Episode 40: Intervention
“…Okay.”
With a little hesitation, I nodded without turning down Shiori’s invitation.
Shiori kept her calm smile in place and gave my wrist a light tug.
“Let’s go talk somewhere quiet.”
Something about that stirred a feeling in me, but I couldn’t find a reason to refuse.
So the two of us walked side by side down the corridor.
As we walked, I suddenly felt a gaze at my back.
Something like a bad feeling crossed my mind, and I turned around — and in that instant—
“…Yuna…!!”
A sharp voice, and my arm was pulled hard.
“…Eh?”
Before I could understand what was happening, Honoka yanked me toward her, roughly.
“Wait—”
Before I could resist, Honoka gripped my hand tight and pulled me away from Shiori.
“…!”
Honoka’s eyes were shaking with anger, anxiety, and impatience all at once.
Without so much as glancing at Shiori — treating her as though she didn’t exist at all — Honoka kept dragging me by the arm, walking forward with force.
“Honoka…?”
“…Just come with me. Don’t say anything.”
It wasn’t her usual calm, gentle voice. It was low, and stripped of feeling.
I didn’t get a chance to object before I was pulled forward again.
Behind us, I thought I heard Shiori say something, but it didn’t reach my ears.
───And where we ended up was an empty spot behind the school building, where no one else was around.
“…Honoka, what’s—”
“Why?”
Honoka cut me off, murmuring low.
“…What?”
“Why would you do something like that…?”
The hand gripping my arm was trembling.
“I told you, didn’t I…? That Yuna is mine… I told you that, right?”
Honoka’s eyes, even as they shook, carried a strong tint of obsession in them.
“You said you’d only look at me… you said it…”
“…Honoka, that’s—”
“Why do you break it so easily…?”
Her grip on my arm tightened, hard.
“Why can you betray me so easily…?”
“That’s not betraying you, that’s not—”
“…If it’s not, then why are you talking to someone else?”
Honoka’s hand, still gripping the sleeve of my uniform tight, began to move, slowly.
“Hey, Yuna…”
With those words, her hand reached gently for the collar of my uniform.
“Wait, Honoka… this is behind the school building…”
I hurried to try to stop her hand.
But—
“It doesn’t matter. As long as it’s made clear that Yuna is mine…”
Honoka’s face drew closer.
—This is bad if someone sees us.
In contrast to my panic, Honoka’s eyes were heated, stained through with obsession.
Just as I was scrambling over what to do—
“…Yuna-chan.”
—A voice, quiet but unmistakably clear, cut through the air.
In an instant, Honoka’s movement stopped completely.
Turning slowly, there stood Shiori.