After receiving Father’s call, my thoughts could not help but become complicated.
If he had told me this before Father was summoned by the prosecution, perhaps it would not have troubled me this much.
But as things stood now...
—The way society’s gaze had changed.
—My family, shattered apart.
—The betrayal and ostracism from the people closest to me.
The malice that had been laid bare did not simply wound me from where I could not see it. Though I was breathing, it was suffocating me, as though I were drowning.
Only then could I no longer avoid realizing it.
To them, I had merely been a crow with a succulent piece of meat in its beak.
They had been hyenas coveting the meat I held.
Even if I did not want to know, I had no choice but to understand.
Once the meat I had was gone, they naturally turned their backs on me.
Because of that, I realized far too late that even during the time when I thought I was unloved, Father had still been protecting me.
Back then, I had only thought Father was not looking at me.
But looking back now, he had been protecting me where I could not see.
I had not even considered just how much I had enjoyed under Father’s name.
Because I had Father’s name, I could freely do what I wanted, and no one could easily lay a hand on me.
Back then, I had taken all of that for granted.
"I really didn’t know anything at all."
That was why I could not help being driven up against the wall called reality.
To the point that I wished time would simply stop.
Yet despite that wish, time did not stop. It continued to flow on.
Ding-dong-dang-dong♪
When lunchtime came, I quietly took my lunchbox from my bag.
"Look at that lunchbox."
"...So the rumors really were true."
"She’s got some nerve coming to school."
As countless gazes gathered on me, words I did not want to hear reached my ears.
Clutching my lunchbox to my chest, I fled the classroom and headed for the rooftop.
With a clatter, the rooftop door opened. Perhaps because dark clouds had gathered as though it were about to rain, there were fewer students than usual.
Still, several students who seemed to recognize me stared in my direction and whispered among themselves. Pretending not to hear them, I hurried over to an empty bench and sat down.
"...Haa."
How much longer did I have to go on like this?
The dreary sky above looked just like my heart.
With a sigh, I placed the lunchbox on my lap, took out my chopsticks, and put rice and side dishes into my mouth.
To be honest, I could not taste anything.
No, it was hard even to swallow... but without food to keep up my strength, I would not have the energy to endure things in there. So I forced myself to put another bite into my mouth.
Chewing and swallowing somehow, bite by bite.
"...Sniff, hic... ngh..."
It felt as though I were dreaming.
It was a time when I came to understand firsthand that a person’s life could change so completely.
A time when I learned just how weak a person could become.
I had thought there was nothing I longed for besides Father’s attention, but it was a time when I could no longer deny how much I had depended on the people around me.
Then, plop, plop—I felt droplets falling onto the skin not covered by my uniform.
"Ah, it’s raining!"
"Damn it, they said it wouldn’t rain until late afternoon!"
"I’m an idiot for trusting the weather forecast!"
"Let’s get inside, quick!"
The students eating on the rooftop complained or panicked as they hurried indoors.
Helping the people they had been eating with pack up, or helping familiar faces even if they had not been eating together.
But not one of them came near me.
I hurriedly packed up my lunchbox, rose from the bench, and tried to walk away.
But at that moment, my feet tangled, and I fell. The contents of my lunchbox scattered across the ground.
Even as I gathered the scattered food back into the lunchbox, all they did was glance my way before fleeing inside.
And when I saw the rooftop door shut after they had all left, I felt as though my heart had become utterly empty.
At the same time, rain began to pour down as if someone in the sky had turned on a faucet.
"...Ah."
Soaked by the pouring rain, I slowly lifted my head.
‘What is this running down my face right now?’
‘Is it rainwater?’
‘Or is it... something else?’
Thinking that, I sat alone in a corner of the rooftop and hugged the lunchbox in my arms even more tightly.
Then I squeezed my eyes shut and bowed my head.
No one cared anyway.
What did it matter if I stayed like this?
Even if I caught a cold.
Even if a blazing fever consumed me.
No one would spare me a single thought.
As I thought that, lightly biting my lower lip and sobbing without meaning to, it happened.
"What are you doing? Why aren’t you taking shelter from the rain?"
An unfamiliar voice sounded before me.
"...Leave me alone."
I answered without lifting my face.
I assumed it was someone who had approached without really looking at me.
And the person standing before me now would surely be no different.
The moment I lifted my head and they realized I was Raiden Mei, they would definitely leave, just like everyone else.
"No. It’s raining this hard. There’s no way I can just leave you alone."
"?!"
It happened in that instant.
I felt something cover the top of my head.
Startled, I raised my head—and my eyes met those of a white-haired male student, drenched through by the rain.
Clear, limpid blue eyes visible beyond his glasses.
The instant I looked into those eyes, I—
".......The sky."
Like a fool, I stared blankly, my gaze captured by those eyes.
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