Behind that smile, I wonder what child was thinking.
With what intention did that child put on that smile?
Who knows. Was it something that came naturally?
Am I smiling right now?
It was Tuesday when Emi came to school.
Everyone seemed to be worried about Emi, but I could not honestly worry about her.
My distrust of Emi was that strong.
The possibility that Kitami was just a perpetrator was now completely ruled out in my mind.
I could not grasp the situation. Nevertheless, I could not believe that Emi was just a victim by the way she was acting.
Perhaps seeing such an attitude of mine, the change came abruptly.
“I don’t know what’s going on with Maika , but I heard she is being shunned right now.”
I heard it. She probably didn’t even notice I was there. I happened to hear the conversation.
It wasn’t that I was being shunned. I just didn’t talk to Emi, but I wasn’t being kept away from her.
However, this conversation must have spread to many places, and even my friends who I usually talk to in the classroom were distancing themselves from me.
I don’t think they were just waiting for it to spread.
In other words, it was intentional. Clearly, malicious intent.
Why? The answer had already occurred to me.
(It was probably Emi…)
It was the only thing I could think of. There was no other way to think of it.
It was more like “I knew it,” than “Why”
I knew there were things she didn’t want me to know, or so I thought.
But I wanted to know. I wanted to know what it was.
But he drew a line. A line between where I was now standing and where he was standing.
I stepped into that line. So here I am.
Perhaps he was afraid of this. I understand now after all of this.