Chapter 1: I can’t stand it.
I’m out of patience.

“I hate that you and I have known each other since we were kids, lol.”

“—Yeah, me too.”

“Eh?”

　Her face froze at the unexpected “surprise attack”.

　Her name is Rua Takayashiki.

　She is my childhood friend.

　A karaoke bar in front of the station.
In a spacious and luxurious VIP room, the school’s “hot group,” men and women of the top caste, are gathered.
They are staring at me, a shady guy who came here without knowing his status, with a grin.

　Rua brushed her long blonde hair, her pride and joy.
The edges of her rouged lips trembled.

“W-What are you talking about? You’re so cocky, Kazu!”

“You said you didn’t like it, Rua.
We are in the same boat”

“Haa?　Stop making jokes, you idiot.
You don’t have the right to do that.
I am free to dislike you, but you are not free to dislike me!”

　What kind of Gianism.

　What is yours is mine.
Mine belongs to me.

The world is coming to an end because the most beautiful girl in the school and the most popular idol voice actress is the one who says such a crazy thing.

　Further discussion is pointless.

Ears rot, mouths rot, eyes rot.
I don’t even want to breathe the same air anymore.

　Today is the end of a decade-long relationship since I was in kindergarten.

“Good bye.”

I slammed my own bill on the table.
It was ridiculous, even though it had been less than three minutes since I had entered the room, but it was worth it if I considered it my parting gift.

One of the hot guys in the group yells at my back.

“Uncool!”

“What was he doing?”

“He looked like an idiot”

“Just die, lol”

　What a coincidence.
I hate you guys too.
I’ve hated you for a long time.

　Bam, I closed the door with a slam.
I could still hear Rua squeaking, but I didn’t care.

　I don’t need to be popular anymore.

I don’t want to be a part of the “hot group.”

　Thinking of this, my body felt light.

　From now on, I will live on my own.

　It all started on Sunday morning.

　It was a message from Rua on my phone.

[Hey Kazu, can you come to the station at noon today?]

[We’re going to do karaoke with Asano-kun, Ayaka-chi, and the others.]

　To be honest, I was puzzled.

The two names Rua gave were both members of the “hot group”.
Yuuya Asano is the ace of the baseball team and Ayaka Ayukawa is the first-year leader of the dance club.
They are beautiful boy and girl who stand out anywhere in the school.

They are the two who stand out in any part of the school.
The school’s hot group.

　Would I, a conspicuous, unattractive, and unappealing person in the class, be allowed to participate in their karaoke?

“I don’t know if it’s okay for me to go.　I don’t know them well at all.”

As soon as I replied, I received another message.

[But, Kazu, you said it in the past.
‘I want to lighten up, I want to have friends, I want to have a girlfriend’.]

[The best way to do that is to join a cool group like us.]

[Okay?　You have to be brave and take the first step!!]

　Her words were persuasive.

　I certainly didn’t consider my plain, dark self to be “good enough”.
I was a healthy first-year high school boy, and I wanted to be popular with girls.
I didn’t need to be popular like Rua.
I just wanted to have normal friends and a normal girlfriend.

　But that “normal” was hard to come by.

　I don’t know how to put it, but the “normal” that is advertised on TV and in magazines is not normal at all.
There are only a few people in my class who have many friends and lovers in their youth.

　How does Yuuya Asano manage to dress so coolly in his school uniform?

　How can Ayaka Ayukawa go out with her college boyfriend?

　How can they talk so loudly in the classroom?

　I don’t want to be like them, but I do wish I had at least half the brightness and sociability of theirs.

　I mentioned this to Rua once.

　The popular voice-over idol’s response was.

“Are you stupid?　A fugly guy like you should know your place.”

“Your value is only that you are Rua’s childhood friend.
You can’t just go out and find a new one.　You should know that!”

　It was a typical Rua word.

　Rua’s queen-like character has made her quite popular in the voice-over industry, as if there are many M men in this world.

　Rua’s habit is to say, “You should know your place.”

Be aware of your size, be aware of your face, be aware of your birth, be aware of your genes, and so on.

In various ways, she has expressed that she is the “privileged class” and I am the “lowly people.”

　I would get angry too, but on the other hand, there was a part of me that thought, “It can’t be helped.
Rua was popular, had a boyfriend as early as the fourth grade, was scouted in front of a train station, became an idol, and then a voice actress—-” she was a picture-perfect princess.
In contrast, I had nothing to offer.
I don’t have many friends.
I don’t have a girlfriend, of course.
My face is ugly and dark, and my hobby is reading.

　So it’s no wonder people say that about me.

　I had given up.

　And then this invitation came along.

（This is a chance for me.)

(Shouldn’t I be brave enough to join?)

