“Are you kidding me, you fat pig?”
Nogami’s scornful voice rang out from behind. Laughter followed from Sae and Minako.
Sae grinned as she stepped on the three notes that had fluttered to the floor.
“Only thirty thousand yen? Don’t tell me you blew the rest on gacha for some online game. Pathetic.”
“How pitiful. Maybe you should let him off, Izumi,” Minako chimed in, her lips mouthing sympathy while her jeweled green eyes curved into mischievous crescents.
“I… I-I-I really don’t have any more… I swear…”
“No money? Then steal from your parents’ wallets. Or sell yourself to some old pervert. Plenty of ways to earn, aren’t there? Or is that pig brain of yours too stuffed with fat to think of one?”
Nogami spoke as if discussing the weather.
What a mess…
Harutaki sighed inwardly as he lingered on the sidelines for a moment.
Self-inflicted trouble, this is.
With that thought, he turned to head back to his seat.
“Nogami-san, bullying Tazaki doesn’t seem all that fun, does it?”
“Bullying?” Nogami shot him a sidelong glance, curling her lip. “I’m educating this parasite. Trash like him are nothing but useless leeches.”
“Say, handsome. You’re sticking up for him. Does that mean you’re an accomplice too, sneaking into the girls’ locker room?”
Because of Harutaki’s looks, Sae’s first impression of him wasn’t bad. Her tone carried a subtle warning, though: don’t meddle, or you’ll just drag yourself into Nogami’s crosshairs.
Harutaki turned to glance at Akihisa, who sat hunched in his seat, trembling.
Seriously? A chubby, bespectacled kid like you, acting all meek and honest, and you still managed something like that?
“If he went into the girls’ locker room, shouldn’t that be reported to a teacher? Taking justice into your own hands isn’t exactly legal.”
Harutaki rubbed his temple, already feeling the headache.
Sure, Akihisa sneaking into the locker room was both immoral and against school rules. But using that as an excuse to torment him? That wasn’t right either.
The problem was that because Akihisa really had messed up, he had no ground to resist. Nogami had him by the throat, figuratively and literally.
And knowing Nogami’s domineering personality, no one expected her to go easy.
“Legal?” Izumi sneered.
But before he could say anything, Nogami suddenly grabbed Akihisa’s tie, yanking it tight around his throat.
“What did you just call him?”
Akihisa froze.
Damn it. I dragged him down too…
Harutaki had already gotten involved by objecting, but now Akihisa had blurted his name aloud, reminding Nogami of yesterday’s bad blood.
Harutaki smiled as he dropped onto Akihisa’s desk, meeting her eyes directly.
“You can just ask me, y’know. I’m right here.”
Normally, he’d avoid trouble if he could. But so long as Nogami kept bullying Akihisa, it was only a matter of time before sitting beside him made Harutaki the next target.
And once that happened, there was no way he’d just sit there and take it. That only fed the bullies’ thrill.
That whole idea of “if you don’t resist, they’ll get bored and stop”?
A joke.
He’d lived through it before. He knew the truth: the only way to stop a bully was to hit back hard enough that the pain outweighed the pleasure.
Before Nogami could retort, Harutaki spoke first: “Are you asking for my name so you can confess, Nogami-san? I get it, I’m popular. But this is our first proper meeting. You’re cute, sure. But your personality’s not my type. Between you, I prefer the blonde with the big chest.”
He winked at Minako as he said it.
Minako, in the middle of fussing with her bangs in a compact mirror, let out a laugh before she could stop herself. Catching Nogami’s glare, she hurriedly snapped the mirror shut and gave Harutaki a sidelong look.
“My, my. Arrogant and rude. Calling a lady ‘a blonde with big boobs’? You’ll die a terrible death.”
“If I’m still alive after saying it, doesn’t that mean you’re no lady?” Harutaki shot back lightly.
The three of them hadn’t shown him any respect, so why should he play nice?
“You—!”
Nogami’s temper flared. Watching him ignore her to flirt with Minako made something hot and ugly boil in her chest. She yanked his tie, dragging his eyes back to hers.
But Harutaki didn’t react the way Akihisa did. No piglike squeals, no trembling.
His calmness unsettled her.
Step.
The rubber sole of his indoor shoe struck the floor sharply.
At 185 cm, Harutaki towered over her. He closed the distance in a blink, looming until she stumbled back a step, startled.
“Me? I’m a feminist.” He spoke lazily, like Asama-sensei, every word unhurried. “I believe in equality. Which means…”
Before she could process it, his fist slammed down on the desk beside her.
BANG.
The crash jolted her, her slim body trembling as she snapped out of her daze.
“…I don’t care if you’re a pretty girl. If I hit you, I might even ‘accidentally’ touch some sensitive spots. Honestly, that’d be way more fun than fighting a guy.”
Not that Harutaki would actually start a fight.
He had people he cared about. A future to protect. Social ties to maintain.
Getting arrested, suspended, or expelled wasn’t a joke.
And with Nogami’s powerful family background, even the principal wouldn’t cross her. Lay a hand on her, and who knew? Maybe one night he’d wake up stuffed in a cement-filled barrel at the bottom of Tokyo Bay.
“You… you—!”
Nogami’s chest heaved, furious and flustered. For a moment, her figure nearly rivaled Minako’s.
She was too caught up in his steady advance, too rattled by the pressure he exuded, to stop and think about the one critical detail:
Would he actually dare hit her?
Nogami and Harutaki barely knew each other. In fact, before today, Nogami hadn’t known a thing about the boy standing before her, so she couldn’t be sure if he might actually lose control and throw a punch.
