TL: Furby
ED: DannY
“That said, that kept eating me from the inside as I continued to be alone, so after returning home, I decided to contact you alone, Ishida.”
I told Ishida the whole story of the incident.
“Well, that’s understandable. Carrying that alone by yourself must be hard. I think you did well in telling me about it.”
Ishida supported my opinion.
It wasn’t as if a huge load was lifted off my shoulders simply by having told someone else about this series of events. Still, it may have been just a little better than keeping it to myself.
“Do you have any plans on what you’ll do with Karen-chan after this?”
Having it pointed out to me by Ishida, for the first time, I got my mind thinking about it.
… That’s true. What should I do with Karen after this…?
I did have this part of me that wouldn’t forgive her.
And yet, I couldn’t resolve myself to break up with her immediately.
“I haven’t decided yet what I’ll do. But I also don’t have any intention to let it pass without doing something.”
“Well, this isn’t something you can easily settle yourself or your feelings with, after all.”
At this point, Ishida leaned forward.
“Now then, and what about Touko-senpai? What will you do?”
“What do you mean what?”
“You’re seeing her tomorrow, right? So, are you planning on getting closer to Touko-senpai?”
I fell into a pondering silence.
“I told her those things on the spur of the moment back then… Touko-senpai too must have her own feelings about the matter. But you know? I can’t imagine Touko-senpai letting herself be outdone so easily.”
“You’re right about that. She’s one strong woman after all.”
Ishida knit his fingers behind his head and bent backward.
“Yuu, what’s your intention in talking with Touko-senpai?”
“I haven’t decided that either. The only thing that I know is that, I will tell her everything as it happened.”
“Does that include the evidence? The ‘photo of Karen-chan and Kamokura-senpai’s exchange’?”
“Most probably.”
“Hmmm.”
Ishida pondered for a while.
“I won’t tell you something like, ‘don’t do it’. I’ll just say you need to take great care with the timing and the manner in which you say it. I often hear that in this situation of being cheated on, the man ends up resenting the woman and the woman end’s resenting the woman of their love affair partner.”
I could not fully comprehend the meaning behind what Ishida said.
No, perhaps saying that my mind that day didn’t have a lot of leeway to think about those things would be more accurate.
Anyhow, I would meet with Touko-senpai and be frank, not withholding anything.
That was all that occupied my mind.
The next day at 3pm.
I was at a coffee shop located at a train station distant from my university. This was in order to meet with Touko-senpai.
I had arrived 15 minutes before the appointed time, taken a seat, and was now waiting.
I had been thinking about how I should speak to Touko-senpai. However, I could not come up with a single convincing idea.
What’s more… Every time I thought about Karen and Kamokura’s affair to tell Touko-senpai, no matter how hard I tried, I would always end up imagining the two of them having their secret dates.
… What led the two of them to arrive at the decision to cheat on us?
… During those times, what sort of things do Karen and Kamokura do?
… What kind of reactions does Karen show?
… What do the two of them talk about after the act?
Just thinking about it made me feel like I’d go crazy from the frustration and pain.
So much so I’d rather have all my memories of Karen extracted from my brain.
There was no way I would be able to put together the conversation I wanted to hold with Touko-senpai while feeling so despondent.
Touko-senpai arrived 5 minutes before the appointed time. Such a scrupulous person when it comes to times for doing something or meeting someone.
She wore a beige light jacket over a thin high neck sweater, coupled with a bright-colored checked culotte over her snow-white thighs.
Though her attire was by all means what was standard for October, many of the gazes from the men inside the store still converged on Touko-senpai.
Touko-senpai is tall and has an excellent body figure. Her figure is on par with a fashion model’s, no, even with a glamour model.
Long black hair that goes well with her intellectual and refined self as a beauty. Regardless of her body being slender and thin overall, her chest is the very ideal of how large b*****s should be.
Elegant and attractive looks that despite not being gaudy in the least, they cannot help but draw in the attention of people.
“I’ll go order some coffee. Please wait a bit.”
She left her handbag and jacket on the chair and headed for the counter.
Before long, she returned with a large size coffee in her hand.
She sat across from me at the table and in that same posture, she spoke to me.
“First tell me in order what happened. How was it that you managed to know that Karen-san was cheating on you, and how you came to think of Tetsuya as her partner in the affair.”
“It was by coincidence that I looked into Karen’s phone. And when I did, I found the SNS exchange she had with Kamokura-senpai…”
I began to recount the events of last night. It still pained me to remember them, but I didn’t cry anymore.
The ache in my heart had not changed, but at the same time, I felt like my emotions had dried up too.
As she continued to listen to my story, Touko-senpai’s expression grew sterner by the second.
“Now tell, do you have that incriminating photograph? If you do, let me see it.”
I displayed the image with the messages of Karen and Kamokura-senpai on my phone and passed it over to Touko-senpai.
Touko-senpai stared at the image, thoroughly examining each line. I could tell that her face was losing color gradually.
I believe she stayed in that same position for around 5 minutes.
“I guess this means that you weren’t lying.”
She spoke with her face turned completely pale.
Her hand which returned to my phone was trembling a little.
“Seeing this, there’s no way I could possibly think that she isn’t cheating on me!”
As if venting, I answered back to her while I took back my phone.
