Strictly Forbidden! The Spoiler That Brought About A Painful Night
I rode my bike like the wind and arrived at the location, but—
“Hm?”
It was an empty ground. Sayo-chan’s house was nowhere in sight.
“Yoooo, you actually showed up!?”
“Fuck, no way? Bro’s running a charity or something!? Look at him.”
“Oi, wadda we do, Ukawa! Isotake was baited by your stupid acting and voice changer, dude!”
“Yo, we gotta apologize~.”
The one there wasn’t Sayo-chan, but instead, a group of rank 3 classmates I’d never talked to before.
“I-I…”
“Ukawa?”
“I was just doing what the others told me…!”
Among them was Ukawa, out of place and red in shame as he looked at me.
“Sayo-chan… ain’t here?”
“No no! That was all Ukawa!”
In other words, the girl named Sayo-chan that was being bullied by her stepfather was fake.
“Sorry dude! We were just fooling around a bit, teasing you and all, let Ukawa off the hook, wontcha?”
“It’s just a prank bro, like a hidden cam agenda for the up and rising Isotake, ya know what I’m sayin’?”
“But like, we didn’t think you’d actually show up here.”
“What…! I-I was just doing what everyone said…”
“Haa, haaaa… so it’s… like that.”
I finally understood. Everything was just a ploy, set up to mess with me.
“…”
For a moment inside me, something snapped. However, it slowly calmed down and faded away as it was mixed with other emotions until eventually, it disappeared. I’m always like this. Not letting stuff like this get to me. I mean, as long as no one gets hurt, it’s whatever, I guess?
That's why, the next thing that came outta my mouth was, “Waaah!!! You got me~!!!”
The “expressions” on these guys turned 180.
“Ahahahahaha! Isotake you’re so stupid man~!”
My classmates started to laugh and smile.
Among them, only Ukawa had a downcasted expression. He was biting his lips and trembling. Seeing that kinda made me want to cheer him up. Tell him that I didn’t mind the prank.
After all, it's fine if nothing actually happened and no one got hurt.
“Ukawa, your acting was fire. Wanna appear in one of my movies sometimes?”
“*taken aback*…”
“Oh? Look at you being scouted and all~.”
“…I’m… going home.”
Ukawa said that and left, running. I hope that guy’s okay.
The other guys also split off and went their own ways looking satisfied and saying stuff like “shit, I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight,” or “dude, I’ma pass out.”
“…”
I was left all alone, in the empty grounds devoid of all life, staring up at the sky. The clouds in the sky were moving strangely, as if fidgety almost. Kinda like Ukawa’s face from earlier. At least, that’s what I thought, but…
“Well, I got a good script outta it so whatever!”
—
The next day.
Everyone was like, “Why were you all fussy and stuff last night,” and from there, I explained things from start to finish—
“AHAHAHAHAHA! I mean, I know we were teasing you about your girlfriend and all… But yeah I thought as much!”
“Kurama… you’re laughing… too much…”
“I mean can you blame me? This whole thing is so Idiotake coded. Though I gotta say, I’m a bit impressed by his stupidity.”
“Uu-chan, I can see the veins popping out from your head.”1
“I’m frustrated, too. You finally started working on a script and stayed up until midnight everyday for it. …And that’s not all. Sorry Akuta. I shouldn’t have blabbed about it to everyone, things ended up becoming like this…”
“It’s okay! Not like the script has legs or anything! Besides, the whole press conference was super fun!”
“Two-faced liars exist wherever you go. They always twist the facts to their advantage. It’s best to leave people like them alone.”
“Mm…, by the way Muneuji… where… are you going?”
“Why to seek retribution, of course.”
“You have no intention… of leaving… them… alone… I see…”
Ushio’s eyes beamed as he laughed hysterically, Kiroku didn’t say much, but his brows were furrowed in anger, Muneuji wanted to seek retribution, and Nanaki empathized and was apologetic towards me. The others at HAMA House as well—they folded sunflower origami for me, made me some bussin’ gyoza, ramen, and meat buns, and read my fortune, telling me about possible new encounters. I already knew this, but everyone is seriously the best. I’m a really lucky guy. I’m grateful.
“But good for you~. When Sayo-chan was crying you were really anxious for her!”
“You flew… out… like a bullet…”
“Ahh, but it’d be good for Ukawa to learn how to say no to things he doesn’t wanna do~”
“Dude… you’re too nice.”
And just like that, the disturbance caused by the sudden appearance of my girl-friend… disturbance…? Well, it came to a wrap!
“Foowii… I’m stuffed. Everyone gave me so much food today!”
After the feast, I returned to the room alone and took a good look at the script. A buncha stuff happened these past few days. I guess you could say, all's well that ends well. Scenes of Ukawa’s eyes, the empty grounds, the faces of my classmates, the moon, their laughter; everything played in the back of my head like a film on fast-forward and then disappeared. I don’t remember it clearly anymore. Whatever thoughts I had, whatever I felt at that moment, all of that cleared up in an instant—
I’m always like this.
“…”
Just then, I heard a knock at the door. And it was no one other than Raito-san who stood there. He looked at my face and furrowed his brows in worry.
“I heard the gist of it. You encountered something horrible, huh…”
“Nahh, everyone was exaggerating! I'm totally fine so don’t worry about it!”
“You’re so positive. I'm glad you're fine. I heard you were writing a script, keep up the good work.”
“Thanks! I'm in the middle of it, but wanna read it Raito-san? I’d like the input of an adult~~~!”
And just like that, Raito-san gave me the okay, so I handed over the script. He had a strange face while reading it.
“When did you think of this?”
“Like, a little before I joined HAMA Tours~?”
“Did you take inspiration from real-life events?”
“Nope! All from me. Why?”
“Well…”
Raito-san like, thought really hard for a while before saying.
“You’re aware of the recent serial killings, correct? I was just a bit concerned because I thought perhaps you drew inspiration from that.”
“Hmm??”
“It was on the news, the first and second victims were men, and the third was a woman. She had been kidnapped before being murdered.”
“For reals!? I didnt even—”
I wasn’t aware of this at all!?? But that was a story for another time…
To Be Continued!