Episode Six: Cheating? ―July 2032―

The next morning, when I entered the classroom, Suzuka was sitting at my desk. The moment she spotted me, she threw her arms around me, on the verge of tears.

“Listen, Meisa! Sōma-kun might have been cheating!”

Apparently wanting to speak directly, Ryōka had held back from messaging last night. Now, like a dam bursting, she poured out her anger towards Fuwa in an emotional torrent. She seemed thoroughly furious.

“Hold on, calm down a bit. You said ‘might have’ at first, right? What does that mean? It’s not confirmed, then?”

“I saw him with that first-year girl! When I confronted Sōma-kun, he said she confessed to him the other day! It pisses me off even more that he kept it from me!”

“Eh… Why? Isn’t it just that he didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily?”

“Meisa’s saying the same thing as Sōma-kun!　That’s just a convenient excuse for the guy’s convenience! If he had nothing to hide, wouldn’t he normally tell me, his girlfriend⁉”

I understood that an indignant Ryōka was seeking agreement, but I couldn’t bring myself to say even a single word like “I know, right”.

I think jealousy stems from a desire to possess the other person exclusively.

That’s why I’d never experienced that feeling towards anyone else. I felt reluctant to simply pretend I understood Ryōka’s feelings.

Of course, I could have offered superficial words. It’s a tactic I always use with other friends.

But I didn’t want to do that to Ryōka, who always confronted me with her true feelings and accepted me just as I am.

“…Honestly, jealousy… that sort of feeling, I don’t really get it.”

　I told her my genuine, unvarnished truth. Ryoka didn’t show any dissatisfaction or complain about it; she simply accepted it with a smooth “Oh, I see.”

“The thing that pisses me off the most, you know, is that Sōma-kun turned down going home with me, saying he ‘had something to do’.”

“So it’s the lying that’s hard to take?”

“That too, of course… but I wanted him to always put me first. I wanted him to prioritise me!”

Fuwa must have had his reasons, reasons Ryōka couldn’t know. And perhaps it was because I was an outsider that Ryōka’s demands seemed a little selfish. All I could do was watch my best friend, whose expressions changed wildly between tears and anger, from a step back.

　After spending the entire day in an unstable mood, Ryōka apparently arranged a meeting with Fuwa after school. As soon as homeroom ended, she stormed out of the classroom with a look like she possessed both Berserker and Assassin traits.

What on earth will the outcome be? Tomorrow… no, I’ll probably hear from Ryōka tonight, so until then, all I can do is wish her the best of luck.

I can’t just keep thinking about Ryōka.

　—I need to get myself properly fired up from here on out.