Perhaps trying to calm herself down, Touko-senpai slowly brought to her lips the coffee cup. Nonetheless, she stopped in that position, not even trying to take a sip of her coffee.
I too stayed simply staring at the table.
Time passed by as both of us continued to hang our heads.
“And, what do you want me to do?”
After around 5 minutes had passed, Touko-senpai squeezed those words out, almost forcing herself to do so.
Somewhere in between, the coffee cup had been placed back on top of the table.
I couldn’t give an immediate response.
… I want to get back at that bastard Kamokura, and for that, I want to have my way with you…
My real intentions lay along those lines, but I am aware that is also disrespectful towards Touko-senpai.
After all, she too is a victim in all this.
“I… I can’t simply forgive them and do nothing about it. That’s why…”
“That’s why you wanted to have an affair with me as payback. That’s how it is, right?”
I glanced up at Touko-senpai.
What then entered my line of sight was her magnificently gorgeous bustline.
… Damn Kamokura! Not content with being able to fondle those perfect large b*****s all he wants, he still dares to grab my girlfriend’s chest as he pleases!…
I felt the dark flames of ire begin to burn once again inside of me.
The heat from them made its way out of my mouth in the form of a ‘That’s right’.
Touko-senpai brought her lips to the coffee cup in silence. She was a woman that could make even this single gesture a picture like that of an artwork.
Soon after, she put her coffee on the table and composedly spoke.
“I understand your feelings, but I can’t do that.”
“Does that mean that I’m not enough to be your partner in an affair?”
Well, that’s as obvious as it could be. Even if I was overjoyed with having a fling with Touko-senpai, she too had a right to choose who she wanted as her partner. No matter who you asked, they would tell you that Touko-senpai and I are not a good match for each other.
However, as you’d expect, having that said directly to me made me feel extremely dejected.
… Am I so much more inferior than that damn Kamokura…?
… So much so that, despite already knowing that Kamokura has been sleeping with my girlfriend, Touko-senpai will still not let anyone other than Kamokura be with her…?
Comparing myself to Kamokura, I began to feel I was extremely pitiful.
“Not at all. There are 3 main reasons why I won’t have an affair.”
Touko-senpai began to count in a slow manner, as if telling them to herself too.
“The first one is: I have yet to be absolutely certain that Tetsuya is really cheating on me with Karen-san.”
“There shouldn’t be any doubts about that anymore. I even have the image of their conversations by message.”
“Yes, there’s most probably no mistake about it. However, the possibility of that being a fake created by someone is still there. There’s this one man who came to me a while back saying that Kamokura was two-timing me with another woman in order to have me break up with him.”
“I wouldn’t do anything like that!”
“I too believe you aren’t the kind of person to do that. That said, there’s still a chance that you yourself are being tricked by someone, no? What if this conversation was nothing more than a prank from Karen-san?”
I fell silent. I don’t think that’s possible, but I don’t have enough bases to assert it.
“The second reason is: If you and I were to have an affair right now, we would lose our right to reproach them.”
“Our right to reproach them?”
I asked back.
“Yes. I don’t know what you plan to do with Karen-san after this, but I’m thinking of breaking up with Tetsuya in case this love affair turns out to be true. I won’t let him tell me, ‘You cheated on me too!’. For that, I must remain clean from all culpability!”
I see, so that’s her logic. That’s the kind of logical line of thought you’d expect from her. Nonetheless,
“Touko-senpai, don’t you feel upset? Will you really end it by simply breaking up with him after he went and cheated on you? Do you not feel the need to have your revenge on him?”
“That’s my third reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“I won’t be satisfied with a normal payback. I’ve got to make him, Tetsuya, regret it so much he would feel like dying… Even if he got dumped by me, it’s still fine because he’s dating Karen-san. Under no circumstances will I allow him to stay with that feeling. I’ll make him suffer from such regret and despair that he begs someone to kill him.”
I thought for a moment that I saw blue flames like those from hell burning in Touko-senpai’s eyes.
The rage exuding from her was so imposing that even I, a fellow victim, had a chill run down my back.
Perhaps she noticed that reaction of mine, for she let out a sigh and dispersed that black aura surrounding her. She took one deep breath and spoke to me in her composed voice like before.
“However, until we have undeniable proof of their love affair, we should pull back for a moment, believe in them, and observe them. Regardless of how in poor taste it is, it would be bad to make a fuss out of a joke.”
… Believe in them…
It’s easy to say that, but in these circumstances, that was one of the most difficult and vexing things to do.
Even I had a part of me that wanted to believe in Karen. Countless times have I thought about how great it would be if the messages from yesterday were a lie, that this was all some kind of misunderstanding.
In spite of that, remembering that message exchange, there was something that couldn’t be repressed by that thought alone.
I inhaled deeply once and proceeded to ask her.
“What if they continue to have these affairs?”
“Hmm…”
She crossed her arms in front of herself and put a clenched hand to her chin as she thought.
“At that time, I will be utterly thorough in how I get back at him. I won’t settle for anything less than a trauma that remains for the rest of his life… And if I do end up having an affair, it would be after I have found the proof of Tetsuya’s cheating and confronted him with it.”
I reflexively raised my face.
If she does end up having an affair, it would be after she has confronted him with proof, she said?… At that time, would she do it with me?
{ED/N: Man be asking the million dollar questions}
