Date Her Instead Vol. 7 (Final Volume)

Chapter Twenty-Three: Kiss Of Destruction, Part Two

When a person is in love, it can make them do stupid things. There are times when you're in love where you might do something that ordinarily you wouldn't do, such as tell the person you love cheesy, romantic lines, or maybe act differently than your more "usual" self. Actions such as these are not inherently bad, but they also lose the perspective one once had before love.

What can make matters worse is when one's affection is directed toward another who is taken. Taking that even further, acting on those feelings can make matters complicated as well. But what happens when someone has those kinds of feelings and is not only unable to give up on them, but is fueled by a hatred for another?

What results is a twisted approach to love, one that, to a logical (and perhaps more sane) person, wouldn't make sense at all. However, for the person who craves the unavailable other, the only thing that matters is sating that desire. And to Katsumi Ikehara, proving that she was better for Kanako than Haruna could ever be, was the only thing on her mind. That very idea consumed her thoughts, and while it didn't drive her to literal madness, it was about as close as a medically sane person could get.

Failure after failure had come to Katsumi as each of her plans fell to pieces. She tried proclaiming her love, but it was brushed off. She tried demonstrating her love, but it was pushed away. She tried driving a wedge in between her crush and her obstacle, but that only proved to bring the couple closer, it seemed. Each attempt, each plan more contrived than the last, failed.

All of that brought Katsumi to her current state of mind. She kept telling herself everything she was doing was for Kanako's sake, but at this point, the more accurate assessment was that she wanted to hurt Haruna more than anything. Then maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to get Kanako too. In order to do that, Katsumi needed a plan, and in her desperation, she came up with her wickedest one.

"I'll make it look like Endo-san is cheating on Kana-chin with me," she thought deviously. "If I play my cards right, I can come out of this looking innocent. Then Kana-chin will see that Endo-san is nothing more than garbage, and I'll look like the one she should've chosen in the first place." To Katsumi, it was a good plan, but even she could tell there was one glaring issue. "To pull it off, I'll have to get close to Endo-san..." she thought with disgust.

There was truly no person Katsumi loathed more than Haruna. In her mind, Haruna was the reason everything had gone so wrong. If Haruna wasn't around, then maybe things would've gone differently. Honestly, Katsumi was sure, without a doubt, that she would've been able to convince Kanako to go out with her had Haruna not shown up. Her life would be so much brighter, so much better, if Katsumi could just have Kanako by her side.

Alas, what she had deemed fate had betrayed her, and in her reckless pursuit, the only thing she had really managed to achieve was make her own life more miserable. It wasn't as if she wanted to be this bitter toward Haruna. It was only because Haruna was in the way. If she would just move and show a bit of courtesy for the person who had come first, then the whole situation could be resolved. At least, that was how Katsumi saw it.

But Haruna showed no signs of budging, so Katsumi had to resort to force. And now, she was falling onto her biggest plan yet. Katsumi actually hated the idea herself, but she hated Haruna even more, so she figured she could suck it up and deal with being around her long enough to get her plan in action. So, the question became just how was Katsumi going to pull it off?

It didn't take her long to realize she had the perfect in. "I'll act like I want to make up for getting Endo-san injured," she thought. "That'll let me do all sorts of things that make it look like I actually care about her to some degree. Then, I can use that to further our 'relationship' and make it look like I'm actually trying to get closer to her. As long as I escalate things at the right pace, it may even come off as natural."