One day during lunch break, as Yuuko and I were making our way to the roof, Yuuko said, “I’m gonna use the bathroom. Go ahead—I’ll be up in a sec.”
I nodded and went to wait for her on the roof, but after twenty minutes, she still hadn’t turned up. Naturally, I began to worry. Maybe she simply had an upset stomach. But she’d seemed fine earlier, and I was worried she was caught up in another incident.
Driven by my apprehension, I headed to the bathroom closest to where Yuuko and I had parted ways. Based on the direction she’d been walking, there was only one she could’ve gone to.
I could hear voices coming from inside as I approached. It seemed like I’d been right to worry.
I flung open the door to the restroom and found one girl standing in front of a sink with a group of other girls facing her.
As expected, the lone girl was Yuuko, and the group surrounding her was Yuzuki’s clique.
Distracted by my abrupt entrance, all the girls turned and looked at me.
Yuzuki frowned a little awkwardly, and for some reason, Yuuko turned away like she’d done something wrong.
“…What’s going on?”
My voice came out lower than I’d expected, surprising me.
Yuzuki was always loud, but this time, her response was quiet. Maybe my tone intimidated her.
“Nothing… We were just having a little chat,” she said.
“With the three of you crowding around her? For more than twenty minutes?”
“What’s the problem?” she snapped back, casting me a sharp glare.
The way I kept pressing her must have wounded her pride. Without wavering, I stared right back at her.
“We were planning on eating lunch together. You’ve kept her trapped here long enough.”
“…Oh, I see.”
Yuzuki let out a deliberate sigh, then turned to face Yuuko.
“Go on.”
“O-okay…”
Yuuko timidly made her way past Yuzuki and me and left the restroom. As I turned to follow her, I heard Yuzuki’s voice from behind.
“Hey.”
“…What?”
“I know you don’t have any friends, but do you really need to keep that gloomy weirdo as a pet? You don’t have to stoop that low. I’ll even let you join our group if you want.”
Instantly, I felt my blood begin to boil.
She genuinely thought I hung around Yuuko only because I didn’t have anyone else. I couldn’t believe it.
“I don’t need friends. But Yuuko talks to me like we’re equals. She’s my friend, and you better not talk shit about her.”
I said all this in a single breath. Yuzuki’s face tensed up for a moment as if she felt daunted, but she quickly let out another sigh and glared at me.
“Hmm… Well, okay, then.”
For some reason, the girls behind Yuzuki started giggling.
Fed up, I walked out of the restroom.
Yuuko was standing outside, looking shaken.
“Sayu—”
“Don’t sweat it. Let’s just go to the roof.”
Yuuko was trying to tell me something, but I cut her off and led her away.
Everything was fine.
If the other students bullied Yuuko, I would defend her whenever I had the chance. I was determined to take on Yuzuki and her clique if I had to.
“Hey,” Yuuko said once we reached the roof. Her voice was quiet. “Sayu…don’t you think you should join their group?”
Her question startled me.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, I…I overheard your conversation in the bathroom.”
“I said no, didn’t I? I like spending time with you.”
“I feel the same way, but…”
Yuuko covered her eyes, and her voice grew nasal.
“If they start bullying you, too, because of me…I won’t be able to bear it.”
I had no idea how to respond.
This had all started because of a conflict between Yuzuki and me. It seemed Yuuko had the sequence of events all mixed up. If she hadn’t gotten involved with me, she would never have been bullied in the first place.
“Don’t say that. I’m fine. We just have to hold out until graduation.”
I grasped Yuuko’s hand firmly in mine and tried desperately to convince her.
She nodded over and over as tears welled up in her eyes.
“You’re right…,” she said. “I’ll be fine as long as you’re with me.”
…And I believed her.
After that encounter, Yuuko’s bullying got even worse.
Yuzuki seemed to know exactly how to get under my skin. The more I tried to protect Yuuko, the more they tormented her when she was out of my sight.
Yuuko’s stationery, textbooks, and even her feminine hygiene products started to go missing.
At one point, I asked our homeroom teacher for help, but she blew me off, saying we couldn’t be sure that Yuzuki and her friends were the culprits. Finding out even the teachers weren’t on our side left me bitter and frustrated.
Obviously, the bullying had worn Yuuko down, and it had gradually exhausted me as well. School, which Yuuko had once made so fun, was now a painful struggle. I thought about skipping class countless times, but my mother would never allow it. And more importantly, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Yuuko to fight for herself. So I sucked it up and kept going every day.
I thought that if Yuzuki and her friends eventually got tired of bullying us and left us alone, we’d win.
…But before we could taste victory, everything fell apart.
One day, Yuuko didn’t show up at school. That wasn’t like her.
Despite all the bullying, she never missed school. But while her sudden absence surprised me, I was also relieved.
Our teacher said she wasn’t feeling well, and I hoped Yuuko would get the chance to rest her mind along with her body.
I spent the morning classes in a daze, and before I knew it, it was lunchtime.
As I walked up the stairs to the roof, it occurred to me that I hadn’t eaten lunch alone in a long time.
Before Yuuko approached me, I’d always been alone. It had been normal for me. And yet, it already felt strange to not have her around.
Yuuko had said she would be fine as long as I was with her. I felt the same.