still other days?”
When I said that, Towa spoke calmly.
“No good. If it gets to the late part of August, it becomes bad. If we deal a blow to Yumi in the late half, there’s a possibility she won’t be able to recover by September.
If Yumi hates me now and doesn’t get the time to recover, she won’t be able to come to school in September. I don’t want Yumi to lose her school recommendation points.”
This guy goes to such lengths…
“Are you really okay with this, Towa?”
This guy is thinking about other people, but does he not care about himself at all?
“I’m dropping out anyway, so it’s fine.”
Towa saying he’s going to drop out already…
“Anyway, I’m going to accidentally send a text message to Yumi now. The content will be asking to meet near the usual love hotel close to the station.”
This guy… Is he really going to do this? He has a calm face, but is he okay?
“So, what do you do after that?”
“I’ll wait for Yumi to read it, and once she reads it, I’ll delete the message.”
“What if she replies to the message?”
“Then I’ll ignore it. I’m sure she’ll message me many times, but I won’t even mark them as read. After that, Yumi will definitely come looking for me around the love hotel area.”
“Hey… Are you really sure about this? You won’t regret it?”
Hearing that, Towa’s expression darkened for just a moment. But then:
“I won’t regret it anymore. I’m just doing this for Yumi’s future happiness.”
“Is that so… Understood. I’ll steel my resolve, too.”
“You can just play the role of being tricked by me. We don’t need two bad guys.”
“Hmph, I don’t mind being a bad guy anyway.”
“…I see. Then let’s begin. We’ll walk a bit from here to the station area, so I’ll send the message to Yumi right now. And once it shows as read, we’ll move.”
With that, Towa really sent the message.
I started feeling nervous, wondering if it was finally happening.
However, when I looked at Towa’s hands, I could see them shaking.
Could it be that he still has a few regrets after all…?
“I sent the message. Now… Okay, it’s marked as read. Iori, let’s move.”
I couldn’t forget the look on Towa’s face at that moment. He looked like he was in real agony, but he was holding it in. His hands were clenching his fists tightly.
Even while walking, Towa’s smartphone kept receiving messages and phone calls. As declared, Towa ignored them all. He looked almost like he was about to cry when looking at the message notifications.
If it hurts this much, he shouldn’t do it at all.
But since we’ve come this far, there’s no turning back now.
We arrived in front of the love hotel just as planned.
“Hey Towa. Is your girlfriend really going to come here?”
When I asked that, Towa answered after a pause, as if there was a time lag.
“It’s fine. This is the only love hotel around here. So, if I mention somewhere near the front of the station, she’ll come here.”
“Is that so…”
“More importantly, wrap your arm around mine quickly. Give off a really intimate vibe.”
It didn’t feel very good, but I did as told and wrapped my arm around Towa’s.
“Is this good…”
Yet Towa still finds faults.
“Idiot! Hug closer! People going into a love hotel would cling much closer than that.”
My face grew hot. No, this is just acting. So, if I treat it purely as a job, it’ll be fine.
“Like this…”
I pressed my chest against Towa’s arm as I clung to him.
“That’s good…”
Towa had a nonchalant expression. What the heck?! You should at least look a little happy! Why am I the only one? No, no, I’m not happy at all, though.
As I was thinking such things and feeling embarrassed, the moment finally arrived.
“Hey, Towa!!”
A woman’s voice echoed from the side. This is the same voice I use when calling out to the guy next to me after class. When I turned toward the voice, I saw a familiar girl looking over with a frantic expression.
The moment Towa saw her, he started looking flustered. That’s acting, right?
“Yumi, why are you here?”
Towa’s acting was truly genuine. Looking at Towa’s face, I felt a slight sense of sadness.
“Towa! Why… why are you in a place like this with another woman?!”
She said to Towa while on the verge of tears. I couldn’t look her straight in the face.
“No, you’ve got it wrong, Yumi. This is…”
Whether it’s acting or not, isn’t that excuse a bit weak? I thought Towa would have prepared much better words…
“What is that? What do you mean it’s wrong?! In a place like this… with a woman clinging to his arm and sending me a message like that by mistake. Are you making a fool of me?”
Words failed me in front of her, who was genuinely angry. Even if I’m doing this at Towa’s request and for her sake. Her painful and sad feelings flooded into my heart.
“…Sorry, Yumi.”
Towa slowly bowed his head and said to her. Just then, Yumi’s friend arrived from behind.
Seeing this situation, the friend got angry at Towa.
