Revelation Of An Ordinary Life

The Theft of a single Hairclip

Making my way to school, I noticed that plenty of shops had Christmas decorations.

"It's only the middle of November," I mumbled.

Last year, it was fond and memorable to walk into stores and hear the Christmas music play, but that got tiresome incredibly fast. The same songs play repeatedly until one wants to burst their own eardrums. For the retail workers, I wonder if they've become numb to it.

I could have gotten breakfast from a café, but the lines are too long. So I simply walked to the school in silence. And soon after that, I found myself in the auditorium.

"In Japan, you often see the level of punishment for a crime such as petty theft, vandalism, or shoplifting being treated much more harshly than in the West. Perhaps they are right, or they are wrong, who can say?"

How blunt.

The day of the provisional exam had arrived.

That morning, each class would be focusing in on the exam.

Though, nobody in the classroom was diligently studying, as everyone was immersed in conversation instead. None of this conversation had anything to do with preparations for the upcoming exam. Rather, the topic of discussion was something completely unrelated to that.

"It's pretty noisy."

"Of course it is. It's because of those outrageous rumors that showed up this morning."

"More? Seems like overkill at that point," Tsubaki pondered.

"That's because they aren't what you're thinking of," Horikita answered.

The first years looked at her curiously, expecting an elaboration, but Horikita didn't elaborate.

"Outrageous rumors? Have there been new ones about Ichinose?"

"No. They're new ones that have been causing internal chaos within Class C."

"New rumors, huh..."

With just one look at the restless classroom, it was obvious that this was no trivial matter.

Kushida had a troubled look on her face. I wouldn't worry, however. I was the cause of this, Kushida simply followed my commands. Even when Kushida was first exposed many months ago, I only painted half the picture. I had made Kushida look worse than she actually was back then.

"I wonder if we find out whether any of them are true," Kei muttered to herself.

"I wonder why," I sighed.

"No, it's not because of that!" Kei vehemently denied it.

"Are you sure?"

"Well, maybe just a little," Kei sheepishly remarked.

"Incidentally, this has something to do with you too, Ayanokōji-kun."

With that, Horikita showed me the screen of her cell phone.

She had written down a total of four rumours on the phone's memo pad.

"This..."

・Ayanokōji Kiyotaka has a crush on Karuizawa Kei

・Hondō Ryōtarō is only interested in obese girls

・Shinohara Satsuki was a prostitute back in middle school

・Satō Maya hates Onodera Kayano

The content of the rumours all followed a similar pattern. The full names of four people, including me, were directly stated as victims of the attack.