Self-Satisfaction
Ayaka and her friends’ harassment continued for several days even after his indoor shoes had been dirtied.
His shoes kept getting soiled, his textbooks were scribbled on, and when he tried to eat his bento in the classroom, they targeted him, pretending it was an accident as they tossed trash into it.
After that, he stopped eating in the classroom and began eating elsewhere, yet they still found ways to interfere.
It wasn’t that he particularly hated being bullied.
What he truly hated was having to throw away the bento made just for him because it had been dirtied, or leaving it untouched because it had been soaked with water.
He had already caused enough trouble and worry for the Shimizu family, and they were even making him bento almost every day.
Even if he wasn’t completely comfortable around Yume, he couldn’t help but feel guilty about wasting the bentos she made.
If it had been some other girl, Yuuki probably wouldn’t have cared as much, but since she was Kyousuke’s daughter and hadn’t done anything wrong to him, it only made him feel more apologetic.
He couldn’t stop thinking about how to deal with the harassment that had been going on these past few days.
It seemed easy enough to film them on his phone and post it online, and in fact, he had recorded the moment they threw trash into his bento.
But since they were sneaky and cunning, they made it look accidental, acting all apologetic as if they had just bumped into him and dropped the trash by mistake. None of them even laughed.
During their meeting, when he showed the video to his homeroom teacher, she said it was hard to tell whether it was intentional or an accident. He hadn’t expected much anyway. Teachers found it troublesome to get involved, and admitting there was bullying at school would only create more problems.
As a formality, the school handed out the same thin piece of paper they always used for so-called bullying investigations, pretending to conduct a proper survey.
Even if he wanted to catch them in the act of dirtying his shoes or textbooks, he never knew when it happened.
It would be ridiculous to keep all of them under constant watch, and there might even be others helping them.
Trying to eliminate bullying without understanding the whole picture wouldn’t make it disappear.
It would just happen again. People like that were like a cancer.
As Yuuki thought about what to do, he watched the clouds drift slowly across the sky while eating his bento. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone walking toward him.
When he looked to see who it was, he realized the worst possible person for him was approaching.
It was Ayaka, the very one at the center of the group that bullied him.
Yuuki immediately looked away, blocking out Ayaka’s presence completely.
But for some reason, Ayaka continued walking toward him.
He thought, “Just walk past me,” but it didn’t seem like his wish would come true.
Still, what Yuuki intended to do remained the same.
“Yu… Yuuki.”
He ignored her. That was all.
Honestly, he didn’t even want her in his line of sight, much less speak to her.
“Yuuki, I’m really sorry. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry.”
Yuuki continued to ignore Ayaka as she bowed her head.