Crossing Paths, Traumatized, and Yet…

CH 55

Wakaba was thinking about what to do from now on after the phone call with Chika.

She must tell Ren how she feels now and refuse his confession.

She must clearly tell him that she likes Daiki.

She felt sorry for Ren, but now that she realized how much she liked him, she couldn’t let him wait for an answer to his confession.

Wakaba stopped pretending her feelings.

Wakaba sent a message to Ren.

“I need to talk to you tomorrow after school.”

It was immediately returned.

“Talk about what? Something you can’t tell me now?”

Wakaba replied.

“I want to talk to you after we meet.

So please give me some time after school.”

“I understand!”

She put in her message that she would tell Chika after school tomorrow.

Wakaba decided to go to bed to prepare for tomorrow.

She couldn’t sleep well because she was worried about Daiki.

She had not been able to contact Daiki.

The truth is that she wanted to tell him how she felt right away, but she wasn’t sure if he would believe her if she told him how she felt.

There was no confidence that he would believe her.

She could not sleep with agonizing feelings.

Despite Wakaba’s feelings, she and Daiki were growing apart.

At the same time, Chika was also unable to sleep because she was worried.

The more she thought back on Ren, the more she realized that he was obsessed with Wakaba and that he was very manipulative.

It seemed to be that he was manipulating everyone and keeping his place next to Wakaba for a long time.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible for him to always be next to her.

She can’t remember when it started, but she thought that if they kept Wakaba and Ren together, they wouldn’t fight over her.

Then again, that’s just a normal way of making people hold back from liking the other person, but at some point it became obvious to her that such an atmosphere had developed.

“I wonder if tomorrow will be alright?”

Chika decided to follow Wakaba and keep an eye on her, though she was sorry to do so.

After she received a call from Wakaba, Ren asked her.

“I guess she has realized how she feels about him after all.”

Ren thought that Wakaba herself had realized that she had feelings for Daiki.

Ren acted immediately.

He sent a message to Daiki.

“I confessed my feelings to Wakaba and it seems to be going well, so I don’t want Daiki to contact her. Because I am jealous.”

He told Daiki.

The message was also sent to all his friends.

Emphasizing that he told Daiki that he had sent a message to him first, asking for the support of his friends because he had confessed to Wakaba.

Everyone responded with a message saying they were rooting for him.

“Wakaba is not feeling well today, so please leave her alone until tomorrow!”

and nudged him not to send any messages to Wakaba.

“This should make it harder for Wakaba to say no.”

Ren did not want to let go of Wakaba.

He was going to go out with her even if he had to force it.

No matter what people think of him, he loves Wakaba.

He never wanted to let go of her.

The next day, while heading to school, Wakaba was thinking about what she would do after school.

She had no clear idea of what she wanted to do, but she was going to tell him how she felt.

Today, Ren was not waiting for her, but Chika was waiting for her instead.

After exchanging greetings

“Shiraishi-kun went ahead of me.”

Chika was very considerate so as not to cause any awkwardness.

While thanking Chika and talking about yesterday, she told Chika that she would head to school and make it clear how she felt now.

Upon arriving at the school, she noticed that everyone was acting strangely.

They were all grinning, but when they came up to Wakaba, she said to her.

” He confessed his feelings to you!”

“That’s great!”

“You’re going out with him after all, aren’t you?!”

Wakaba was not sure what they were talking about.

But Senka soon realized.

“I’m beaten.”

That’s what she thought.

She was making a preemptive move to make it harder for Wakaba to refuse the proposal.

Even after that..

“Say it properly!”

“Go for it!”

and so forth.

“Shiraishi-kun confessed to you, didn’t he?”

It was only when they said that that she realized.

“How did you know about that?”

Wakaba quickly asked back.

“It seems Shiraishi-kun sent everyone else a message yesterday, no?”

“I got it too!”

“Me too!”

Wakaba knew that Ren had told everyone about his confession, but she did not know why he had told everyone.

Chika was quick to respond.

“Wakaba still doesn’t seem to be feeling well, so tell them we will stop by the infirmary.”

She let them leave the place.

As she walked to the infirmary, she asked

“Wakaba, are you okay?

I feel like he got to the first move.”

Chika told Wakaba.

“What do you mean by a first move?”

Wakaba asked Chika.

“I think Shiraishi is aware of your feelings for him.

So he thought that if he told everyone that he confessed his feelings to you first, they would support him and try to force you to go out with him.

I was also thinking of supporting him until I realized how you felt about him.

In fact, it became harder for Wakaba to say no, right?”

Chika was right that it was hard for Wakaba to say no when she had been told so much by everyone.

If Wakaba had said no right away originally, this would not have happened, and she felt bad that she was not properly aware of her own feelings.

Furthermore, Chika said

“I think the fact that he told everyone means that he told Daiki as well.

And I think he’ll pretend he doesn’t know that Wakaba is going to refuse today.”

She told her.

Chika thought it was not a good idea to tell Ren about Wakaba’s feelings under the current circumstances.

She was getting unwelcome looks from everyone.

In addition, she was afraid that she might be treated like a bully.

In a small community like students, a single incident can change the impression of a person.

Wakaba is popular and friendly.

The same is true of Ren.

However, since many of her friends in her hometown have been rooting for them since junior high school, everyone who was trying to get Wakaba and Ren together had one thing in common: they were going to get together.

Everyone tries to get them to go out since they seem to be able to achieve their goal.

Not many people would say that it can’t be helped if Wakaba refuses.

On the contrary, the thought occurred to her that there were definitely more things that would side with Ren, accusing her of being thoughtful and jerk.

In reality, this is not the case, and everyone would accept it without concern, but until Ren told everyone, she did not know how it would turn out.

That is why Chika was cautious.

“Wakaba, I don’t think you should give Shiraishi an answer just yet.

If you refuse him at this point, you might isolate yourself from the rest of the group.

It might be hard, but can’t you wait and see how everything is doing before giving an answer?”

Chika told her what she was thinking, but in the end, Wakaba would have to make the decision.

The decision was left to Wakaba.