"Kita! Why are you just standing here spacing out?"
"The cream is melting all over your hand, quick, wipe it with a napkin."
Her friend, seeing that Kita Ikuyo, who had gone to buy ice cream, hadn't returned for a long time, found her standing frozen in place near the plaza fountain for some unknown reason.
Kita Ikuyo forced a smile. "Sorry, I just spaced out for a bit too long."
Her friends started teasing her.
"For Kita to space out for so long, don't tell me you saw a guy who's your type?"
"He must be really handsome, after all, Kita is so cute herself."
"I wanna see him too."
Handing the completely melted blob of ice cream to her friend, Kita Ikuyo made an excuse that she needed to wash her hands, slipped away from their sight behind a large tree, and took out her phone to send a message to Kazami Kazuki.
Kita: "Kazami-san…"
Kazuki: "What's wrong?"
Kazami Kazuki watched the screen, seeing Kita Ikuyo staring at her phone with a troubled expression, unsure how to explain herself. A silver-bell-like laugh echoed in the room. "So, even after seeing my little brother cheating, your first instinct wasn't to tell Hitori Gotoh, but to come to me instead?"
Just as my brother said, she's a very considerate girl.
If I tell Miss Gotoh, she'll definitely be devastated. If she confronts Jhin directly, he might just flatly deny his cheating, Kita Ikuyo thought.
If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she would never have believed that the Jhin who doted so much on Hitori Gotoh in front of everyone in Kessoku Band would actually be two-timing.
No! It might even be three-timing. Kita Ikuyo then remembered the back of the figure who looked like Jhin she had seen in the park before, and that blonde, twin-tailed girl also looked very similar to one of the girls she'd met at the Mihama Academy dorm.
Her thumb hovered over the phone screen for a long time. Kita Ikuyo mentally drafted and redrafted her message, wanting to tactfully inform Jhin's sister, Kazami Kazuki, that her brother was cheating.
Kazuki: "Why did you go quiet?"
The phone's vibration startled Kita Ikuyo, who was struggling to find the right words. She flinched, and upon seeing Kazami Kazuki's message, her brain commanded her body to type out her true thoughts and press send.
Kita: "Your brother is cheating!"
I'm doomed! How could I have sent that directly?
Kita Ikuyo's phone fell onto the soft lawn. She slumped down against the large tree. Next to her message, the 'read' status appeared, but there was no reply for a long time.
Anxiety swirled within her. She began to wonder if her actions had been too reckless. What if she had misunderstood what those two were doing?
Tattling to his sister like this... what would happen if he found out?
Kazami-san wouldn't go and tell Miss Gotoh about this directly, would she?
The mere thought of this possibility made Kita Ikuyo regret her impulsive, hot-headed actions even more. Her slender fingers restlessly crushed the soft, emerald grass blades on the ground, the seeping juice staining her fair fingertips green.
She even imagined Hitori Gotoh, after being betrayed by her beloved boyfriend, falling into a depression from which she'd never recover, quitting Kessoku Band, never stepping out of her house again, and just hiding all day in a dark, musty closet, completely covered in mushrooms.
The girl's jumbled mind began to fantasize about all sorts of scenarios, like Hitori Gotoh sailing away on a cruise ship while holding Jhin's severed head, or cutting open the third party's stomach and saying in a completely broken voice, "There was nothing inside."
The vibration from the phone that had fallen by her feet traveled through her clothes, against her skin, and through her bones to the nerves in Kita Ikuyo's brain, startling her out of her bizarre fantasies.
Kazuki: "Kita, what do you think of Jhin's behavior?"
Although her mind was still foggy, Kita Ikuyo picked up her phone and answered Kazami Kazuki's question.
Kita: "I... I think what he's doing is really wrong. Miss Gotoh likes Jhin so much."
Kazuki: "Then do you think she, Irisu Makina, likes Jhin?"
Kita: "Irisu Makina is?"
Kazuki: "The girl my brother is on a date with today."
Kita Ikuyo was stunned. So Kazami Kazuki knew that Jhin was cheating, and she even knew which girl he was out on a date with today.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Kita: "Kazami-san, if you know, why aren't you stopping Jhin?"
Kazuki: "Answer my question first."
Kita Ikuyo recalled the scene of Jhin and Irisu Makina kissing. Just looking at that enviable scene, which sparked a sliver of yearning in her own heart, no one would think that girl didn't like Jhin.
After a moment's hesitation, Kita Ikuyo typed out the words, "She likes Jhin."
Kazuki: "Very good."
Kazuki: "Let's make a simple hypothesis. You and your closest friend both fall in love with the same person. So, do you choose to silently withdraw from this war of love and let your friend have him, or do you choose to win this war, even if it means breaking off your friendship?"
Kita: "That..."
Kita Ikuyo subconsciously put herself into the question. And since the most outstanding boy she knew was Jhin, the male protagonist in the scenario inevitably became Jhin, while she and Hitori Gotoh became the female protagonists.
If that were really the case...
Kita Ikuyo suppressed the feeling in her heart, like eating a candy with a sickly sweet coating but a bitter, unseeded lemon core, and gave her answer word by word.
Kita: "I would choose to withdraw."
Kazuki: "And after you withdraw, can you still be good friends with her like before? Can you stand by and watch the person you love embrace your best friend right in front of you, and offer your blessing without any resentment?"
Kazuki: "By letting your friend have him, are you truly not hurt?"
Kita Ikuyo didn't answer. She knew clearly that what Kazami Kazuki described was impossible. Even if she chose to withdraw, she couldn't possibly feel no resentment in her heart.
Kazuki: "So... they chose a method where everyone becomes a winner."
Kita: "They?"
Kazuki: "Yes. All those girls from Mihama Academy are my brother's lovers."
That message was like an atomic bomb detonating in Kita Ikuyo's mind, shattering her worldview completely. Her jaw dropped wide enough to fit a cow.
She never could have imagined that Jhin was actually six-timing.
Kazuki: "So what do you think is better: having only one winner, or having everyone become a winner?"
Kita: "I'm sorry, Kazami-san, I... I don't know."
Kazuki: "Then, do me a favor. As long as Hitori Gotoh doesn't ask you directly, how about you keep what happened today, between us and about my brother, a secret?"
Kita: "What if Miss Gotoh asks me directly?"
Kazuki: "Then tell her everything."
Kita: "I understand. I'll keep it a secret, as long as Miss Gotoh doesn't ask."
Kazuki: "Thank you. You're such a good girl."
After ending the conversation with Kazami Kazuki, Kita Ikuyo had no interest left in having fun at the amusement park. She sent a message to her friends saying she wasn't feeling well and returned home in a daze, as if she had lost her soul.
___
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