Chapter 111 – The Despairing Afternoon
"Are you serious?"
Hikigaya Hachiman looked stunned as he stared at Yotsuya Miko, who was tightly hugged by Yurikawa Hana.
Skipping class—such a rebellious act—why did it sound like such a trivial matter coming from her mouth?
How many times had she skipped class to be able to say "then let's skip class" so casually?
"Of course I'm serious. After all, my homeroom teacher isn't Shizuka Hiratsuka…"
As she said this, Yotsuya Miko stuck out her tongue playfully.
After all, for girls who want to skip class, there are all sorts of excuses.
Plus, she and Yurikawa Hana were already frequent visitors to the infirmary, practically designated truants.
Their homeroom teacher had long since started turning a blind eye to their absences.
"Alright then, just be careful…"
Realizing that Yotsuya and her group wouldn't get into trouble for skipping class, Hikigaya Hachiman nodded and left, relieved.
However, as he walked down the corridor to return to class, he was immediately caught by Hiratsuka Shizuka on her way to class.
"Getting bold, huh, Hikigaya…"
Hiratsuka, who was already late for class, hadn't even figured out how to explain her tardiness to her students.
But Hikigaya, her favorite student, had kindly delivered the excuse right to her.
In the hallway, Hiratsuka rested one hand on Hikigaya's shoulder, the other clutching her teaching materials, beaming with joy.
"Sensei, you totally look like a delinquent bullying an honest student right now…"
Running into Hiratsuka in the hallway—Hikigaya was already used to this. After all, his luck was always terrible.
Still, seeing how pleased she was to have caught him, he couldn't help but complain.
"I don't see anything honest about you."
She gave his shoulder a firm pat, then let go and gave him a push from behind.
"Hurry up—run back to class!"
A moment later, Hikigaya returned to his seat through the back door, under the surprised gazes of his classmates.
About two or three minutes later, Hiratsuka Shizuka burst in through the front door and headed to the podium.
.
.
.
"Finally made it to the end of the day…"
Standing before the Service Club's door, Hikigaya Hachiman felt a surge of emotion.
He didn't go in immediately as usual. Instead, he took two steps back and stood to the side of the sliding door.
"Best friend! You're finally here!"
The next second, as the classroom door slid open, Zaimokuza, who had been lying in wait, lunged forward and missed completely, falling flat on the corridor floor in front of Hikigaya.
"So you really were there…"
Seeing Zaimokuza's failed ambush unfold just as he expected, Hikigaya smirked slightly.
"That's right! As soon as school ended, I rushed over without a moment's rest to hear your feedback, dear friend!"
With a speed that didn't match his build at all, whoosh—he leapt up from the floor.
Zaimokuza eagerly pushed Hikigaya into the Service Club room.
"Good afternoon, homebody!"
The moment they entered, Yuigahama Yui greeted them warmly.
"Afternoon…"
Hikigaya nodded at her as a response, then immediately turned his gaze toward Yukinoshita by the window.
She was sitting in her chair with her head down, making soft breathing sounds like a cat.
"She's asleep?"
Thinking of how he himself had succumbed to sleep at noon and got scolded by Hiratsuka in the afternoon, Hikigaya couldn't help but admire how Yukinoshita had held out until after school to doze off.
"Ah, I'll wake her—"
Hearing Hikigaya's words, Yuigahama quickly walked toward Yukinoshita.
"No need. I was just resting my eyes. I didn't fall asleep…"
Yukinoshita Yukino's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened.
She raised a hand to shield herself from the blinding sunlight, attempting to deny that she'd been sleeping.
"Then let's just say you weren't asleep."
Seeing how obviously tired she looked, Hikigaya didn't bother arguing.
Instead, he wanted to deal with Zaimokuza's matter as quickly as possible.
That way, everyone could leave on time, and he and Yukinoshita could go home and catch up on sleep.
After dragging over a stool for Zaimokuza and placing him in the center, the three members of the Service Club surrounded him in a perfect isosceles triangle.
"Um… The way you're all staring at me is making me kind of nervous…"
With Yukinoshita's icy gaze in front and Hikigaya's fiery eyes behind, Zaimokuza felt like he was caught between ice and fire.
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He hadn't even heard their feedback on his novel yet, and he already felt like he was going to faint.
"If this is enough to rattle you, your mental fortitude is way too weak. Just so you know, I'm going to critique your novel without holding back, Zaimokuza-kun."
Seeing that he was trying to escape, Yukinoshita pinned him down with a single sentence.
Holding to the principle of taking every request seriously, she had read his novel word by word the night before.
After more than four hours of painstaking review, she had reached a conclusion.
"It's nothing but a self-indulgent piece of trash."
"Guh!"
The moment her critique left her mouth, Zaimokuza clutched his chest and collapsed to the floor.
"Not only is the language overly verbose, but it's also filled with obscure and incomprehensible words!"
"The power settings are vague, and the plot is completely disconnected!"
One harsh critique after another spilled from Yukinoshita's mouth.
In Hikigaya's eyes, Zaimokuza's once large figure seemed to shrink smaller and smaller… until he completely disappeared.
"Uuugh, she didn't hold back at all…"
Crushed by Yukinoshita's criticism, Zaimokuza turned teary-eyed toward Yuigahama, who was sitting beside her.
"At least… there must be something good about my novel, right?"
"Ah, well…"
Yuigahama hadn't read anything beyond the cover after bringing it home. Faced with his hopeful gaze, she guiltily looked away.
She stammered for a bit before finally blurting out the truth with an awkward face: "I'm sorry. It was just too boring… I didn't read any of it."
In that instant, the flame of hope in Zaimokuza's heart was blown out by a gust of wind.
"Maybe… I'm not suited to writing novels?"
Completely defeated, Zaimokuza lay sprawled on the floor, eyes full of confusion.
At that moment, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Best friend?"
He looked up to see Hikigaya Hachiman smiling down at him.
Tears welled up in Zaimokuza's eyes.
As expected of the man he trusted with his life! In his darkest hour, only he still stood by his side!
"Actually, your core concept was pretty solid."
Hikigaya patted him on the shoulder, pointing out the novel's only merit.
Seeing Zaimokuza start to smile, he immediately poured cold water on him.
"So… which novel did you plagiarize it from?"
[...…]
It felt like arrows had pierced him from every direction. Zaimokuza's smile froze, and with a loud wail, he scrambled up from the floor and ran out of the Service Club room.