Epilogue
A few days had passed since the party room incident. In the intervening period, my standing at school had become incredibly…complicated. What I mean by that is…remember how my actions at Sports Day had alienated everyone, making me persona non grata?
Well, that was still the case, except that…Nonoka had reverted to her habit of, well, being my number one fan. As you might imagine, this left everyone in class thoroughly confused.
In the end, Nonoka had to explain to everyone that I was the one who convinced Miyu to get the surgery. This revelation slowly restored things back to the way they were pre-Sports Day, but not entirely.
While my classmates now knew I had convinced Miyu, they still didn't understand why I had been absent. Some believed I might have had a noble reason for missing it, while others suspected I had somehow duped Nonoka.
In all honesty, this hung jury situation wasn’t at all disadvantageous. Maybe I was good, maybe I was bad. Being caught in the middle made it easier for me to eventually sway to the bad side and make it believable.
Though, I still had to worry about Rikka and Ruki. They were the only ones who knew everything—both the reason for my absence on Sports Day and that I helped Miyu on Nonoka’s behalf. They had remained oddly quiet about it, which I was grateful for because it meant I didn’t have to start over and act like a tsundere in front of everyone, but…not knowing why they kept quiet unnerved me.
It was entirely possible that when Asuka blabbed on me, she had divulged the whole rationale I had fed her about not wanting to hurt the pride of the Akizukis, and Rikka and Ruki had accepted that. But I couldn’t quite believe they would buy the excuse. Not that it was entirely flimsy; the potential hit to the Akizukis’ reputation was very real. Still, I couldn’t be sure.
Ugh, why are unknowns so stressful? At the end of the day, it didn’t matter. I had a more pressing matter to devote my attention to—mustering up the courage for the eventual betrayal of my closest friends. So, I shelved my thoughts and focused on the missions delivered to my phone.
That being said, I wasn’t exactly attempting rocket science this time of year. It was finals season, so besides the occasional modeling job, it was all studying all the time. Then, one day, Nonoka invited me to a group study session.
“We are holding a group study session, and wondered if you’d like to join us?” Nonoka asked me.
Seriously, this girl… I thought with a sigh. Glancing past her, I sized up what “we” meant. Behind her were Natsumi, Mizuki, and Riku. A four-person study group, eh? Natsumi and Mizuki looked rather flustered, while Riku was…pretty stone-faced. This certainly didn’t seem like a genuine “we wanted to” moment.
“Nonoka, have you asked the other members of your party whether they would appreciate my presence?” I asked.
“Oh, uh.” She turned around. “You all don’t mind, do you?”
Of course, they would, I thought internally. Maybe they heard my thoughts, maybe they didn’t, but they stuck to their silence. A beat later, however, Natsumi said, “I don’t mind.” That paved the way for Mizuki to nod and for Riku to acquiesce.
“And there you have it,” Nonoka said. “So, what do you say, Ms. Mio?”
A strained smile crossed my lips. Before, I wouldn’t have hesitated to rebuff her with a choice “get real,” but now…
“All right. If you need my help that desperately.”
No more running. No more fear of hurting others. I would get as close to Nonoka as I could…and destroy her trust in the end. Nobody seemed to have expected a positive response from me; Nonoka’s jaw dropped in surprise.
“What?” she whispered.
“Don’t need me? Never mind then,” I said.
“Wait, wait, no! We would be so glad to have you!” she scrambled to say, her face lighting up with pure joy, completely innocent of the fact that one day I would have to hurt her again.
But such thoughts weren’t allowed to me, were they? If I faltered now, how could I muster up the courage to do what I had to when it mattered? Villainesses mustn’t be soft. I needed to embrace the feeling of using kind, good-natured people like Nonoka for my benefit.
Telling myself that, I forced the better parts of my brain to switch off. “Then you wouldn’t mind if Asuka and Sayaka joined us as well, would you?” I posited, glancing at the girls in question.
The villainess was my role; I had to face my doom—but not Asuka and Sayaka. They had to—I needed them to—walk their own path. To that end, I would set them up now. I gave them a look that said, apologize.
They nodded and stepped up to Nonoka.
“Ms. Nonoka, we are truly sorry for what happened on the day of the entrance exams,” Asuka said, bowing her head deeply.
“Can you ever forgive us?” Sayaka bowed as well.
The din of the classroom quieted, all eyes swiveling to us—but when were we ever not the center of attention? Nonoka snapped out of her shock and hastily said, “Please, don’t bow!”
Asuka and Sayaka slowly raised their heads to look at her. “You…forgive us?” Sayaka asked.
“I mean, yeah!” Nonoka replied. “That was so long ago, of course, I forgive you.”
“I see. Then, thank you, Nonoka,” Sayaka said.
Just like that, my two girls were on speaking terms with Nonoka—officially, now. I flicked open my fan to cover my face. “So, what’s the venue?” I asked.
“We…don’t have one yet,” Nonoka answered.
I swear to… But I bit back my words and instead offered a more diplomatic, “Then how about using one of the Corporate study rooms?”
“Oh, that’d be perfect!” she replied. Happily, but still not as happily as when I told her I would be joining her. Seriously, just what made me so trustworthy in her eyes? I didn’t get it.
With the venue decided, I promptly reserved a study room. It wasn’t long before we gathered there—me, Nonoka, her friends, my underlings, and Riku. Seven people in total, six girls, and one guy.
Now hold on a minute, you might say. What is this, a harem? But honestly, I wouldn’t be so quick to envy Riku. He looked pretty uncomfortable among this crowd. Nonetheless, his presence was indicative of his interest in Nonoka—or so I wanted to think. I would’ve liked to support him, but unfortunately, it was the Ruki route we were aiming for. Sorry, bud. In fact, wasn’t it about time for me to do something to get Ruki and Nonoka closer? Ideally, I wouldn’t have to do anything, and they would just drift closer naturally, but yeah…
Just then, Riku, noticing my gaze, looked up from his notes. “Is it true you were the one who convinced Nonoka’s friend to get the surgery?”
Really? You’re going to ask that? I wanted to retort but bit my lip. “Hardly,” I said.
“It’s true,” Nonoka said immediately after.
“Which is it?” Riku asked.
“It’s not true,” I said.
“It is true,” Nonoka interjected.
Oh, boy. This was liable to go on forever. I then noticed Natsumi and Mizuki were watching this exchange with conflicted smiles on their faces. Did they think I was being difficult like I wanted them to? If so, great.
“All right. Who am I to believe?” Riku asked.
I responded with a dismissive, “Believe who you want, but don’t come crying to me when you’re left holding the bag.”
“All right,” Riku said. “Look, I owe you an apology for how I treated you the other day. I jumped to conclusions without knowing the whole story, and that wasn’t fair of me.”
“My, whatever could you be talking about? I haven’t the foggiest,” I said curtly, moving my pencil across the pages of my notebook.
How was that for tsundere? I wasn’t the most well-versed on the trope, but I at least thought it sounded like the kind of line that might foreshadow an eventual heel-turn.
The moment I pondered this, Nonoka, who had been watching our exchange, opened her mouth. “Ms. Mio.”
Her voice had a bite to it that was completely out of character. There was no way she was…jealous of me, right? That would be bad. She was supposed to like Ruki, not Riku. That fear, however, proved founded with Nonoka’s following remark.
“I don’t understand this part. Could you help me?” she asked, pushing herself between me and Riku.