“Hey Hayami! What is the meaning of this? You have a girlfriend named Yumi, so how could you possibly cheat on her?!”
Yumi’s friend yelled at Towa, but Towa didn’t say a thing. He just kept his head down in silence.
“Hey?! Just keeping your head down doesn’t make it clear.”
At that moment, Yumi cut in.
“That woman over there… She’s the one who sits next to Towa in class, isn’t she?”
Yumi shifted her target to me. She probably wants to blame me, too.
“Towa, why did you cheat on me with a woman like that?!”
“…My bad.”
“Just saying ‘my bad’ doesn’t explain anything?! Give me a reason! Is it my fault? Is it because I lack charm? Is that woman more charming than me? Hey, answer me?!”
Towa surely wouldn’t answer Yumi’s plea.
“My bad… I somehow stopped feeling any charm in you. So I lied to her, told her I broke up with you, and we started meeting up from time to time.”
“That’s so cruel.”
This is a lie. He couldn’t have been meeting me; those times must have been spent on moving preparations and paperwork.
It must have been hard to do all that secretly so she wouldn’t find out.
The friend, comforting a depressed Yumi, looked in my direction and spoke up.
“You, Hayami said he broke up with her, but you knew they hadn’t actually broken up yet, didn’t you?!”
Yes, I knew. To me, this is a cruel farce.
Towa is purposely doing this to a girlfriend he loves so much. And I am going along with this farce.
In that case, I will see this farce through to the very end.
“I…”
Just as I was about to speak up, Towa quickly cut in.
“I’m sorry, Iori. Actually, I hadn’t broken up with Yumi yet.”
What a ridiculous farce. This guy keeps making himself out to be the bad guy to the very end.
But Towa, I can’t let you be the only bad guy.
“Yeah, I knew. I knew Towa was still dating her. I went along with him knowing that full well. But Towa chose me over you. That means you already understand, right?”
I took an action different from Towa’s script. I didn’t want only Towa to be the bad guy anymore. Perhaps the moment I agreed to help Towa that day, I had already decided I would do this.
I feel bad for Towa, but at the very least, I want to reduce his emotional burden.
“You… what are you…”
Towa was surprised. Sorry about that, Towa.
Then Yumi said through her tears:
“What on earth was Towa to me… I was so happy when he told me he loved me. That’s why I dated Towa… If it was going to end up like this, I wish I hadn’t dated him in the first place.
I should have gone out with Eguchi-kun instead, who confessed to me back then!”
With that, Yumi turned around and ran off.
Seeing that, the friend shouted:
“Hey Yumi! Hayami! What are you doing?! Hurry up and go after Yumi!”
Yumi’s tears and actions in response to the friend’s words. Even someone as stoic as Towa must have found it painful.
“Yumi…”
Towa tried to chase after Yumi. But doing that would render everything Towa went through completely pointless. If he ruins his own plan, won’t Towa regret it later himself?
I can’t let all this effort go to waste. I won’t let Towa have regrets.
I grabbed Towa’s arm as he tried to chase after her and held him back.
“Towa, are you going to throw me away and go after her?! No way! Stay by my side… please.”
The words I said to Towa. This wasn’t acting. It might be presumptuous, and it might be selfish, but just for now, I wanted him to accept my true feelings.
“…Iori.”
Towa seemed to remember his own objective and stopped trying to break away. His fists were tightly clenched, and his whole body was shaking.
Towa had chosen Yumi’s future happiness over Yumi’s present happiness.
“Hayami, you really are the worst!”
With those words, Yumi’s friend ran off to chase after Yumi.
A short while later, this place fell completely silent, like a ghost town.
“Ah… It’s over. It’s finally over. Thank you, Iori. My wish has come true now.”
As he said that, tears overflowed from Towa’s eyes.
I stood there unable to say a word.
“But Iori. Why did you say those things?”
Towa asked me about what happened just now.
“It’s nothing! I just thought it would be too pitiful if only you were the bad guy.”
I said that to Towa.
“You, what are you going to do about your school life from now on? After that, you’re completely painted as the bad guy too, you know?”
Towa is worried about me. I’m happy, but I hate the idea of only you being the bad guy. The moment I agreed to go along with Towa’s plan, I became a bad guy too.
“It’s fine. I was always alone from the start anyway. Nothing changes.”
No, something did change. Towa, you taught me that I am not alone. You taught me what… youth’s first and last love is all about.
Thank you, Towa.
Thus, our terrible plan came to an end.
After this, it seemed a message containing only a single word—”Goodbye”—arrived on Towa’s phone from Yumi.