The afternoon sky, with the sun beginning to set, was covered in dull-colored clouds. Empty glasses cluttered our table, the ice inside having melted into water.
Our gazes were fixed on a single, unusually conspicuous Diary.
“H-haha. This is a lie… You must have been stalking us, right?”
Kitagawa-san was the first to speak.
“Kitagawa-san…?”
Kitagawa-san rested her elbow on the table, covering her face and laughing strangely.
“Once I wake up, I’m going to interrogate Satoshi Iriya. Yes, that’s right, ‘Kitagawa-san’… What is it? Do you have something to say, Saionji-san?”
Kitagawa-san looked at me with sharp, clouded eyes.
“You know the truth, don’t you…?”
“Ugh. What about you guys!? This can’t be happening, it just can’t be!?”
A sharp shout echoed through the store.
“Calm down…”
“How can I calm down! Our three years, our feelings, all of it, made by someone else… That’s… ugh.”
Kitagawa-san, feeling nauseous, rushed to the restroom. I couldn’t believe it either.
The truth written in the Diary—it completely overturned everything we had believed in for three years of high school.
Satoshi Iriya’s diary contained detailed accounts of us. No, it was too detailed.
If it were just one or two episodes, we could laugh it off as coincidence, but this was as if we had been under constant surveillance.
We were characters in a world called LoD, dolls programmed to fall in love with Yuto Sano. The moment I thought that, this world became terrifying.
“B-but, then what exactly is Satoshi-kun?”
Nanjo-san, usually known as a saintly figure, a mature woman who always remained composed, had a trembling voice.
“I don’t know… But he was probably in a different dimension from our world… Perhaps a higher being…”
Shinonome-san was probably the calmest among us. A hint of intellectual curiosity could be seen within her fear.
“…I agree with Shinonome-san. I don’t know how he came to this world. But, judging from this text…”
“He’s in conflict with the creator of this world.”
I nodded.
“It’s just a hypothesis, but perhaps Satoshi Iriya was punished in a higher world. And that’s why he was dropped into our world, the lower world of LoD?”
“Y-yeah, the latter half of the Diary is full of insults.”
“As expected of Shinonome-san.”
“No, it’s just a baseless fantasy… If anyone else heard it, they’d think I’d gone crazy and take me to the hospital.”
It was self-deprecating, but what Shinonome-san was saying was on point.
“However, if there’s one truth, it’s that the person who was working behind the scenes to prevent us from dying by guiding the ‘protagonist,’ Yuto Sano, who was trying to lead us to a ‘Bad Ending,’ was Satoshi Iriya.”
“Ugh.”
The Bad Ending written in this Diary. It seemed that if we reached it, one of us would die. And the key to that was Yuto-kun. It was written that our fate was determined by Yuto-kun’s actions.
However—
“I still can’t believe it! We’ve always been saved by Yuto-kun!”
“That’s right! Yuto-kun is our savior!”
“I-I understand. We fell in love with the same person. I feel the same way… But…”
Our desire for the things written in the Diary to be fiction, a bad joke, unintentionally came out, and I snapped at Shinonome-san, but I regretted it. Shinonome-san must have been feeling the same way.
“…Then let’s confirm it.”
“…Kitagawa-san?”
Kitagawa-san, with a groggy expression, crawled back to her seat like a ghost.
“Let’s call Yuto right now. And ask him about the contents of this diary.”
“Y-yeah! That’s the best way!”
“I agree!”
Nanjo-san and Shinonome-san raised their hands in agreement.
And the gaze turned to me, the last one—Satsuki Saionji.
“Yeah… That’s right.”
This was indeed the best way to know the truth. It would clarify whether Yuto-kun was the kind of person Iriya Satoshi described. We had no choice but to cling to this.
“Hello? What’s wrong, Reon?”
When Kitagawa-san made the call, Yuto-kun answered immediately. She put it on speaker so we could all hear.
“Hey, what’s up, Reon?”
“Sorry, Yuto. We’re all gathered at the Four Beauties.”
“Huh!? Really!? Does that mean you’ve reconsidered that thing?”
“No, it’s about something else.”