Harutaki, however, had picked up on a few rumors, and from the way she’d let him walk away earlier but kept her claws dug into Akihisa, he’d already guessed at her “principles.”
She wouldn’t bully someone unless she had a grip on their weakness first.
At least, not openly.
That was the conclusion Harutaki reached in his head.
Meanwhile, at his desk, Akihisa peeked out nervously. Seeing Harutaki push Nogami back step by step, even making her lose composure for a split second, his heart erupted in cheers.
A demon king… no, a god!
He actually stood up to Nogami! He even threatened her, right to her face! So damn cool!
This is divine! Absolutely divine!
The same Nogami who made the teachers and principal groan, the queen bee who had all the normies and hotshots scurrying out of her way—here she was, getting owned.
If word spread, no one would believe it. Not even as a joke.
“Back off! What are you trying to do to Izumi?”
Sae finally snapped to her senses, rushing forward to shield the flustered Nogami.
The blonde bombshell, Minako, was calmer. She slipped her smartphone from her pocket and leveled the camera at him.
“I’d suggest you don’t do anything stupid,” she said flatly. “If this video goes online, pretty face or not, you’ll never get a girlfriend.”
Harutaki tilted his head. “Then would you go out with me, Sanada-san?”
“Fufu, maybe if you wag your tail and bark twice like a puppy waiting on its master’s hand… Hoshi—?”
“Hoshikawa. Hoshikawa Harutaki.”
“Hoshikawa-kun, huh. Ah, look at that, I stole Izumi’s question. As for dating… nah. I can’t stand violent guys.”
“Minako, you—!”
Nogami choked on Minako’s playful jab. Unable to snap at her friend, she redirected her fury straight at Harutaki.
Her rose-colored eyes raked him up and down, arms folded, chin raised.
“Heh. I’m standing right here. Do you dare hit me?”
As her thoughts cleared, the pieces fell into place.
Someone willing to step in and defend a victim wouldn’t actually strike a girl.
Even so…
Her clothes felt damp against her skin.
It wasn’t fear. Of course not. It was just… biology. A woman’s physiological weakness. That’s all.
Sticky, clammy—like sweating through summer PE class and not changing afterward. The sensation made her squirm.
A guy who threatened to hit a girl was the worst.
And yet, for a split second back there, she’d really thought Harutaki might lay hands on her. That heat low in her belly felt disturbingly real, like some déjà vu of an experience she’d never had.
Damn you…
Nogami’s brows furrowed, her glare sharper than blades as it fixed on the boy who had dared humiliate her in front of both her friends and trash like Akihisa.
“Tch. Don’t tell me you’re a masochist, Nogami-san. It’s the first time I’ve seen a girl beg someone to hit her.”
Harutaki shook his head, giving her a look of pure pity, like she was beyond saving.
He got it now. Neither side could escalate. Cross the line into violence, and both of them lost.
He had no intention of gambling his future on Akihisa’s self-inflicted mess. And Nogami? With her pride, if word got out that she’d been “put in her place” by him, it would be a scandal she couldn’t stomach.
Besides, he had a hunch.
Nogami only bullied when she had dirt on someone. It wasn’t just sadism—she didn’t want to make trouble for her family.
Everyone knew: unless the victim spoke up, bullying was hard to define.
Didn’t you see? The guy himself wasn’t resisting. So who else would step in?
A simple “we were just fooling around” could silence most objections.
But if she had leverage—weakness, secrets, then reducing her target to a powerless plaything was inevitable.
Seeing Nogami and Harutaki locked in a stare-down, Sae’s nerves spiked.
She really did find this handsome transfer appealing. She didn’t want him to end up like the others—played with, broken, discarded like trash.
After all, that’s what “weakness” was for. Not just to control the toy, but to crush it, laugh at its despair, savor its screams.
And if anyone criticized them? Simple.
You made the mistake first. If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t have had anything to use against you.
“C’mon, there’s no real grudge here. Handsome, just apologize to Izumi, and Izumi, forgive him, okay?” Sae coaxed, shaking her friend’s shoulder.
“…It’s not impossible for me to forgive him.”
Shrugging off Sae’s hold, Nogami perched on a desk, crossing one leg over the other. She extended her foot toward Harutaki.
“Kneel down and lick my foot like a dog. Then I’ll pretend your barking earlier was just some stray mutt. I might forgive you.”
“What kind of degrading demand is that? You think I’d accept?” Harutaki shot back indignantly.
Nogami smiled sweetly, spreading her hands at Sae. “See? He doesn’t want to apologize.”
“Ah, Izumi, you—ugh…” Sae started to plead again.
But Harutaki cut in first.
“Oi, Nogami-san. When did I say I wouldn’t?”
Nogami: “?”
“Mind taking your shoes off first? I prefer it that way. Woof?”
His easy grin twisted her words back on her, throwing her taunt right in her face.
“Pfft—hahaha! Izumi, why don’t you just try it?” Minako clapped a hand over her mouth, laughing so hard she nearly doubled over.
“Ehehe, I really wanna see that,” Sae added, her eyes dropping to her friend’s slender ankle wrapped in black polyester socks. The arch of her foot curved just enough to show a tantalizing gap where it met the loose indoor slipper.
“Filthy bastard! Don’t think I can’t deal with you just because I don’t have your weakness—!”
Nogami snapped, swatting Sae’s mischievous hand away from tugging off her shoe. Her glare locked onto Harutaki with teeth-gritting fury.