I don't know if Yuka and Hiroki are going to school together or not, but if they are, they might be deliberately shifting the time so that I don't find out about their relationship.
Yuka may have sensed something when she saw Hiroki's upset and exhausted face. She put down her bag and tried to talk to her group of girls.
I took the initiative and called her "Yuka". As expected, she couldn't ignore me or pretend she didn't hear me, so she said, "Eh? What's wrong?" She replied.
"Come here for a minute."
I said with a hand gesture, and she seemed to have given up.
“...Okay."
Yuka nodded and came over to me.
“What's wrong?"
She asked again.
Before I could explain, I motioned to Mizuno. I thought it would be the quickest way to get her to look at the pictures. Mizuno showed Yuka the photo he had taken with his cell phone.
"So that's it."
I tried to keep a calm tone and told Yuka, who was looking down in disappointment.
“You're going out with Hiroki, Yuka? No, you're having an affair.”
“...Yes."
After a long silence, Yuka twisted her words into an affirmation.
“Do you feel guilty, or are you pretending to feel guilty…?
“When did it start?"
“'Since about ...July.”
It's September now, which means it's been about two months. It took Hiroki only two months - or maybe even less - to reach an area that I hadn't reached in three years. I wonder if Hiroki is aggressive or if I am passive...
“Why?
“Why - did you cheat on me with Hiroki?”
“Because I fell in love with Hiroki-kun.”
“More than me?”
“Yes, more than Kazu-kun.”
The impact was like a straight shot to my midsection. I felt like I was going to throw up.
Do you like Hiroki more than me…? I didn't want to hear that. I didn't want to know such a cruel reality.
"Hey, Kazuma. Are you okay?"
Mizuno called out to me with concern.
I nodded. I couldn't afford to say a word now.
Hiroki, on the other hand, was slowly regaining some of his lost composure. He had a winning smile on his face.
“I'm sorry.”
"There is no use for you to apologize to me now…”
Somehow, I struggled to formulate words.
“We're breaking up, right?” (Yuka)
It sounded less like a suggestion and more like a one-sided declaration.
When I found out that she was cheating on me, my love for Yuka was extinguished. There was no single reason not to break up with her.
“...Okay."
At the same time she nodded, the sound of the chime rang out. I couldn't concentrate at all in class that day.
This was the end of our relationship.
◇◇◇
After that, I went about my school life, feeling awkward because I was in the same class as them (Yuka and Hiroki pretended that I didn't exist - and that they didn't have a relationship with me - and flirted to their heart's content). ). Mizuno and her friends comforted me, telling me to cheer up.
In the second year of school, classes would be changed. I'll just have to be patient until then. There was a possibility that I would be in the same class with either Yuka or Hiroki, or both, in the second year, but I explained the situation to the homeroom teacher and asked her to make sure that I wouldn't be in the same class with either of them.
However, my attempts at laying the groundwork with the homeroom teacher ended in vain.
It's not that I ended up in the same class with them. Both of them had dropped out of school.
Sometime after the beginning of the year, there was a story that Yuka was pregnant. I don't have to tell you who’s baby it was. The story seemed to be true, and Yuka started to take time off from school and faded out.
Hiroki became the talk of the town among the first-year students as the one who got Yuka pregnant, and there was also a story that he had cheated on her. Aside from the former, the latter became quite notorious, and even unknown students spoke ill of him.
Hiroki couldn't stand being bad-mouthed and talked behind his back anymore, so he quit school. I don't think he deserved it, but I don't feel sorry for him.
What happened to the two of them after that?
The rumors I’ve heard was that they got married and Yuka gave birth to a child. I couldn't get any information about where they were living, whether they had gone to college, or what they were doing for work.
After Yuka dropped out of high school, I had once thought of visiting her house, but the Yamakawa family had moved away. Of course, I didn't get to say goodbye to them.
I thought at the time that I would never have anything to do with Yuka again.
However, the world seems to be a smaller place than I thought.