(I don’t think I’ll ever be able to join the cool corps, but if I can make even a thin connection, it might be a chance for me to change my ways.)

　I made up my mind.

　I talked to my mother, who was getting ready to go to work, and asked her for money to go to a hair salon.
My mother goes to work on weekdays and works part-time at a nearby supermarket on weekends.
She is a single-mother family, so we have no money.
I felt uncomfortable asking my mother for money, but I wanted to do something about my shaggy hair.

　Mom laughed and offered me the money.

“Go out there and get yourself a good woman”

“When you get a girlfriend, introduce her to your mother, too!”

　I thanked her and hurried to a nearby hair salon.
I told the unfriendly nose-piercing hairdresser, ” Ah, please give me a bright and crisp haircut!” I was a little scared, but she was good at what she did and gave me a neat and tidy look.

　Then I ran home and rummaged through my closet.
I decided on a navy jacket, a plain white T-shirt, and denim shorts.
The jacket was only a winter one, and it was hot on this late May day, but I could live with it.

　I put on my watch, a memento of my father’s, and went to the karaoke box.

　Nervously, I opened the door to my assigned room and was greeted with a huge smile.

　Yuuya Asano, Ayaka Ayuse, a dozen of the school’s hottest guys, and Rua pointed at me standing at the door and laughed.

“Uwa, you really are here, hahaha”

“I can’t believe it, lol, you even cut your hair, lol.”

“W-W-W-wearing a jacketttttttttttttt!”

“Wait hahaha, just a second hahahaha, you smell like a hairdresser, ahahahaha.
I can’t hahahaha”

“Pupupupupupupu, everyone stop laughing, hahaha, so you dressed up? hahaha.
Stop laughing, pupupupu”

　I understood everything.

　Ah–I see.

　So this was an “event” like this.

　That’s why I was invited.

I stared coldly at all the beautiful men and women sitting on the spacious sofa.
I was not angry.
I just thought, “They must be busy”.
I even felt pity for them when I saw their “real” faces, which I had assumed were full of love, study, and sports every day.
But when I thought of my mother, who paid for my hairdresser’s bill, I felt a little sad.

“—-Hey, what are you just standing there like that?”

　Rua said in a low voice.
Only the voice actor has a strong voice.

“Look, Kazu.
Cry.
Rant and rave.
I’m betting 1,000 yen that you’ll cry and slobber.
Come on.”

She didn’t like that I was unresponsive.
Yuuya Asano teased me, “I’ll be out of here in no time for 1,000 yen!”

“I want you to tell me one thing.”

　I asked quietly.

“Did I do something to you?　What did I do to offend you guys?　Why did you have to do this to me?”

　The room fell silent.

Surprising questions from the lower class —-No, they are amused by the treason.
A look that says, “Why don’t you just shut up and let me hit you, b*tch?”

The look of disgust on my face, like I’m not in the mood for this.

“Why, you ask?　Don’t ask me that stupid question.”

　Rua said, stroking her chin.

“The reason, of course, is that you’re my slave.”

“…………”

　She threw words at me as I remained silent.

“Really, really.
Please try to entertain me by being embarrassed at best.
I hate that you and I have known each other since we were kids, lol.”

　Bum.

Line broke

　At that moment, I heard “something” snap.

One’s store of patience?　No, wrong.

　This was the sound of a “connection” breaking off.

　I have known Rua for a long time.
I have a certain amount of affection for her.
I’ve been able to ignore some of the things she does and says.
We used to bathe together.
I’ve interpreted her unmannerly attitude as a sign of her ease with me.

　But now, it’s enough.

Impossible.

　I don’t want to go through all this, to be treated like this, to be friends with those beasts in human skin.

　Are you ready, Kazu Suzuki?

　Are you ready to spend three years of high school life alone?

Do you want to make friends with these people, even if they laugh at you and let you go through this?

　–NO! (Said in English)

Do you want a girlfriend, even if it means flirting with people you don’t like?

　–NO!

　Then, good.

　Let’s go.
The wilderness of loneliness.

“—Yeah, me too.”

　I said, determined.

Those were the words of parting.

　I was saying goodbye to my childhood friend of ten years.

　And with my past self, it was a word of farewell.

　The next morning.

When I arrived at school, I found a desk and a chair in the classroom hallway.
I wondered what it was, but it turned out to be my desk.
It had a polite note on it.

[There’s no seat for you.]

　It was clearly written in her handwriting.

“….Heh.
I see.
So that is how it is”

I knew that by heart.

　I’ve known about it for a long time.

　I had pretended not to see it for a long time, thinking it might be my own prejudice, but now I clearly recognized the fact.

　The woman who was my childhood friend, the popular voice actor of the moment…

　Worst, Pig person I’ve ever met.

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