Until now, Senpai had not spoken a single word.
She still clutched the hem of my blazer tightly, her eyes fixed on me. Her face remained completely expressionless.
With everything else that had been going on, I hadn’t given it much thought. But now I realized how stupid I had been.
Her hand, the one gripping my sleeve, was trembling.
Of course it was. No woman could go through something like that without being terrified.
I immediately regretted letting go of her earlier when I had told her everything would be all right. Still, reaching out to her again right now felt awkward.
After a brief hesitation, I took the hand clutching my sleeve and held it firmly in mine.
“Ah…”
I looked straight into her eyes, trying to show her without words that she was safe.
When our gazes met, some of the tension seemed to leave her.
Then Senpai squeezed my hand back.
I returned the pressure, gripping her hand more securely to reassure her.
“Now then, all of you will come with me to the Student Council Room. You will write a Written Oath. These are legally binding. Should anyone who knows about today’s events spread the story, you will be held responsible. Keep that firmly in mind.”
The conversation continued.
The President had clearly emphasized the binding nature of the Written Oath on purpose. Those guys were too stupid to question it.
In the end, I had to leave the resolution entirely to the Student Council President. I had no idea what the best way to handle this was, so there was little I could do.
The most important thing now was what would happen to Senpai going forward.
Several Student Council members had apparently arrived. I could see a few of them standing at the rooftop entrance. The delinquents were led away in a shuffling line, almost like prisoners being taken into custody.
Once they were gone, only Senpai, Senpai’s friend, and I remained.
“Well then, I’ll go along as a lookout too. I’ll give you the full story later.”
After speaking to me, Senpai’s friend turned to her.
“Sara, make sure you have a proper talk with him.”
“…Yes.”
Hearing the reply, she turned back to me.
“Takanashi-kun, I’m counting on you to take care of the rest… and follow up as well.”
“Understood.”
With that, she left the rooftop.
I finally calmed down enough to take stock of the situation. After all, I had my own complicated feelings about what had happened.
I had been avoiding Senpai, and the resulting awkwardness still lingered between us. This time I had acted purely on impulse. It wasn’t as though all our unresolved issues had simply vanished.
No. Enough of that.
When I thought about how Senpai normally behaved, she had—for some reason—always treated me differently from everyone else right from the beginning.
The way she had said she couldn’t treat me the same as the others back then… if I considered it carefully, it could have been nothing more than an explanation based on her position. Which would mean her true feelings lay elsewhere.
In other words, I had jumped to conclusions without ever confirming or asking her directly. I was the one who had sulked all on my own.
Which meant that part of the reason today’s incident had happened was because of me…
For the first time in several days, my head had cooled off. My mind began spinning at full speed, and realization after realization flooded in.
I had fallen into a different kind of negativity.
The more I thought about it, the more it felt like I had no right to face her for an entirely new set of reasons.
Even so, the option of leaving her side right now simply wasn’t available to me.
Her trembling seemed to have eased a little.
“Senpai, are you okay?”
She had been through a lot. I decided to throw away my shallow concerns about having no right to face her and steel myself.
“…I’ve been thinking about a lot of things.”
“I see.”
Senpai began to speak haltingly.
“There is something I must tell you, Takanashi-san… Something I’ve wanted to say for the past several days… But right now…”
Of course she would have things she wanted to say to me. Honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she was angry.
That was why I intended to accept it meekly…
And after that, I had to tell her what I needed to say as well.
“Senpai, there are things I need to tell you too. Things I definitely need to apologize for. I intend to say them honestly. So if there’s anything you want to say, please don’t worry about me. Don’t hold anything back.”
“………………It was scary…”
Senpai whispered the words so softly I almost missed them.
“Pardon? I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that—”
“I was scared.”
Senpai whispered again.
“I was so scared… I didn’t know what they were going to do to me…”
“This was the first time anything like this had ever happened to me. I couldn’t think of any way to handle it. I couldn’t run away, but I couldn’t let them catch me either. When they grabbed my arm, all sorts of horrible thoughts went through my mind.”
Senpai looked down, her shoulders slumped.
It was only natural to imagine what might be done to her…
I was really glad I had made it in time.
“I felt so pathetic… My lack of consideration for others… The fact that I had saddened you, Takanashi-san… The person I had been up until now… My own shallowness that had brought all of this upon me…”
So those tears back then hadn’t been because she was afraid of those guys…
“At the time, so many emotions overlapped that I ended up crying. But after that, when you came for me, Takanashi-san, the feeling of happiness won out. However, once Natsumi and the President arrived and you let go of me, I finally calmed down enough to think clearly. That’s when I fully realized exactly what kind of situation I had been in.”
So that was why she had grabbed onto my blazer.
“When I thought again about what they had almost done to me… that’s when…”
As she spoke, the memory must have resurfaced, because her hand began trembling again.
“That’s enough! It’s already over! You don’t have to think about it anymore!!”
What should I do in a situation like this…?
I felt like I had been in a similar scene once before.
That would have been with her… I see.
With my free hand, I gently stroked Senpai’s head.
“Senpai… this incident is over now. The Student Council President will handle everything properly. We have evidence too. Those guys won’t try anything again. From now on, please make sure to check with me first, okay? I’ll do my best to be useful.”
“…Yes. I understand.”
I continued slowly stroking her head until her trembling subsided.
After a while, I looked at her face. Senpai wore a slightly ticklish expression, her eyes narrowed gently.
Her hand had stopped shaking.
“It’s the first time anyone other than my parents has stroked my head.”
“Sorry for doing it so suddenly.”
I knew it wasn’t something you should suddenly do to someone else—especially a girl.
But I couldn’t think of anything else, so it couldn’t be helped. From my experience, there hadn’t been any other options.
“No… I don’t dislike it. But it felt very natural, didn’t it?”
“Well… I used to do it for my childhood friend.”
“I see… Was that person a girl?”
“Um, yes. More or less.”
“I see.”
“Um… is there something bothering you?”
The flow of the conversation made me feel like I was being questioned.
At some point, Senpai’s expression had returned to its usual blank state.
“No, it’s nothing… Even I don’t really understand it myself.”
Her voice grew quieter toward the end, and I couldn’t quite catch what she said.
“…Shall we leave this place soon?”
Staying here any longer might cause her to remember unnecessary things. I thought it would be best if we moved on.
“Yes. But… would it be alright if we went to the flowerbed afterward? There is something I would like to talk with you about.”
“Understood. I have something to talk about too.”
Either way, we needed to have a proper conversation.
As we started walking toward the flowerbed, I felt a tug.
It seemed Senpai had grabbed the hem of my blazer again.
“Senpai?”
“…Is it not okay?”
“No, it’s fine.”
For now, I should probably let her do as she wanted.
We began moving toward the flowerbed while she remained holding onto me.
From the side—slightly behind me—Senpai looked like she had returned to her usual expressionless self.
…No. She was still gripping the hem of my blazer. There was no way she was back to normal.
“…Hey, what the hell is that?”
“…The Goddess with a guy?”
“…That’s not the important part. Look, she’s grabbing onto him.”
“…Hey, what does that even mean?”
Naturally, as we headed to the flowerbed we were seen by others. We were attracting a lot of attention…
In the end, we reached the flowerbed just like that.
Well, there was no one here, so I supposed it was fine.