Apparently the Gal who Bullies me Likes me

Chapter 5

Melt

In the middle of the night inside my dark room, I was lying on my bed remembering the events that had happened during the day.

The torn picture, their laughter, and Tachibana's sad face.

I was mistaken. No matter how kind Tachibana is to me, she’s still one of the gals who are bullying me.

I thought that Tachibana was different from them, but in the end, she was the same as them.

She was probably playing with me by pretending to be friendly or kind me.

A sigh escapes from me.

My room feels darker and larger than usual.

“You guys are crazy" When I said those lines, I unintentionally rebelled against Umezawa that time.

I don't know what she will do to me if we meet again.

But I had already made up my mind.

I would not get involved with them anymore.

From that day on, I explicitly avoided Tachibana.

I ignored everything that Tachibana tried to say to me.

Tachibana seemed to want to talk to me, but I didn't care and I just ignored her.

During recess and lunch break, I tried to stay out of the classroom as much as possible.

After school, I stopped going to the gymnasium.

When the bell for the end of the last class rang, I always immediatly ran to the art club room as if to escape from them.

That cycle continued for one week.

As usual, when the bell rang, I ran to the art club right after school to prepare my materials for my painting.

Suddenly, the classroom door opened vigorously.

I was surprised and when I turned around to I that found out Tachibana was standing there.

She was staring at me.

Oh no, it seems that I had been ignoring her so much that she finally lost her temper!

Tachibana was slowly and intensely approaching me.

I involuntarily backed away.

Tachibana stands up in front of and opens her mouth.

“I need to talk to you.”

Oh no, they're definitely going to kill me.

They're going to take me somewhere private and they will beat me to a pulp.

That's what I thought, but then I remembered that I had decided not to get involved with them anymore.

“I’m sorry…… I’m busy …….so I can’t go with you.”

“Huh, no matter how I look at it you are free right?”

“No…., I’m very busy.”

“You’re clearly lying!”

As we continued that exchange, I noticed that all the members of club are already gathering inside the clubroom.

I decided to listen to what she had to say because I didn't want to start any strange rumors about the art club.

“Okay, I understand, let's move to a different place."

Tachibana and I went to the rooftop.

The rooftop was empty except for the two of us.

You can see that the baseball and soccer teams were practicing on the field, while the brass band was playing their instruments.

“What do you…. want to talk about?”

“You've been avoiding me, right?"

Tachibana was starring at me while she asked that question.

“….Yeah”

Tachibana looked really sad.

Suddenly Tachibana is trying to get something out of her bag.

“Here…”

What she took out of her bag was the painting that she torn that day.

Tachibana tore it in half, while Umezawa tore it into smaller pieces.

There were a lot chipped places, but it had been taped back together to its original shape.

“That’s…”

Tachibana apologetically hands over the painting to me.

“I'm sorry...it's a bit tattered and Rina threw away all the other paintings..."

“I'm really sorry about that time."

Tachibana bowed her head.

“Everyone was watching, so I had no choice but to do it..."

I was happier to know Tachibana's true feelings than to have the painting back.

"It’s fine, but did you collect all the pieces of this painting and put it back together by yourself?"

"Yeah"

"That painting... that's me right?"

Long black hair, slanted eyes, earrings in the ears.

A portrait of Tachibana as a motif.

I lied then, but not this time.

"Yes, it's you."

“Why did you paint a picture of me?”

I couldn’t say that I painted a picture of her because I really admired her beauty.

“That’s…”

I couldn’t come up with a proper reason to say to her so I immediately changed the topic.

“At first you were also bullying me, right? I want to ask the reason why did you suddenly become so nice to me?"

“Ummm…”

Tachibana’s face seems the same as mine earlier. And it seems that she is really confuse as to what she will say to me.

“I'm really sorry for bullying you.”

“It’s okay now, you don’t need to apologize anymore.”

I laugh when I try to compare Tachibana’s personality when she was bullying me and seeing her now apologizing over and over again, as it feels like she’s a different person.

“Why are you laughing?”

As if she was influenced by my laughter Tachibana also laughs.

The atmosphere became really light as our laughter echoes through the empty rooftop.

"Don't ignore me anymore, okay?"

“All right.”

We both smiled awkwardly while being embarrassed.

In the rooftop alone with Tachibana, I feel that it seems that the distance between us was getting closer.