Yesterday 17:35
(Read) Amaori Renako: Kazama-san, after school, I'm going to buy a new game cartridge. It's a shooting game you're very good at. Do you have time to come over to my place to play?
Yesterday 22:17
(Read) Kazama Haru: Sorry, I have a shift at my part-time job today, and I just saw your message. Let's play together another time when I'm free.
Yesterday 22:17
(Read) Amaori Renako: Yes, I apologize, I was inconsiderate.
(Read) Amaori Renako: Usagi_bowing.jpg
Evening 16:33
(Unread) Amaori Renako: Kazama-san, are you free today? I've memorized all the enemy spawn points in 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'. I'll be very useful in co-op mode.
"…"
In the dim, unlit room, Amaori Renako cocooned herself inside her blanket like a caterpillar refusing to evolve, and once again picked up her phone, opening the chat interface with Kazama Haru.
Her gaze flicked to the top left corner—8:30 exactly.
Even though four hours had passed, the short message she had meticulously drafted, deleted, and revised countless times—its tone ultimately stiff like a formal business email, taking almost an hour to compose before she dared to send it—still displayed that cruel word: "Unread."
A sudden chill prickled at Renako's nape, causing her to pull the blanket even tighter around herself.
Did Kazama-san really not see it...?
Of course, an ikemen with that level of protagonist aura always has people flocking around him. His friend request queue probably stretched from Shibuya all the way to Akihabara and back.
His daily schedule must be packed tighter than a rush-hour Yamanote Line train, just like those idol celebrities on variety shows.
Given such a busy and exhausting lifestyle, seeing a message on his phone a little later should... be quite normal, right?
Despite her obvious lack of confidence, Renako still conjured such a convenient excuse to comfort herself.
But the effect of this mental anesthesia was practically nonexistent.
Amidst her spiraling thoughts, another more plausible—and far more distressing—conjecture inevitably surfaced.
Perhaps, after yesterday morning's "farce" in class, Kazama-san was completely disappointed with Amaori Renako as a person.
For someone as popular as him—a genuine normie blessed with SSR-tier social skills—to carve time out of his overflowing schedule and step forward out of pure kindness...
He not only helped her when she was about to collapse, but also played games with her for several hours, and even unhesitatingly agreed to her somewhat audacious "best friend request."
As an introverted loner with zero social stats, she should have treated their hard-won relationship like a limited-edition figurine still in its original packaging—treasuring it with the utmost care.
But instead, she had acted so rudely, showing absolutely no consideration for Kazama-san's feelings. It was as if she were the one being begged for friendship, rather than the reverse.
Kindness does not equate to infinite patience .
Let alone someone like Kazama-san, who never lacked for companions. If she were in his position and treated that way, she certainly wouldn't want to speak to such a thoughtless person ever again.
His polite reply to her message last night was most likely his final act of mercy—his last remaining affection points spent.
And yet, she still shamelessly continued to "bother" him. It's perfectly natural for him to be annoyed, or even too lazy to open the chat box for even a single second, isn't it?
"So, 'unread'... must mean exactly that, right?"
Renako murmured into the empty air, her usually vibrant amethyst eyes now dull and lifeless, mirroring the darkness of the unlit room.
"Unread..." She stared at the screen, repeating the word like a broken voice line stuck on loop.
Until at some point, an even more terrifying speculation suddenly seized what remained of Renako's sanity, making her bolt upright as if lightning had struck her spine.
He couldn't have... deleted and blocked her directly, could he?!
Amaori Renako's hand, gripping her phone in a death hold, began to tremble violently. Her throat constricted as if an invisible hand were squeezing it, making each breath a struggle.
If Kazama-san had really done that, wouldn't their relationship be permanently game over?!
She absolutely, positively did not want such a BAD END!
"How to tell if a friend on SNS has deleted you"
Like a drowning person desperately grasping at the last straw of hope, Renako frantically opened a search engine and, with trembling fingers, typed the question.
Various clever methods, discovered by pioneers who had walked this painful path before, appeared on her screen: Try adding the other person to a group; if they don't appear on the list... or Press any emoji, but don't send it, then click the 'exit' button in the top right corner; if it prompts 'send failed'...
"Uuu, which one should I choose..."
Renako clutched her head in anguish. Just as she was about to test-send an emoji to Kazama Haru—
Click.
Bright light instantly flooded the room, banishing the darkness.
"Hyaaa!" Renako yelped, startled so badly that her body slammed backward into the wall behind her bed.
"Nee-san, what exactly are you doing in here?"
It wasn't some vengeful spirit turning on lights in the middle of the night; her younger sister Amaori Haruna's cheerful voice rang through the room.
"W-what do you want?! Turning on the light so suddenly—you nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Haruna eyed her sister suspiciously. Renako was sprawled on the bed, wincing and rubbing her back where she'd collided with the wall. "It's not like our family can't afford the electricity bill, so turning on lights at night is pretty normal, you know? But more importantly, Nee-san—what happened to you? Why are you suddenly acting like a full-blown hikikomori?"
"I... I'm fine. Just leave me alone."
"There's no way you're fine!"
Haruna's voice pitched higher. Looking at her sister—hair a tangled mess, eyes frightfully red and clearly swollen from crying—her tone shifted to genuine concern:
"Look at yourself! You're a total disaster right now! How can anyone not worry?!"
"Could it be because of Kazama-senpai? Did he do something to bully you? Did he say something mean?"
To stop Haruna from spiraling further into wild theories and dragging the innocent Kazama-san's reputation through the mud, Renako quickly waved her hands in frantic denial: "N-no, it's nothing like that! In the end, all of this... every bit of it is my own fault..."
About ten minutes later, after Amaori Renako's stammering, disjointed narration, Haruna finally grasped the full picture.
"This is..."
Haruna pressed a palm to her forehead, exhaling a long, weary sigh as if unsure where to even begin: "First, I want to apologize for nearly slandering Kazama-senpai just now. Secondly..."
"Nee-san, your behavior really was a bit..."
"Even if you couldn't easily stand up to those toxic fangirls, you still shouldn't have trampled all over Kazama-senpai's kindness like that. Honestly, even I feel kind of..."
Being lectured by her own little sister made Renako want to cry all over again: "Of course I've already reflected on everything you're saying, but what's done is done! The problem is—what do I do now?!"
"First, try apologizing. Kazama-senpai seems like such a genuinely good person; there has to still be a chance to salvage this. Hand me your phone."
Haruna took the phone Renako reluctantly offered and, upon seeing their chat history, nearly choked trying to suppress a laugh.
"...Nee-san, if I may ask—is this contact named 'Kazama Haru' actually your company supervisor or something?"
"Because if not, why on earth are you using keigo like you're submitting a formal progress report to your boss?"
*respectful language