It had probably been taken in the middle of some wrap party. Both were smiling broadly, raising their glasses towards the camera. They appeared to be quite friendly with one another.
I assumed this was some recent event. Akiyoshi’s hair was a fair bit shorter than in the old photo I had, and she seemed to be wearing makeup and some casual dress more akin to how I had seen her on the day of the mixer. At first, I assumed this had been posted up by some hapless Moai member who was unaware of what was going on, but that was not the case. The account seemed to be a burner, having posted up only two other pieces of information besides the photo.
Those two pieces of information were both phone numbers. One of the two seemed familiar to me. I frantically checked my phone contacts.
As I expected, one of them was Akiyoshi’s phone number, unused in ages but still recorded in my phone—which meant I could assume that the other one was Ten’s.
I had assumed that Akiyoshi would have changed her number by now. While I was taken aback by the fact that this meant I could still have a conversation with her anytime I wanted, it also meant that things seemed like they were starting to progress in a direction I had never intended.
I never thought that anyone would be this unscrupulous.
Momentarily it occurred to me that perhaps I ought to take a step back from fanning the flames of this scandal until I saw that the image had already been shared around, which meant that it was beyond my power to stop it.
Once more, I looked at the photo of the two of them.
Those smiles were built on fraudulent actions, hurting others, and abandoning their values.
I don’t know if I did it of my own free will, or if I was merely swept up in the will of the masses, but I decided to lend a hand in spreading that image and information.
It was not my fault that things had come this far.
Moai was wicked enough to warrant this criticism.
The moment I realized this, my clicking finger moved with the lightest of motions.
It was the following week that the university officially announced they would be taking action against Moai. Before I realized it, summer break was upon us. From the university’s perspective, this might be their sole salvation in protecting themselves from mayhem as much as possible.
I had already stopped attending my classes, commuting only between my home and work.
That day, as usual, when I arrived to my evening shift, I saw Kawahara-san arrive in the parking area at around the same time. She smiled at me.
“Evenin’. Uh…I’m okay now.”
“Huh? Okay?”
“I’m not pissed off anymore.”
Apparently, she had gotten the impression that I was frightened that she would show up angry every time we were on shift together. Still, what was with that smile?
“Well, I’m glad to hear that either way,” I said as we headed into the locker room together, at which Kawahara-san sighed.
“I mean, now that a punishment has been settled on, I have to get prepared to accept it.”
“Accept it?”
“I mean, I’m in Moai too. What’s bad is bad, and I’m not wholly without blame.”
“No, I’m pretty sure you’re blameless,” I said, completely earnestly, but she shook her head.
“It’s not totally zero. I may not have been directly involved, but to say that I was not involved at all would be betraying myself.”
“Ah.”
This response did not mean that I accepted her opinion. It was an Ah, I see.
Kawahara-san was becoming yet another person who was completely drunk on her own self. Though I felt a sort of sadness, I offered her a smile and said, “That’s an impressive way to think about it.”
“It’s not that impressive. I mean…I dunno, there seem to be a lot of people even within Moai who are upset about this. The debrief is gonna be this Saturday finally, and depending on what’s said there, I might just end up pissed off again.”
“Oh, finally, huh. Well, it’ll be nice for things to calm down.”
“Oh, if I do get pissed off though, I’m gonna need you to take me out for a drink or something.”
I don’t know how she took my momentary pause as I wondered how I ought to respond to this invitation, but she quickly added, “Oh, I mean, if you want to,” with an odd little bow, before vanishing into the storefront.
Kawahara-san was beginning to seem like yet another vexing person. Trying to keep at least some consideration for my junior in mind, I considered the fact that I had now obtained the date for the member debriefing from the Moai upper management. I wondered if there was some way that I could listen to that debrief. This would be my chance to hear Akiyoshi’s own feelings on the scandal and the actual facts of the incident. It would be fine to hear it through someone else, but honestly, I wanted to confirm the results of this battle I had waged for these past months with my own two eyes.
Plus, there was something of a sense of villainy lurking somewhere deep down in my mind. I wanted to see Akiyoshi’s face when she realized she’d lost. However, I only felt that in half-seriousness. What I actually wanted was just to see Akiyoshi return to her roots.
That password. It gave me hope that it might not take much to make her remember the things she used to believe in. And so, if I could, I wanted to be present at that meeting.
There had to be some way. As I thought about it, Kawahara-san returned, and it was time for our shift to start.
Just as the last few days had been for me, it all went by in a blur—work, and eating, and conversation.
Everything but Moai.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hey, Kaede, you free next Sunday?” It was back when Moai was just the two of us.
“No real plans. How come?” I asked Akiyoshi without looking at her, as we walked through the courtyard after some boring lecture.
Back then we were just two people, friends, no unnecessary fetters to tie us down.
“I heard that there was a grad student who runs a non-profit holding a symposium on bullying. I was thinking I’d go meet them. Wanna go if you’re not busy? Or wait, didn’t you start your part-time job already? Would you be okay missing work Sunday?”
I was a little uncertain, but there was no point in lying, so I replied honestly, “I already requested not to work Sundays since you invite me to a lot of things like these.”
For a moment she seemed dumbfounded, but the corners of her mouth soon perked up.
“You’ve been thinking about Moai a lot, haven’t you?”
To be fair, Moai activities were not the only reason I kept my Sundays free, but there was no reason to douse my friend’s spirits, so I decided to leave it at that.
“But do you really want to spend a precious Sunday thinking about bullying?”
“Well, this person works on weekdays and had grad school, so there aren’t a lot of chances to meet with them. Plus, it’s better than thinking about it on a Monday, right?”
“That’s true.”
I honestly didn’t want to think about an unpleasant topic on an already unpleasant day.
“Apparently, the topic is how to care for the bullies as well, so I’m thinking there will be a lot of educators there.”
“We aren’t educators, though.”
“But when we see bullying happening, maybe we’ll be able to do something about it.”
As always, I was no match for those bright, clear eyes.
“I am free, so guess I’ll go. I’d want to be able to help a little if you were ever being bullied, at least.”
“Well, c’mon, not a little, I’d want you to actually help me out! Mm, actually…”
The nihilistic smile she had tried to make was so poorly done that I remember it clearly still.
“I’m counting on you.”
She was terrible at making expressions she wasn’t used to.