Osananajimi ga Zettai ni Makenai Love Comedy Volume 1 Chapter 4 part4

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Our first love revenge was complete Part 4

I sat on the stairs for a while to catch my breath shortly after splitting with Shirokusa, as the shock of realising that she had been Shirou began to fully sink in.

Her confession had explained a lot of things which until now had remained a mystery.

Such as why she had been so strongly averse to her surroundings, or why she had treated only me relatively kindly, or why she had come after finishing the plot so quickly… among other things.

If just - maybe. If just maybe I had realised that Shirokusa had been Shirou before the summer holidays, how would our relationship have turned out then? Unlike now… we could have been going to the cultural festival as lovers - though wouldn't that be possible in the future as well?

"… What an idiotic delusion."

I shook my head and banished those thoughts.

Still, what had she meant when she said that?

"You're dating Abe-senpai, right?"

"And?"

Shirokusa had obviously been angry. But how should I have interpreted her ire?

-Don't ask if you already know the answer. There's no point in you confessing to me now.

Would it be right for me to see that meaning in her anger?

-Our conversation was going so well, why did you have to say something to spoil the mood?

Perhaps that was more similar to how she felt.

-So are you not going to confess to me at the "Confession Festival" then?

That too was possible.

I didn't know what to think, but what was certain was that Shirokusa held some strong feelings for me. Our differences had been largely put aside, and at present I felt no animosity from her. It was dubious as to whether the above could be considered love, however.

"If I confessed now it would work, right?"

At the same time I also felt that way.

She said she was dating Abe, but considering how much thought she had put into me, could that not have been something she had done out of spite for me not realising that she had been Shirou?

That was another possible conjecture, but… no, I felt Tetsuhiko would have said something else.

"Look, I know you all made a promise in the past, but why should that have anything to do with love? Aren't those two things clearly unrelated?"

Argh∼∼, I could totally see him saying that! And more often than not these harsh statements were more likely to reflect the truth.

I mean, I may have had some glory in the past, but now I was just an ordinary high schooler. Abe was a handsome, rich actor.

He was going to win by adjusting her memories? Wasn't that a little unfair?

As I took those things into consideration I began to think that it all indeed had a chance of being Abe's plan.

I still couldn't rule out the possibility that a nefarious trap was lying in wait for me - that if, as Kuroha had feared, I emerged victorious at the Confession Festival after competing with Abe and confessed to Shirokusa, she would say something like "I like Abe-senpai. I hope you disappear, moron," and reject me jarringly in front of the entire school.

If that happened to me I'd be traumatised for life. I felt as if I would lose the confidence to go on living.

"Still, I have to make a decision one way or another."

If I wanted to beat Abe into submission I had to bear the risks and go on the offensive.

Moreover, what was it that I really sought? Revenge? Or perhaps-

With my thoughts still uncollected I walked down the stairs with my head abuzz.

As I arrived on the third floor I found Kuroha leaning against the wall eating takoyaki.

"Yoohoo, Haru. You're free, aren't you? Wanna take a walk around the cultural festival together?"

Even I could tell she had been following us the entire time.

"Did you hear everything?"

"Hear what?"

"About Shiro."

Kuroha pursed her lips, stuffing the last piece of takoyaki into her mouth.

"By Shiro, you mean Kachi-san, don't you? Seems like y'all have gotten pretty close∼."

"It's not so much that we got close as we had already been close to begin with. I just didn't realise."

"Hmmm, but you're calling her Shiro despite not having been close to her for so long. I'm Kuro, and Kachi-san's Shiro. Kind of seems like I'm the evil one here, doesn't it?"

"Not at all."

"It does."

It was unlike Kuroha for her to sulk in such a roundabout way.

Could it be that…

"What, are you jealous?"

Kuroha's face exploded red and she began pressing forward towards me while poking me with the tip of her toothpick.

"W- Why should I have to be jealous?! Y- You know, I am supposed to be dating you, Haru! I don't compare myself to that loser at all!"

