- Part 5

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It seems my intuition was right. When I arrived at the changing rooms, the female one was locked. It was unlikely it was another visitor, so I knocked on the door.

"Suzuki-san. Everyone's waiting for you."

I didn't get a response. Instead of knocking again, I waited. Suzuki was a gyaru, but her personality was quite distant at times, like mine.

The door of the changing room opened. I peered inside to see the swimsuit-clad Suzuki, who had a bag with her casual clothes inside. In the upper corner of the stall, there was a small camera.

"Takanori? What the hell are you doing here..."

"I could ask you the same question, you know."

"Get out of my way."

I moved as Suzuki left the stall. As she did, falling out of her bag was a pen with its lid uncapped. Becoming alert, she swiped down to pick the pen up. Instead, leaning down caused the clothes in her bag to spill onto the floor.

It wouldn't be a problem, except, sitting on top of the pile was an open notebook with all sorts of scribbled kanji on it. Panicking, she snatched up the notebook and held it tightly to her chest, turning away from me, and grabbing her shirt from the floor.

"You didn't see anything, did you?"

Suzuki used a threatening tone against me.

"You were writing while everyone was swimming?"

Shoving her things into the bag, Suzuki kicked me in the shin. However, since she was also barefoot, it did little damage.

"Grr..."

"I won't tell anyone what I saw today."

I tried to reassure her, but instead it angered her.

"Ugh... you're the worst!"

In the first place, it was strange to see a sociable person like her hide from everyone else. What was putting her off from joining the group?

"Suzuki-san. Do you not like swimming?"

"What kind of stupid question is that? Of course I do."

She shoved her bag into a locker.

"Then... why did you coop yourself up in that stall?"

"It's none of your business."

I didn't want to weaponise it, but Suzuki left me with no choice.

"...I'll tell them about the notebook."

"Oh, and here I thought you'd keep your mouth shut. Dirty blackmailing loner."

There was no winning with this girl. The moment I used threats on her, she just snapped back ten times harder.

"I'm genuinely curious. Give me some sort of explanation."

"Forget it, you wouldn't understand."

"I've lived my life as a loner. I think I'd understand better than anyone else."

Those words made Suzuki freeze in place, and bite her bottom lip.

"You're so annoying!"

She began to storm away from me. I followed her. The more she wanted to hide it, the more I wanted to know.

"Is it because Fujimura-san wanted to spend time with Nora-san instead of you?"

Suzuki laughed.

"Ha, you don't know a thing about Shouko-chan, do you? She has a crush on him, of course she'd want to spend time with him."

Well, that's not the information I was trying to search. I could've inferred that from Fujimura's actions today, but to get it confirmed by her own best friend... I really couldn't see her and Nora as a couple. Especially after all the nasty things Fujimura did.

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