71 Truth (1/2)

Tetsuo Sakaki felt like agreeing to this meeting had been a mistake in the first place.

As the ace member of the karate club and one of the top-ranked students in Koaki High School, he was bursting with confidence.

Koaki High School was already a gathering ground for the best of the best, so standing at the top even among them was definitely something to be proud of. In his eyes, he only regarded his classmates as well as those equal to or above him in status.

Tetsuo Sakaki couldn’t even be bothered with those who he considered as below him. Of course, that included students from other schools that weren’t of the same quality as Koaki High School.

He failed to grasp the reason behind Haruka Shimizu’s stubbornness regarding this matter. Genhana High School? This normal girl was from a low-rated school which wasn’t even worth paying attention to.

Yes, they previously bore affection for each other, but that was over with now. It was wrong to continue it!

Since Haruka already decided to break up, she should have said goodbye to Chiaki forever and never bothered with her again, but...

He’d already directly told Haruka he didn’t understand why she was doing this, but Haruka remained adamant about continuing, so he could only accompany her.

Haruka was too much of a softie.

Such a girl wasn’t even worth her attention or love!

At this moment, Tetsuo Sakaki was more certain of this than anything else.

”The two of you... don’t even know you’re basically no different from garbage.” His eyes were filled with unrestrained condescension as he finally voiced his true thoughts.

”Tetsuo!” Haruka raised her voice.

”Don’t stop me, Haruka! You saw how rude they were being for yourself!” Tetsuo gave Haruka a sidelong glance before glaring at the two in front of him again. ”We were nice enough to meet up with them, but they’re being so rude to us... They’re nothing but scum!”

Seiji and Chiaki retracted their fake smiles as they exchanged glances.

”It appeared.”

”Yep, it was exposed rather quickly... the true face of the arrogant boy.”

They both anticipated this scene, so their attitudes remained calm.

Tetsuo felt another wave of anger sweep through his heart; he was incensed at being seen through by the duo he’d looked upon.

If only he could have remained calm, perhaps he would have realized the mistake he was making, but the current him was blinded by rage and arrogance.

He stood up violently and pounded the table with his fist, causing hot coffee to spill out of the cups.

”Let’s go, Haruka! These scumbags aren’t even worth our time...”

*Slap!*

A clear sound resounded throughout the room.

The blue-haired girl had slapped the brown-haired boy.

Tetsuo was shocked at the sudden slap and was left dazed.

Haruka stood up and yelled in a low voice as she struggled to suppress the burning rage which welled up within her.

Although she knew that the boy with her wasn’t very reliable, she didn’t expect him to fall for their taunts so easily.

In actuality, Haruka’s sudden loss of control over her own emotions surprised her even more than her classmate’s poor behavior.

Witnessing how shamefully Tetsuo was acting, she acted on sudden impulse and ended up slapping him.

This shouldn’t be... Her normal self wouldn’t do such a thing!

At this moment Haruka Shimizu finally realized how shaken she truly was deep inside.

A withering silence reigned over the room for several moments.

Chiaki finally sighed wistfully, breaking the silence.

”Haruka... Actually, I really missed you.”

A soft, gentle expression appeared on Chiaki’s face for the first time as she looked at the blue-haired girl.

”Chiaki...”

Haruka returned the silver-haired girl’s gaze.

”After separating from you, I thought about you... Every day, every moment, for such a long time,” Chiaki began slowly. ”Every time I thought about what you said while breaking up with me, my heart would ache. You said so much, and all of it was logical... But none of that was important to me. I didn’t care; I couldn’t comprehend or accept the reasons. I only knew that you wanted to break up with me, and you were resolute about it. It hurt me severely. Nevertheless... I still loved you.”

A teardrop formed in the corner of Chiaki’s eye and slowly dripped down her pale white cheek.

Haruka was unable to come up with words as she listened to Chiaki’s heartfelt words.

Tetsuo still hadn’t regained his senses.

If he had dared to say anything to ruin the current mood, Seiji definitely would have smacked him a good one in the mouth.

Wordlessly, a tissue was handed over to Chiaki.