“Tch. I’m busy, so get to the point.”
“That thing” was probably the idea of making all of us his sex friends. Yuto-kun clicked his tongue when she said it was something else.
—We fell in love with the kind Yuto-kun, right…?
My heart ached.
“O-okay, I’ll ask you one question, so please answer it.”
“Okay, okay.”
Then, Kitagawa-san took a deep breath. And with her usual strong expression, she spoke resolutely.
“Hey, Yuto… You’ve been to my house before, right?”
“No, I haven’t.”
He stated it clearly. According to the diary, a classmate named “Yuto Sano” had returned her mother’s wallet, which she had picked up. Thanks to that, Kitagawa-san was spared from being beaten to death.
“Y-you met my mother, right? You introduced yourself as Yuto Sano, right!?”
“I’ve never done anything like that…”
“That’s a lie… right?”
“Why would I tell such a stupid lie? Next.”
Kitagawa-san, pale-faced, slumped deeply into her chair, staring blankly into space.
“O-okay, then it’s my turn to ask a question.”
“Akina, huh. Go ahead.”
“You did a lot of business with my parents’ company, right? Thank you.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
“Eh?”
“I don’t even know your parents’ company…”
“T-that’s a lie, right? You said they needed a lot of printing! My mother said you wrote the receipt under the name ‘Yuto Sano’!”
“Why would I lie? You guys are weird, just like Reon.”
“That’s enough…”
Nanjo-san said, unable to finish her sentence, and sat down on the sofa.
“N-next is me. It’s Shinonome.”
“Shino, huh. What is it?”
“Do you remember when you beat me in the mock exam, Sano-san?”
“Oh, I remember that. Finally, a question I can relate to.”
“That’s good.”
Shinonome-san breathed a sigh of relief. However, she would freeze at the next words.
“Ah, but at that time, there were two answer sheets.”
“Eh…?”
“Well, whatever. I was confident I got a high score. The one that only got half the points was probably someone’s prank.”
“I-I see… Thank you…”
Yuto-kun’s laughter could be heard, but we were far from calm.
Two answer sheets with “Yuto Sano” written on them. One had a near-perfect score, and the other had only about half the points, as written in the Diary.
It was clear that Yuto-kun was lying.
With all the circumstantial evidence, Shinonome-san also sat deeply on the sofa and covered her face with her hands.
“Okay, last one, Sakurazuki. Make it quick, okay?”
It was my turn. I was scared. Even if the previous three were true, I wanted to be different.
I believe in you, Yuto-kun!
“You came to my first photo book signing event, right?”
“Oh, yeah, I did.”
“Thank you, it must have been expensive?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“There was an entry ticket in each photo book. Um, Yuto-kun bought a hundred photo books for me, right…?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about? Why would I do something so troublesome when I can see the real Sakurazuki right here? Besides, wasn’t that something you sent to me because you wanted to see me? The swimsuit looked good on you.”
“…Thank you.”
“Is that all the questions? I’m busy. Well, see you later. Bye-bye.”
With that, the call was cut off unilaterally. We didn’t say a word, but in the silence, the inorganic disconnection tone echoed from the smartphone.
“Fufufu.”
A laugh escaped from someone.
“Hahaha.”
“Heh, heh.”
“Ahaha…”
And, as if being drawn in, one by one, we began to laugh, and laughter echoed around our table. The laughter called to more laughter, creating an eerie atmosphere as if witches were performing a ritual.
The Yuto Sano I had believed in was a lie. The things I had thought were important were crumbling, leaving only an empty shell.
“Fufu, how interesting. What was the Yuto Sano we believed in?”
“That’s right. He never saved us once, and yet we fell in love with him. How foolish.”
“The epitome of foolishness. It’s so foolish that I can’t stop laughing.”
“Yeah! I don’t care about anything anymore!”
My love for Yuto Sano disappeared.
No, what exactly was I in love with?
Because we’re childhood friends?
Is that the reason I fell for that man?
What was so good about that (….) that made me fall for him?
“…Hey, tell me the answer. Satoshi Iriya-kun. What exactly are we, what are we to each other?”
━━━
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