75 Suicide (1/2)

Seiji assumed Chiaki was tired from the long night, causing her to behave so mystifyingly.

”The night’s still young; let’s go get a drink together!”

”Denied. It’s already getting late, so I’m taking you home now.”

”Objection, judge!”

”You don’t have permission to speak!”

Chiaki sighed. ”You’re terrible!”

Seiji countered all of Chiaki’s unreasonable requests and took her home.

Chiaki lived in an extravagant apartment completely on a different level from Seiji’s. Seiji wouldn’t even be able to enter unless he had a card or could pass a retina scan.

The silver-haired girl stepped up to the apartment’s front gate before she turned around and smiled at Seiji.

”Thank you so much for accompanying me tonight.”

Seiji scratched his face. ”Do you need to be so formal? You’re making me feel awkward.”

Chiaki chuckled. ”Actually, I wanted to make you embarrassed on purpose. You’re so cute like this~”

”I’m going back now. Have a good night.” Seiji decisively turned around and waved.

”Don’t! No escaping; I wasn’t finished talking yet!” Chiaki grabbed on to his hand.

”What else is there?”

Seiji heard a light swishing sound. The silver-haired girl untied her red hairband and let her long hair cascade down her slim shoulders.

This scene felt familiar to Seiji as he’d seen similar scenes in animes before. Even he was forced to admit that Chiaki’s current appearance was quite stunning.

Chiaki was simply returning to her normal hairstyle, but due to her current clothing and her elegant movements, she exuded a special type of charisma.

”This… I’m giving it to you.” Chiaki placed her red hairband in Seiji’s hand.

”Eh?”

”This was the first present that Haruka ever gave me, but now… I don’t need it anymore,” Chiaki said with a serious expression.

Seiji failed to come up with a suitable reply.

”That’s why I’m giving it to you! You can do whatever you like with it: throw it away, give it to someone else, or… give it back to Haruka.” Chiaki displayed an alluring smile.

Then she finally turned around.

”That’s all! Good night, Seiji~”

”Wait a moment! Something so important… is it really fine to give this to me!? By the way, why are you giving it to me?”

‘Shouldn’t she be giving it to Mika if she wants to give it away?’ Seiji was confused by her unexpected gift.

Chiaki merely waved at him with her back turned and walked through her apartment’s front gate without replying.

Seiji stood there stunned for a few minutes before he finally sighed and carefully put away the red hairband.

He glanced at the apartment one more time before leaving.

This long night had finally ended.

…

A new week, on Monday.

He didn’t mention the real reason behind Haruka Shimizu’s invitation. He only told her that Haruka wanted Chiaki to transfer schools and be friends again, without bringing up her request for Chiaki to take a leave of absence or anything about danger.

Nor did he mention the red hairband.

That’s because after Seiji reached his apartment and checked his system, he was shocked!

This [gift] gave him an excessively high amount of points compared to normal! Innumerable emotions must have been contained within this red hairband!

Just why did Chiaki give him something so important to her? Seiji couldn’t comprehend the reason behind Chiaki’s gift, but this definitely wasn’t something he should treat carelessly.

He decided not to tell Mika for the time being, not because he wanted to conceal it, but because he felt like he shouldn’t speak rashly before he deciphered the intentions behind Chiaki’s gift.

As expected, Mika didn’t think too deeply about what Seiji told her, and she accepted his words without question.

”That person… named Sasaki-san, he was slapped by Haruka then knocked out by you; he seems a little pitiful.”

”I was already kind enough to spare his life.”

”Is that what you call kindness?” Mika’s eyes were becoming unfocused.

”Do you wish to behold how cruel I can really be?” Seiji pretended to adjust a pair of imaginary glasses.

”I don’t want to know…”

”How regrettable. You’ve missed an opportunity to see the world for what it really is.”

”What does this have to do with the truth of the world!?” Mika retorted forcefully.

Yep, today there was a pleasant atmosphere as well.

At this point in time Seiji didn’t expect what he was about to face next would be… rather unpleasant.

After reaching school, Seiji removed some love letters from his shoe locker again, greeted Chiaki, and went to class together with the silver-haired girl and Mika.

Everything was normal.

During class time.

”Chiaki, what do you intend to do about Shimizu-san’s request?” Seiji asked her when he met her in the hallway after using the bathroom.

To tell the truth, he would have preferred to ask her what she wanted him to do with the red hairband… However, he felt like she’d just tell him some excuse as it wasn’t an appropriate time to yet.

”About that… I haven’t decided… What do you think?” Chiaki asked him a question in return.

”Danger is only a possibility, but taking a temporary leave of absence will indeed lower the risk to the minimum,” Seiji said firmly. ”It’s just that if you take a leave of absence, even without considering how to apply for it, you’ll fall behind in classes, you won’t be able to attend drama club, and you’ll even miss the upcoming school festival…”

”Yeah, I know, so even though it’s Haruka requesting me, I’m still hesitating about it.” Chiaki sighed. ”I know she cares about me, and I want to acquiesce to her wish, but taking a leave of absence… That’s a lot to ask for. I don’t care about my classes as much, but as for drama club… If I take a leave of absence now, I’d feel bad for everyone in drama club. Besides, if I take a vacation by myself, I’d feel like… I abandoned everyone else and escaped by myself.”

Chiaki looked towards Seiji.

”What do you think I should do?”

As she asked this, the conversation options appeared—

A: [You should take a leave of absence so that Haruka can rest assured.]

B: [I can’t make this decision for you.]

C: [Stay at school—I’ll protect you no matter what happens!]

Conversation options appearing meant that this was an important answer which would affect Chiaki’s route… er, whether or not she would take a leave of absence from school.

Conversation options would appear from time to time, but Seiji typically ignored them nowadays as he preferred answering with what he believed rather than answering insincerely in order to improve a girl’s favorability rating.

As for what he preferred this time, he thought option B was the best, since he truly didn’t feel like he should make such an important decision for Chiaki. But considering what might happen in the near future… he decided to make a save file for this point in time.

If danger truly befell the school in the future, he could return to this time and tell Chiaki choice A in order to keep her safe.

After saving, Seiji finally replied to Chiaki.

”I can’t make this decision for you; you have to decide on your own. Haruka and school are both important to you, so you must resolve to choose the one which is more important to you.”