Soul for a Girlfriend?

I noticed that the content of that paper seemed to be computer printed rather than written by hand. It was rather odd that someone would do so much hassle just to spread rumours about her.

What an easy girl she is.

This was written there if I wasn't wrong. It was rather difficult to trace the perpetrator under such unlikely circumstances. Anyone could've done like one of her ex-boyfriends.

But that was a mere speculation on my side.

Since we had no leads, that simply meant I had room for improvisation.

"That's printed isn't it? I can frame you and no one will bat an eye." I said, and it seemed to catch his attention as he asked in quite an agitated tone, "How will you do that!?"

I didn't say anything except for staring at him. It's often a really useful method to get people to say something unnecessary. To fill in the silence, one might get nervous and end up spilling the beans.

"You're bluffing!" He said with a smile to mask his nervousness. I narrowed my eyes, and replied in an indifferent tone, "I might be. I might not be."

He nervously looked at his friends, but they looked just as lost as him. Exchanging looks with each other, it appeared like they had no idea about the origin of that paper.

So he was innocent, after all.

"Don't worry Shiraishi, he was just playing." I heard Shig's voice trying to assure her, which was completely unexpected. After all the things he said that day, I wasn't expecting them to be on talking terms.

"Isn't that right?" He gave that dude a sharp look. Reading the atmosphere, he nodded instantly and played along, "Yeah, I was just kidding."

Shiraishi looked towards him with a blank expression in her eyes. Shaking her head slightly, a soft smile formed on her lips as she said, "I don't find… jokes like that funny."

The hesitation in her voice, and the stiff smile was enough for me to understand what was going inside her.

"Areh… you were kidding?" I asked him as he turned towards me and nodded, "Of course dude… I was just teasing her."

The cocky smile on his face was nowhere to be seen. It appeared that he was slowly realising the extent of his actions.

Better late than never.

"Don't you think you went off limits?" I asked him, even though I knew that he was well aware of that. I was trying to guilt trip him. He shook his hands in denial and said, "But, I swear I didn't make this."

So that was his major concern.

"You sure?" 

"Why would I?" He asked me as I pointed towards the paper and inquired, "Why do you have this paper then, huh?"

He turned back and pointed towards the display board at the back of class and said, "I just found it on the notice board."

"Yes, we saw this on the notice board so he took it." His friends backed him up and judging by the certainty in their tone, it didn't appear that they were lying.

"And? You decided to torment her with this?" 

"No, no… it wasn't my intention."

"You sure did though."

"I'm really sorry, Shiraishi. But I swear I didn't do this." He immediately apologised to her, but she didn't bother to reply. She wasn't in that state of mind to have a conversation with him after all the things he said.

"So you just randomly found it on the board?" I asked, and he nodded strongly, "Yes!"

I walked closer to him and took the paper from him. He stared at me for a moment as I said in a polite tone, "Then I would like you to keep that to yourself."

"I apologise for the things I said." He said, but I turned my eyes towards Shiraishi. Following my gaze, he apologised to her again, "I'm really sorry, Shiraishi."

Shiraishi just gave him a nod without looking towards him.

"Also, I hope you won't be teasing Shiraishi with your jokes." Moriko said as Shig added in his irritated tone, "Yeah dude… they aren't even funny."

"That was lame, not gonna lie." Moriko laughed to lift the tensed up atmosphere. Taking this opportunity, he also laughed nervously and made his way out of there.

Moriko sure knew how to handle situations like that.

"Thanks Ada-cchin!" Shiraishi looked towards her with trembling eyes as Moriko patted her head and chuckled. Moriko's presence relieved her.

  I was expecting Moriko to be with her in that situation, but she was gone somewhere and that dude took that opportunity to hurl all those things at her.

Her eyes shifted towards Shig who had a distasteful look on his face. With a nervous smile, she averted her eyes and said, "You too… Thanks Shig."

"You good?" I asked, as she replied, "It doesn't matter… I'm used to this."

"I wasn't expecting you to speak up." Moriko slapped Shig's shoulders playfully. He gave her a shrug and walked off, "Yeah, don't care."

"Come on, Shig… don't be so rude." Moriko pouted, but he continued walking towards his desk without paying any attention to her. Moriko smiled awkwardly at Shiraishi.

My eyes wandered across the wall clock and I noticed that it was almost time for the next class. Waving my arm at them, I said, "I gotta, I have my next class."

As I was about to walk off, I felt Shiraishi grab the sleeve of my shirt. Turning towards her, I noticed a rather wry smile on her face as she said in a soft voice, "Thanks… for coming."

Giving her a small nod, I walked out of their class.

So this is what she meant when she said that she would get treated a lot better if there weren't any rumours about her.

The blank look on her face was something I have seen before. It was the same face she made that day when I visited her home. Almost as if she was trying to let go of something, but couldn't get rid of the strings that were holding her back.

Seems like I was right, after all.