Chapter 2

"Senpai! Shouldn't you beg for my forgiveness right now!?"

Hanabi, who had been kicked out of the hospital room, pounded on the closed door while shouting, but was quickly restrained by the nurses who rushed over.

"You, what are you doing? This is a hospital!"

"…S-Sorry. I just had a little fight… But it was my fault. Senpai suddenly fell ill, and I lost my composure…"

From the hallway, such an exchange could be heard. Hanabi's voice, which had been scolding me, had completely changed to that of a well-mannered top student. Her tone was filled with genuine remorse and a hint of flattery.

While she was a terrible moral abuser to me, Hanabi always changed her attitude in front of others. According to information I later learned, people who engage in moral abuse, whether male or female, often exhibit such behavior. They have a good public image and are sociable, but are also psychopaths.

"I'll leave now. I'm sorry for causing trouble."

Perhaps thinking that lingering any longer would make a bad impression, Hanabi left with those words.

After that, my smartphone was bombarded with calls and messages, but I ignored them all, of course.

The more I ignored her, the worse Hanabi's mood became, as evident from her messages.

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Hanabi: I feel so bad, can you apologize quickly? 18:20 Read

Hanabi: You marked it as read, how long do you need to reply? You're really being stubborn, aren't you? 18:55 Read

Hanabi: Besides, you have no right to treat me like this. Do you know how much I've taken care of you? To forget such kindness and treat me like this is worse than trash. If it weren't for me, you, a useless person like Senpai, would have wanted to die. If you break up with me, Senpai will have no choice but to die, do you understand? 18:57 Read

Hanabi: If you're going to act like that, I have my own plans. Look forward to the hell that awaits you. 19:00

Hanabi: And yet, you still read my messages even after saying you want to cut ties. That shows you still have feelings for me, doesn't it? 19:15

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"Feelings…?"

I had been casually browsing her messages out of annoyance, but I was getting bored and decided to stop.

Even though Hanabi's anger used to scare me every day, I now feel nothing.

"…Alright, good work."

After muttering this, I blocked all calls from "Hanabi Kizuki" and blocked her on all social media.

"Wow. What a sense of liberation. My stomach feels so much better…"

I should have cut ties with Hanabi much earlier.

"…But looking back, I was almost brainwashed."

—Senpai is useless and can't live without me.

—Do you know how worthless you are?

Hanabi used to negate everything about me and criticize all my actions.

"Maybe I'll do something Hanabi forbade me to do."

I want to feel that I am free now.

◇◇◇

The next day.

After being discharged from the hospital, I went to get my hair cut.

I wanted to cut off the long bangs that reached my eyes.

Why did I have such a hairstyle?

Because Hanabi told me to.

"Sousuke, have you ever looked at your face in the mirror?"

"Huh? Y-Yes."

"Hmm. You can still be calm about it?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"If I had a face like yours, I would definitely want to hide it. You might get bullied for looking like that."

"…"

"Poor Sousuke. It's better to grow your bangs to hide your face. Definitely. Okay? Will you grow them?"

"…B-But I can't see in front of me."

"Huh?"

"Ah, s-sorry."

"You know, if you can't see yourself, others can't see you either. Don't you understand that? You're really stupid, Sousuke."

This was from before Hanabi started calling me "Senpai." It was when I was in third grade, and I had been living with long bangs ever since, as Hanabi told me to.

But I really wanted to cut them.

Every time my hair touched my skin, it felt itchy and painful, and my field of vision was very limited. I also knew that people were gossiping about me, calling me "Curtain Boy" and "Hair Monster."

…In the end, whether I had long bangs or not, I was destined to be disliked.

I should have given up and cut my hair to my liking.

After cutting my hair, the world looked surprisingly different.

I felt a bit brighter.

I can understand why I was called "Curtain Boy."

I was indeed seeing the world through a black curtain.

The surprise didn't end there.

The next day, when I returned to school after a few days, the moment I slipped into the classroom, my classmates started to buzz. The girls were almost screaming.

"Kyaa… Who is that handsome guy…!?"

"Huh!? Huh!? Is he a transfer student!?"

"Yaaaah, he's totally my type!"

Huh?

The girls who were shouting about a handsome guy were clearly looking at me.

I looked around, but there was no one behind me.

…Huh.

Could they be talking about me…?

The rumor that "the boy nicknamed 'Curtain' was actually a hidden handsome guy" (I'm not saying this myself, but it really spread like this) quickly spread throughout the school and reached the ears of Hanabi, who was a year younger, by noon.

When Hanabi heard this—

I wrote a story about my childhood friend getting her comeuppance.

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