EVEN from behind, Yura could hear Tomoko’s painful words.
By the time they grabbed their bags and left school, the sun was setting.
“Why didn’t you speak up even once?” Tomoko shouted forcefully.
Yura had finally calmed down after the day’s harrowing events. Trembling, she managed to tell Tomoko about what she’d seen. As she spoke, Tomoko pounded the wall twice, unable to withhold her anger. The right hand she was massaging had turned red.
“They sure got the jump on us… We can’t just grin and bear it anymore! We need to go to their houses today and let ’em have it!” she exclaimed, clutching the handle of her bag so tight that it seemed it might break.
Yura nodded silently.
It was only natural for Tomoko to be so worked up.
The way they had been accused of something they hadn’t done, been talked about behind their backs, and staying quiet in the face of such allegations, Tomoko’s reactions were neither foolish nor reckless. Her sense of justice was stronger than the average person’s, and she wasn’t the sort to allow corruption to go unpunished, so it was clearly eating at her.
“It’s all right, we told our teacher what was going on. I’m sure he will understand.”
“How can you be so calm about all of this?” Tomoko asked in a tone that was half-irritation, half-astonishment.
Yura hung her head.
Until the end of second year, Tomoko had belonged to the tennis team for a time. The advisor for the tennis team, Sakagami, was an open-hearted woman who’d developed a rapport with Tomoko. This was the teacher who presided over fifth period gym class. They had gone to see her after leaving the faculty office to tell her what happened.
“That is a problem…” was the first thing Sakagami said after listening to everything Tomoko had to say. “Well, I didn’t believe Sugano was the sort to do something so foolish either.”
Those words gave Yura the slightest hint of salvation. Setting her pen down, Ms. Sakagami stretched. As she spoke, her finger trailed down the list of stolen belongings.
“I also saw you take off with your face pale. And I don’t think in the short time before you came back that you could have stolen so much from all four clubrooms…”
“They took that much?”
Sakagami responded to the question with a nod while awkwardly tapping the old printer on her desk with a ballpoint pen.
“Each room had been ravaged from one end to the other. It was like they’d checked each member’s locker and not only stolen club funds, but any items against school regulation, which each student hid in their respective clubrooms. It seems like they gathered everything they wanted, including those items, regardless of price. What a foolish thing to do.”
“……”
“Well, it’ll be all right,” the teacher said. “Sako doesn’t have much room to fool around either. He’s very serious. It was after school and very sudden when they found out about the crime and tried to investigate… I’ll try to explain what you’ve just shared with me, so you two head home for today.”
Things were up in the air, but that’s where they were. It was difficult to tell whether or not anything useful would happen.
“How can we prove anything?” Tomoko spat.
Yura didn’t head home but instead headed straight to the antique shop. Tomoko spit into the darkening sky.
“I always knew I couldn’t count on Sako, but this is a new low.”
Yura looked down. Tomoko raised her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Tomo-chan.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
Tomoko sulked in irritation. She sounded more upset than Yura had ever heard her.
“…Hey, listen…”
“…Mmhmm?”
“Why didn’t you say anything in your defense?” Tomoko looked Yura straight in the eye. The pair had stopped on the darkening hill.
“……”
“You know there are times that you need to fight, right?”
Yura hung her head. She could tell what Tomoko really wanted to say by the look in her eyes.
What had happened earlier wouldn’t have turned out that way if Yura had come out and said “That’s not what happened.”
She couldn’t even stand up for herself, her friend had to do it for her. It felt like, in her cowardice, she was taking advantage of Tomoko.
“…I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t say it because I want you to apologize.”
Tomoko took a deep breath then let out a long sigh, as if releasing so much excess tension.
A dusty wind began to blow along the road.
“…You know this kind of thing will probably keep happening, right?”
Yura was silent.
That was probably true. No, it was definitely true. Such ridiculous false accusations were all it took to put her in this horrible situation.
“…Just forget it.”
That was all Yura could say.
If she just shook her fist each time it happened and kept fighting, eventually, she’d run out of strength. At least that was what she believed.
Even Tomoko would reach her limits. The light in those eyes that burned so bright today would burn out. That was the one thing she couldn’t let happen.
Getting angry every time would solve nothing. If she just let them do what they wanted, eventually, they’d get tired and leave her alone. They couldn’t be that foolish to keep stealing…right? That’s what she believed, at least.
As if reading Yura’s thoughts, Tomoko made a face. Her voice got louder.
“So, you’re fine just keeping quiet, letting people do this to you and just say nothing? You think it’s right to let them spread false accusations about you? To treat you like an empty-headed fool?!”
“…It’s not right…”
“If I can’t be with you like I was today and something like this happens again, are you gonna stay quiet then too? When you need to speak up or do something or fight back, don’t just stay quiet because it makes things easier…”
“It’s fine. I’m sorry.” Yura turned away.
Tomoko really was angry.
Maybe all of this frustration had been building up for a long time.
Yura always clammed up when she should speak or explain. It was her own spinelessness, she knew. She knew deep down that she was weak, cowardly, submissive, and indecisive.
“I’m…so sorry…”
“Why do you always try to avoid the issue? Why do you always apologize when it’s not your fault?”
A long silence fell over them.
Somewhere in the distance, a streetlight flickered on and off.
Under the early evening streetlights, Yura could see Tomoko’s fists were trembling. Her clenched fists were shaking in frustration. Yura couldn’t even look at her, lowering her head instead.
Tomoko opened her mouth.
“…You coward.”
Those words struck Yura right in the heart. Something that she should’ve protected more fiercely than anything cracked like an eggshell.
Weakling. Coward.
Tomoko should have been glaring at Yura, but instead, her face became hazy and unreadable.
“…”
Yura didn’t have the willpower to speak, let alone to argue.
Her head down, Yura clutched her bag and took off.