"You really do hate Shiro that much, huh…"

"Ooh, you called her Shiro again! For some reason I don't like the sound of that at all. I hate it very much."

It was rare to see the amiable Kuroha detest something so strongly. Ordinarily she would have expressed herself in a more roundabout way.

From that it could be said that at present Kuroha was being more honest than she usually was.

"Haha, I see."

I realised something and laughed.

"What?"

Kuroha glared at me with unconcealed displeasure.

"I mean, you know how you always try to act like a big sister and take care of others, Kuro?"

"… So?"

"I just thought about how I'm probably just about the only person you'd vent your displeasure to so openly like this, and then I realised that maybe this is just your way of acting spoiled."

"Ah."

As if she were put through an instant water heater Kuroha turned as red as a lobster in a flash and fled.

She clearly didn't want her face to be seen. Perhaps due to her having lost her composure, she began climbing the stairs towards the roof where Shirokusa and I had spoken earlier, even though she should have known that it led to a dead end.

"Oi, Kuro."

I pursued her, only for Kuroha to shout "Don't follow me!" while still hiding her face. Not that it meant I could stop chasing her.

We arrived at the end of the road fairly quickly. The door to the roof lay locked. As a result Kuroha huddled herself in the corner where the stairs stopped ascending, burying her head and tucking herself into a ball. She looked like a hermit crab hiding in its shell.

"Hey, Kuro…"

"Don't touch me!"

She shouldn't have been able to see me, yet she had read my movements perfectly. Childhood friends were fearsome indeed.

"Go somewhere else!"

"So you say but… what's going on with you? Haven't you said more embarrassing things to me already? So why then are you…"

Kuroha turned her head slightly before shutting herself back into her shell.

"You're not allowed to attack me…"

"Heh?"

Kuroha stood up impetuously and extended the full 148 centimetres of her body in order to hit me on the head.

"Didn't I tell you before?! I'm allowed to attack you, because I'm mentally prepared for it, but you're not allowed to attack me, because I'm not mentally prepared for it!"

"Ah∼…"

Come to think of it, perhaps she had said something like that. I realised too then that the times when Kuroha had felt embarrassed seemed to also coincide with the times when I had taken a step forward to assert my supremacy.

"I guess you really are just pretending to act like an older sister when your true character's something else. Doesn't seem to me like you have either the composure or the skill needed to act like one right now."

"Shut up shut up shut up!"

I was pounded repeatedly. Feeling especially remorseful, I apologised frankly.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I won't say anything else to agitate you."

"… So long as you know."

Kuroha puffed out her shapely chest, but it failed to make much of an impression due to her short stature. I would've made things worse if I had said anything however, so I kept silent for the moment.

As I did Kuroha looked downward, gauging my reaction as she spoke.

"But when we're alone I wouldn't mind it if you talked a little more assertively, you know…?"

"What, so am I supposed to say those things or not?!"

"You don't get it?! Both!"

Wow, Kuroha was acting like such a girl. I had no idea how I was meant to deal with her…

"I swear Haru, this is why you…"

Kuroha shrugged her shoulders, returning back into older sister mode.

"I want you to think long and hard about it. That's the homework Big Sister's giving you."

I raised my hand immediately.

"Okay, Big Sister. I've solved the homework."

"I'm a bit concerned because you got it so quickly but… oh well. So, Haru, what's the answer?"

"I found out that I didn't find out anything."

"You just thought figuring it out would be a bother, didn't you?!"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"… I'll make sure to teach you thoroughly, so you're coming with me to the cultural festival."

I was pulled by the ear and ended up being dragged to various places.

Lunch obviously, an assortment of exhibitions and features, the gym to see the performances going on there and the music room for the bands.

While we did all of the above the closing ceremony of the cultural festival drew closer.

"Haru, shall we split up here?"

Our class, 2-B, had its classroom on the second floor. The newer school building which housed the classrooms and older building which held the faculty room and library et cetera were connected on the second storey by a walkway.

It was in the middle of that walkway where we found ourselves.

"You have something to do right now, don't you, Haru?"

"… Yeah."

"I don't know what you're going to do or who you're doing it for. I'm still opposed to you acting again, Haru, and you didn't ask for my help, so I've decided not to say anything."

"Kuro…"

"But I do want you to know just this. I'm opposed to you acting because I know how much pain you've experienced, and how you felt when you had to give up on being a child actor."

To be honest, I didn't want to be reminded of what had happened then.

After my mother died, I became afraid of standing in front of a camera. The reality was that no one had noticed my dead mother, and she had been left alone while the cameras continued rolling. Of that I was petrified. I had frightening flashbacks even though the possibility of something similar happening again was near zero, leaving my whole body trembling as I became unable to act.

I felt like my hiatus had been unavoidable. But the truth was that what had happened after that hurt even more.

The position I had created for myself as a child actor had been my source of pride and self-confidence as a child. It had been my identity.

Having had to throw that away, I lost something on which I had relied on.

I lost the commodity for which people complimented me. I lost everything I had acquired thus far.

It was probably analogous to depriving knowledge from someone who drew his self-worth from studying, or having someone who drew praise for only his motor skills suffer an injury and become unable to play sports anymore.

I liked acting. The anxiety of standing in front of a camera, the satisfaction of drawing people in, and the sense of accomplishment I felt from moving them - each of those feelings were unlike anything else.

Thus - my regrets remained.

Was I capable of doing it again? Why couldn't I?

Thoughts like these eddied and swirled within my heart.

Kuroha saw all of that.

-How I had remained in a daze for a year after my mother's death.

-How I had recovered but suffered in agony over being unable to act.

-How I had given up and given in to despair over everything.

-How from then on I had lived out my days accepting the status quo, trying to rediscover happiness.

"That's true. You see everything, Kuro."

"I just don't want you to suffer again, Haru. But if you've found your motivation and optimism - then I want to support you. I want you to not worry about anything and be free. So-"

"Kuro…?"

Kuroha was trembling severely enough for me to see. She glanced around furtively, conscious of our surroundings.

I couldn't tell what she was about to do. Only her nervousness reached me.

"-Haru."

Kuroha made up her mind and looked up, before suddenly holding her arm aloft and giving me a slap on the cheek.

The resulting sound was crisp. The sudden commotion made the students walking around us stop still in their tracks.

While I pressed my own hand against my now warm cheek, Kuroha grinned.

"Alright, as of this point our relationship goes back to how it used to be. Whatever you do has nothing to do with me, Haru."

One could infer the meaning behind Kuroha's words from the murmuring surrounding us.

"Wait, are Maru-kun and Shidsan having a lovers' quarrel?"

"Did Maru do something stupid again?"

"For real?! Did Shidsan just become single?!"

… I see. Kuroha had heard Shirokusa confess to being Shirou. Wondering if I had not lost my desire for revenge as a result, she had thus given me a pretext for interrupting the "Confession Festival" and confessing to Shirokusa.

Kuroha and I had started dating. I would have been a reprehensible cheater if I had then confessed to Shirokusa. But now word of me getting slapped and us breaking up would surely spread like wildfire. Me confessing to Shirokusa wouldn't then be anything out of the ordinary.

"Kuro…"

Kuroha piped up with a relieved expression.

"Seriously, don't make me do everything around here, alright? I know I might look like an older sister but-"

Her face gradually clouded and her speech temporarily stopped there.

"I might look like an older sister but-"

As she repeated the same line a single tear fell.

"………… Sorry."

Kuroha turned away without bothering to wipe her tears.

I momentarily thought about chasing her before holding still where I stood.

-Don't follow me.

That was what Kuroha had said. So too had she said,

-I'll be watching.

And I thought that would have to do.

I would show her my answer at the "Confession Festival". That was far better than trying to run after and talk to her right now.

I clenched my hand into a fist watching Kuroha's back as she left… hitting myself on the head.

There was a dull thud as burning pain enveloped both my head and my fist.

I whispered under my breath.

"-I'm sorry, Kuro."

I hardened my resolve and whipped out my phone, making a call to Tetsuhiko.

Chapter end